BUTORSTAR: A role-playing game for collective awareness of wise reedbed use

A role-playing game (RPG) supported by computer simulations, called BUTORSTAR, has been developed in the context of a LIFE-Nature European Programme (2001-2005) aiming to improve reedbed management for the conservation of a vulnerable heron, the Eurasian Bittern. The agent-based model simulates the impacts of reedbed management resulting from decisions made by farmers, reed harvesters, hunters, and naturalists. The model is based on an archetypal wetland made of a virtual landscape. Different water regimes are proposed, each one adapted to a particular wetland use. Land-use and water-management decisions are made by the players at both estate and management-unit levels. These decisions are entered into the model each year as the results of the negotiation process between the players. This RPG is designed to promote student awareness of (a) biological and hydrological interdependencies and their dynamics on different spatial and temporal scales, (b) the technical and socioeconomic factors involved in the different types of reedbed use, and (c) the usefulness of the negotiation process for establishing collective management rules. It is shown that BUTORSTAR creates a continuum of learning that crosses the traditional boundaries between disciplines and allows players to conduct multipurpose experiments that contribute to their comprehensive understanding of socioecosystems.

[1]  Paul M. Dolman,et al.  Birds in Europe: Their conservation status , 1996 .

[2]  N. Maier.  Problem-solving discussions and conferences : leadership methods and skills , 1963 .

[3]  H. Hungerford,et al.  Essential readings in environmental education , 1998 .

[4]  Keith S. Donnellan,et al.  Action, Emotion And Will , 1965 .

[5]  Olivier Lazzarotti.  Milton Santos, La nature de l'espace. Technique et temps, raison et émotion , 1998 .

[6]  Antonio R. Damasio.  L'erreur de Descartes : la raison des émotions , 2001 .

[7]  F. Mesléard,et al.  Agricultural Abandonment in a Wetland Area: Abandoned Ricefields in the Camargue, France — Can They Be of Value for Conservation? , 1994, Environmental Conservation.

[8]  Christophe Le Page,et al.  Cormas: Common-Pool Resources and Multi-agent Systems , 1998, IEA/AIE.

[9]  L. Mermet.  Stratégies pour la gestion de l'environnement : la nature comme jeu de société? , 1992 .

[10]  C. Folke,et al.  Navigating Social–Ecological Systems: Contents , 2002 .

[11]  C. Folke,et al.  Navigating social–ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change: Fikret Berkes, Johan Colding and Carl Folke (Eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2003. xxi + 393 pages. ISBN 0-521-81592-4 (hardback), £65 , 2004 .

[12]  Michel Etienne,et al.  SYLVOPAST: a multiple target role-playing game to assess negotiation processes in sylvopastoral management planning , 2003, J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul..

[13]  Dietrich Dörner,et al.  The Logic Of Failure: Recognizing And Avoiding Error In Complex Situations , 1997 .

[14]  Raphaël Mathevet,et al.  Habitat selection by booming bitterns Botaurus stellaris in French Mediterranean reed-beds , 2005, Oryx.

[15]  P. Stern,et al.  A second environmental science: human-environment interactions. , 1993, Science.

[16]  M. Crozier,et al.  L' acteur et le systeme , 1978 .

[17]  Brigitte Poulin,et al.  Habitat requirements of passerines and reedbed management in southern France , 2002 .

[18]  Raphaël Mathevet,et al.  Is commercial reed harvesting compatible with breeding purple herons Ardea purpurea in the Camargue, southern France? , 2000, Environmental Conservation.

[19]  Kenneth H. Blanchard,et al.  Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership , 1985 .

[20]  A. Kenny.  Action, Emotion And Will , 1965 .

[21]  G. Tucker,et al.  Birds in Europe : their conservation status , 1994 .

[22]  C. S. Holling,et al.  Resilience and Sustainable Development: Building Adaptive Capacity in a World of Transformations , 2002, Ambio.

[23]  Rodolphe Ghiglione,et al.  Traité de psychologie cognitive : cognition, représentation, communication , 1990 .

[24]  I. Bishop,et al.  Integrative modelling of biophysical, social and economic , 2003 .

[25]  B. Tuckman.  DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCE IN SMALL GROUPS. , 1965, Psychological bulletin.

[26]  L. Boltanski,et al.  De la justification : les économies de la grandeur , 1991 .

[27]  D. Kolb.  Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development , 1983 .

[28]  Lucien Sfez,et al.  Critique de la décision , 1976 .

[29]  John e. Jones.  Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument , 1976 .

[30]  C. Perrings,et al.  The economics of biodiversity conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa: mending the ark. , 2000 .

[31]  C. S. Holling.  Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems , 2001, Ecosystems.

[32]  B. Mayo.  ACTION, EMOTION AND WILL , 1963 .

[33]  Carl Hawke,et al.  Reedbed management for commercial and wildlife interests , 1996 .

[34]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Coping with Collapse: Ecological and Social Dynamics in Ecosystem Management , 2001 .