Being on a map means to exist: the Saramaccan experience

Saramaccan communities in Suriname seek government’s recognition of their traditional knowledge

On 23 February 2016, 18 Saramaccan community representatives from the Brownsweg and Upper Suriname River areas met in the capital city, Paramaribo, with key stakeholders and policymakers. The meeting was organised by the Saramaccan Peoples to share the results of a two-year process which led to the visualisation and documentation of their traditional environmental knowledge over a vast area.

Maps generated using data extracted from the 1:15000 scale participatory 3D model of the Brownsweg area (manufactured in November 2015), combined with the digital elevation model obtained from the Foundation for Forest Management and Production Control, Suriname.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and maps may be even more effective in conveying messages when it comes to resource distribution and access. In fact the outcome of the process – which the Saramacca delegates proudly presented at the meeting – consisted of a series of community-generated physical and digital maps.

The maps and various data sets were produced in Saramaccan, English, and Dutch languages as a result of three Participatory 3D modelling (P3DM) exercises that took place in 2014 and 2015, involving 220 residents, including women, youth and the elderly. A film documentary about the process was released in 2015 in Saramaccan, English, and French.


Saramaccan leaders highlighted the uniqueness of the data the communities were able to collate, geo-reference and visualise using highly sophisticated technology, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Benefitting from external technical support, knowledge-holders were able to share their mental maps and memories which were used to populate blank 3D models.

The Saramaccan representatives drew attention to the relevance and accuracy of the data, and its accessibility to third parties, provided free prior informed consent for their use was given. "We made the map for it to be used. We want other people to make use of it. We only ask that the data is not used without involving us, the Saramaccan Peoples," concluded a community representative.

The Saramaccan delegates welcomed the use of the data for spatial planning purposes and called on the government and private investors to recognise them as key stakeholders and fully involve them when planning logging activities, protected area management and gold mining concessions within traditional Saramaccan lands.

They urged for the replication of P3DM processes in the rest of the Saramaccan territory so that a complete map of traditional Saramacca lands could be generated. To achieve this, they called on the government, development organisations, private sector, and NGOs present at the meeting to raise the necessary funds.

The event was hosted by Tropenbos International Suriname, WWF Guyanas and the Association of Saamaka Authorities.

In addition to Tropenbos International Suriname, project sponsors included the UNDP-GEF Small Grant Programme and CTA. Contributions by both organisations were duly acknowledged, with participants stating that their valuable contribution established a 'fertile ground' for community empowerment via P3DM which they considered to be a very innovative process. Participants also acknowledged that the P3DM process had inspired other communities who were now requesting support to deploy the P3DM process in their areas.

Related blogposts:

• Saramakan’s forests: watercourses at the core of a Participatory 3D Modelling exercise along the Upper Suriname River (10 September 2014)
• Les forêts des Saramaca : les cours d'eau au coeur d'un exercice de modélisation participative en trois dimensions le long du Haut Suriname (10 September 2014)
• Saamaka peoples upscale the use Participatory 3 Dimensional Modelling along the Upper Suriname River (08 August 2015)

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River partners: Managing environment and disaster risk in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

River partners: Managing environment and disaster risk in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a video report on the disaster risk reduction project being implemented by the United Nations Environment Program, the Government of DRC and local communities, with the support of the European Union.

Flooding and soil erosion are major hazards that threaten the Lukaya River basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Located in the outskirts of Kinshasa, this basin is an important source of water supply for the capital. This pilot project will demonstrate how ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (eco-DRR) can be integrated into c devel
opment planning. Upstream and downstream river users are brought together to tackle disaster risk and development planning in a more integrated manner. Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) is used in the process.

Partenaires de la Rivière: Gestion de l'environnement et des risques de catastrophes en République Démocratique du Congo est une vidéo sur le projet de réduction de risques de catastrophes mis en oeuvre par le Programme de Nations Unies pour l'Environnement, le Gouvernement de la RDC et les communautés locales, avec le soutien de l'Union Européenne.

Les inondations et l'érosion du sol sont des aléas majeurs qui menacent le bassin de la rivière Lukaya en République Démocratique du Congo. Situé en périphérie de Kinshasa, le bassin est une source importante d'approvisionnement en eau pour la capitale. Ce projet pilote démontrera comment la réduction de risque de catastrophes à base d'écosystèmes (RRC-éco) peut être intégrée à la planification du développement de bassins-versants. Les usagers de la rivière en amont et en aval sont réunis pour aborder ensemble les problèmes de risque de catastrophes et de planification du développement, d'une manière plus intégrée. La cartographie participative en trois dimensions (MP3D) a été utilisée dans le processus.

IWD2016 - Celebrating women: A champion for the rights of indigenous people

An encounter with an innovative technique known as participatory three-dimensional modelling was to prove a turning point in the life of a young tribeswoman from rural Chad. She now travels the globe to advocate for the rights of her own and other indigenous communities, and to press for their voice to be heard in negotiations about climate change, on which their futures depend.

Growing up as part of the M'bororo people – traditional semi-nomadic and nomadic herders living in Chad and neighbouring countries – nothing could have prepared Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim for the turn her life would take once she was introduced to participatory mapping. At the time, she was a young woman, working to gain recognition of her people's rights, and especially for access to the natural resources that are critical to their livelihoods.

Participatory three-dimensional modelling (P3DM), or participatory mapping, brings together traditional knowledge from local communities about their landscapes and ecosystems with data on physical features, such as land elevation and sea depth. The result is a scaled and geo-referenced three-dimensional (3D) model, which can be a powerful tool for knowledge building and communication, as well as for gaining recognition of local communities' rights to be involved in decision-making that affects their natural resources.

Hindou's introduction to P3DM came through the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC), a network of 150 indigenous peoples' organisations in 20 African countries. IPACC had been introduced to participatory mapping by CTA's P3DM expert, Giacomo Rambaldi, and supported in its use as a tool for gathering evidence for indigenous peoples' arguments in national and international negotiations.

A bitter conflict

Encouraged to learn about the practice through a P3DM exercise in Gabon, Hindou spent two weeks living with local pygmies and helping them to build a participatory 3D map of their jungle landscape. The pygmies had lost some of their hunting and fishing rights when a national park was created, and the mapping exercise succeeded in its goal of convincing the government that these indigenous people had a right to be consulted about decisions affecting their homeland.

Hindou was hooked.



"It was a long way away from my own community and very different, but I found the exercise exciting and interesting," said Hindou, who is Director of the Association des Femmes Peules Autochtones du Tchad (AFPAT) and IPACC's Executive Committee representative for the Congo Basin region. "It was the first time I had seen all the intergenerational people mobilised – women, youths, men and elders. I realised that if we did this in my own community, it could help resolve a great many issues."

That chance came in 2012, when, with CTA support, a mapping exercise involving Hindou's own M'bororo people was organised in the southern district of Baïbokoum, the scene of conflicts between nomadic herders and sedentary farmers. Increasing scarcity of natural resources, especially water reserves, was being exacerbated by climate change and population growth, and the bitter contention between the two groups was threatening to spiral out of control.

Hindou was closely involved in the P3DM event, organising the workshop that preceded it, which brought together herders, scientists, UNESCO and World Meteorological Organization representatives as well as government officials for the first time. Once again, participatory mapping proved to be a winning approach. The model-making process enabled all players to have an overview of the contested area, highlighting where the farmers had barred the routes used by herders to take their cattle to water and identifying a range of solutions that would be acceptable to all.

The mapping exercise showed that indigenous peoples could play an effective role in decision-making, from which they had always been excluded in the past. And it gave a new sense of self-confidence to all members of the community, especially women.

"We took the opportunity to increase the capacity of women to express themselves, showing men that the women had a voice and that their opinions were sometimes more valuable than those of men – and the men accepted this," said Hindou. "As a result, women had a greater say in community affairs."

Powerful traditional knowledge

At a personal level, the mapping exercise also proved an eye opener for Hindou herself.

"The impact on me was huge. This was my community, so I knew all the traditional knowledge, but it helped me to understand things that didn't belong to my own generation," she recalls. "It changed my life forever."

Hindou now uses P3DM in all her work, to illustrate the importance of conserving traditional knowledge, how to marry it with scientific knowledge and using both to combat climate change and protect the environment.

Although her roots are still firmly anchored in her community, Hindou has become used to travelling the world to make presentations and put the indigenous people's case to high-ranking officials in climate-change negotiations. For the past 10 years, she has been a regular participant at meetings of the UN Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. She is Co-Chair of the International Indigenous Peoples' Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC), which represents the interests of indigenous peoples throughout the world and presents these at COP negotiations.

"Climate change is a massive problem for indigenous people because we depend on the environment. For any indigenous people, from any corner of the world, livelihoods are linked to natural resources, for our food and medicine, for everything, so if there are floods or droughts the impact is greater for us," she said. "Of course, it is highly unusual for someone of my background to be travelling the world and speaking at conferences and negotiating. But for me, it is important to change the life of my community. I know my people are proud of what I am doing and I can never give up my work. I want to help my community to adapt to climate change, and you cannot talk about climate change without talking about the rights of indigenous people."

Reposted from Spore with permission.

Hands on Culture - Participatory 3D Modelling with Mandingalbay Yidinji People in Australia

This video is about the 3D mapping project of the Mandingalbay people near Yarrabah North Queensland. This project was supported by the Wet Tropics Management Authority, IUCN and CTA to producing a short film based on the amazing project the community took on to bring their 3D mapping project to life.