The 'tragedy of the commons' describes a situation where individual users, acting independently according to their own self-interest, behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting a shared resource. For example, if several herders share a common pasture, each herder has an incentive to add more cattle to their herd, as they receive the full benefit of each additional animal while the cost of overgrazing is shared by all. Eventually, this leads to the destruction of the pasture. While traditional solutions focus on either government regulation or private property rights, some political scientists point to the success of community-managed resources. In these cases, local users develop their own rules and monitoring systems to ensure the resource is used sustainably. This 'third way' suggests that humans are not inevitably destined to destroy shared resources and that social trust and local knowledge can be effective tools for environmental management. However, these community systems are often vulnerable to external pressures, such as large-scale market expansion or state intervention. Therefore, protecting the commons requires a recognition of the diverse ways that communities can manage shared resources effectively.