Cyclical and constant strategies in renewable resources extraction

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the classic topic of intertemporal resource economics: the optimal harvesting of renewable natural resources over time by one and several resource owners with conflicting interests. The traditional management model, dating back to Plourde (1970), is extended towards a two–state model in which harvesting equipment is treated as a stock variable. As a consequence of this extension, an equilibrium dynamics with bifurcations and limit cycles occur. Next we discuss conflicts as a game with two types of players involved: the traditional fishermen armed with the basic equipment and the heavy equipment users. Both players have a common depletion function, thought as harvesting, which is dependent both on personal effort and on intensity of equipment’s usage.Renewable resources; exploitation of natural resources; differential games