Common Property Resources (CPRs) continue to be an important part of communities' natural resource endowment in developing countries. Despite their valuable contributions to people's sustenance, environmental stability and the strengthening of private resource based farming systems, they are neglected by researchers, policy makers and development planners alike. Disregard of CPRs and their productive potential is a major missing dimension of rural development strategies in developing countries and reflects much of the officialdom's indifference to environmental protection. This is illustrated by the status and changes in CPRs in the dry tropical regions of India, where not only are CPRs not integrated into rural development strategies but they are prone to rapid degradation largely induced by side effects of other development and welfare policies. The paper argues that due to the convergence between potential CPR-centered policies or programs and the emerging concerns for participatory development, environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation, CPRs could be made an effective component of rural development strategies in areas such as dry regions of India. The paper reports and analyzes the empirical findings from a study of CPRs conducted by the author during the 1980s. Based on four years of field work covering 82 villages in over 20 districts of India's dry region, the study has quantified the benefits of CPRs in terms of employment, income and physical supplies, and has recorded some less quantifiable contributions
