Games, sustainable developmental goals, local communities and natural resource management systems

In the field of natural resource management studies, the interest in games as boundary objects, and as research, learning and intervention tools, continues to grow strongly. The associated increased amount of published literature on games – ranging from water to forestry - suggests that games are seen as a promising tool in this applicative context. However, while the total number of papers reporting on games used in relation to natural resources is increasing, questions related to methodological aspects have not gained central stage in this growing body or literature. Against this background we launched the SESAM (Scenario Evaluation for Sustainable Agro-forestry Management sesam.wur.nl) research programme coordinated at Wageningen University (WUR), where we aim to address some of these challenges. Over the past two years, SESAM has been actively working on questions related to the use of games. As part to the SESAM program, we have been reviewing literature, and other available material on this subject matter and we began to trace trends, themes, and gaps in current research. The work done suggests that theoretical and methodological aspects of game conceptualisation, development, and use, falls behind the fast-growing empirical base. In view of these findings, we organized an Expert Workshop with the broad objective to create space for exchange also with the ambition to gather, and reflect upon on the collective experiences on the challenges and opportunities of using games in work about natural resource management systems in October 2021. In this document we summarize the outcomes of this expert event and describe some core questions that have emerged.