Coffee, Farmers, and Trees—Shifting Rights Accelerates Changing Landscapes

Abstract

Deforestation and biodiversity loss in agroecosystems are generally the result of rational choices, not of a lack of awareness or knowledge. Despite both scientific evidence and traditional knowledge that supports the value of diverse production systems for ecosystem services and resilience, a trend of agroecosystem intensification is apparent across tropical regions. These transitions happen in spite of policies that prohibit such transformations. We present a participatory modelling study run to (1) understand the drivers of landscape transition and (2) explore the livelihood and environmental impacts of tenure changes in the coffee agroforestry systems of Kodagu (India). The components of the system, key actors and resources, and their interactions were defined with stakeholders, following the companion modelling (ComMod) approach. The underlying ecological processes driving the system were validated through expert knowledge and scientific literature. The conceptual model was transformed into a role-playing game and validated by eight workshops with a total of 57 participants. Two scenarios were explored, a No Policy Change as baseline, and a Restitution of Rights where rights to cut the native trees are handed over to farmers. Our results suggest that the landscape transition is likely to continue unabated unless there is a change to the current policy framework. However, the Restitution of Rights risks speeding up the process rather than reversing it, as inter alia, the differential growth rate between exotic and native tree species, kick in.

The Global Forest Transition as a Human Affair

“…114,115 Such a game is then understood as the combination of tokens (what the system is), a set of commonly agreed-upon rules (how the system works), and players. 116 Playing the game lets stakeholders confront their understanding of the system with the narrative presented by the game. The game poses challenges to the players, responds to their decisions, and invites them to think strategically.…”

“…This process acts as a reality check of the assumptions that participants have. 116 It allows creating consensus on how the system works; when participants agree, the rules represent the system that they are familiar with. Games enable stakeholders to share and confront their perceptions to better grasp the complexities of the system, to explore alternative futures in a low-risk environment, and to negotiate new forms of collective action.…”

Online multiplayer games as virtual laboratories for collecting data on social‐ecological decision making

“…Games are valuable tools for studying human decision making (Chabris 2017;Vermillion et al 2017;Reddie et al 2018) and are increasingly being used in socialecological research (Garcia et al 2016(Garcia et al , 2020Villamor & Badmos 2016). Games have unique advantages and limitations (Redpath et al 2018), but a thoughtful application of games can ultimately allow researchers to better understand how people make strategic decisions in complex situations involving trade-offs, conflict, and uncertainty.…”

“…Developing, coordinating, and collecting data from research games often require considerable time investment and technical skill (Redpath et al 2018). This includes time spent recruiting players and building physical game pieces (for table top games; e.g., Garcia et al 2020) or developing software (for computer games; Janssen et al 2014). For computer games, even researchers who are experienced programmers do not typically have the technical skill or expertise necessary to apply game graphics or game play mechanics on par with professional game developers.…”

A Game-Based Approach to Exploring Gender Differences in Smallholder Decisions to Change Farming Practices: White Rice Production in Laos

“…Role-playing games have been used in the past to explore agrarian transition and facilitate understanding of farmers' decision making [46][47][48][49]. However, this approach has been underutilized to study the impact of gender in agriculture and landscapes changes [50].…”