RUPES role-play game (RPG)

Abstract

The Rewarding Upland Poor for Environmental Services (RUPES) project developed a role-play game (RPG) that simulated the options for land-use changes for villages in a tropical forest margin. The game resembles the decision-making process gone through by villagers interacting with external agents. The agents offer opportunities for further logging and conversion of forests to monoculture tree plantations or incentives to protect environmental services. The game shows the complexity of negotiations under time pressure, with limited information about what the 'rules of the game' imply. Primarily meant as a learning tool for those playing, observing and analyzing the game, the results can also be compared between the results achieved in multiple replications of the game