An Introductory Guide to Participatory 3D Modelling for protected and conserved areas lauched at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi (10 October 2025)

Launched together with the Handbook on Participatory 3D Modelling for Protected and Conserved areas, this guide describes how Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) can support the pathway for improving protected and conserved area (PCA) governance, planning and management towards achieving positive conservation outcomes, including as set out in the IUCN Green List Standard.

Across the guide there are blue boxes that present case studies of real-world applications of P3DM in different contexts, especially those that have supported or been co-led by communities. The green boxes are explaining key concepts or processes

Who is this guide for?

This guide is for anyone interested in learning about how using P3DM can support good practice in protected and conserved areas governance, management and planning. This includes:

• Governing actors or decision-makers such as PCA site managers and governing bodies, local government officials and policymakers;
• Local rightsholders including Indigenous peoples and local communities;
• Other stakeholders such as environmental nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs), researchers and academics.

It is also for any of the above actors who are using the Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas global Standards as a framework to advance in equitable governance, sound design and planning and effective management and would like to know how can P3DM supports them.

P3DM handbook lauched at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi (10 October 2025)

This handbook is useful both for people who are experienced in participatory mapping as well as people who are completely new to the practice. 

After gaining some initial understanding of what P3DM practice is all about and its origin, this handbook will help you to deepen your understanding of the implications of practising P3DM especially in the context of collaborative Protected and Conserved Areas (PCA) management.

This handbook primarily targets the following audience:

• Protected area managers: Government employees and private landowners working in the national PCA system who are directly responsible for the management of such areas.
• Advisors: Generally, these are expatriates operating in the context of externally funded projects focusing on PCAs.
• Collaborators: Representatives from civil society organisations having a stake in activities taking place in locations that receive protection because of their recognised natural, ecological or cultural values. 
• Implementers and project staff: This audience will benefit from this handbook as it details the P3DM processes step-by-step and can help better shape mutual expectations and understanding of the intrinsic value of the process.
• Conserved areas governance actors and managers: Those actors that conserve their own areas effectively may wish to draw on P3DM as a means to gain recognition and support for their areas. This includes local rightsholders including Indigenous peoples and local communities.

It is also for any of the above actors who are using the Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas global Standard as a framework to advance in equitable governance, sound design and planning, and effective management and would like to know how P3DM can support them. To explore these options in depth, visit the Green List website.

Keynote: The Power of Participatory GIS in the Management of America's Public Lands – Jordan Smith

Participatory GIS has had an immeasurable impact on how we think about, explore, and manage public lands in America. The presentation shares stories of how volunteer cartographers, who were in many cases literal pioneers, shaped our understanding of the vast expanse that was the American West in the 1800s. The presentation also charts the growth of amateur map makers throughout the 20th century, highlighting the many ways they have shaped what we know about, and how we manage, public lands within the country. The presentation culminates with a look forward to how modern-day GIS enthusiasts and scientists are creating and leveraging free, and public geospatial databases, to chart a new path forward for public lands policy and management.
 

Intervista a Giacomo Rambaldi: La cartografia partecipativa

 L'Università degli Studi di Padova ha intervistato Giacomo Rambaldi nell'ambito del suo programma master sulla GIScience e le nuove tecnologie dell'informazione geografica per la sostenibilità e la cittadinanza inclusiva. Giacomo parla della sua esperienza nel praticare la cartografia partecipativa in paesi in via di sviluppo.

Manual de mapeo participativo con proyecciones aumentadas en 3D: Una metodología para innovar la creación de mapas con comunidades

El presente manual describe los pasos y recursos necesarios para realizar mapeos participativos en comunidades usando Proyecciones Aumentadas 3D (PA3D). 

En este manual, estudiantes, profesores, facilitadores y público en general encontrarán información teórica y práctica para familiarizarse y/o profundizar en sus conocimientos sobre mapeo participativo implementando las PA3D. Si bien la organización de contenidos es secuenciada, el lector tiene la posibilidad de explorarlos de acuerdo con sus intereses, necesidades y habilidades. 

Además, en los casos de estudio, se ilustra el uso de esta herramienta en comunidades, mostrando sus ventajas en términos de la participación, de la generación de nuevo conocimiento y de los retos para su implementación.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22201/ciga.9786073076593e.2023

‘We are our land’— Ogiek of Mount Elgon, Kenya: securing community tenure as the key enabling condition for sustaining community lands

Published in Oryx – the international journal of conservation – this open access article also highlights how this community control is under constant threat until and unless national law and practice recognizes the collective tenure rights of such communities.

"We outline how securing the community tenure rights of forest peoples can create a rapid, rights-based route to the effective and sustainable conservation of their forests. We draw on the different skillsets and experiences of the authors (long-term fieldwork, mapping and monitoring, and a lifetime of experience) to identify the conditions that enable the Ogiek of Chepkitale, Mount Elgon, Kenya, to sustain and be sustained by their lands. 

We also identify the conditions that drive the disruption of this sustainable relationship through an appropriation of Ogiek resources by external interests that threaten to degrade, alienate and destroy their ecosystem. It is increasingly recognized that securing sustainable conservation outcomes can be best achieved through the deep knowledge, connection and commitment that ancestral communities have regarding their lands. 

Evidence from Mount Elgon and more broadly shows that Indigenous Peoples are better guardians of their forests than international or state protection agencies. This challenges the idea that evicting forest peoples is the best way to protect forests. Other studies, including those conducted by the Kenyan governmental Taskforce on Illegal Logging, highlight the way Kenyan state agencies such as the Kenya Forest Service have been responsible for the severe depletion of Indigenous forests. 

We examine how de facto collective community control can enable decisions to be made in line with taking care of community lands over the long term, but also highlight how this ability is under constant threat until and unless national law and practice recognizes the collective tenure rights of such communities."

 

Congrats to the #Yanesha people of #Peru for completing a fascinating #participatory 3D map of their communal reservation, part of the #Biosphere Reserve Oxapampa Ashaninka. Supported by @IUCN & @iapad, the #P3DM exercise helped documenting & reviving #traditional #knowledge pic.twitter.com/uXd0rkMtFk

— Hindou (@hindououmar) May 19, 2023