In the context of governance of human–environment interactions, a panacea refers to a blueprint for a single type of governance system (e.g., government ownership, privatization, community property) that is applied to all environmental problems.

The aim of this special feature is to provide theoretical analysis and empirical evidence to caution against the tendency, when confronted with pervasive uncertainty, to believe that scholars can generate simple models of linked social–ecological systems and deduce general solutions to the overuse of resources.

Scholarly journals are peppered with works predicting ecological disasters unless some preferred cure-all is adopted

The best known is Hardin's (10) article "The Tragedy of the Commons."