Combining Traditional Knowledge and Technology for Community led Climate Change Adaptation

21 May 2012, HONIARA. Pacific Islanders will now have a greater voice in climate change decision making and a more direct input in adapting their communities to climate change using a combination of traditional knowledge and technology. This will be made possible through the week-long awareness raising and planning workshop on Participatory Mapping and Community Empowerment for Climate Change Policy Making that started in Honiara today.

Organised jointly by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Partners With Melanesians (PwM), the workshop aims to promote the adoption of innovative Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools and approaches to help address development challenges.

Around 80 participants, including community leaders, representatives from non government organisations (NGOs), community based organisations, regional, national and local bodies as well as researchers and technical experts will attend the workshop at the Kitano Mendana Hotel in Honiara.

Participatory three-dimensional modeling (P3DM) is a community based mapping method that used local knowledge with scientific data like the elevation of the land and depth of the sea to produce stand-alone, scaled and geo-referenced relief models.

This method, integrated with more sophisticated tools can enhance resilience to climate change by adding value to traditional knowledge and promoting its integration in adaptation planning and advocacy processes.

“The combination of traditional and scientific knowledge not only allows farmers and fishers in Small Island Developing States to have voice in climate change decision-making but can also ensure the implementation of more effective adaptation strategies,” said Giacomo Rambaldi, Senior Programme Coordinator of CTA.

During the workshop, expert presenters and facilitators working in the region will share case studies and lessons learned and discuss the benefits, challenges, and ethical considerations involved in the process. Representatives from Mboemboe village in Choiseul Province (who have already been through the process of manufacturing a coastal P3DM and used it for planning purposes),  will share their experience at the workshop.

Local community members from Honiara will be engaged in the construction of a mini-model. While students will take care of the physical construction, elders will populate the model with spatial data drawn from memory. Participants in the main session will be given the opportunity to interface with the parallel session and get a hands-on experience of P3DM.

The workshop concludes on 26th May.

More information on the event are available here.

An initiative supported by:

New Tools in Mapping for Disasters and Development

“New Tools in Mapping for Disasters and Development” was co-hosted by InterAction’s NGO Aid Map Team and the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery in partnership with the World Bank Institute, Sustainable Development Network Information Solutions (SDNIS) – the information technology (IT) unit at the World Bank, and the World Bank Civil Society Team.



This unique event featured hands-on demonstrations and provide training to participants of the free and open tools currently available. In addition, real-world examples of interventions that have successfully incorporated mapping were presented.  Presenters showcased case studies of mapping tools and technologies, introduced some of the most popular geo tools, discussed free sources of open geo data.

For more information click here.

Association Okani Participatory Mapping Video, Cameroon

This participatory video produced by Association Okani shows the impacts of illegal logging on forest peoples' customary use of resources in Cameroon.

Source: http://www.forestpeoples.org

Hawaii Pacific GIS Conference 2012: Participatory and Place-Based GIS - Using Participatory Mapping Techniques to Characterize Coastal Uses in West Maui

View more presentations from Hawaii Geographic Information Coordinating Council

Participatory 3D Modelling of Manus Island, PNG

Participatory 3D modelling (P3DM) activity supported by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and partners in 2011 in PNG to help residents of Manus Island map out the terrestrial, coastal and marine resources and to  plan for adapting to potential impacts due to climate change.

Source: TNC

Fair water sharing: from Storytelling to Community Mapping in Egypt

TheWaterChannel

This video explains the steps towards a successful PPGIS practice: visit the pilot area, get to know movers/shakers, filling the ppgis invitation, identify core stakeholder group, build relationships, etc. Footage from ppgis workshops is shown.

The Sacred Natural Sites Initiative launches its new website

Emerging out of 13 years of work of the IUCN Specialist Group on the Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas, the Sacred Natural Sites Initiative builds an alliance of custodians, traditional knowledge holders, conservationists, academics and others in support of the conservation and revitalization of sacred natural sites and territories. The initiative is guided by custodians and advisors from different professions and walks of life. As a basis for guiding its development, they make use of a preliminary action plan.

Leading up to the action plan was the development of the IUCN UNESCO Sacred Natural Sites – Guidelines for Protected Area Managers and the book Sacred Natural Sites: Conserving Nature and Culture, edited by Bas Verschuuren, Robert Wild, Jeffrey McNeely and Gonzalo Oviedo and launched at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October 2010.

Feedback from a Participatory 3D Modelling exercise representing the Abongo-Mitsogho cultural landscape of the Ikobey Commune and Waka National Park

As part of a region-wide effort aimed at involving local communities in the sustainable management of natural resources in the Congo Basin and at adding value and authority to local and indigenous knowledge and values and at ensuring equitable benefit sharing resulting from co-managed protected areas, the Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux (ANPN), Brainforest, CTA, IPACC, MINAPYGA, Rainforest Foundation UK, and the Wildlife Conservation Society-Gabon (WCS) supported a series of initiatives in the area including the participatory 3D modelling exercise described in this report.


While responding to needs expressed by local communities and by the park administration, the exercise offered the opportunity for training delegates from national and regional organisations based in Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Download the full report of the activity: English | Français

Aerial Photography and Image Interpretation - third edition published

Extensively revised to address today's technological advances, Aerial Photography and Image Interpretation, Third Edition offers a thorough survey of the technology, techniques, processes, and methods used to create and interpret aerial photographs.

The new edition also covers other forms of remote sensing with topics that include the most current information on orthophotography (including digital), soft copy photogrammetry, digital image capture and interpretation, GPS, GIS, small format aerial photography, statistical analysis and thematic mapping errors, and more.

A basic introduction is also given to nonphotographic and space-based imaging platforms and sensors, including Landsat, lidar, thermal, and multispectral.

This new Third Edition features:

• Additional coverage of the specialized camera equipment used in aerial photography 
• A strong focus on aerial photography and image interpretation, allowing for a much more thorough presentation of the techniques, processes, and methods than is possible in the broader remote sensing texts currently available Straightforward, user-friendly writing style 
•  Expanded coverage of digital photography 
•  Test questions and summaries for quick review at the end of each chapter 

Written in a straightforward style supplemented with hundreds of photographs and illustrations, Aerial Photography and Image Interpretation, Third Edition is the most in-depth resource for undergraduate students and professionals in such fields as forestry, geography, environmental science, archaeology, resource management, surveying, civil and environmental engineering, natural resources, and agriculture.

Also available in Kindle edition

Authors:

The late David P. Paine was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management at Oregon State University.

James D. Kiser is an Assistant Professor and Head Undergraduate Advisor in the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.??He is also a Certified Photogrammetrist.

Chorotegas: Dignidad Indígena

El Pueblo Indígena Chorotega del norte de Nicaragua, reclama sus derechos a las tierras ancestrales y reivindican su cultura

Landscape, Process and Power: Re-evaluating Traditional Environmental Knowledge

Landscape, Process and Power (now available in paperback edition)“…presents an excellent overview of the study of traditional environmental knowledge (TEK)and the directions in which it has evolved in recent years…Individually but especially together, the contributors of this volume do a fine job at providing a contextualized and fluid understanding of TEK…I have no hesitation in recommending this volume not only to anyone wishing to catch up on recent developments in TEK research, but also as a useful teaching resource in a range of anthropology courses.”  JRAI

“This volume succeeds in its purpose to dislodge enduring western notions of TEK [traditional environmental knowledge] as static and to firmly center it within an analytical framework of landscape, process, and power…The critical perspectives of the authors of this book would prompt lively discussion in the classroom, and the books grounding in ethnographic detail and applications are of interest to both research academics and practitioners.”  Ethnobiology Letters

In recent years, the field of study variously called local, indigenous or traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) has experienced a crisis brought about by the questioning of some of its basic assumptions. This has included reassessing notions that scientific methods can accurately elicit and describe TEK or that incorporating it into development projects will improve the physical, social or economic well-being of marginalized peoples. The contributors to this volume argue that to accurately and appropriately describe TEK, the historical and political forces that have shaped it, as well as people’s day-to-day engagement with the landscape around them must be taken into account. TEK thus emerges, not as an easily translatable tool for development experts, but as a rich and complex element of contemporary lives that should be defined and managed by indigenous and local peoples themselves.

Serena Heckler received her Ph.D. in ethnobotany, environmental anthropology and sustainable development from Cornell University and is a research fellow at Durham University. She has lived and worked with the Wõthihã of the Venezuelan Amazon, studying the ways in which the market economy and demographic change have affected their environmental knowledge. She is currently undertaking participatory research on similar themes with the Shuar of Ecuador, in collaboration with the Intercultural University of Indigenous Peoples and Nations-Amawtay Wasi based in Quito, Ecuador.

Upcoming Google Mapping Technology Workshop in March Options

Last year, Google Earth Outreach partnered with the Institute at the Golden Gate to convene 80 environmental leaders spanning 40 organizations and train them how to use mapping technology to create powerful visual messages.

You can read more about that workshop in this blog post. The response to last year’s workshop was so overwhelming that the Institute at the Golden Gate has decided to host a second annual workshop.

This year, the Institute will bring back trained alumni and several Google mapping trainers from the Google Earth Outreach team to train a new cohort of environmental leaders.

The organisers encourage interested parties to apply for this free, for the two-day interactive training workshop.

What: Mapping Environmental Scenarios & Solutions with Google Technology
When: March 19 and 20, 2012, 8:30 am–5 pm
Where: Cavallo Point–the Lodge at the Golden Gate, Fort Baker, Sausalito, CA

To find out more and apply, visit http://sites.google.com/site/iggworkshop2012

The deadline for applications is February 17, 2012.

Source: The Google Earth Outreach Team
http://earth.google.com/outreach

Participatory mapping at CTA

Anne Legrosollard from Spore magazine interviews Giacomo Rambaldi, Sr. Programme Coordinator at CTA.

What is Participatory mapping?
What we support and promote at CTA goes beyond “making maps at community level”. We look at a practice dealing with generating, managing, analysing and communicating spatial information in a bottom-up mode. Mapmaking is considered as a step in a broader process leading to community empowerment by adding value and authority to local spatial knowledge.

How far can participatory mapping support decision-making ?
When it comes to accessing, using and / or managing natural resources, spatial dimensions always influence decision-making. Maps drawn in the sand on paper or on a computer screen are an accepted support to analysing spatially defined issues and getting the broader view which is essential in the process of making decisions. In addition maps are based on a visual language made of colours and symbols, thus are understandable also by illiterate people or less educated people.

What benefits can rural communities derive from the practice ?
The process leading to the production of maps is more important than the outputs themselves, as knowledge holders learn by doing. The process is quite motivating and often leads to stronger identity and cohesion among community members. On the top of that maps are powerful (and quite convincing) media which can be used to convey local concerns and aspirations to decision- and policy makers.

How do you ensure sustainability of the outcome of participatory mapping initiatives ?

Good practice recommends to perform participatory mapping activities only within the context of a long-lasting initiative having resources to continue beyond map-making. The map-making process raises the level of awareness among knowledge holders and with it their expectations and aspirations. It is a moral obligation of those accompanying the process to secure resources ensuring the continuation of the initiative to address new realities (positive and may be negative) which may emerge.

What should be done to prevent outsiders from appropriating themselves of the data generated during a participatory mapping exercise and to derive exclusive benefit from these ?
Good practice recommends that those assisting knowledge holders in the process are trusted intermediaries and that prior informed consent is obtained. Map making is a political process which can have positive or negative impacts. Drawing a line on a map may ignite conflict. How many wars have been fought over a line? Intermediaries facilitating map-making processes should be aware of these implication and operate at the highest ethical standards.  Being or not-being on a map is a trade-off. Nowadays if you are not on a map, you do not exist.

More information on what CTA does in the context of PGIS practice is found here: http://pgis.cta.int

NASA | Temperature Data: 1880-2011

The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880.The finding sustains a trend that has seen the 21st century experience nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record. NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York released an analysis of how temperatures around the globe in 2011 compared to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience higher temperatures than several decades ago. The average temperature around the globe in 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 C) higher than the mid-20th century baseline.

This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: ‪http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?3901

Participatory 3D Modelling - Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks, Uganda

In 2009 a group of Batwa representatives from Uganda travelled to Ogiek communities in Kenya to learn about their situation and the different advocacy strategies they were using. One of these strategies was the use of Participatory 3-Dimensional Modelling (P3DM), which helped the Ogiek engage Kenyan agencies on their rights to their ancestral territory, the Mau Forest. The Batwa walked away from this visit impressed by the simplicity of the P3DM technique and hopeful of replicating it in their own context.

Two years later in June 2011, the Batwa, with support from the ARCUS Foundation, began their own three-dimensional modelling of their ancestral territory, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.  More than 100 representatives from the Batwa communities surrounding Bwindi, including youth, elders, women and men attended the exercise over a three-week period.

Uganda's first Participatory Three-Dimensional Modelling Project was organised in 2011 in Kisoro by the Batwa, former hunter-gatherers who were evicted from two national parks 20 years ago.

More information:

1. http://goo.gl/2II2K
2. http://goo.gl/SlcKO
3. http://goo.gl/mMDjs
4. http://goo.gl/ZLExK
5. http://goo.gl/J0w7F

Mapping with Drupal: Navigating Complexities to Create Beautiful and Engaging Maps

Mapping with Drupal is a concise guide shows you how to create custom interactive maps from top to bottom, using Drupal 7 tools and out-of-the-box modules.

You’ll learn how mapping works in Drupal, with examples on how to use intuitive interfaces to map local events, businesses, groups, and other custom data.

Although building maps with Drupal can be tricky, this book helps you navigate the system’s complexities for creating sophisticated maps that match your site design.

• Get the knowledge and tools you need to build useful maps with Drupal today.
• Get up to speed on map projections, the ethics of making maps, and the challenges of building them online
• Learn how spatial data is stored, input by users, manipulated, and queried
• Use the OpenLayers or GMap modules to display maps with lists, tables, and data feeds
• Create rich, custom interactions by applying geolocation
• Customize your map’s look and feel with personalized markers, map tiles, and map popups
• Build modules that add imaginative and engaging interactions

Mapping with Drupal: Navigating Complexities to Create Beautiful and Engaging Maps

By Alan Palazzolo, Thomas Turnbull
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Release: December 2011

Climate Conversations - Combining traditional knowledge and climate science in Chad

Bouba Mal Yaya is a herdsman from the Fulani-Mbororo peoples in Chad. Along with his fellow herders, he had been expecting good grazing for his cattle this year but this has not been the case.

He is confused and frustrated. He had always been able to rely on his people’s age-old knowledge of their ecosystem to sustainably manage grazing. This traditional knowledge has been used by his people to develop strategies to cope with seasonal weather patterns and manage their meagre resources.

The community has typically looked to the elders for predictions on rainfall distribution, drought and other seasonal patterns. Now, it would appear that the reliability of their prediction is undermined by increasingly unpredictable weather and climate conditions. Their livelihoods and future as a culture are under threat.

The cause? Climate change.

Mbororo herders travel over great distances to graze their livestock. The impact of climate change has reduced the capacity of their traditional grazing lands with droughts and dwindling resources pushing them to herd their livestock further afield.

Some have lost their stock and have been forced to change their way of life, becoming semi-nomadic or sedentary. These lifestyle changes are not easy, and the pastoralists experience extreme hardship and loss of culture. The decreasing reliability of the elders’ predictions has had an impact on their trustworthiness within the community, further destabilising life for these people.

The situation is frustrating for everyone involved, especially considering that information which could help the pastoralists maintain their traditional way of life is already at hand. Climate change experts use modern monitoring and forecasting systems to generate a vast amount of information on past, present and future climate scenarios at international, regional and national scales.

The difficulty arises in communicating this information to grassroots level in a language that the people understand and that takes account of their traditional knowledge, prediction methods and existing local approaches to decision-making.

In a bid to adapt to the changing conditions and maintain their customary way of life, the Mbororo peoples are coming together with other pastoralists, meteorologists and African policy makers.

They share information relating to traditional and scientific knowledge and outline their needs. They also look at how to improve the exchange of data, knowledge and information needed to improve policy making to boost resilience to climate change at grassroots level.

Thanks to the contributions of the pastoralists, climate change experts are developing a greater understanding of traditional knowledge. This will enable them to package their information in a more manageable and user friendly way for the local community.

By making use of innovative information and communications technologies and participatory mapping techniques pastoralists hope to provide scientists with valuable insights into local weather and climate patterns and reporting on the impact of climate change. This essential data will enrich the information base available for research and analysis, ultimately developing more nuanced and locally accurate weather forecasts.

This data can then be used by the pastoralists to adapt as necessary to the changing conditions without having to abandon their way of life. Involving indigenous communities like the Mbororo in this process also paves the way for the creation of inclusive and more successful policy.

National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) for climate change will have greater value if they recognise the authoritative nature of traditional knowledge.

As part of this process, a meeting was hosted in November 2011 by the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC), the Association des Femmes Peules Autochtones du Tchad (AFPAT)  and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA). At the meeting, indigenous people’s representatives from Chad, Niger, Kenya, Namibia and South Africa gathered with meteorologists to discuss these concerns.

In particular, they looked at how traditional knowledge of pastoralism and atmospheric science can be combined to respond to climate change risks. Their findings reinforced the need for both groups to work together to share information, data and knowledge, tackling the climate change issue together.

In follow up to the meeting, a participatory mapping exercise will take place on the edge of Lake Chad in the spring of 2012. By coming together with the experts and policy makers to build a Participatory 3-D model (P3DM) of their land, the two communities aim to bridge the gap between traditional contributions to the understanding of climate change on a local scale and scientific approaches to the challenge involving everyone in this activity.

This is a first for the pastoralist and scientific community. Neither group can solve the climate change problem alone. Together they can make a lasting difference for science and for a traditional way of life.


Read more:

• Results of High Level Round Table on Pastoralism, Traditional Knowledge, Meteorology and Implementation of Policies of Climate Adaptation
• N’Djamena Declaration on Adaptation to Climate Change, indigenous Pastoralism, Traditional Knowledge and Meteorology in Africa

Participatory 3D Modelling in Chamkar Valley, Bumthang, Bhutan

BHUTAN, 10 October, 2011 - On the special request of Honorable Minister Dr. Pema Gyamtsho, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (MoAF), Bhutan, three staff members from MENRIS, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) visited Bhutan to organize a training workshop and built a Participatory 3D Model (P3DM) in joint collaboration of MoAF, Bhutan and ICIMOD's Mountain Environment and Natural Resource Information System (MENRIS) at Ugyen Brown Swiss Farm, Chamkhar Valley, Bumthang, Bhutan.

The workshop was officially started through a meeting which was held at Bumthang on 17 September, 2011. The meeting was chaired by the Honorable Minister and other attendants were Member of Parliament, Governor of Bumthang Zongkhak, Senior Leaders and Media persons. In the meeting, Minister highlighted the importance of P3DM for the development of Bumthang and he also briefed about the expectations from the model. Further, the location for the P3DM was also decided to build at Ugyen Brown Swiss Farm, which was near by the newly being constructed airport. In the meeting, on behalf of ICIMOD team Mr. Govinda Joshi gave presentation on about P3DM.

The workshop participants have been from different institutes, organizations and communities. All together there were 47 participants. However, there were maximum participants not more than 20 on a day. The background of participants ranges from students to officials to government representatives to local community people and so on. The coordination was very good hence the work progress was very much according to the schedule. After completing the P3DM closing a ceremony was held in presence of Bumthang Governor, senior leaders, local community, training participants, and media. During the closing ceremony Mr. Govinda Joshi gave a presentation highlighting the construction process of P3DM with outline of the training/workshop and acknowledgement for the support from participants.  There were also certificate distributed to the training/workshop participants who participated for the entire duration.  The P3DM was then formally handed over to the Governor of Bumthang Dzongkhak.

According to ICIMOD Participatory 3-dimensional modelling (P3DM) is gaining importance as a tool to understand geographical dimensions at a local level in support of community-based local level planning and decision-making. The Bumthang model represents a typical Himalayas mountain landscape. The exercise involved the local community drawn from a cross-section of Bumthang settlements.

The model took about two weeks to complete and is now displayed in the Ugyen Wangchuk Institute
complex at Brown Swiss Farm, Bathpalathang, Chamkhar Valley, Bumthang.


Source: ICIMOD, Mountain Geoportal

Traditional Forest-Related Knowledge: Sustaining Communities, Ecosystems and Biocultural Diversity

Exploring a topic of vital and ongoing importance, Traditional Forest Knowledge examines the history, current status and trends in the development and application of traditional forest knowledge by local and indigenous communities worldwide.

It considers the interplay between traditional beliefs and practices and formal forest science and interrogates the often uneasy relationship between these different knowledge systems.The contents also highlight efforts to conserve and promote traditional forest management practices that balance the environmental, economic and social objectives of forest management. It places these efforts in the context of recent trends towards the devolution of forest management authority in many parts of the world.

The book includes regional chapters covering North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Australia-Pacific region. As well as relating the general factors mentioned above to these specific areas, these chapters cover issues of special regional significance,  such as the importance of traditional knowledge and practices for food security, economic development and cultural identity.  Other chapters examine topics ranging from key policy issues to the significant programs of regional and international organisations, and from research ethics and best practices for scientific study of traditional knowledge to the adaptation of traditional forest knowledge to climate change and globalisation.

"Forestry, the oldest of the resource management sciences, has been coming under pressure in recent years to incorporate multiple values. Traditional Forest-Related Knowledge is remarkable for its comprehensive coverage of world regions and 'hot' topics such as globalization, climate change and research ethics. It is a unique book, marking a breakthrough with its authoritative treatment of alternative sources of knowledge and multiple perspectives, and contributing to a paradigm change in forest management."

Traditional Forest-Related Knowledge: Sustaining Communities, Ecosystems and Biocultural Diversity

Parrotta, John A.; Trosper, Ronald L. (Eds.)
2012, 2012, XXVI, 621 p. 77 illus., 58 in color.

The Voice of the Ogiek (video)

In 2006 a little known ethnic group – called the Ogiek - created a three-dimensional map of their ancestral land in Kenya. In the past members of this indigenous community were regarded as second class citizen. Today, their story has gained international recognition. The Kenyan government is increasingly listening to their voice and including them in a dialogue over the future of their community and of the Mau Forest.

This is the story of how the Ogiek found their voice …

For more information on the case visit: http://goo.gl/H5drF