This wide-ranging book, based on a report to the Food and Agriculture Organization in 1993, is an attempt to bridge the gap between the enormous amount of empirical literature documenting efforts at managing local-level resources and the quickly growing body of theoretical knowledge dealing with natural resource management. By building a unifying framework, the authors aim better to define the conditions of success or failure of various forms of resource management at the village level.

Contrary to a common view, according to which mismanagement of such resources is to be ascribed to direct users falling prey to 'The Tragedy of the Commons', they convincingly argue that there are other important potential explanations, such as lack of awareness about ecological effects of human activities, poverty and heavy discounting of future income streams, uncertainty over future property rights and prices of natural products, and availability of more attractive income opportunities. Stress is then laid on the global context within which user groups operate, including the nature and the forms of state intervention and the effects of increasing market integration.

To date, this context has generally been uncongenial to community-based resource management; therefore, the authors recommend that, whenever a co-management approach is feasible, the concrete institutional form adopted is tailored to the specific features of local cultures.