Fisheries advice from a Nobel Laureate
By Chung Sung-hee

OCTOBER 26, 2009

The late Garrett Hardin, a biology professor at the University of
California-Santa Barbara, said in his 1968 thesis "The Tragedy of the
Commons" that shared resources such as the air, parks and maritime and
underground resources should not be left to the market, which only pursues
private interests. The commons, which everybody can use for free, he said,
will be destroyed and their resources will soon be depleted because people
will use them for their personal interests. In other words, a factory owner
benefits by polluting a river's water upstream to produce goods, but the act
damages people living downstream since they cannot get clean water.

Indiana University professor Elinor Ostrom, the first female recipient of
Nobel Prize for economics, has presented a solution to this problem. Instead
of state intervention and market principles, she suggested a third way:
control of the commons by collective users. An increase in the number of
elephants in Zimbabwe is one of the best examples. Due to poachers who seek
ivory, elephants in the country were on the brink of extinction. After
villagers were given the right to hunt the elephants, they began protecting
this endangered species. As a result, the number of elephants has
significantly increased.

Ostrom has visited Korea and has many Korean followers. In an interview with
Yonhap News yesterday, she said Korea's long coastlines and coastal
resources are growth engines and urged Korea to preserve its fisheries and
maritime resources. Though her main focus is the commons, her comment has
hit home the importance of coastal resources. Ostrom's advice is all the
more touching since Korea's coastal ecosystem is suffering from the
reclamation of mud flats, waste dumping, oil spills, and declining
fisheries.

Critics say the Nobel Prize Committee awarded her the prize in recognition
of her criticism of neo-liberalism. She not only recognized the failure of
the market but also highlighted ineffectiveness stemming from reckless state
intervention. What she highlights is the restoration of community and
soundness of civil society. Sungkyunkwan University professor Lee
Myeong-seok, an Ostrom disciple, said, "She's devoted her entire life to how
people voluntarily cooperate and find solutions." Hopefully, Ostrom's advice
will reverberate in Korean society, where people tend to only seek personal
interests and freeriders are prevalent.
                Source: donga.com
<http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2009102684058>