History offers many examples of small groups of farmers collectively managing shared irrigation systems, yet there are also many examples of inefficient depletion of large-scale groundwater aquifers due to agricultural irrigation

Answer:

Common property resources are a type of common-pool resource that is jointly owned and managed by a group of people or community, whereas open access resources are a type of common-pool resource that is not owned by anyone and is free for use by anybody.

Common pool resources (CPR) consists of man-made resources (goods) like irrigation systems or natural resources like fisheries, forests, underground water basins that are rivalrous in nature, that is, the consumption by one individual reduces the ability of other individuals to consume it. Moreover, CPRs, due to their size and characteristics, makes it difficult, but not impossible to exclude people from its consumption, that is, CPRs can be made excludable, but are generally non-excludable in nature.

Both the open-access resources and common property resources are a type of CPR. The difference between the two is that under common property, the resources are owned and managed by a group of people or society, whereas open access resources are not owned by anyone and are free for use by anybody. A small group of individuals collectively managing a shared irrigation system is an example of common property and groundwater aquifers are open access property.

When a shared irrigation system is collectively managed by individuals, certain rules and regulations are set for its use so that it does not get depleted due to overuse. However, in the case of large-scale groundwater aquifers, no restrictions on its use are there due to its open access to everybody. This leads to inefficient utilization of water for agricultural irrigation.

Resources that are rivalrous in nature and that gets depleted due to its inefficient utilization needs to be managed. Restrictions must be placed on the overuse of resources by an individual for self-interest. Thus, the groundwater aquifers must be used efficiently to reduce their depletion. One way of improving the condition of groundwater aquifers is by turning them into common property resources.

Thus, the two examples suggest that the condition of a CPR can be improved by changing them from open-access to common property.