Safeguard Workshop Tool

In the Winter of 2024, over a two-month period, I developed a workshop tool in the form of a game in collaboration with Brad Duthie and Nils Bunnefeld from the University of Stirling. I parameterised it with findings from a Safeguard expert elicitation under the guidance of Adam Vanbergen of INRAE. The game was designed to spark engagement and discussion among a select group of stakeholders regarding the Safeguard expert elicitation and the acceptability of the policy interventions advised as most useful by those experts. A preliminary workshop conducted in December 2024 at the European Land Owners Conference (report available here) informed a round of development changes to the game prior to the data collection workshop, which took place in September 2025 with support from the Institute for European Environmental Policy.

An integrated assessment of policy interventions for pollinators: a game-based dialogue (Report Excerpt)

Auriane Flottes de Pouzols⁴, C. Rose McKeon², Evelyn Underwood⁴, Adam J. Vanbergen^1,3, Brad Duthie² & Nils Bunnefeld² (2025).

This workshop created a space for a game-based dialogue. Participants were able to explore the intersection of policy and scientific evidence in responding to the pressures facing pollinators. Stakeholders from policy, business, NGOs and researchers played out in virtual landscapes various pollinator management interventions in agricultural, urban, and nature conservation contexts. The game revealed the expected impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being, as assessed by Safeguard pollinator experts. [...]

After a lively gaming session, participants were invited to share their experiences and provide feedback. The discussion, moderated by Evelyn Underwood (IEEP), revealed a range of insightful observations about the game’s design, purpose, and impact.

Participants responded to the opportunity to explore policy scenarios in a dynamic and participatory format. The game stimulated in-depth discussion on a wide range of environmental policy dimensions, including the role of evidence-based decision-making, the scale and design of policy interventions, and the trade-offs between ecological and socio-economic outcomes. Many participants asked detailed questions about the science behind the game, including the underlying evidence, parameterisation, and expert assessment process. This indicated a strong level of critical engagement and curiosity, highlighting the game’s potential to support dialogue across diverse stakeholder groups. [...]

(The full report is available here.)

Technical Details

The game we developed was mainly written in TypeScript on the Angular framework, with some R and JSON utilised to populate the game with real data, and an API written in PHP. The game codebase is publicly available on GitHub.