Combining socio-economic and ecological modelling to inform natural resource management strategies

Effective management of natural resources requires understanding both the dynamics of the natural systems being subjected to management and the decision-making behaviour of stakeholders who are involved in the management process. We suggest that simulation modelling techniques can provide a powerful method platform for the transdisciplinary integration of ecological, economic and sociological aspects that is needed for exploring the likely outcomes of different management approaches and options. A concise review of existing literature on ecological and socio-economic modelling and approaches at the interface of these fields is presented followed by a framework coupling an individual-based ecological model with an agent-based socio-economic model. In this framework, each individual of the species of interest is represented on a spatially-explicit landscape, allowing the incorporation of individual variability. The socio-economic model also simulates inter-agent variability through the assignment of different attitudes and decision-making options for different agents; these may represent farmers, estate managers, policy-makers, the general public and/or other stakeholders. This structure enables variation in attitudes and circumstances of individual stakeholders, together with interactions between stakeholders, to be simulated. We discuss strengths and limitations of such an approach, and the information requirements for building a robust model to inform a real management situation.