PULS scientists as project partners in “Forests Dilemmas: Game-Based Scenarios for Environmental Awareness”
On 24–25 March 2026, the Warsaw University of Life Sciences hosted the inaugural meeting of the international project “Forests Dilemmas: Game-Based Scenarios for Environmental Awareness”, funded by the Visegrad Fund. Representatives from the Poznań University of Life Sciences (PULS) are actively involved in the project – Dr Klaudia Ziemblińska, from the Department of Civil Engineering and Geotechnical Engineering (Faculty of Environmental and Mechanical Engineering) and Dr Adam Choryński from the Department of Green Spaces and Landscape Architecture (Faculty of Agriculture, Horticulture and Biotechnology).
The project aims to develop innovative, interactive educational scenarios in the form of games that will provide a better understanding of the complexities of forest ecosystem management. Participants – both students and the general public – will be able to make decisions regarding forest management and observe their long-term consequences for the environment, the economy and society. The project addresses the growing need to communicate scientific knowledge more effectively and to counteract simplistic narratives concerning the conservation and use of forests. It’s about understanding complex trade-offs, boosting environmental awareness, and-most importantly-learning through play.
The project consortium comprises academic and research institutions from Central and Eastern Europe, including universities from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This broadly-based cooperation ensures that a wide range of environmental, social and economic conditions can be taken into account, as well as experiences relating to, amongst other things, climate change, pest infestations and the effects of extreme weather events.
During the kick-off workshop, participants focused on developing a shared concept for decision-making scenarios, which will form the basis of the game being designed. The activities covered, amongst other things, developing the structure of the scenarios, identifying key issues (such as timber harvesting, biodiversity conservation and responses to ecosystem disturbances), and initial creative sessions related to game design. The meeting also provided an opportunity for team-building and strategic planning, enabling the partners to lay the foundations for their collaboration.
The input of the PULS team focuses on providing data and insight into the functioning of forest ecosystems in the context of climate change and increasing anthropogenic pressure. The PULS team brings to the project unique expertise based on many years of measuring carbon and water exchange in forest ecosystems and managing risk in socio-ecological systems. These capabilities will enable a better representation of the effects of management decisions in the modelled scenarios.
The project will run until September 2027 and aims to develop a set of decision-making scenarios, game design documentation and teaching materials that can be used in academic education and initiatives to raise public awareness of environmental issues. In subsequent phases, there are also plans to develop the project into a fully-fledged educational game.
Project updates will be posted regularly at the following social media profile: https://www.facebook.com/Forests.Dilemmas
News footage from the inaugural meeting can be viewed on the SGGW YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVInmiHS0dw
Faculty of Agriculture, Horticulture and Biotechnology
