ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on applying the Values and Investments for Agent-Based interaction and Learning in Environmental systems model framework to conflicts over ecosystems and natural resources. It examines a model of fishery conflicts that can be viewed as either an abstract representation of fishers involved in an ecologically and economically devastating conflict or as a starting point for the realistic representation of a specific, complex fishing conflict. Fisheries are frequently viewed as an analogy for many other complex resource problems, including other common pool and renewable resources. The chapter focuses on the connection between individual decisions, the rules governing them, and the collective outcomes that occur when individuals interact. In a purely competitive fishery environment, ecological and socioeconomic sustainability can suffer, leading to major environmental damage and conflict. Fisheries around the world are still facing serious ecological and economic challenges, with ongoing debate over how to implement adequate, sustainable management strategies.
