Abstract for: Let’s Play Fish Banks: A Sustainable Natural Resources Management Game

Our proposal is to use Fish Banks, a role-playing simulation game, to promote sustainable management of fisheries. Participants will engage in a hands-on game where teams of players manage and operate their own fishing companies. Through this game, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the dynamic nature of systems present in the management of marine resources and how to design and implement more effective policies. The Fish Banks game provides an engaging, experiential learning environment to explore the complexity of engaging multiple stakeholders in discussions of the careful and efficient use of natural resources. After the game, we will lead a debrief session where we will discuss the Tragedy of the Commons and a causal loop diagram that captures the main interactions contained in the game. We will also cover the dynamics of cooperation, competition, resource management, and negotiation. Our objectives are to equip participants with knowledge in System Dynamics that will enable them to better design policy and do policy analysis in the context of natural resources management. We also aim to equip participants with practical knowledge of the dynamics at play that will enable them to plan and implement more effective policies.