Fostering knowledge sharing about agroforestry systems through the codesign of a role-playing game with farmers and students from the Municipe of Irituia (Northeast Para, Brasil)
The companion modelling approach aims at stimulating social learning among stakeholders through the interactive use of agent-based simulation models. In the Municipe of Irituia (Northeast Para, Brasil), such a process was initiated to enhance knowledge sharing among farmers, researchers and students about forest restoration. A first version of a stylized yet empirically grounded model of 4 similar 25-ha family farms was first designed by a group of researchers. This tool, clearly unfinished, can be seen as a sketch to initiate the co-design process: an important work of progressive shaping and improvement is needed so that it acquires its final form and becomes usable with people who were not involved in its design. Handled as a role-playing game (the actions of the farmers are decided by the participants), the tool was first introduced to a group of farmers who were selected because of the experience in agroforestry systems. Eliciting their knowledge and formalizing their practices allowed us to propose archetypes of agro-forestry systems. The game was first tested by students from Itabocal, a rural school of Irituia Municipe. In the game, when deciding to start agro-forestry, a participant has to select a type of pre-defined agro-forestry system. The growth of the plants is simulated by the computer model and a set of indicators is provided to the players for them to assess the balance between environmental and socioeconomic benefits. The model was fine-tuned through a series of successive workshops. We describe how it enabled fostering knowledge sharing among students, farmers and researchers.
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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Format: | conference_item biblioteca |
Language: | eng |
Published: |
ISE
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Online Access: | http://agritrop.cirad.fr/590444/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/590444/1/LePage_Etnobiologia2018-Belem.pdf |
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Summary: | The companion modelling approach aims at stimulating social learning among stakeholders through the interactive use of agent-based simulation models. In the Municipe of Irituia (Northeast Para, Brasil), such a process was initiated to enhance knowledge sharing among farmers, researchers and students about forest restoration. A first version of a stylized yet empirically grounded model of 4 similar 25-ha family farms was first designed by a group of researchers. This tool, clearly unfinished, can be seen as a sketch to initiate the co-design process: an important work of progressive shaping and improvement is needed so that it acquires its final form and becomes usable with people who were not involved in its design. Handled as a role-playing game (the actions of the farmers are decided by the participants), the tool was first introduced to a group of farmers who were selected because of the experience in agroforestry systems. Eliciting their knowledge and formalizing their practices allowed us to propose archetypes of agro-forestry systems. The game was first tested by students from Itabocal, a rural school of Irituia Municipe. In the game, when deciding to start agro-forestry, a participant has to select a type of pre-defined agro-forestry system. The growth of the plants is simulated by the computer model and a set of indicators is provided to the players for them to assess the balance between environmental and socioeconomic benefits. The model was fine-tuned through a series of successive workshops. We describe how it enabled fostering knowledge sharing among students, farmers and researchers. |
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