Sustainable adaptation strategies for water resource protection: A case study of Nanxi river in China

Abstract

Collective action is a basic premise for the effective protection of open public resources. The characteristics and the environment of open public resources, however, also constitute many "bottlenecks" to collective action, which means that there is a "paradoxical" relationship between collective action and open public resources. Therefore, the key to protecting open public resources is to construct a collective action mechanism that can break these "bottlenecks". In the case of three different forms of contract system implemented by Yongjia County, Zhejiang Province, China for the fishery resources of Nanxi River, the first two contracts were caught up in the "tragedy of the commons" and a legality crisis because they did not form a collective action mechanism to protect resources. The sub-contract with the aim of protecting and resting the Nanxi River started in 2005 and has constructed a collective action mechanism of consensus, sharing, common participation, joint discussion and co-management, and worked out a rationale of how to form collective action in the process of open public resource protection, which is worth exploring and promoting. This study aims to explore the bottlenecks which limit collective action in the process of resource protection, and to provide practical policy recommendation for solving them.