Recently private landowners have begun to raise their own herds of buffalo for commercial purposes. Although naturalists may bemoan the domestication of these magnificent beasts, their commercial viability is probably the single best security ensuring the survival of the species. The problem of common resources is most easily resolved by establishing property rights when this is feasible. In some cases, creating property rights is very difficult, as would be the case for example with fish in the ocean. In these cases, the only effective solution to the tragedy of the commons may be costly government regulation and monitoring, since voluntary actions are almost impossible to generate.
Similar principles apply to non-renewable resources as well.
Many people are concerned that resources like crude oil, for example, will be consumed at too fast a rate and that the market cannot be trusted to conserve the resource appropriately. Many economists would counter that only the market can be trusted. Governments frequently lack the data and the discipline to create efficient resource consumption through time. Markets, however, create efficient consumption by reflecting the value of future consumption in today's prices. In the case of oil, if the resource is expected to be extremely scarce and valuable in the future, then the prudent producer of oil will cut back on current production to reap the rewards of much higher future income.