Games

Games are increasingly popular in natural resource management and human-wildlife conflict resolution by offering a means for different stakeholders to explore the position and behaviour of other stakeholders and the diversity of interests on the resource in question. Through playing games, stakeholders can gain a better understanding of the complexity of a natural resource management problem including the feedback loops they are part of and the consequences of their actions for others. The constructed reality of the game also provides a space for safely exploring different strategies and their outcomes without suffering the consequences. Perhaps more importantly games facilitate discussion between stakeholders that may reduce conflicts, serve to identify possible solutions and guide decision-making towards the informed design of effective management interventions.

Savanna Life

Savanna Life has developed a board game to facilitate discussion among stakeholders in natural resource management problems in the Greater Serengeti Mara Ecosystem (GSME). The GSME is world-famous for its annual wildebeest migration attracting safari tourists from all over the world and generating significant revenue of national economic importance in both countries. However, the GSME is also characterized by a rapidly growing surrounding human and livestock populations and high levels of illegal grassing and bushmeat hunting inside the protected areas threatening to compromise conservation objective and revenue potentials. With new efforts to enforce existing legislation relationships between rural communities and park staff and authorities are increasingly strained. Both rural communities, managers and policy-makers struggle to grasp the realities of the constraints and the objectives of actors at different levels.
The Savanna Life board game was therefore developed to create awareness about natural resource dilemmas and explore potential avenues of development for communities adjacent to the protected areas. The game simulates real-life challenges enabling the players to experience the consequences of human population growth and other adverse environmental trends and to explore different alternative livelihood strategies safely as well as to discuss how to co-create a sustainable future.

The game has so far been played in 24 communities as well as with district staff and protected area managers in Tanzania and Kenya in 2018 and 2019.

Objectives

Despite the increasing use of board games in natural resource management, few studies have evaluated their outcome. Hence, aside from developing and testing the game, the objective of this project is to:

• Evaluate player preferences and performance through the game comparing stakeholders at different levels.
• Evaluate how insights gained through playing the game translates into changed preferences and stated real-life actions.

More information:
savannalife.no

Associate professor Martin Reinhardt Nielsen
Mail: mrni@ifro.ku.dk
Phone: +45 353-31726