Letter: The goal at the core of Monopoly New Forest could be to protect and conserve rather than acquire and profit

SIR – I read the article about plans for a New Forest Monopoly game (A&T, 12th August) with mixed feelings.

Although it’s great to know that people appreciate the Forest, the concept of the original Monopoly game, which hinges around acquisition and ownership, is an uncomfortable one when applied to an area valued for very different reasons.

So I have written to the address supplied in the article asking if the team developing the game would consider adapting it to support us in meeting the many challenges we face in encouraging our own species to value the natural world at the same time as protecting the precious habitat of many others.

It seems to me that if the goal at the core of the game was to learn, protect and conserve rather than acquire and profit, it could be equally successful and a great deal more informative.

Perhaps the playing pieces could be stakeholders such as agisters, commoners, cyclists, walkers, residents etc and the chance cards could help them to choose how to behave wherever they land, for example near ground-nesting birds or where a drift is taking place.

There are many other examples that would reflect what the Forest has to offer, so there is plenty of scope for learning using incentives and penalties in a similar way to the original game.

You could even offer the chance to build affordable homes in the villages on the board or set up alternative grazing schemes for young commoners!

I’ve never designed a game, so I imagine this might appear a rather naive approach. But wouldn’t it be fantastic to take this opportunity to prove that we would like not only to open up the magic of the natural world to people both young and old but also to promote a better understanding of real life here in the New Forest?

I’m wondering if anyone else had a similar idea or would like to build upon this one?

The email address supplied for submitting ideas was newforest@winningmoves.co.uk

Mel Newman,

Brockenhurst