Unpacking and repacking bundles of rights: Modular property rights regime for natural resource governance under complexity

Effective governance of natural resources has become increasingly vital in the face of accelerating socio-ecological transformations. In recent decades, natural resource governance has undergone profound changes due to increasing resource scales, the involvement of diverse stakeholders, and the need to manage multiple resources in the context of urbanization, marketization, and climate change. Classic property rights frameworks, such as bundles of property rights and Ostrom's “resource system and resource unit” model, are often unable to manage the uncertainty, interdependence, and scale in transitioning socio-ecological systems. This paper introduces a layer recomposition framework that unpacks property rights by resource systems and ecosystem services, thus enabling these rights to be repackaged into modular regimes tailored to specific contexts. The framework facilitates the integration of multiple ecosystem services and supports the adaptive reorganization of governance structures. Furthermore, this framework emphasizes the importance of continuously localized property rules that are responsive to both socioeconomic conditions and ecological complexity. This study advances classical property rights theory by broadening the content of bundles of rights and introducing the concept of repacking to enable flexible, context-sensitive arrangements. Using a case study of local property rights reform in China, this research demonstrates the framework's capacity to govern complex resource systems and provide practical, localized solutions, thus offering a robust tool for rethinking natural resource governance in an era of rapid change and global interdependence. This study contributes to the evolution of property rights theory while offering actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners navigating the governance challenges of rapidly transforming socio-ecological systems.