Common Pool Regimes: A Critique

Abstract

As environmental degradation increases around the globe, especially in relation to open access resources, new policies to augment sustainability have to be invented. The purpose of this paper is to provide a most concrete example of some of the difficulties involved, by means of examining recent data about the so-called Helcom regime for the Baltic Sea. The findings include that the heralded theory of common pools governance presents a too optimistic picture. Despite massive financing, the deterioration of the predicament of the important Baltic Sea has not been reversed.