Distribution Fights, Coordination Games, and Lobster Management

Currently, one of the most important issues in resource management is: under what conditions will people conserve the resources on which their livelihood depends? In all too many cases, overexploitation is the rule. All around the world fish stocks, forests, grasslands, air, soils, wildlife, and water quality have been seriously degraded by human beings. Environmental disaster is not inevitable, however, for in many cases those who are dependent on resources, and their governments, have acted to generate effective rules to manage those resources at sustainable levels (Anderson and Simmons 1993; Berkes 1989; McCay and Acheson 1987; Ostrom 1990; Pinkerton 1989; Ruddle and Akimichi 1984).