Tragedy of Commons Video LO1623

RGLITZ@ngb-emh2.army.mil
13 JUN 95 08:24:12 EDT

Greetings,

I recently was told about a National Geographic special shown on the
Discovery Channel about one month ago... In it there was a story about a
real-life example of the "Tragedy of the Commons" archetype that I would
love to get my hands on. It concerned a systems thinking application to
manage the commons of an Australian fishing bank. The banks were being
overfished (over-trawled actually, it was some kind of shrimp) and the
solution came out of a system dynamics model that implemented a single
manager for the commons, an enforced moratorium on fishing for up to one
year, nets with coarser weaves, and an extremely limited fishing season
(six weeks per year). The result was equal or greater profits for the
fishermen, less work, and a common resource (the fishing banks) that was
indefinitely sustainable. Anyway, it was supposed to be very well done,
moving, and all that. I wanted to use it as evidence to convince some of
our field units that long term sustainability may come at the cost of some
counter-intuitive short term sacrifice.

Has anyone else seen/heard of this video? Does anyone know how to get a
copy? I'd appreciate any help. Thanks.
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Host's Note: PBS Video Finder 900-860-9301 can get you things shown on
PBS and I suggest it might be worth a try.
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Robert Glitz
rglitz@ngb-emh2.army.mil