The commons dilemma

Whenever a short-term or local need in the exploitation of a scarce natural resource must be pitted against its long-term use or the needs of the larger community, the commons dilemma arises. The study of commons dilemmas originated in agricultural economies but has importance in all resource management areas. Psychologists have recently found it to be a useful paradigm in the study of decision-making behavior.This paper reviews the commons dilemma as it has been used in three areas of psychological research: games theory, animal and human territorial behavior, and behavior reinforcement. In the first area, results show how communication within groups operates in cooperation/competition situations. In the second, the effects of social and political ideologies are examined. In the third, the implications of the commons dilemma with regard to breaking out of social traps are discussed. Throughout, the relevance of this basic psychological research to rational resource management is made clear. An extensive bibliography of relevant original research is provided.     

Evaluating Adaptive Governance Approaches to Sustainable Water Management in North-West Thailand

Adaptive governance is advanced as a potent means of addressing institutional fit of natural resource systems with prevailing modes of political–administrative management. Its advocates also argue that it enhances participatory and learning opportunities for stakeholders over time. Yet an increasing number of studies demonstrate real difficulties in implementing adaptive governance ‘solutions’. This paper builds on these debates by examining the introduction of adaptive governance to water management in Chiang Mai province, north-west Thailand. The paper considers, first, the limitations of current water governance modes at the provincial scale, and the rationale for implementation of an adaptive approach. The new approach is then critically examined, with its initial performance and likely future success evaluated by (i) analysis of water stakeholders’ opinions of its first year of operation; and (ii) comparison of its governance attributes against recent empirical accounts of implementation difficulty and failure of adaptive governance of natural resource management more generally. The analysis confirms the potentially significant role that the new approach can play in brokering and resolving the underlying differences in stakeholder representation and knowledge construction at the heart of the prevailing water governance modes in north-west Thailand.     

Taxing Meat: Taking Responsibility for One’s Contribution to Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic use in animal farming is one of the main drivers of antibiotic resistance both in animals and in humans. In this paper we propose that one feasible and fair way to address this problem is to tax animal products obtained with the use of antibiotics. We argue that such tax is supported both by (a) deontological arguments, which are based on the duty individuals have to compensate society for the antibiotic resistance to which they are contributing through consumption of animal products obtained with the use of antibiotics; and (b) a cost-benefit analysis of taxing such animal products and of using revenue from the tax to fund alternatives to use of antibiotics in animal farming. Finally, we argue that such a tax would be fair because individuals who consume animal products obtained with the use of antibiotics can be held morally responsible, i.e. blameworthy, for their contribution to antibiotic resistance, in spite of the fact that each individual contribution is imperceptible.