PPgis.net Blog: Day 5: Participatory Mapping and Community Empowerment for Climate Change Adaptation, Planning and Advocacy

25 May, 2012 HONIARA -The last day of the event participants split in six working groups depending on specific interests including provincial / national / regional lines. Using the logical framework approach, each group was assigned the task of developing a project profile which would allow their governing authorities to consider integrating PGIS/P3DM activities in their broader project / programme interventions.

Each group nominated a chair and a rapporteur. Brainstorming lasted for the whole morning. Each group reported back to plenary in the afternoon.

The first group to present was composed by Solomon Islands representatives of government institutions (e.g. Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM), Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) and national NGOs. Their project proposal focused on developing a series of P3D Models in environmentally sensitive areas on Savo Island. The group considered P3DM as a tool for raising awareness among communities about climate risks and for enhancing community resilience to vulnerability. The project would involve the 10 main villages of the island and be implemented under the supervision of the Ministry of Environment.

The Caribbean working group presented a 2-3 year project having regional ramifications. Its main objective being increased engagement of stakeholders to adopt Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to influence climate change adaptation policy processes in the Caribbean region. To achieve that, the group presented a series of well-coordinated and sequenced activities stating with a stakeholder analysis, going through the participatory mapping of the entire island of Tobago at 1:10,000 scale and culminating with the sharing of lessons learned at regional and international fora. Capacity building of local and regional stakeholders and actors in the use of PGIS and Web 2.0 applications characterises the proposal. Main implementers would be CANARI, UWI and TNC Caribbean and their partner organisations. Follow-up activities were already included in the proposal. These accounted for Initiating next P3DM in the Caribbean in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada (TNC, At Waters Edge - Climate Change Resilience Demonstration Sites Grenada/SVG; Grenadines Marine Zoning (Spatial Planning) Project; and Union Island SVG, Wobun Clarke Court Bay MPA in Grenada)

Representatives from the Integration of Climate Change Risk and Resilience into Forestry Management, Samoa (ICCRIFS) project focussed their action plan on the adoption of P3DM for integrating climate change risks and resilience into forestry management and conservation strategies. With the principal objective of increasing awareness of rural communities in participating in sustainable faming and water conservation practices, the P3D Model would be employed as a tool to best plan natural resource management activities and increase communities participation. The selected pilot area to be covered by the P3D Model at 1:10,000 scale would be of 9 km X 5 km.

The working group covering the Choiseul Province included representatives from a range of agencies (Local communities, the provincial government, UNDP, SPREP, TNC, etc. ). Tim Carruthers Coastal and Marine Adviser at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) reported back on behalf of the working group stressing the need for the various agencies active in the province to thoroughly coordinate and to assist the provincial government in the task.

Considering the daunting task of producing a 1-10000/1:15000 scale model of the province which is approximately 200 km in lengths the working group proposed to consider dealing with hot spots on a case to case basis. The discussion following Tim’s presentation pointed in the direction of manufacturing a 3D model at a 1:50 000 scale for permanent display and use for coordination and monitoring purposes. Such a model would be in permanent display and ready for use during region-level meetings and would help in spatial decision making and for monitoring on-going projects thus supporting overall coordination of projects / programmes and other economic activities including logging and mining concessions. Information displayed on the 3D model would be linked to a GIS data repository.

In the frame of the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC), representatives from Palau expressed their interest in using P3DM practice to increase community resilience and elaborate guidelines to enhance food security in the country. Also in this case, the model would serve as a visual aid to help communities in long-term planning. The presenter, Ms. Madelsar Ngiraingas, stated that her team would like to carry out the first pilot project within the 3rd quarter of 2012 and follow up with the remaining fifteen states (until 1984 called municipalities) in Palau.

Mr. Jone Waka working for the the Ministry of Agriculture in Fiji and attached to the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) project, presented on behalf of the Fiji Working including also representatives from the Secretariat of the Pacific Commission (SPC). In his presentation Jone stated the interest of his agency to increasingly involve ordinary citizen in decision making / planning and management processes concerning existing drainage systems recently heavily affected by torrential rains. Through his participation in the workshop he understood that P3DM can be the channel through which such participation could be achieved.

After the presentations delivered by the various working groups, Mr. Giacomo Rambaldi facilitated the continuation of the exercise “hopes and fears” though which participants set the expectations on day 1. By the use of a matrix and stickers participants were asked to score if their hopes had materialised and their fears been addressed. The outcome of the exercise indicated that most hopes materialised and fears fully or partially overcame.

As the sun was closing towards the horizon, the workshop came to an end with special remarks by the organizers and the distribution of attendance certificates to participants.

As Giacomo remarked, the workshop was about to close, but the follow-up work had just begun for all participants! All would go back home with added knowledge and learning’s to share, with concrete action plans to present to their organizations and with a new gained enthusiasm for mainstreaming PGIS/P3DM within their own projects.

Finally the organisers had a short brainstorming in view of delivering the 3D model to the community in Naro.

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