Panel on Mapping Cultural and Biological Diversity; April 5-7, New York, USA

The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History in New York will be hosting a symposium co-organized with Terralingua and the IUCN entitled "Sustaining Biological and Cultural Diversity in a Rapidly Changing World: Lessons for Global Policy". The symposium will be a combination of invited presentations, panel discussions, posters, workshops, and informal discussion tables. For more information visit http://symposia.cbc.amnh.org/biocultural/

Remote Sensing and GIS Conference, May 5 - 6, 2008, Kupang, Indonesia

As part of Charles Darwin Universities AUSAID funded Public Service Linkages Program a GIS and Remote sensing Conference will be held at Nusa Cendana University in Kupang 5-6 May.
The conference will act as a forum to discuss the following: (i) current applications, projects and research in NTT using remote sensing and GIS technology; (ii) the development of formal and informal data and skill sharing networks; (iii) protocols for collecting and archiving data. A provincial wide conference is very important at this time when a range of regional initiatives are being developed to support good governance through data collection, archiving and analysis. The effecting sharing of capacity and aspirations within NTT will assist in the development of a coordinated approach in the development of spatial planning.
This is an advanced notice and call for presentations. It is proposed that presentations from the conference be published as proceedings. The organisers have currently identified the following broad topics:

• Critical land assessment in the Assesa catchment in Ngada
• Fire mapping and monitoring in Sumba
• Deforestation monitoring in Timor
• GIS for land capability assessment – development planning
• GIS for analysis of health and education data
• Community GIS and Participatory 3D Modeling (P3DM).
• Standards for data collection and storage
• Arrangements for data sharing
• Accuracy assessment

For further information you may contact: Dr. Marthen R. Pellokila (UNDANA) Email: rpellokila[at]yahoo.com and Rohan Fisher (CDU) Email: cycadmedia[at]bigpond.com

Participatory 3D modelling applied also in the Sagarmatha National Park and World Heritage Site, Nepal.

A Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) exercise was carried last December 2007 in the Sagarmatha National Park (SNP) and World Heritage Site, Nepal in the framework of the Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalaya (HKKH) Partnership Project. The 3D model, now located at the park entrance gate in Monjo has been constructed by 21 representatives from a wide cross section of the communities in the park (source: Menris ICIMOD)

New Social Cartography Project of the Amazon - Self-cartographing of people and tradicional communities

The associated interests of woodcutters, cattle farmers and mineral enterprises have increased the rate of deforestation and contamination of rivers, and they seriously damage the forms of social organization and the modes of production of indians, marrons and other agents who depend on land and water resources in Amazonia. The actions intented to reduce the pressure on wooden species have been very ineffective. Under the effect of world market, iron and steel production increases the exploitation of coal made from trees. The forests are on the aim of many woodcutting companies and illegal charcoal mines, what increases the destruction of wood resources, and this causes impacts on rivers and igarapés (the small rivers common in the Amazon). Soy cultivation conquers more land and expands quickly according to the dynamics of the commodities market. Those projects have a very intense predatory component and they follow the logics of general price raising of commodities as fresh meat, soy, paper and cellulose, pig iron, cast iron and wood. The growing-up of these businesses is helped, simultaneously, by huge projects directed to cattle breeding, soy cultivation, dendê cultivation (a tree with fruits containing a vegetable oil, which is intensely used in the industry), eucalyptus cultivation, wood exploitation, besides many mining and metalurgical activities, provocating a massive destruction in the Amazon. The State-builded infrastructure in order to support those projects (docks, roads, hydroelectric plants, rocket launch sites) affects in the same way the inhabitants of the area, in addition to this we have the so-called areas of environmental protection that make the access to territories and their resources more restricted. The New Social Cartography Project of the Amazon (PNCSA) – executed by UFAM, UNAMAZ, CNPQ, FORD FOUNDATION and many political organizations representing social agents – proposes to elaborate a series of fascicles which show phenomena and make it possible to produce a critical review of the social, economical and ecological situation in the experience of social agents.
Cartographing research practices and self-cartographing help the affected social agents (marrons, indians, small farmers, settlers, fishermen, artisans, coal miners) to appropriate the results of these techniques and to guide their action of social and environmental changing. The meaning of affronting economical, environmental and political interventions that may interfere harmly on the life conditions, social and physical reproduction shows up the content of many actions.
The elaboration of the fascicles, the discussions and correlated activities (researching, identifying, codifying, mapping, cartographing) correspond to the positions and interests of the agents who formulate these activities and all this results in an appropriation of knowledge by those who produced it.

Project coordinators: Alfredo Wagner Berno de Almeida (Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, Brazil) and Rosa E. Acevedo Marin (Universidade Federal do Pará, Núcleo de Altos Estudos Amazônicos, Belém, Brazil)

Volunteered geographic information

In recent months there has been an explosion of interest in using the Web to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic information provided voluntarily by individuals. Sites such as Wikimapia and OpenStreetMap are empowering citizens to create a global patchwork of geographic information, while Google Earth and other virtual globes are encouraging volunteers to develop interesting applications using their own data. In an article (Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography) recently published on GeoJournal (November 2007) Michael F. Goodchild reviews this phenomenon, and examines associated issues: what drives people to do this, how accurate are the results, will they threaten individual privacy, and how can they augment more conventional sources? He compares this new phenomenon to more traditional citizen science and the role of the amateur in geographic observation.

Reference: Goodchild MF (2007). Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography. GeoJournal (DOI 10.1007/s10708-007-9111-y)

Position paper presented by Dr. Goodchild at the Workshop on Volunteered Geographic Information, December 13-14, 2007, Santa Barbara, California, USA

All papers presented at the workshop are available via this link

Dr. Nigel Crawhall, director of the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC) thoughts about P3DM

Dr Nigel Crawhall, director of the Indigenous People of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC) shares his thoughts after the completion of a Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) exercise which took place among Ogiek Peoples in Nessuit, Kenya in August 2006.

Locating Participatory 3D Models on Earth

I have created an interactive world map working both on Google Maps and Google Earth displayng georeferenced P3DM exercises. You can now use P3DM Where? to locate Participatory 3D Models worldwide.



View Larger Map

Participatory Geographic Information Systems: More than maps

At the Annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology on March 25 - 29, 2008, Memphis Marriott, USA, there will be a session relating the practice of PGIS and applied anthropology by the title: Participatory Geographic Information Systems: More than maps.
In their Call for Papers the session organisers wrote: "Most activities that we undertake, either as academics or practitioners, require producing tangible outputs as part of the work process. Outputs serve as metrics to evaluate progress and determine future direction. Mention of a Participatory Geographic Information System (PGIS) invariably elicits numerous requests to see the maps, and fewer questions regarding the process that went into their development. The "P" in PGIS has its roots in the development literature and in Participatory Rural Appraisal and Participatory Learning and Action in particular, which stress the importance of process. The relationship is not one way however, and in this session we would like to draw attention to the contributions that PGIS experiences offer to the larger development community. Our objective is to reflect on a variety of experiences with PGIS and focus the discussion on positive externalities and the intangible benefits that arise through process."

The theme for the Annual Meeri is The Public Sphere and Engaged Scholarship: Opportunities and Challenges for Applied Anthropology. The full description can be found at http://www.sfaa.net/sfaa2008.html .

Conflict and Natural Resources Book Recommendations

Here is an interesting selection on books connecting conflict (violent or otherwise), natural resources, and globalization/development.

Participatory GIS — a people's GIS?

In a recently published paper Christine Dunn argues that recent years have witnessed a burgeoning of applications of GIS which grant legitimacy to indigenous geographical knowledge as well as to `official' spatial data. By incorporating various forms of community participation these newer framings of Geographical Information Systems as `Participatory GIS' (PGIS) offer a response to the critiques of GIS which were prevalent in the 1990s. This paper reviews PGIS in the context of the `democratization of GIS'. It explores aspects of the control and ownership of geographical information, representations of local and indigenous knowledge, scale and scaling up, web-based approaches and some potential future technical and academic directions.

World Summit Award 2007 - Report Back on the session on e-Culture

The session on e-Culture took place at the World Summit Award Winners' Conference in Venice, Italy on 3 November 2007 and included the presentation on the award winning product "Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) for Resource Use, Development Planning and Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Fiji".

This short video documents the feedback on the session provided by the rapporteur, Dr. Paul Hoffert, Chairperson of Bell Cabada Fund, Canada and Fellow at the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society, Harvard University, USA.



Other sessions of the WSA 2007 Winners' Conference covered the following categories: e-Entertainment, e-Inclusiveness, e-Governance, e-Science, e-Business, e-Health and e-Learning.

Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) receiving the 2007 World Summit Award in the category e-culture

On November 5, 2007 at a ceremony which took place during the Global Forum 2007 at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Italy, the CTA-supported project Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) for Resource Use, Development Planning and Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Fiji was given the World Summit Award 2007 in the category e-culture. The product has been considered as one of the 40 best practice examples of quality e-Content in the world. The project has been jointly implemented by the following organisation: Fiji Locally-Managed Marine Area (FLMMA) Network, WWF South Pacific Programme, Native Lands Trust Board, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, National Trust of Fiji, Lomaiviti Provincial Council and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA).

Participatory 3D Modelling in Fiji for Safeguarding Cultural Heritage and Natural Resources

In 2005 a Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) exercise took place in Levuka, Ovalau Island. The exercise has been made possible by the coordinated effort of the Fiji Locally-Managed Marine Area (FLMMA) Network, the WWF South Pacific Programme (WWF-SPP), the Technical Centre for Agricultural & Rural Cooperation (CTA), the Native Lands Trust Board (NLTB), the National Trust of Fiji, the Development of Sustainable Agriculture in the Pacific (SPC-DSAP) Project and the Lomaiviti Provincial Council of the Ministry of Fijian Affairs and Provincial Development.

The PGIS exercise resulted in the production of an island wide management plan addressing both cultural heritage and natural resources management issues. Based on the analysis done using the 3D model as reference, Tikinas (districts) have now produced and implemented their district-wide management plans.

The 2 min video illustrates the process and is nurtured by the fantastic voices of the inhabitants of Ovalau Island.

The World Summit Award has announced the Winners of 2007

The World Summit Award Grand Jury 2007 met on the island of Brijuni from 1-7 September 2007 bringing together eminent multimedia and e-Content experts from 32 countries. The Jury evaluated 650 entries which were nominated from 160 countries to the Global World Summit Award (WSA). The Jury selected the five most outstanding products in each of the eight WSA Categories as Winners.

Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) for Resource Use, Development Planning and Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Fiji has been proclaimed as one of the five the winner for the e-culture category.

Preserving and presenting tangible and intangible cultural heritage in line with the challenges of the future; demonstrating valuable cultural assets clearly and informatively using state-of-the-art technology.

Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) integrates people’s knowledge and spatial information (contour lines) to produce stand-alone scale relief models that have proved to be user-friendly and relatively accurate data storage and analysis devices and at the same time excellent communication media.

P3DM works best when used jointly with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in a Participatory GIS (PGIS) context.

PGIS is the result of a spontaneous merger of Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) methods with Geographic Information Technologies and Systems (GIT&S) to compose peoples’ spatial knowledge in the forms of virtual or physical, 2 or 3 dimensional maps used as interactive vehicles for discussion, information exchange, analysis and as support in advocacy, decision making and action taking. PGIS practice is usually geared towards community empowerment through measured, demand-driven, user-friendly and integrated applications of GIT&S, where maps become a major conduit in the process.

The project objective was to support community based biodiversity conservation for ensuring food security and sustainable livelihoods.

Whilst PGIS started in the late 1980s it has become much refined and more accessible due to the decrease in cost of soft and hardware. The deployment of this product and its adaptation to the Fijian context has been strongly appreciated by the local communities and other stakeholders involved in the process, which resulted in the development and adoption of community-based natural and cultural resources management plans.

The exercise has been made possible by the coordinated effort of the following organisations: WWF South Pacific Programme (WWF-SPP), Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Native Lands Trust Board (NLTB), Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), National Trust of Fiji, and the Lomaiviti Provincial Council of the Ministry of Fijian Affairs and Provincial Development.

Recommended readings:

• Process documentation
• Resource Use, Development Planning, and Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Fiji

Multilingual CD Rom: Mapping for Change: practice, technologies and communication

Published by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Participatory Learning and Action is the world's leading informal journal on participatory approaches and methods. It is published 2-3 times a year and includes articles of both general and thematic interest. PLA draws on the expertise of guest editors and authors, providing timely accounts and critical analysis about participatory development in specific fields. All articles are peer reviewed by an International Editorial Board, and the series particularly welcome contributions from practitioners in the South.
The Participatory Mapping for Change CD-ROM is an exciting multi-lingual project available from the Participatory Learning and Action series.

Co-published by IIED and CTA, the CD-ROM contains PDF versions of the theme articles from Participatory Learning and Action 54: Mapping for change: practice, technologies and communication, in the following languages: Arabic, Bangla, Chinese (traditional and simplified), English, French, Hindi, Persian-Dari, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil. http://www.iied.org/NR/agbioliv/pla_notes/pla_54_CDRom.html It also includes other key resources (mainly in English) – all presented in an easy-to-use format: (i) a glossary of terms; (ii) practical ethics for PGIS practitioners and researchers; (iii) the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, (iv) the UNESCO Convention Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage; (v) an overview of experiences from the International Land Coalition (ILC) network; (vi) links to online resources; (vii) a video reportage on the 2005 Mapping for Change conference in Nairobi; (vii) a 20 min video on Participatory 3D Modelling, and (viii) past articles which have appeared in PLA and which are relevant to the theme.

Copies of the CD are available from Earthprint Ltd, priced US$40 plus postage and packaging, or free on request to customers from countries in the South.* To order, contact orders@earthprint.co.uk or visit http://www.earthprint.com/

Alternatively, subscribe to the series and receive a free copy with your first issue.

How to subscribe

To subscribe, contact Participatory Learning and Action subscriptions, Research Information Limited, Grenville Court, Britwell Road, Burnham, Bucks, SL1 8DF, UK. Tel: +44 1628 600499; Fax: +44 1628 600488; Email: info@researchinformation.co.uk

Subscriptions are available both online and in hard copy. Subscriptions are free to individuals and organisations from the South* and to community/voluntary groups from the North* with limited or no funding for resources. We ask individuals and organisations from the North (including those based in the South) to pay a modest subscription. This helps support the cost of free subscriptions in the South. For more information, including our current subscription rates, visit www.iied.org/NR/agbioliv/pla_notes/subscribe.html

Search the best web-based resources on PGIS, PPGIS and Community Mapping

A highly specialized Custom Search Engine reflecting knowledge and interests in Community Mapping, PGIS/PPGIS practice and science. Based ob Google-Coop technology it allows researchers and practitioners to freely collaborate in its development.

Funding opportunities for CBOs, NGOs and researchers

Excellent online resourse where to find updated funding opportunities (small grants and fellowships) for practitioners and researchers engaged in collaborative natural resource management, PGIS practice, Indigenous Knowledge Management and GIS science.

International Symposium on Digital Earth

The 5th International Symposium on Digital Earth (ISDE5) represents a rich convergence of technological innovators, active visionaries and local community activists who recognize the paramount need for humans to better understand the Earth. June 7th is a Day Dedicated to Indigenous Peoples and Communities using Digital Earth. Google Earth's Michael Jones will keynote on June 5 and Rebecca Moore will highlight several Google Earth projects on the environment and human rights as well.

Canada's New Government Provides Free Online Accessto Digital Mapping Data

OTTAWA - Experts and other users of digital topographic data will no longer have to pay to use digital versions of government maps and data. The Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources, today announced that as of April 1, 2007, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) began making its electronic topographic mapping data available to all users free of charge over the Internet. More information on this topic is found here.

Establishment of the GeoEye Foundation (potential source for acquiring satellite imagery for research)

GeoEye (provider of satellite imagery (ikonos, GeoEye-1..) announced on March 28th the establishment of the GeoEye Foundation. This foundation will provide IKONOS and eventually GeoEye-1 satellite imagery to select universities at no cost, to help foster the growth of a next generation of geospatial technology professionals. A university would submit a request for a grant of imagery, we will have an internal group of employees, the Foundation Employee Advisory Committee, that will evaluate such requests and make an award. We would then provide the imagery over precise areas of the earth at no cost to the requesting faculty, students or university.
The GeoEye Foundation has already begun providing satellite imagery to support students and faculty studying urban sprawl in Mexico, land-use planning for Jerusalem and a polar ice study in Antarctica to better understand the impact of climate change.