NEXTOPIA Gaming App: Turning Everyday Play into Conservation Finance

What if a few minutes on your phone, between shopping, commuting, or waiting for coffee, could help restore a mangrove forest? 

For most people, financing nature still feels distant, technical, or reserved for governments and donors. The NEXTOPIA Gaming App, launched in Thailand, changes that dynamic by embedding biodiversity finance into everyday urban life, transforming casual gameplay into real, measurable funding for conservation. 

How It Works: From Gameplay to Green Impact 

For users, the experience is simple. They open the NEXTOPIA Gaming App through the OneSiam Super App, play short games, and earn digital points. What happens next is where innovation comes in. 

Behind the scenes, those points are converted into real financial contributions that support biodiversity conservation projects. Users can also choose to increase their impact through QR-code donations or credit-card transfers, making participation flexible, voluntary, and seamless. 

Rather than asking people to change their habits, NEXTOPIA integrates conservation into routines they already have. It turns moments of leisure into moments of impact without technical jargon or complex financial mechanisms. 

“UNDP BIOFIN Thailand and Siam Piwat make sustainability a part of daily life. NEXTOPIA acts as a hub for changemakers, innovators, and eco-conscious individuals, inspiring millions of people to act for a better future,” says Irina Goryunova, Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP Thailand. 

The NEXTOPIA flagship project of Siam Paragon Shopping features the OneSiam Super App, a partnership of UNDP BIOFIN with Siam Piwat and Krungthai Bank, empowering mallgoers to finance Phetchaburi’s biodiversity with simple token donations.

Bringing Conservation into the Heart of the City 

NEXTOPIA is not a standalone app; it is deeply connected to Siam Paragon, one of Thailand’s most-visited urban spaces. Every year, the mall welcomes around 10 million visitors. By integrating NEXTOPIA into its digital ecosystem, Siam Paragon transforms foot traffic and online engagement into a powerful force for environmental action. 

This connection bridges theory and reality. Visitors who come to shop, dine, or meet friends are simultaneously invited into a broader story, one in which urban lifestyle directly contributes to the protection of coastal ecosystems hundreds of kilometers away. 

“Siam Piwat Group truly values impact investment and strives to create ‘NEXTOPIA’ – a world built on innovation, sustainability, and a brighter future. Together with the ‘Friends of NEXTOPIA,’ we are co-creating this vision to positively contribute to preserving our nature and environment,” says Dr. Singh Intrachooto, Chief Sustainability Advisor, Siam Piwat Group. 

NEXTOPIA leverages Thailand's tax incentives. Channeling crowdfunding through the RSPG and Mrigadayavan Palace Foundations makes e-donations tax-deductible. This turns casual in-game giving into a fiscally attractive mechanism, amplifying private conservation finance.

What Is Achieved: Scale, Access, and New Audiences 

The strength of the NEXTOPIA model lies in scale. Urban digital ecosystems already connect millions of people every day. By embedding conservation finance into these systems, NEXTOPIA reaches far beyond traditional environmental audiences. 

Small, repeated actions, played across thousands of users, begin to accumulate a steady flow of funding for nature. Conservation becomes less about one-off donations and more about consistent, accessible participation. 

This approach also helps normalize biodiversity finance, positioning it as part of daily life rather than a specialized or elite activity. 

From Digital Actions to On-the-Ground Results 

Funds mobilized through the NEXTOPIA Gaming App are channeled into concrete conservation actions in Phetchaburi Province. These include restoring natural coastal ecosystems near the historic Mrigadayavan Palace, removing hard coastal infrastructure to allow ecosystems to recover, and strengthening local stewardship of mangrove landscapes. 

The result is a direct and transparent link between urban engagement and rural conservation—connecting people who may never visit these ecosystems to their protection and long-term resilience. 

Our Biodiversity Finance Plan turns digital engagement into real ecological benefits for nature, made possible through private capital from Krungthai Bank and Siam Piwat," says Niran Nirannoot, Environmental Finance Specialist for Africa and Asia Region, UNDP BIOFIN.  

NEXTOPIA is the first UNDP BIOFIN initiative merging a private gamified platform with a sub-national biodiversity finance plan. It’s inspired by two BIOFIN Philippines models: Animal Town (awareness) and GCash GForest (digital transactions yielding real outcomes).

Partnerships Powering the Model 

NEXTOPIA Gaming is implemented through a partnership between the UNDP Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), Krungthai Bank, and Siam Piwat, combining international expertise, financial infrastructure, and private sector innovation. 

Krungthai Bank supports the platform by enabling secure QR-code donations and credit-card transfers, ensuring that financial contributions are accessible and transparent. Siam Piwat, the developer and operator of Siam Paragon, invested approximately US$20.6 million in the initiative, covering app development and a large-scale promotional campaign. 

From Thailand to the World: A Global Biodiversity Finance Message 

The relevance of NEXTOPIA extends beyond Thailand. In an exclusive interview with NEXTOPIA, Onno van den Heuvel, UNDP’s Head of Finance for Planet Pillar, reflects on how innovative financing models like NEXTOPIA are reshaping the global approach to funding biodiversity conservation. 

Onno van den Heuvel, UNDP’s Head of Finance for Planet Pillar shares insights on Biodiversity Finance in Thailand and the global approach to financing nature during his interview with NEXTOPIA.  

The interview explores Thailand’s experience within a wider international context, demonstrating how consumer technologies and private-sector platforms can help close the global biodiversity finance gap. The feature is set to be showcased across multiple international platforms, amplifying lessons from Thailand for a global audience. 

A Flagship Model for Financing Nature 

NEXTOPIA Gaming illustrates how private-sector platforms and consumer technologies can mobilize new resources for nature by meeting people where they already are—shopping, playing, and interacting digitally. 

As a flagship project of Siam Paragon, NEXTOPIA shows that biodiversity finance does not have to remain abstract or distant. With just a few taps on a smartphone, urban citizens can play an active role in safeguarding Thailand’s ecosystems, turning entertainment into lasting environmental impact.