Open Access Regime

Finally we have the open access situation in which there is no property. Basically, it is a situation where there are no enforceable property rights over the use of the resource. Here, a right of inclusion is granted to anyone who wants to use the resource. Examples of open access resources are fishing in the open sea, river, lake, or ponds, ill-managed village common grazing lands, buffer areas of forests, groundwater, etc.

Open access results from the absence - or breakdown - of a management and authority system whose very purpose was to introduce and enforce a set of norms of behaviour among participants with respect to the natural resource.