Opportunity for PGIS practitioners to map Batak ancestral lands and indigenous peoples’ and community conserved areas and territories (ICCAs) in Northern Palawan, the Philippines

The Coalition against Land Grabbing (CALG) is a national coalition of indigenous peoples and local communities based in the province of Palawan (the Philippines). CALG is looking for young PGIS practitioners to help mapping Batak ancestral lands and ICCAs in northern Palawan. Specifically, they seek support for GPS-based resources inventories, geotagging of relevant locations (hunting grounds, upland farms, ritual sites, etc.).

One  aim of the project is to generate interactive maps that could serve to raise awareness on how the Batak of Palawan manage and perceive their cultural landscape. The interactive display of satellite imagery, enriched with location-based multimedia and other  layers of information, would also provide evidence of on-going threats to forest resources and Batak livelihood and cultural integrity.

Social cartography, emphasizing culturally distinct understanding of landscape, will be overlapped with geo-spatial maps.  The former will include the use of local place names, information on the actual and historical land uses, oral traditions, cosmovisions and testimonies linked to short video-clips syndicated from Google Video or You Tube, photographs (via Panoramio) and text.

CALG envisages that these maps would become the discursive patrimony of the Batak indigenous people and provide them with the necessary legal evidence to apply for Certificates of Ancestral Land Titles (CALTs) and to have their ICCAs included in the ICCA Registry of the United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).

The project is on-going and it will end in June 2018.  Assistance for geotagging and mapping is particularly sought during the dry season (between February and May 2017), depending on the availability of PGIS practitioners.  Due to global climate changes, dry season is not necessarily confined to the period mentioned above, but could also extend up to June.

selected candidates will receive free food and lodging during the research, domestic travel costs will be reimbursed and a basic honorarium based on Philippine’s standards will be provided.

During the various stages of project implementation CALG and PGIS practitioners will closely collaborate with the Batak Federation (Bayaan it Batak kat Palawan – BBKP).

Those interested can approach the Coalition against Land Grabbing (CALG) through this email address: calgpalawan@gmail.com

Most recent CALG geotagged reports 

• The Aborlan West- coast geotagged report

• The Puerto Princesa west-coast geotagged report

• The ‘Sarong’ geotagged report

Documenting illegal land occupancy using drones

Unmanned aerial vehicles have the potential to empower indigenous communities to become equal partners in the efforts to safeguard their territories and natural resources. 

Throughout the Americas, indigenous forest communities’ territories face intensifying threats, as global demand increases for land and forest resources. Non-indigenous settlers and loggers illegally enter indigenous territories to poach valuable timber or to burn and clear large swaths of forest.  Emerging technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – also known as drones – offer an unprecedented opportunity to empower communities to defend their territories and natural resources. UAV technology allows them to monitor their land in real time, obtain visual evidence of any trespass, and make claims based on this evidence.

Some of Panama’s indigenous communities already make use of UAVs to protect the rainforest. Nearly 70% of Panama’s remaining intact rainforest is governed by indigenous peoples. Indigenous communities see the forest as part of their culture and heritage, respecting and understanding its value and safeguarding it for future generations. Newcomers to the area tend to see the rainforest as something to be exploited in the short-term, particularly for felling valuable old-growth hardwoods and clearing forested areas for cattle ranching.

Panama’s indigenous communities began using UAVs in 2015 with the support of the Rainforest Foundation US and Tushevs Aerials. Tushevs Aerials is a small organisation that designs and builds UAVs and processes data into maps or digital 3D models. It provides training in any aspect of UAV construction, operation, and data use. Since the beginning of this project UAVs have successfully been used to document illegitimate land occupancy and illegal land occupancy and illegal logging by non-indigenous groups.

Armed settlers

The rampant deforestation in the Darien region of Panama perfectly illustrates this dynamic. Islands of rainforest have managed to resist outside pressure from settlers, thanks to the indigenous communities that inhabit and protect them. With the use of a custom-built fixed wing UAV, the Emberá peoples – near the community of Puerto Indio – could spot and survey over 200 hectares of converted forest that has been illegally occupied by cattle ranchers. The communities’ leaders were stunned to witness the extent of the damage. Prior to seeing the aerial imagery, they had thought that there were only about 50 hectares destroyed by illegal ranching.

The occupation and conversion of forested areas occurred several kilometres away from where the indigenous community lives. But because of tensions with the settlers, who are often armed and confrontational, they had not been able to enter the area and document the illegal ranching practices. Using the UAV allowed them to quickly and safely gather data that evidenced the trespass of their territories.

Tino Quintana, the cacique or traditional chief of the 440,000 hectares’ traditional territory, took the lead on presenting the results of the UAV survey to members of several other Emberá communities. These communities are now working together by using aerial imagery documentation to register official complaints with the regional authorities. The government has promised to remove the settlers, and the Emberá communities plan to reforest the area.

Documenting evidence

Governments are often faced with resource shortages, and are frequently unable to respond to all requests for intervention.  Spatially explicit UAV documentation of illegal logging and land occupancy helps government agencies prioritise their efforts, ensuring that a week-long field inspection will collect enough evidence to justify government intervention.

This experience generated further interest in UAV technology among indigenous communities in eastern Panama, inspiring other leaders to ask for UAV support. The Emberá and Wounaan General Congress, which oversees thousands of hectares of rainforest across 27 distinct territories, was given a DJI Phantom 3 Professional quadcopter by the Rainforest Foundation in November 2015. Wounaan leaders flew this UAV within the district of Platanares on the Pacific coast of Panama. The geo-referenced images proved that 10 hectares had recently been burned for cattle grazing in the middle of their territory.


Diogracio Puchicama, a Wounaan indigenous leader, who has been threatened by illegal loggers and settlers for several years, because of his efforts to protect 20,000 hectares of rainforest along the Pacific coast, submitted the UAV-generated documentation to the environmental authorities. Impressed by the accurate geo-referencing of the images documenting forest destruction, the Ministry of Environment promised to be more present in the area and enforce the law.

In late January 2016, Diogracio reported that the authorities had been patrolling the district of Platanares constantly, and that most of the settlers had been at least temporarily removed. ‘I have been denouncing illegal loggers in Platanares for over five years, and the authorities have done nothing, not moved a finger,’ Diogracio Puchicama noted. ‘Now, after they have realised that we have the drone, they are doing their job and enforcing the law. It’s a good sign.’

Protection of indigenous rights

Emberá and Wounaan communities are planning in partnership with the Rainforest Foundation US and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations to fly UAVs in at least six more indigenous communities in Panama. They will use the imagery to raise awareness among local communities of the ongoing illegal and un-monitored forest destruction within their traditional territories and the need to document and denounce this destruction to the authorities. They will also use the aerial photographs to help Panamanians understand how important forests are, and the essential role that indigenous peoples have played in keeping them intact.

The experience from Panama illustrates that UAVs have the potential to alter the power balance in favour of indigenous communities’ own ability to protect, monitor, and report on their lands, territories, and natural resources. This technology empowers indigenous people to play an active role in safeguarding their lands and to become equal partners – rather than just beneficiaries – to government and civil society agencies, which are involved in conservation and rights’ protection.

Indigenous peoples’ communities, organisations, and their civil society partners in the region and beyond are now very interested in adopting UAVs for conservation or for the protection of indigenous rights and territories. There are further discussions with the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests regarding the use of UAVs in Central America and with an indigenous network in Bolivia. Indigenous communities in Guyana and Indonesia are already using UAVs for land mapping. Also in Africa the Shompole Maasai community in Kenya and a forester in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are interested in using the technology. This shows that the interest in UAVs is growing all around the globe for monitoring illegal land use in indigenous territory.

About the authors:

Nina Kantcheva Tushev (nina.kant@gmail.com) is co-founder of Tushevs Aerials and indigenous peoples’ rights advisor at the UNDP. Tom Bewick (tombewick@rffny.org) is program manager at the Rainforest Foundation US. And Cameron Ellis (jamescameronellis@gmail.com) is principal at Groundtruth Geographics.

Related Links:

Video that demonstrates how Dayaks in Indonesia make use of UAVs.
https://goo.gl/u8Bv2v

Article and video outlining a training in the use of UAVs with indigenous communities in Peru.
https://goo.gl/jhoMFJ

Source: ICT Update # 82

#UAV4Good #landrightsnow #indigenousrights @ICT_Update on #Drones for #Agriculture https://t.co/gwItjPO5tg #UAV pic.twitter.com/wbUhwwlli4

— Drones 4 Agriculture (@UAV4Ag) April 30, 2016

Choosing a participatory mapping method versus another

PGIS practitioners make use of a range of low and high tech geographic information technologies for acquisition, validation, analysis, representation and sharing of geo-spatial information. There are a number of factors that influence the choice of one method over another or the combination of more than one method. Factors include the ‘purpose behind the initiative’, the ‘resources available’ and the ‘institutional setting or environment’.
The choice of method should emanate predominantly from within the community . Participatory maps often represent a socially or culturally distinct understanding of land and seascapes and include information that is excluded from mainstream maps. These usually represent the views of the dominant sectors of society. Participatory maps can pose alternatives to the languages and images of the existing power structures and become a medium of empowerment by allowing local communities to represent themselves spatially.

For this reason, participatory maps should be made through an inclusive process at community level. The higher the level of participation by all members of the community, the more beneficial the outcome because the final maps, and related outputs like multimedia, will reflect the collective knowledge, concerns and aspirations.

In September 2010, CTA and IFAD will launch a Training Kit dedicated to “Participatory Spatial Information Management and Communication” and having the specific objective of supporting the spread of good practice in generating, managing, analysing and communicating spatial information. More information on the training kit will be made available on the Internet and on this blog.

Rethinking the Power of Maps

A contemporary follow-up to the bestselling Power of Maps, this book takes a fresh look at what maps do, whose interests they serve, and how they can be used in surprising, creative, and radical ways.

In Rethinking the Power of Maps, Denis Wood describes how cartography facilitated the rise of the modern state and how maps continue to embody and project the interests of their creators. He demystifies the hidden assumptions of map making and explores the promises and limitations of diverse counter-mapping practices today.

Thought-provoking illustrations include U.S. Geological Survey maps; electoral and transportation maps; and numerous examples of critical cartography, participatory GIS, and map art.

Power of Maps: (Counter) Mapping for Conservation

This paper considers what is at stake in defining and mapping protected areas for conservation. The authors link issues of power in cartography to themes from political ecology, social natures, and conservation biology literatures to extend our understanding of maps as reflective of, and productive of, power. Reviewing insights from these literatures to consider power asymmetries common to conservation practice, they highlight ways that mapping practices and products reinforce and contribute to such dynamics.

The authors argue that in doing so enriches consideration of the power geometries of conservation cartographies by inviting fuller consideration of diverse species and landscapes, as well as enabling discussion of other representational and productive effects of conservation mappings. Once determined, how might conservation maps serve to naturalize certain spaces or boundaries as fixed, or contribute to certain socio-psychological understandings of conservation possibilities or outcomes?

In the closing sections, the authors invoke the idea of ‘counter-mapping’ to explore strategies that might redress these concerns. Possibilities range from efforts to adapt the form of protected areas to more critical approaches that question the appropriateness of territorial focus and mapping practices for conservation goals.

In conclusion, Harris and Hazen argue that theorizing power in human, other-than-human, and inter-species contexts is essential to understanding the power geometries of conservation mapping.

Citation: Leila M. Harris and Helen D. Hazen, 2006. Power of Maps: (Counter) Mapping for Conservation. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 4 (1), 99-130