Tragedy Of Commons Research Articles

The Tragedy of the Commons in Aceh: An Anthropological Reflection on the Post-Tsunami Development of Aceh

This article examines the post-tsunami development of Aceh from an anthropological perspective, focusing on the concept of the tragedy of the commons. The author argues that the development projects in Aceh have been driven by a logic of budget absorption, dendrophobia (fear of trees), and noise escalation, resulting in the degradation of various commons, such as land, sound, water, and cultural heritage. The author uses Garret Hardin's theory of the tragedy of the commons to analyze the collective action problems and the externalities that arise from the overexploitation and mismanagement of the commons. The author also provides empirical evidence from fieldwork and secondary sources to illustrate the negative impacts of the development on the environment, society, and culture of Aceh. The author concludes that the development of Aceh has been a tragedy for the commons and calls for a more sustainable, participatory, and culturally sensitive approach to development.

Preventing Further Tragedies of the Commons in Warming: Insights from Global Climate Policy

Based on the theory of the tragedy of the commons and the background of global warming, this paper examines the emergence, development, and specific problems of current international climate policies at the political economy level. The aim is to provide the global community with sustainable policy recommendations to address the challenges of climate change effectively. The paper explores complex topics like resource distribution, carbon emissions, climate adaptation, and international cooperation using an interdisciplinary approach. The study underscores the crucial role of economic policies in guiding resource use to combat global warming. It also emphasizes the challenges posed by international cooperation, political will, and social acceptance. The paper further discusses measures like establishing standardized standards for resource extraction and highlights the importance of long-term planning among nations. In conclusion, even though the tragedy of the commons poses significant challenges in the context of climate change, these can be mitigated through specific economic measures.

Dysfunctional tourism behaviors in national parks: An exploration of causes, typologies, and consequences in the case of Saharan tourism

This study explores a seldom explored area of inappropriate tourist behavior in African national parks in the Sahara through a case study to support the management and promotion of tourism activities. Using the critical incident technique, 09 frontline employees of the Tassili N'ajjer National Park in Algeria were interviewed to identify tourist behavior that deviates from generally accepted social norms. Based on the survey results, a theoretical framework consisting of seven causes, nine categories of inappropriate behaviors, and three consequence dimensions was constructed. This theoretical framework provides elements for critical discussion of the sustainability of tourism in national parks, as well as a basis for further research. The results also enrich the literature on the subject and provide a basis for the study of North-South tourism dynamics. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed. Managerial implicationsThis research study significantly enhances the strategies employed in the management of national parks and protected areas in several ways. Identifying incentives for Jaycustomer behaviorPoor enforcement of regulations, lack of supervision, low prices, lack of knowledge, ambiguity of experience, egocentricity (common tragedy), anonymity and ethnocentrism are the underlying motivations for inappropriate tourist behavior. Expanded Understanding of Jaycustomer BehaviorIn addition to the categories of jaycustomer behavior identified in previous studies, this research unveils tourist behaviors that have been rarely documented in the literature. These include disengagement, dishonesty, pollution, noise, and waste. Influential Situational FactorsThe study finds that the perceived legitimacy of regulations and the level of supervision are the most influential situational factors affecting jaycustomer behavior. The necessary actions include the need for solid regulation, enforced through vigilant control measures and sanctions, and the improvement of guide performance through staff education and training. Impact of Poor Assimilation and Lack of InformationThe research highlights that poor assimilation of park regulations and a lack of information about them exacerbate cognitive biases in judgment formation, shedding light on the importance of effective communication and education strategies.

The tragedy of the commodity and the state: a comparative case study of the Atlantic bluefin tuna and Newfoundland cod fishery collapses

The world’s oceans face total ecological collapse by 2048 if the fishing industries’ extraction is not reined in. At the helm of the ocean crisis have been fisheries management regimes built upon the logic of the tragedy of the commons, which interpret resource depletion as being driven by human self-interest, and then ­propose market-based policy solutions. This comparative case study tests the generalizability of the tragedy of the commodity, a political economic theory of fishery collapse that challenges the tragedy of the commons by applying it to the case of the 1992 Newfoundland cod fishery collapse. A model for incorporating a distinct analysis of state structures, actions, and interests is then proposed.

Why Stop Grazing the Climate Commons?

Many have argued that climate change is the textbook example of a tragedy of the commons. Assuming that is correct, to make headway on climate change, we would expect an enforceable agreement that provides for global collective action. The tragedy of the commons assumes that those who cut back when others do not are—to use the formal language of game theorists—suckers. So, the last thing we would expect is a surge of unilateral action. Contrary to theory, for the past decade, unilateral climate action has flourished among governments, businesses, other organizations, and individuals. Is the number of climate suckers growing exponentially, or is there more going on? This Article proposes an alternative explanation. A growing and substantial part of the climate crisis is not subject to the tragedy of the commons, allowing rational actors to take climate action because of their self-interests, not despite them. While the ability to rely on unilateral action to make some climate progress unlocks exciting possibilities, effectively confronting climate change requires a better understanding of why unilateral actors act. This Article exposes the economic and political incentives that frequently drive unilateral action. Understanding the incentives of unilateral actors opens two promising inroads for climate action: strengthening unilateral action by playing to these incentives and building on unilateral action to make collective action more obtainable.

Cooperative emergence of spatial public goods games with reputation discount accumulation

To address issues like the tragedy of the commons, reputation mechanisms prove effective in promoting the emergence of cooperative behavior in social dilemmas. Previous research assumed that the increment of reputation is a fixed constant, however, the historical behavior of individuals with time preferences affects their reputation fluctuations on different scales. Inspired by this, we propose a framework for spatial public goods game that incorporates a reputation discount accumulation model with time preferences. In this model, players are classified as either long-sighted players or short-sighted players based on the significance of their historical behavior. Compared with short-sighted players, long-sighted players are more concerned with the impact of historical behaviors on the next game. Simulation results show that long-sighted cooperative players can resist the invasion of short-sighted defectors, and short-sighted defection strategies are eventually replaced by long-sighted cooperative strategies. This indicates that a higher discount factor facilitates the generation and maintenance of cooperation.

Optimal sequential contests

I study sequential contests where the efforts of earlier players may be disclosed to later players by nature or by design. The model has many applications, including rent seeking, R&D, oligopoly, public goods provision, and tragedy of the commons. I show that information about other players' efforts increases the total effort. Thus, the total effort is maximized with full transparency and minimized with no transparency. I also show that in addition to the first‐mover advantage, there is an earlier‐mover advantage. Finally, I derive the limits for large contests and discuss the limit to perfectly competitive outcomes under different disclosure rules.

遏制“公地悲剧”——国际数字盗版行为成因及其治理研究

遏制“公地悲剧”——国际数字盗版行为成因及其治理研究

Learning from regulatory failure: How Ostrom's restorative justice design principle helps naïve groups create wiser enforcement systems to overcome the tragedy of the commons.

Rule enforcement is critical in democratic, self-governing societies. Many political disputes occur when citizens do not understand the fundamental rationales for enforcement (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic). We examined how naïve groups learn and develop wise enforcement systems. Based on theories from behavioral economics, political science, psychology, and education, we predicted that groups need to experience failure of an enforcement system, but be guided on restorative justice principles to collectively learn from this failure. Undergraduate students (N = 288) from a Midwestern U.S. metropolitan university self-governed a simulated common-pool resource with real financial payoffs. Groups began with one of three conditions designed to create different experiences with enforcement and regulatory failure: (a) no enforcement (no communication or peer sanctioning), (b) lax enforcement (communication with peer-sanctioning), or (c) regulatory abuse (peer sanctioning without communication). Half then received facilitated guidance on restorative justice principles (e.g., discuss whether/why to use sanctions). To examine cooperation, we measured how well participants maintained the resource. To examine group learning, we created a novel coding system, which tracked groups' constitutional decisions about conservation agreements and enforcement, conceptual understanding, and the enforcement systems they created. The no-enforcement and lax-enforcement conditions quickly yielded moderate cooperation via voluntary agreements. However, such agreements prevented groups from discovering how and why to use enforcement (peer sanctioning) to improve performance. Initial exposure to regulatory failure had different effects depending on facilitation. Unfacilitated groups fixated on initial misconceptions, causing them to abandon or create less sophisticated enforcement systems, hindering cooperation. Facilitated groups learned from prior failure-discovering principles of wise enforcement (e.g., collective efficiency, self-restraint)-and created more sophisticated enforcement systems (e.g., coordinated sanctions) that improved cooperation. Guidance on restorative justice principles and experience with regulatory abuse may be necessary preconditions for naïve individuals to understand and develop wiser collective enforcement systems.

Sand mining in BRICS economies: Tragedy of the commons or fortune in the making?

Sand is a strategic natural resource that plays a key role in delivering ecological services, protecting biodiversity, promoting economic growth, and supplying means of subsistence. This study investigates the relationship between sand mining, land-use change, economic growth, environmental policy stringency, urbanization, biodiversity loss, and ecological footprint in BRICS economies using a quantile regression (MM-QR) approach over the period 1990–2020. For robustness, this study employs the Dumitrescu-Hurling causality panel test to explore and validate the long-term association among the variables. The empirical results reveal that urbanization, economic growth, land use changes and sand mining are all positively associated with environmental degradation in the long run. Results further indicate that weak environmental governance and biodiversity loss leads to deterioration of environmental quality. Overall, the study infers that sand is a common pool resource that is prone to the tragedy of the commons, posing a real threat to the environment and economic development in BRICS economies. The results highlight the importance of sustainable sand mining practices and environmental governance in promoting environmental quality and offset the negative consequences associated with this activity.

Hostility prevents the tragedy of the commons in metapopulation with asymmetric migration: Alessonfromqueenlessants.

A colony of the queenless ant species, Pristomyrmex punctatus, can broadly be seen as consisting of small-body sized worker ants and relatively larger body-sized cheater ants. Hence, in the presence of intercolony migration, a set of constituent colonies act as a metapopulation exclusively composed of cooperators and defectors. Such a setup facilitates an evolutionary game-theoretic replication-selection model of population dynamics of the ants in a metapopulation. Using the model, we analytically probe the effects of territoriality induced hostility. Such hostility in the ant metapopulation proves to be crucial in preventing the tragedy of the commons, specifically, the workforce, a social good formed by cooperation. This mechanism applies to any metapopulation-not necessarily the ants-composed of cooperators and defectors where interpopulation migration occurs asymmetrically, i.e., cooperators and defectors migrate at different rates. Furthermore, our model validates that there is evolutionary benefit behind the queenless ants' behavior of showing more hostility towards the immigrants from nearby colonies than those from the far-off ones. In order to calibrate our model's parameters, we have extensively used the data available on the queenless ant species, P. punctatus.

Behavioral evidence for global consciousness transcending national parochialism

While national parochialism is commonplace, individual differences explain more variance in it than cross-national differences. Global consciousness (GC), a multi-dimensional concept that includes identification with all humanity, cosmopolitan orientation, and global orientation, transcends national parochialism. Across six societies (N = 11,163), most notably the USA and China, individuals high in GC were more generous allocating funds to the other in a dictator game, cooperated more in a one-shot prisoner’s dilemma, and differentiated less between the ingroup and outgroup on these actions. They gave more to the world and kept less for the self in a multi-level public goods dilemma. GC profiles showed 80% test–retest stability over 8 months. Implications of GC for cultural evolution in the face of trans-border problems are discussed.

Von der Krisenreserve zur Agrarreserve – falsche Anreize im neuen Rechtsrahmen?

Abstract The European Union’s new Agricultural Crisis Reserve, introduced in 2023, aims at enhancing support for the agricultural sector during market crises. Unlike its predecessor, this reserve is funded directly from the EU budget, eliminating the need to cut direct payments to farmers. However, this change has unintentionally created an incentive for member states to trigger the reserve more frequently, depleting its resources rapidly. This article explores how this shift has led to a “Tragedy of the Commons” scenario, where member states seek individual advantages at the expense of the collective interest.

Allocations, quota and abalone fishery management: the Tragedy of the commons revisited

ABSTRACT Fisheries management uses a variety of methods to assess stocks, assign quota or allocations, and calculate potential for sustainability. In the New Zealand abalone (pāua) fishery, neither the total stocks nor amount removed in any fishing year are well-known because a major portion is fished ‘recreationally’, for which there is no requirement for a licence or catch reporting. Actual harvests relative to allocations cannot be established until well after the fishing season, and require data not typically collected. This was demonstrated over a 3-month fishing season opened after a 5-year closure along the earthquake-affected northeastern coast of the South Island. Recreational fishers removed c.74% of nearshore biomass of Haliotis iris populations. This was, in effect, a Tragedy of the Commons, whereby a common resource is exploited by those who harvest first, with scant regard for what remains. The underlying weakness is in the recreational fishing management rules which, in this instance, provide stark lessons in why abalone populations have come under pressure worldwide. We discuss concepts, prior knowledge, inertia in management, and a potential way forward, with the aim of preventing serial depletion of pāua populations and fostering more effective management that ends the Tragedy of the Commons.

Urban bird diversity conservation plan based on the systematic conservation planning approach - A case study of Beijing Ecological Cultivation Area

In China, especially in countries with state-owned land use rights, the loss of urban bird diversity due to rapid urbanisation can't be contained or ameliorated by equitably weighing the ecological and economic values of land. Climate change could further threaten urban bird biodiversity and ultimately lead to a “tragedy of the commons”. The Beijing Ecological Cultivation Area (BECA) is one such area that has suffered from low eco-efficiency due to climate change and chaotic management. There is a need to find more effective solutions for urban bird conservation to reduce the negative impacts of rapid urbanisation while avoiding wasting more conservation costs. For this purpose, the protection priorities for BECA based on 4 global future climate models (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0 and RCP8.5) for the years 2041–2060, 56 species of local resident birds in the “Beijing Terrestrial Wildlife - Birds” were used as study subjects, which were identified through systematic conservation planning (scp) with combinatorial modelling (MaxEnt-Marxan). In addition, three scenarios were innovatively developed in Marxan with maximum respect for the original land use types. The eco-efficiency and eco-corridor of these three scenarios were compared and identified through ArcGis. The results of the survey show that 'Comprehensive Conservation' has the largest mean distribution area, with the results for RCP 2.6–8.5 being: 52.34%; 65.25%; 48.34%; and 45.42%. It had the highest spatial continuity, the lowest fragmentation, and the highest conservation efficiency. Moreover, We recommend a phased implementation of the conservation plans and and suggest planning options for three landform types: High-altitude mountain; Medium or Low-altitude shallow mountainous; and Water conservation areas. It is important to establish ecological corridors from the Huairou district’s northern part to the Yanqing district’s northeastern part and beyond. This paper quantifies the land costs, ecological values and human impact factors of the planning area in a comprehensive climate context with the theme of conserving urban bird diversity. This study aims to maximise the conservation benefits of urban bird diversity and to provide basic research for ecological conservation on state-owned land.

Public–private partnerships in fostering outer space innovations

As public and private institutions recognize the role of space exploration as a catalyst for economic growth, various areas of innovation are expected to emerge as drivers of the space economy. These include space transportation, in-space manufacturing, bioproduction, in-space agriculture, nuclear launch, and propulsion systems, as well as satellite services and their maintenance. However, the current nature of space as an open-access resource and global commons presents a systemic risk for exuberant competition for space goods and services, which may result in a “tragedy of the commons” dilemma. In the race among countries to capture the value of space exploration, NASA, American research universities, and private companies can avoid any coordination failures by collaborating in a public–private research and development partnership (PPRDP) structure. We present such a structure founded upon the principles of polycentric autonomous governance, which incorporate a decentralized autonomous organization framework and specialized research clusters. By advancing an alignment of incentives among the specified participatory members, PPRDPs can play a pivotal role in stimulating open-source research by creating positive knowledge spillover effects and agglomeration externalities as well as embracing the nonlinear decomposition paradigm that may blur the distinction between basic and applied research.

A beacon of hope for a troubled Earth? A critical analysis of China’s authoritarian approach to constructing ‘ecological civilization’

The urgency of the ecological situation in the age of the Anthropocene has led to a call for concerted efforts across the globe. Disappointed at the liberal democracies’ environmental inaction, as evidenced in the political gridlock after attempts to compromise capitalists’ interests in overexploiting natural resources, or to limit individual freedom in engaging unsustainable behaviour, environmentalists are turning to more decisive state actions in combating environmental problems. In this field, arguably, China’s authoritarian approach to constructing ecological civilization is viewed as a beacon of hope by some environmental commentators. This article, after exploring the concepts of environmental authoritarianism and ecological civilization, demonstrates how the state-driven top-down construction of ecological civilization, exemplified by campaign-style enforcement and coercive enforcement, does not only fail to resolve ‘the tragedy of the commons’, but also results in ‘the tragedy of the ordinaries’. It further discusses implications for China’s construction of ecological civilization beyond the borders of China. The conclusion is reached that caution is demanded when using such a state-led authoritarian approach to addressing environmental problems on this troubled earth.

Managing ecological thresholds of a risky commons.

Common resources are often overexploited and appear subject to critical transitions from one stable state to another antagonistic state. Many times resulting in tragedy of the commons (TOC)-exploitation of shared resources for personal gain/payoffs, leading to worse outcomes or extinction. An adequate response would be strategic interaction, such as inspection and punishment by institutions to avoid TOC. This strategic interaction is often coupled with dynamically changing common resources. However, effect of strategic interaction in complex, coupled socio-ecological systems is less studied. Here, we develop replicator equations using evolving games in which strategy and common resources co-evolve. We consider the shared commons as fish dynamics governed by the intrinsic growth rate, predation and harvesting. The joint dynamics exhibit an oscillatory TOC, revealing that institutions need to pay special attention to intrinsic growth rate and nonlinear interaction. Our research shows that the co-evolving system exhibits a broader range of dynamics when predation is present compared to the disengaged fishery system. We conclude that the usefulness, chances and challenges of modelling co-evolutionary games to create sustainable systems merit further research.

The space sustainability paradox

The recent growth of the space sector, spurred by a surge in private actors, has led to a sharp increase in our ability to address societal challenges through space data. However, this has exacerbated an already critical situation in space: the proliferation of space debris and a critical expansion of space traffic which is leading to high levels of orbital congestion. In parallel, increased levels of spacecraft production and orbital launches are also heightening the environmental footprint of the sector. This might lead to a paradoxical situation whereby the use of space to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) becomes unsustainable from the perspective of both the Earth and space environment. This situation can be described as the ‘space sustainability paradox’. This paper presents this concept for the first time and argues that existing policies and remediation actions are not a long-term sustainable solution for tackling this issue and may actually intensify the problem. This places an added importance upon addressing space sustainability in a more coherent, strategic and responsible manner, potentially based on the doughnut economic model of social and planetary boundaries. Doing so may prevent the sector from falling victim to a ‘tragedy of the commons’ type of scenario and avoid negative trends from becoming the norm. As a result, this would ensure that outer space can continue to be used by future generations to address societal challenges, without priming severe and enduring damage to the Earth and space environment.

Ocean Overfishing under the "Tragedy of the Commons" Theory

Today's poor overall marine environment and severe overfishing have led to some negative impacts around the world. The topic of this research is the effect of overfishing and how to solve the problem of overfishing. Besides, this paper used the literature research method to study this topic. The survey results show that overfishing has a negative impact on the local environment and the ocean in all three locations, Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay, Newfoundland fishery, Gulf of Aardvark. We should pay attention to this problem and start to deal with it. The paper argued that overfishing can affect marine biodiversity, reduce species or even lead to species extinction. In addition, overfishing increases the world's carbon emissions, which ultimately leads to global warming.