Simple movement rules result in ideal free distribution of mobile pastoralists

Authored by Mark Moritz, Ian M Hamilton, Andrew J Yoak, Paul Scholte, Jeff Cronley, Paul Maddock, Hongyang Pi

Date Published: 2015

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.03.010

Sponsors: National Geographic Society United States National Science Foundation (NSF)

Platforms: NetLogo

Model Documentation: ODD Flow charts

Model Code URLs: https://www.comses.net/codebases/4242/releases/1.3.0/

Abstract

While open access to common-pool resources has been equated with a tragedy of the commons, we have found that mobile pastoralists in the Logone Floodplain in Cameroon are sustain ably managing open access to common-pool grazing resources. We have described this pastoral system as a self-organizing complex adaptive system (CAS) in which mobile pastoralists distribute themselves over common-pool grazing resources without central or collective decision-making. We have found evidence of management of open access in the form of an ideal free distribution (IFD). Here we discuss the results of an agent-based model (ABM) simulation and show how pastoralists are able to achieve an IFD with relatively simple movement rules. We describe this system as an Emergent Commons (EC). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Tags

cattle Livestock commons systems Model Cameroon Protocol Areas