Role-playing games for capacity building in water and land management: Some Brazilian experiences

Role-playing games in natural resource management are currently being tested as research, training, and intervention tools all over the world. Various studies point out their potential to deal with complex issues and to contribute to training processes. The objective of this contribution is to analyze the limits and potentialities of this tool for capacity building in environmental management of stakeholders with low educational levels by comparing various Brazilian experiences. Five games that were developed and used to train local stakeholders or state technicians about specific aspects of new and difficult to understand legislation are compared. The comparison of these experiences is based on (a) an analysis of the materials (game support) provided by the developers, (b) interviews with authors and game developers, and (c) participation in game sessions whenever possible.