Gameplay
Tradeoff! is intended to be played by multiple teams of up to 8-10 people. Each Tradeoff! version is played in two rounds. During the first round, teams place development pieces (e.g. hotels, farms, port expansions, roads). Between rounds, teams are introduced to the concepts of natural capital and ecosystem services and equipped with additional maps of ecosystem services for their gameboards. In the second round, teams then make decisions about replacing development pieces and adding other conservation pieces to help mitigate the costs of development.
Context
Tradeoff! operates on the premise that if we can bring more information about natural capital into decision-making, then better decisions will be made, both for people and nature. The game is a simple, introductory way for players to interact with the potential trade-offs and synergies between traditional development and natural capital values.
Target group
Benefits
Tradeoff! has several learning objectives:
To introduce the concept of ecosystem services;
To explore tradeoffs across multiple services and between nature’s value and development;
To demonstrate how spatial data can help inform these decisions;
To simulate group and cross-sector collaboration and decision-making.
Trivia
The first version developed was Best Coast Belize. The most recent if Roads to a Resilient Future. Some versions of Tradeoff! are available in multiple languages
Created by
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Materials
Gameboards (print on large-format sheets), gamepieces, scoring sheets.
