Intervening to achieve co-operative ecosystem management: Towards an agentbased model

We propose an advanced agent-based modelling approach to ecosystem manageme nt, informed and motivated by consideration of the Fraser River watershed a nd its management problems. Agent-based modelling is introduced, and a thre e-stage computer-based research programme is formulated, the focus of which is on how best to intervene to cause stakeholders to co-operate effectivel y in ecosystem management, and on the objective discovery and comparison of intervention strategies by way of computer experimentation. The agent-base d model outlined is technically relatively complex, and several potential d ifficulties in its detailed development are discussed. Types of ecosystem i ntervention strategy that might plausibly be discovered or recommended by t he model are projected and compared with those currently advocated in the l iterature.