A Role-Playing Game for Land Use Planning and Conflict Resolution

A Role-Playing Game for Land Use Planning and Conflict Resolution

Around and within the forests, a multitude of different actors are involved: farmers, breeders, hunters, fishermen, timber companies, local authorities and organizations focused on forest conservation. Balancing the interests and needs of all these stakeholders for the effective use and management of natural resources is a highly complex task and conflicts often arise in these regions for various reasons.

To help stakeholders find solutions for co-managing natural resources, GIZ developed a role-playing boardgame. This game simulates the evolution of an ecosystem under human pressure due to natural resources use and extraction over time for several purposes. The board can be customized to represents the various elements of a territory, its forests, fields, water bodies and urban center, in which the stakeholders operate. A trained facilitator guides the participants through the game simulating their farming and/or forestry operations. Each workshop concludes with a debriefing and collective discussion, led by the facilitator.

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