PES Schemes In The Argan Biosphere Reserve

Southern Morocco is facing environmental degradation and severe biodiversity losses within the Argane Biosphere Reserve. Traditional approaches for capacity development and awareness raising have proved insufficient. To change this paradigm, a proposal was made to use social games for the gamification of ecosystem services within the Argan Biosphere Reserve.

This initiative received seed funding from UNDP’s Innovation Facility and benefited from the support of the Natural Capital Project Team from Stanford University.

Supported by a panel of leading experts, a diversified pool of university students participated to a Gamification Lab and were introduced to natural capital and design thinking to prototype board games building on the case of ecosystem services provided by the Argan forest.

Games for Social Good were found to have a strong potential to serve as an effective medium for environmental education. More than 60 students representing 7 universities from 6 cities joined the teams competing in the gamification lab. The innovative journey yielded 8 prototypes of board games which were tested during 2 play tests. Participants indicated that gamification was an enjoyable alternative to traditional solutions to environmental education.