In the case of the Mekong River, multiple parties are involved in the transboundary commons, at the regional, national, and local level. This may restrict the ability to effectively limit the use of common pool resources (CPRs).

At the regional level, governments compete with each other to maximise their use and ownership of the CPRs. Other stakeholders are also involved such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to protect these CPRs from exploitation. At the national level, governments have the goal of achieving security within the country to ensure a certain level of socio-economic growth to alleviate poverty. At the local level, community members participate in political discussions and give their input about their knowledge of the local ecology, advising which practices should be adopted. They may also oppose against the construction of dams that will impact their livelihood and the environment.

Therefore, to ensure successful implementation of policies to prevent the degradation of CPRs, cooperation and collective action among these stakeholders are necessary to achieve sustainable management of shared resources.