2. OVERVIEW
• What is the Tragedy of the commons?
• Generic Structure with Examples
• Why does the tragedy of the commons archetype
occur?
• What is the long time effect of this archetype?
• Dynamic Theory & BOT Graph
• Action Steps
3. WHAT IS THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS?
• This is an economic problem brought about by the over use
of common resources such as water, land, pastures etc. In
which every individual tries to reap the greatest benefit from
a given resource.
• It is a situation that happens when two or more activities that
produce results depend for their success on some limited
resources.
• The Tragedy of the commons explains the reason why
growth stops or declines after a period of time, because of
limited resources shared among groups or individuals.
Environmental issues such as overgrazing, over fishing,
4. GENERIC STRUCTURE OF THE TRAGEDY OF
THE COMMONS
• In the archetype diagram only two activities
A and B are represented. Each of the
activities are involved in the use of the
common resource. As A and B activities go
up, their net gains also go up. Hence
increasing their level of activities to the
resources the reinforcing loop allows the
parties to achieve greater gains all the time.
• All the activities add up to the total activity
which decreases the gains per activity gains.
Parties end up gaining less of the resources.
This happens because the total activity is
greater than the resource limits. By going
over the limit, individual parties have to
work even harder to use the resources. The
tragedy occurs therefore when the resource
In “Tragedy of the Commons,” each
activity pursues actions that are
individually beneficial (R1 and R2), but
eventually results in a worse situation
for everyone.
Activity A
Activity B
Net Gains for A
Net Gains for B
+
+
+
+
Gains per
individual activity
Resource limit
Total activity
+
+
+
+
+
-
R1
R2
B1
B2
5. OTHERS REAL EXAMPLES.. CONT’D
SHARED COMMON GRAZING PASTURE
• Let’s say there’s some land that people use as
pasture for their animals. No body owns so its
open to anyone to come and graze their
livestock on the land. In this scenario, everyone
has rights to the pasture to grazes as many
animals as possible, acting in self-interest for the
greatest short-term personal gain. Eventually,
they use up all the grass in the pasture; the
shared resource is in the end depleted and no
longer useful.
• Other similar real life scenarios are, over
fishing, pollution, deforestation etc. Over grazing on common grazing
pasture
6. EXAMPLE IS THE IT DEPARTMENT
• In this example of the Tragedy of the commons
archetype, there are two departments in an
organisation which uses the IT resources. As these
departments employ the use of the IT resources, they
contribute to their success. E.g. Department A & B. As
each department likes its plan, they develop plans of
consuming even more IT resources THUS increasing
the total resources requested.
• At some point the total resources requested exceed
the IT resources available. When that happens projects,
and support become more delayed. As the individual
groups has planned developments which were
dependent on the support of use of IT resources,
begin to experience a decrease in their results. A
results and B results because they have exceeded the
capacity usage of the IT resources.
• Hence if the individual group had paid for the
resources, they would probably wouldn’t use so much,
Admins demands
Medicine demands
Net Gains for
Admin
Net Gains for
Medicine
+
+
+
+
TotalDemand
Gain per individual
demand
IT Resources &
skills+
+
+
+
+-
R1
R2
B1
B2
7. WHY DOES THE TRAGEDY OF THE
COMMONS ARCHETYPE OCCUR?
•Tragedy of the Commons occurs because the actors
do not pay attention to the effects of their actions.
Therefore, they continue their undesirable behavior
until it’s too late to undo or fix the resource.
Sometimes actors may be aware of the situation, but
take less concern to slow down if they recognize
that others will reap all the benefits.
8. WHAT IS THE LONG TIME EFFECT OF
THIS ARCHETYPE?
After a while, individuals consuming resources to their
own interest can lead to the effect of;
• Depletion of the common resource
• The resource becomes less accessible and losses its
quality
9. ACTION STEPS
• First step is to identify the “commons”, the resource
being shared by individuals..
• Determine incentives – identify the reinforcing
processes or incentives driving the individual use of
resources.
• Divide the resource into plots i.e assigning it to
individuals as private or individual property.
• Limiting access to resources. Finding the central focal
point around which the whole resource can be managed.
• Have someone else manage resource usage
(Assigning ownership of the resource e.g.
government, private, community)
