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Participatory approaches to development in general and natural resource management
in particular are now a widely accepted management strategy. Multi-agent system
(MAS), a computer-based tool, offers a promising approach for multi-stakeholder
management systems such as the case involving community-managed resources.
MAS provides a framework where stakeholders’ (or agents) individual actions,
behaviors and rational decisions can be analyzed in the context of the other
stakeholders’ actions and decisions. This robust approach offers a convenient analytical
framework that can be used to simulate agents’ actions, reactions and interactions.
The approach also provides an environment where strategies or multi-stakeholder
forest management scenarios can be developed and analyzed. This paper describes a
MAS model developed for a forest management unit located in East Kalimantan,
Indonesia. Results and experience gained from the case study suggest that MAS is a
suitable approach for developing multi-stakeholder forest management strategies.