AFOR@: Managing the Dehesa as a Common Resource

AFOR@: Managing the Dehesa as a Common Resource is a user manual accompanying an educational simulation game designed to foster understanding of the sustainable management of common-pool resources such as the Mediterranean dehesa. The game places participants in the role of livestock managers who share the same agroecosystem and must make production decisions (regarding the number and type of animals) with the aim of maximizing their economic returns without causing degradation of the shared resource.

Over a series of rounds representing years of exploitation, players experience how grazing pressure affects the productive capacity of the dehesa, generating dynamics of cooperation, competition, and negotiation. The manual introduces the theoretical foundations underpinning the game, including the concept of common-pool resources, the “tragedy of the commons” described by Garrett Hardin, and the principles of collective governance proposed by Elinor Ostrom, as well as their interpretation through microeconomics and game theory.

The educational objective of AFOR@ is to facilitate understanding of the dilemmas associated with the management of shared natural resources, demonstrating how individual decisions can lead either to inefficient equilibria or to cooperative strategies capable of sustaining the system over the long term. The manual describes both the conceptual framework and the game rules, providing a teaching tool for environmental economics, sustainability, and the governance of common resources in agricultural and livestock production contexts.