This paper provides a game theoretic analysis of Management Agreements under asymmetric information. A simple two‐period game is employed to represent the Coasian bargaining process which takes place between the farmer and English Nature over the introduction of a Management Agreement. The analysis shows that if the farmer possesses an information advantage and wishes to exploit it to gain an economic rent from the bargaining process, inefficient outcomes are possible. The implications of the analysis for the continued reliance upon voluntarism and Management Agreements for the protection of Sites of Special Scientific Interest are considere