Mismatched Property Rights and Natural Resource Use: A Case Study of Grassland Resources on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Abstract

Abstract Over the past few decades, there has been considerable discussion about Hardin’s tragedy of the commons in natural resource management literature. Although the privatization of property rights can alleviate the tragedy, the land fragmentation caused by privatization can impair the sustainable use of natural resources, resulting in mismatched property rights. This study used the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau’s grassland resources to analyze the causes, consequences, and possible solutions of the property rights mismatches. Our findings support that if property rights systems of natural resources mismatch the characteristics of resources, or their bundles of rights do not reflect the complementary with other resources, property rights mismatches will occur. Our findings further reveal that the privatization of property rights based on the spatial boundaries of the resource system will strengthen the spatial exclusivity of resource use, resulting in property rights mismatches, while the mixed property rights can achieve matching with the characteristics of the resource system and resource units.