Galicia is a Spanish region which has been one of the leading producers of mussels around the world for decades. The institutional framework of the Galician floating raft culture in the mussel sector set up a scenario of institutional stability and equilibrium, in which new licenses were not granted and a winning coalition maintained the “status quo” from 1976 until 2008. Nevertheless, the two most important legal changes since the 90s took place in Galicia as of December 2008: the Fisheries Act 11/2008 and Act 6/2009 amending the former.

In Bangladesh, extensive common pool fisheries exist in the wet season on private lands in the floodplains. This study investigated the trend in year-round enclosure of these seasonal commons for private aquaculture and the impacts of this practice. The floodplain area enclosed for aquaculture was found to be growing at 30–100% a year. Enclosures are organised by individual landowners, informal groups or companies that lease in land. Aquaculture in enclosures produces more fish than capture fisheries, but input costs are high.

The problem of the commons is more important to our lives and thus more central to economics than a century ago when Katharine Coman led off the first issue of the AmericanEconomic Review. As the U.S. and other economies have grown, the carrying-capacity of the planet - in regard to natural resources and environmental quality — has become a greater concern, particularly for common-property and open-access resources. The focus of this article is on some important, unsettled problems of the commons.

Over the coming 35 years, agriculture will face an unprecedented confluence of pressures, including a 30 percent increase in the global population, intensifying competition for increasingly scarce land, water and energy resources, and the existential threat of climate change. To provide for a population projected to reach 9.3 billion in 2050 and support changing dietary patterns, estimates are that food production will need to increase from the current 8.4 billion tonnes to almost 13.5 billion tonnes a year.

This study reviewed trends, issues and constraints affecting investments in agricultural water management in Cambodia. Informed by a review of current programs and the literature, workshops were convened in March 2013 to explore four keys areas: investments in irrigation, local institutions for managing irrigation, use of groundwater for irrigation and impacts of intensification on rice-field fisheries. We present some conclusions and unresolved questions here to promote a more broadly based debate around irrigation policy and investment in Cambodia.