Abstract
Groundwater is one of the most challenging common pool resources to govern, resulting in resource depletion in many areas. We present an innovative use of collective action games to not only measure propensity for cooperation, but to improve local understanding of groundwater interrelationships and stimulate collective governance of groundwater, based on a pilot study in Andhra Pradesh, India. The games simulate crop choice and consequences for the aquifer. These were followed by a community debriefing, which provided an entry point for discussing the interconnectedness of groundwater use, to affect mental models about groundwater. A slightly modified game was played in the same communities, one year later. Our study finds communication within the game increased the likelihood of groups reaching sustainable extraction levels in the second year of play, but not the first. Individual payments to participants based on how they played in the game had no effect on crop choice. Either repeated experience with the games or the revised structure of the game evoked more cooperation in the second year, outweighing other factors influencing behavior, such as education, gender, and trust index scores. After the games were played, a significantly higher proportion of communities adopted water registers and rules to govern groundwater, compared to other communities in the same NGO water commons program. Because groundwater levels are affected by many factors, games alone will not end groundwater depletion. However, games can contribute to social learning about the role of crop choice and collective action, to motivate behavior change toward more sustainable groundwater extraction.
Highlights
By their very nature, common pool resources like water, fisheries, or forests are depleted if there is not effective coordination, because use by one person affects the availability of resources to others, but it is difficult to exclude or regulate users
This paper presents the use of behavioral games as an instrument for social learning to facilitate self-governance of common pool resources, based on a pilot study on groundwater governance in Andhra Pradesh, India
In this paper we reported on a pilot study to investigate the impact of behavioral games on communities to manage their shared resources and as such evaluate the possibility of using games as an intervention tool
Summary
Common pool resources like water, fisheries, or forests are depleted if there is not effective coordination, because use by one person affects the availability of resources to others, but it is difficult to exclude or regulate users. Most experimental studies lack a collective debriefing session and can contribute to individual learning, but not social learning To address this shortcoming, our approach includes community-level debriefing to discuss the outcomes of the games and their relevance to the local situation. Simplified RPGs and complex behavioral experiments are very similar, the latter are generally simpler and more generic, with fewer roles or positions and more predefined outcomes This makes them easier to replicate across sites, while leaving space for participants to identify the links between the games and their own situations, especially in the context of facilitated community debriefings. The use of games–an activity that includes elements of role playing games and experimental economics–in communities has potential to increase their understanding of the relationships between their actions and groundwater levels, to frame the problem as a collective action problem, and provide ways to address the collective action problem
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