TY - JOUR
T1 - Playing games to save water
T2 - Collective action games for groundwater management in Andhra Pradesh, India
AU - Meinzen-Dick, Ruth
AU - Janssen, Marcus
AU - Kandikuppa, Sandeep
AU - Chaturvedi, Rahul
AU - Rao, Kaushalendra
AU - Theis, Sophie
N1 - Funding Information:
The research for this study was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), Colombo, Sri Lanka. Additional support was provided by the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM). We would like to thank all donors who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund. We thank the men and women from the participating communities in the villages of NP Kunta and Tanakallu Mandals, the field staff of the Foundation for Ecological Security, in particular Ms. Hemalatha, Mr. Noor Jaan and a special word of gratitude to the management and staff of Jana Jagriti, Tanakallu Office; in particular Mr. D. P. Balaram, CEO, Mr. S. Srinivas Reddy, Project Coordinator and Mr. Lakshmana Murthy, Social Mobilizer. Bryan Bruns assisted with training in 2014 and provided valuable suggestions. We also thank Jagdeesh Puppala Rao, Juan Camilo Cardenas, Claudia Ringler, Bryan Bruns, Wei Zhang, and Andrew Bell for their advice and comments. Responsibility for any errors rests with the authors. Appendix A
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s)
PY - 2018/7
Y1 - 2018/7
N2 - Groundwater is one of the most challenging common pool resources to govern, resulting in resource depletion in many areas. We present an innovative use of collective action games to not only measure propensity for cooperation, but to improve local understanding of groundwater interrelationships and stimulate collective governance of groundwater, based on a pilot study in Andhra Pradesh, India. The games simulate crop choice and consequences for the aquifer. These were followed by a community debriefing, which provided an entry point for discussing the interconnectedness of groundwater use, to affect mental models about groundwater. A slightly modified game was played in the same communities, one year later. Our study finds communication within the game increased the likelihood of groups reaching sustainable extraction levels in the second year of play, but not the first. Individual payments to participants based on how they played in the game had no effect on crop choice. Either repeated experience with the games or the revised structure of the game evoked more cooperation in the second year, outweighing other factors influencing behavior, such as education, gender, and trust index scores. After the games were played, a significantly higher proportion of communities adopted water registers and rules to govern groundwater, compared to other communities in the same NGO water commons program. Because groundwater levels are affected by many factors, games alone will not end groundwater depletion. However, games can contribute to social learning about the role of crop choice and collective action, to motivate behavior change toward more sustainable groundwater extraction.
AB - Groundwater is one of the most challenging common pool resources to govern, resulting in resource depletion in many areas. We present an innovative use of collective action games to not only measure propensity for cooperation, but to improve local understanding of groundwater interrelationships and stimulate collective governance of groundwater, based on a pilot study in Andhra Pradesh, India. The games simulate crop choice and consequences for the aquifer. These were followed by a community debriefing, which provided an entry point for discussing the interconnectedness of groundwater use, to affect mental models about groundwater. A slightly modified game was played in the same communities, one year later. Our study finds communication within the game increased the likelihood of groups reaching sustainable extraction levels in the second year of play, but not the first. Individual payments to participants based on how they played in the game had no effect on crop choice. Either repeated experience with the games or the revised structure of the game evoked more cooperation in the second year, outweighing other factors influencing behavior, such as education, gender, and trust index scores. After the games were played, a significantly higher proportion of communities adopted water registers and rules to govern groundwater, compared to other communities in the same NGO water commons program. Because groundwater levels are affected by many factors, games alone will not end groundwater depletion. However, games can contribute to social learning about the role of crop choice and collective action, to motivate behavior change toward more sustainable groundwater extraction.
KW - Collective action
KW - Experimental games
KW - Groundwater
KW - India
KW - Stakeholder engagement
KW - Water management
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U2 - 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.02.006
DO - 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.02.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85043484038
SN - 0305-750X
VL - 107
SP - 40
EP - 53
JO - World Development
JF - World Development
ER -