In Conservation psychology, tragedy of the commons is very popular phenomenon. Tragedy of the commons occurs when individuals behave based on their individual gains, instead of considering the whole group’s best interest in the long run. This normally involves the depletion of a common resource. Commons, can refer to finite resources such as atmosphere, wild animals, forest, etc.

This can be seen through different examples where people release ‘alien’ species into the wild. Although this does not implicitly have a resource where people excessively draw from, it shows how an individual’s action is fuelled by self-benefit without considering the impact it has on the environment.

Mentioned previously, the Cane Toad that was introduced to reduce the amount of Cane Beetles in the crop fulfilled it’s purpose, but there is a bigger implication as the Cane Toad began to multiply rapidly, establishing it’s population. Today, there are many such cases where people act for individual benefit, without considering the general impact it has.