Ecodevelopment - A Prisoners Dilemma
Consider a scenario- Two people sitting on
either side of an invisible fence, a fence so deep rooted- nobody would like
cross the barrier. A river with a gorge so deep that nobody can muster the
courage to swim across. The forests we live in today are the playground for so
many of these similar scenarios. Two parties diametrically opposite to one
another, not willing to reconcile, not willing to see things from a common
perspective and in the process contributing in the loss of one of the most
precious resources that humankind has. The forest…….
The history of conflict between the forest
dwellers and the forest managers is as old as the forest department itself. But
the situation that prevails now was not so common in the days before Brandis.
The forest was an integral part of the humankind, we were not the masters of
the forest, but merely one among the many dwellers and resources users which
subsisted from the great giver. This story has been told and retold many a
times but the tragedy remains in ouir attitude. Inspite of many a story, even
today most of us consider forests as just one resource, waiting to be
plundered, to be declothed. But as I said previously, it was not so previously
and the fact that one can say with so much authority about past relations is
because we sometimes still see the fragments of the past in some communities
which live in the world today. Some communities who still hold the forest to be
their guardian angel, the source of their sustenance, their beloved.
The Nilgiris in the Western part of tamil
Nadu is home to many such communities who still depend upon the forest and work
for its sustenance.
In the end nobody uses the resources
prudently with the result that everybody loses.
The prisoner’s dilemma is an interesting
scenario in Game theory, which is a branch of mathematics that explores the
strategies people adopt in dealing with each other.
In
the dilemma, we imagine two prisoners, locked together in a prisoner cell for 7
years.
they have two options before them---- one,
trusting each other and cooperating in digging a tunnel through to freedom, or
mistrust and the resignation to seven years imprisonment. There is good reason
not to trust each other, because if one of them betrays the other while the
digging is in progress, he will earn his freedom and a reward besides, while
the other prisoner will have to face life imprisonment.
IN THE END, GAME THEORY TELLS US, MISTRUST
PREVAILS MOST OF THE TIME.
The prisoner’s theory mimics the quandary
that we find ourselves in with respect to management of our natural resources.
