Sharing of profits from harvesting a mobile terrestrial resource that transcends property boundaries

What is it about?

Despite the advantages there is a reluctance to move to harvesting kangaroo as a commercial enterprise. One of the reasons for this is that kangaroos are a mobile species and are able to jump fences and move amongst different properties with ease. This raises questions of ownership and the equitable distribution of harvests. In this study we explore the situation where two neighbouring ranches, in a co-operative enterprise, experience rainfall and hence primary production asynchronously. A kangaroo population of fixed size is allowed to roam from one property to another in search of grazing. Any significant differences will affect the consumption of resources and influence the profit sharing negotiations between property owners entering into a cooperative arrangement. The results indicate that for two properties experiencing the same total annual rainfall the resources consumed by the population on each property is independent of the temporal differences in rainfall distribution.

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Why is it important?

Besides kangaroos, the focus of this study, there are many mobile resources where landowners face a similar problem.