Promoting Afforestation for Sustainable Communities through Gamification

Abstract

Gamification is the concept of using game features and techniques in a non-game situations. The theory of gamification promotes the fact that users are more likely to accept and actively use an application, when there is a characteristic of game play associated with it. The concept has gained a lot of research interest in recent years. Studies on climate change mitigation strategies can incorporate gamification, with its theoretical aptitude to change people’s everyday behaviours. This study aims to raise awareness as well as the capacity of gamification to support sustainable environmental measures with a view to identify possible applications to forest health issues. The study incorporated feedback and ideas with the purpose to encourage the participant to identify possible areas for gamification in the Forestry Commission’s projects and propose ideas for potential games. The emphasis was on raising collective awareness to enable behavioural change and inspire people in making sustainable decisions on afforestation. The study looked at two different games, and the challenges meant to influence behaviour in afforestation for sustainable communities. The study established that participants had a positive perception about the concept; and the integration of gamification with afforestation facilitated the creation of a cybernetic environment which brought about a change in how individuals protect the environment for sustainable communities. These are key steps in fighting forest related climate change issues, since it represents a crucial contribution to a more collective and sustainable lifestyle.