Communication Among Harvesters Leads to Sustainable Fishing Behaviour in a Continuous Time Common Pool Resource Experiment

Kwabena A Owusu,Micaela M Kulesz,Agostino Merico

doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.644056

Abstract

The sustainable use of common pool resources (CPRs) such as fisheries constitutes a major challenge for society. A large body of empirical studies conducted in discrete time indicates that resource users are able to prevent the ‘tragedy of the commons' under institutional arrangements that can promote cooperation. However, the variability exhibited by the human behaviour and the dynamic nature of renewable resources require continuous time experiments to fully explain the mechanisms underpinning the sustainable use of resources. We conducted CPR experiments in continuous time to investigate how the extraction behaviour of resource users changes in real-time in response to changes in resource availability under communication and no communication. We find that when communication is allowed, users adjust their extraction efforts based on knowledge of previous resource availability. In contrast, when communication is not allowed, users do not incorporate resource availability into their utility function. These results suggest that communication does not merely provide a forum for coordination but mediates a causal relationship between resource levels and extraction behaviour. Our findings may help the development of effective resource management policies.

Highlights

Many common pool renewable resources are exploited beyond their regenerative capacities
Comparatively less attention has been devoted so far on the causal links between resource levels and efforts exerted by users under continuous time conditions
This aspect is of crucial importance because the dynamic nature of both human behaviours and ecological resources inherent to every common pool resources (CPRs) system involves feedback that are not accounted for in discrete time settings

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Many common pool renewable resources are exploited beyond their regenerative capacities. Agent-Based Models constitute a bottom-up modelling approach that incorporates the behaviour of many heterogeneous actors dynamically responding to changes in resource availability and other social and economic aspects and are used in MSE frameworks (Burgess et al, 2020) These evaluation frameworks are decision support tools for natural resource managment, in which many components of the resource system are modelled simultaneously to analyse the performance of given management policies. Comparatively less attention has been devoted so far on the causal links between resource levels and efforts exerted by users under continuous time conditions This aspect is of crucial importance because the dynamic nature of both human behaviours and ecological resources inherent to every CPR system involves feedback that are not accounted for in discrete time settings. We find evidence that communication does not merely provide a forum for coordination (e.g., Turner et al, 2014) but mediates a causal relationship between resource levels and extraction behaviour that leads to sustainable harvest

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND DATA ANALYSIS

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

ETHICS STATEMENT