Forthcoming P3DM-related activities at the 6th World Park Congress, Sydney 12-19 November 2014

Click to download the flyer

This is to update you about a series of events which will focus on Participatory GIS practice during the forthcoming IUCN World Park Congress. The events we are organising have a common denominator: Participatory 3D modelling (P3DM).

Below is a short description of the 3 events / activities:

Rolling activity (13-17 November),  at the WIN & Pacific Community Dialogue Pavilion (Pavilion #2)

Title: Participatory 3D modelling of the traditional country of the Mandingalbay Yidinji People, Queensland, Australia

Organisers: Wet Tropics Management Authority with support provided by IUCN, CTA and UNDP Equator Initiative with financial support provided by UNDP GEF-SGP

Starting on 13 November and for the duration of the conference, representatives from the aboriginal Mandingalbay Yidinji People will work on a 3D Model reproducing their ancestral territory within the Wet Tropics World Heritage site. The model will be at a 1:10,000 scale and include terrestrial and coastal components. It will be a replica of a larger model completed by a wider representation of the community in Queensland with support provided by the Wet Tropics Management Authority, IUCN and UNDP GEF-SGP. The population of the 3D model with data will occur during the conference within the WIN Communities Dialogue Pavilion. Support in the process will be offered by Partners with Melanesians. The completed model will be presented by Mandingalbay Yidinji People during the Side event “: The risks and values of geo-referencing traditional and local knowledge” which will take in the same pavilion on Monday 17 (see below).

Pavilion event; 17 November 8:30 – 12:00, WIN & Pacific Community Dialogue Pavilion (Pavilion #2)

Title: Voices and Choices: The risks and values of geo-referencing traditional and local knowledge

Organisers: CTA and IUCN

Note: Coffee, tea and cakes will be served to participants by mid-morning

This event focuses on Participatory 3 Dimensional Modelling (P3DM) a method within the Participatory GIS family which enables communities to geo-reference and spatially document their complex systems of traditional land/seascape knowledge. The method benefits from its integration with GIS, multimedia production, Web2.0 and social media and serves multiple purposes, including landscape planning, rights advocacy, inter-generational knowledge transmission, influencing policy-making and enhancing communities’ socio-environmental resilience.

At the onset of Participatory GIS (PGIS) practice, concerns were expressed that the nature of and access to GIS would simultaneously marginalize or empower different groups in society. The practice evolved along different lines and among diverse interest groups. Currently it embraces a blend of applications ranging from Internet-based spatial multimedia to field-based participatory methods with a modest GIS component. In this fast-evolving context, there is a seemingly unstoppable excitement about georeferencing human physical, biological and socio-cultural worlds and making the information publicly available. This embodies both potentials and risks, aspects which need to be taken into consideration by knowledge holders, technology intermediaries/facilitators and researchers.

A physical 1:10,000 scale 3D model completed by the Mandingalbay Yidinji People representing a portion of their ancestral territory within the Wet Tropics World Heritage site in Queensland, Australia will be showcased at the event. Representatives from the community will share their experience in going through the various phases of the process, how they dealt with sensitive data, and their plans on how best to make use of acquired skills, knowledge and completed products (the model and derived maps) in their future endeavours.

Coordinator: Giacomo Rambaldi (rambaldi[at]cta.int)

Session within Stream 7; Tuesday 18 November 2014, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Title: Knowledge management and technologies: Participatory 3D modelling in Protected Areas, landscapes and seascapes

Organisers: IPACC and CTA, in cooperation with Association des Femmes Peules Autochtones du Tchad, Minorités Pygmées du Gabon, and Yiaku People’s Association of Kenya, Melca Ethiopia and other indigenous peoples and local communities.

Background and summary: IPACC, African Biodiversity Network and other organisations have used Participatory 3 Dimensional Modelling (P3DM) to represent complex systems of indigenous landscape knowledge to themselves and decision-makers. P3DM, a geo-referenced and yet participatory system of knowledge representation serves multiple usages, including landscape planning, rights advocacy, inter-generational knowledge transmission and improving conservation.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) promotes skills transfer in P3DM for indigenous peoples and local communities in Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific regions.
Oral knowledge of biological systems emerges through the methodology, associated with resource governance, rights and indigenous values. The tool provides a multi-use medium for negotiating land use, understanding customary use systems, education for sustainability, and empowering indigenous peoples as holders of expert knowledge in conservation and planning.
P3DM case studies describe a broad range of ecosystems and contexts. P3DM provides a valuable tool for intercultural understanding of diverse knowledge and land use systems relevant for Protected Areas.

Coordinators: Nigel Crawhall (nigel.tilcepa[at]gmail.com) and Giacomo Rambaldi (rambaldi[at]cta.int)

The film “The enabling power of participatory 3D mapping among the Saramaccan People of Suriname” launched at CWA2014

Fifty years ago, some 5000 Saramaccan people of Suriname had to leave their traditional lands along the Suriname River due to the construction of a major dam. The wounds of this transmigration are still felt today. Meanwhile, the Saramaccans who live in the Upper Suriname River area face new challenges since their territorial rights are not yet officially recognized and road infrastructure to access the area is improving. Creating a 3D model of the area that tells the inside story of their traditions and land use can help them to overcome their sense of being misunderstood by decision-makers and rediscover their voice.
The 15 min video production “The enabling power of participatory 3D mapping among the Saramaccan People of Suriname” has been launched on October 9 at the 13th Caribbean Week of Agriculture in Paramaribo, Suriname. The launch occurred during the session “Maps as media in policy processes: Bringing the 3rd dimension to the negotiating table” in the presence of representatives from the Saramaccan community.

The launch was followed by reflections done by Saramaccan representatives Mr Godfried Adjako, one of the captains of the village of Kaajapati, and Ms Debora Linga who spent her infancy with her grandparents on their farm on the shores of the Brokopondo Reservoir and later on kept visiting them in Ginginston village along the banks of the Upper Suriname River.

Mr Godfried Adjako recalled that in the process of populating the 3D model the community, especially the youth, learned a lot from the elders. “The map now shows our life, the Earth we live on, the Earth we walk on, the Earth without which we cannot live.” “We can use the map to take decisions on where to locate future developments”, he added. Both men and women contributed to the map. “Women know a lot about the surrounding of the villages, while men who use to go hunting, know the most about far away areas.”

Mr Adjako stated that when developing the legend ahead of the mapping exercise, the community decided to omit sensitive and confidential information. Therefore the data contained in the model and currently being digitised by Tropenbos International Suriname (TBI) should be considered as publicly available.

The P3DM process has been a discovery journey for young Debora. “In the 60’s my grandparents had to resettle because their village had been submerged by the rising waters of the Brokopondo Reservoir. They resettled along the Upper Suriname River in a village called Ginginston where I grew up. I could not understand the reason why my grandfather kept on navigating a long way along the river to reach the shores of the lake where he was growing watermelon” she said. “I discovered the reason while chatting with an elder who explained to me that transmigrating families were welcome by Saramaccan villages uphill the lake, but were granted limited access to resources. In fact they were sort of borrowing the land from people who occupied it for generations. Thus they only had access to small farming areas. In Saramaccan this is how you feel: they were living on somebody else’s land.”

Additional references:

• Saramakan’s forests: watercourses at the core of a Participatory 3D Modelling exercise along the Upper Suriname River
• CTA-funded 3D map helping tribe document and articulate their traditional knowledge
• Multi-scale modeling of ecosystem services and land-use scenarios in the upper Suriname River basin

Saramakan’s forests: watercourses at the core of a Participatory 3D Modelling exercise along the Upper Suriname River

JAW JAW, SURINAME, 6 September 2014. From Atjoni, Suriname, it takes 40 minutes by motorised longboat to reach Jaw Jaw, a village sprinkled along the shores of the mighty upper Suriname River. This area is home to approximately 17,000 Afro-Surinamese people belonging to the Saramakan tribe. These people survive on shifting cultivation, fishing, hunting, harvesting of timber and non-timber forests products, boat transport services, government employment and remittances from outside the area.

Saramaka Peoples populating the 3D model
with recollections from memory

Over a 10-day period some 100 representatives from 14 villages (representing a population of approximately 5,000 people) bordering the Suriname River downstream of the village of Lespansi worked together to assemble a stunning 1:15,000 scale three-dimensional (3D) physical map of an area covering approximately 2,160 km2. Youngsters (mainly girls) from Jaw Jaw village assembled the blank model under the guidance of representatives from Tropenbos International Suriname and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA). Saramakan adults (men and women), including elders, populated the model with 38 types of feature they consider relevant for their orientation, livelihoods and culture.

The village representatives populated the map with features they consider as relevant for their orientation, livelihoods and culture. The final map legend account for a total of 38 features depicted as points (21), lines (9) and polygons (8). With free prior and informed consent obtained from community representatives, the datasets were captured using high-resolution digital photography and will be digitised and imported into a GIS environment held in trust by Tropenbos.

In the process of populating the 3D model with information, it appeared that – in the absence of outstanding landmarks like hills or mountains  (the mapped area is relatively flat) – the Saramaka used water courses to orient themselves on the map. Hence, they first had to discuss and reach general consensus on the location and names of all watercourses in the areas they were concerned with. This led them to identify five types of watercourses, differentiated according to width, navigability and seasonal accessibility by boat.

Participants in the closing ceremony

On Saturday, 6 September 2014, representatives of the local communities presented their work to representatives of government agencies (the Ministry of Regional Development, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, the Commission on Ordering of the Gold Mining Sector in Suriname [OGS] and the Foundation for Forest Management and Production Control [SBB]), CTA, the Foundation for Development of the Hinterlands (FOB) and non-governmental organisations (WWF-Guianas, Tropenbos International Suriname, Amazon Conservation Team [ACT], the Association of Indigenous Village Chiefs in Suriname [VIDS]), community-based organisations (Wan Mama Pikin and The Association of Saramaka Authorities [VSG]), the private sector (Lodgeholders upper Suriname River [LBS]) and the national media (DWT and Surinaamse Televisie Stichting [STVS]).

The local community representatives presented the 3D map and explained the process that led to the formulation of the map legend and its fine-tuning and updating and described the animated discussions that led to the population of the blank model. Proudly, they stated that the model will be hosted within one of their villages that is easily accessible to outsiders to facilitate negotiations and planning processes. The villagers now consider the 3D model as a tool for planning their own development and interacting with developers, investors and policy makers.

The head of Jaw Jaw village, Mr Erwin Fonkel, made a key point in his interview with STVS TV: “I find this mapping exercise very important, because in the past we did some mapping but failed to include a lot of information. Now we have elaborated the map ourselves and we had a stronger voice on defining its content. In maps produced in the past several important locations, creeks and places where you can find resources and generate income, were not included.”

The Productive Landscape Programme of Tropenbos International Suriname and the Capacity Building Strategy for Land Use Planning in Suriname of WWF Guianas will use the 3D model to involve stakeholders in elaborating land-use scenarios and conducting participatory assessments of ecosystem services. As anticipated by several local captains, the 3D model, now under the custodianship of the Saramaka people, will be used to elaborate proposals for investments in local infrastructure and sustainable development such as electrification and ecotourism.

View of the Upper Suriname River at Jaw Jaw

Jaw Jaw village around the community meeting point where the
3D model was manufactured

Note: This activity took place in the context of the project “Modelling trade-offs between land-use scenarios and ecosystem services in the upper Suriname River area”. The CTA-funded participatory mapping component  was conceived to empower local communities to have a voice and play an active role in managing their land and natural resources and decision-making processes that affect these.

Participatory 3D mapping for DRR in Jelapan, Sindumartani, Sleman, Indonesia

As the most active volcano in Indonesia, Merapi Volcano has been threatened the life of people surrounding its slope either by primary hazard in form of pyroclastic flow and secondary hazard in form of debris flow. Therefore, disaster risk reduction (DRR) effort become an important thing to be done in the area. Integrating different stakeholders is one of the most pressing contemporary needs for enhancing disaster risk reduction. The participation of such a large range of actors in DRR allows for the integration of local and scientific knowledge as well as top-down and bottom-up actions.
Methods that used for this research is participatory three dimensional mapping (P3DM). P3DM provided a tool of dialogue between local people, scientists and local government. All stakeholders were able to contribute their knowledge on the same tool. P3DM is credible to both locals, who build the map and plot most of the information and to scientists and government representatives who can easily overlap their own data and plans. In the process, NGO/academic partners served as facilitators and moderators. Such a dialogue resulted in concerted actions including both bottom-up and top-down measures to enhance disaster risk reduction.

Results showed that from the three dimensional (3D) map, participants which consist of local community and representative of local government, could identify all aspects which needed to enhance disaster risk reduction in the study area. Those aspects are affected area, distribution of vulnerable group which consist of children, old people, people with disability, and pregnant woman, also meeting point for each neighborhood system and evacuation route which can be used to evacuate when the pyroclastic and debris flow from Merapi volcano reach the area. Those aspects were displayed in the 3D maps using clear symbol and legend which are depicted in push-pins (points), yarns (lines), and paint (polygons).

Read full paper: on ScienceDirect

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles used for participatory mapping in Haiti

Since 2010, the free and collaborative OpenStreetMap mapping community has been growing in Haiti. Backed up by the global OSM community and using innovative tools like Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), it keeps improving in order to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Participatory mapping is a powerful tool to enhance the communities' resilience facing natural disasters, but also to engage an dynamic for the local development of the territory.

The project carried by COSMHA with the support of CartONG and OSM-Fr endeavor to remain extremely concrete while at the same time rising above the issues to help objectivize decision-making. It induces change from and with the local communities.

At global land rights conference, combining participatory mapping tools with traditional knowledge emerges as powerful weapon to fight massive land grabs

SAMOSIR, NORTH SUMATRA (30 August 2013) - With governments, loggers, miners and palm oil producers poaching their lands with impunity, indigenous leaders from 17 countries gathered on a remote island in Sumatra this week to launch a global fight for their rights that will take advantage of powerful participatory mapping tools combined with indigenous knowledge to mark traditional boundaries.

“It’s amazing to see indigenous groups from all over the world coming here armed with hundreds of detailed maps they have created with things like handheld GPS devices and Internet mapping apps,” said Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, head of the Philippines-based Tebtebba, one of the co-organizers of the Global Conference on Community Participatory Mapping on Indigenous Peoples’ Territories, which took place on the edge of the largest volcanic lake in the world. “It’s a new and vivid way to illustrate how they and their ancestors have inhabited and worked these lands for thousands of years and have every right to assert their ownership.”

Indigenous groups from countries including Malaysia, Nepal, Panama, Mexico and Brazil, explained how they have adopted affordable, high-tech mapping technology to retrace the history of their land ownership and catalog their natural resources. Their hope is that detailed maps can help them fight the destruction of vast tracks of forests, peatlands and waterways—brazen incursions by government and industry that not only deprive indigenous peoples of their lands but also greatly accelerate the global loss of biodiversity and accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

For example, participants at the conference believe maps of this sort could help bolster the fight in Indonesia to stop the steady loss of traditional lands to palm oil production, logging and other industrial needs. Participants issued a declaration calling on the government of Indonesia to pass legislation, currently under consideration by the nation’s Parliament, which would provide new protections for the country’s 50 million indigenous peoples.

“We need to take advantage of new mapping tools to accelerate the process of mapping the more than 30 million hectares we have left to document—before they are swallowed up by plantations,” said Abdon Nababan, secretary general of Indonesia’s Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), which has helped communities across the country to map their customary forests as part of their efforts to defend their lands against development by palm oil and other industrial plantations and mining.

A recent report stated that the Indonesian government’s continued practice of granting national and international companies permission to convert millions of hectares of forests to palm oil and other plantations on lands that overlap with or abut indigenous territories often leads to the displacement of indigenous peoples—and a rash of sometimes-violent land disputes. The report on the state of large-scale agribusiness expansion in Southeast Asia by the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), also noted that the country faced more than 280 land conflicts across the country in 2012.

“Lines on a map have always been a source of conflict, but they are becoming more and more contentious around the world today,” said Tauli-Corpuz. “In many cases, government and military maps don’t acknowledge the presence of indigenous territories, leaving these communities vulnerable to land rights violations and conflicts, as well as the loss of their sustainable livelihoods, the onset of poverty, environmental degradation, and the loss of cultural heritage. Indigenous peoples are creating maps to protect their customary lands.”

Sleek computer-generated Indonesian maps presented at the conference documented cases in which the government had handed over indigenous territories to developers. In the case of the Lusan community in Borneo, three different government agencies had handed a community’s land over to three different companies—a logging group, a mining operation and a palm oil plantation.

“Without maps, it is difficult for indigenous peoples to prove that they have occupied their ancestral lands for centuries,” said Giacomo Rambaldi, a senior program coordinator at the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), who has helped indigenous peoples to develop maps for more than 15 years. “If you are able to document and map your use of the resources since time immemorial, you have a chance of asserting your rights over land and water.”

It Takes a Village

Unlike satellite images or traditional political maps, the maps presented at the conference document key cultural and social sites, such as burial grounds, caches of medicinal plants, hunting trails or groves of specific species of trees. Based on pre-existing maps, satellite images or coordinates generated by hand-held GPS devices, these computer-generated documents or models record knowledge passed down through generations and integrate input from the entire community—including women and youth.

Conference participants heard that indigenous communities have successfully used these maps to protect their lands from land grabs and to monitor the impact of external forces on their lands.

In Brazil, South America’s largest democracy, an Afro-Brazilian community used a map to stop Cyclone-4, a space company jointly owned by Brazil and Ukraine, from expanding into their lands to build rocket launchers. These maps refuted claims by the company that only 10 communities would be impacted by the development by showing that more than 100 communities would be displaced. Cyclone-4’s expansion was blocked—though the government continues its efforts to build the rocket launchers on indigenous territories.

In Panama, which loses one percent of its tropical forests each year, members of the Guna community created a map—in the Guna language—to determine if the expansion of croplands had damaged sacred sites located in the rainforest surrounding their community. The map also served to show younger generations where these sites are located.

In Indonesia, the village of Pandumaan produced hand-drawn maps to scale, based on GPS data, to show that a pulp and paper company encroaching on their lands had razed the forests they rely on for myrrh—a fragrant resin that they sell for a living and use in spiritual rituals.

In Malaysia, which, along with Indonesia, is a leader in palm oil production, communities have used maps to win 25 of the 250 land disputes brought in front of the courts since 2001. The government continues to appeal the 25 cases that it lost in an attempt to regain the lands from indigenous peoples.

40 Million Hectares by 2020

Indonesia’s 2,200 indigenous communities, spread out across the country’s 18,307 islands, are the most prolific indigenous map-makers, the conference revealed. These mapping efforts have added urgency, since the country’s Constitutional Court decided in May that a line in the country’s 1999 Forestry Law, which states that customary forests are state forests, is not constitutional. To take advantage of this decision, which would first have to be implemented in national and local law, experts from the conference said it’s crucial for indigenous peoples to put these forests on paper.

AMAN’s Abdon Nababan said that he hopes to help map all 40 million hectares of land by 2020, and he called on the national Parliament to speed up the adoption of the Law on the Recognition and Protection of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The body is currently reviewing a draft of the law.

“Without Indigenous Peoples, There Would Be No Forests”

“Mapping not only empowers indigenous communities with evidence that they can use to assert their land rights, it also provides communities with the ability to catalog the natural resources sheltered in their territories,” said Tauli-Corpuz, the head of Tebtebba. “These maps successfully demonstrate what we already know: that indigenous peoples are the best custodians of their forests and lands.”

A study by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) finds that biodiversity thrives in indigenous territories where communities are free to engage in hunting and other sustainable uses of natural resources—as opposed to state-held protected areas that ban such activities.

The National Coalition of Indigenous Peoples (KASAPI) in the Philippines arrived at the same conclusion. The project, which inventoried the resources in indigenous communities across the country, concluded from evidence gathered on the ground and from village elders—who recalled which species of plants have disappeared since their youth—that forests and lands owned and managed by indigenous peoples have stronger biodiversity than those that are under government control.

According to conference participants, maps that document a territory’s biodiversity provide indigenous communities and national governments alike with “baseline” knowledge about the health of their natural resources, enabling them to monitor changes to natural resources, such as the restoration—or degradation—of forests over time. Participants added that maps like these can show the impacts of climate change—and aid in the tracking of global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Vu Thi Hien of the Centre of Research and Development in Upland Areas (CERDA), taught members of the Thai Nguyen community in Vietnam how to map in order to support an international climate change effort to reduce climate change through the protection and preservation of forests, known as REDD+. She said that local authorities were so impressed with the professionalism and accuracy of the maps that they adopted the maps for their own use.

“If the community is not empowered to assert their rights, they can only go so far, even with strong laws supporting land rights,” Tauli-Corpuz said.

###

About Tebtebba
Tebtebba (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education) is an indigenous peoples’ organization born out of the need for heightened advocacy to have the rights of indigenous peoples respected, protected and fulfilled worldwide. It also advocates and works on the elaboration and operationalization of indigenous peoples’ sustainable, self-determined development. www.tebtebba.org.

About AMAN
AMAN’s mission is to pursue sovereignty, prosperity and dignity of indigenous peoples.  Established on 17 March 1999, its members consist of 2,240 indigenous communities in Indonesia. www.aman.or.id.

Oil palm expansion in the Philippines: geo-tagged evidences of an imminent tragedy

By ALDAW Network (Ancestral Land/Domain Watch): Between June and August 2009, an ALDAW mission travelled to the Municipalities of Brooke’s Point and Sofronio Española (Province of Palawan) to carry out field reconnaissance and audio-visual documentation on the social and ecological impact of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations.  The mission’s primary task focused on two major objectives: 1) gathering data through interviews, ocular inspection and participatory geographic information systems methodologies; 2) providing communities with detailed information on the ecological and social impact of oil palm plantations, to allow them to make informed decisions while confronting oil palm companies, state laws and bureaucracy.

Successive ALDAW field appraisals in oil palm impacted areas took place between July 2010 and early 2013, and included the Municipalities of Aborlan, Rizal and Quezon. During ALDAW field research, GPS coordinates were obtained through the use of a professional device connected to the camera’s hot shoe.  

The geotagged images have been loaded into a geo-aware application and displayed on satellite Google map. The actual ‘matching’ of GPS data to photographs has revealed that, in specific locations, oil palm plantations are expanding at the expenses of primary and secondary forest and are competing with pre-existing cultivations (coconut groves, fruit tress, wet-rice, etc).

The conversion of productive paddy land and forest into oil palm plantations is particularly evident in the Municipality of Quezon .

Oil palm plantations have also expanded in areas used by indigenous people for the cultivation of local varieties of upland rice, root crops and fruit trees.  Furthermore, the fencing of large areas of oil palm plantations makes it difficult for local communities to reach their upland fields and forest.

Geottaged evidences have also revealed the exact location of commonly used NTFPs, such as buri palms (Corypa elata) and bamboos that are being destroyed through massive land clearing by oil palm companies.

Moreover, geocoded photos have provided indications on the location of rivers and freshwater sources that are being incorporated into oil palm plantations and that are likely to become polluted through the use of pesticides and fertilizers.

These freshwater sources provide potable water for local communities and some of them are essential for the maintenance of community-based dams.

Initial steps are now being taken to establish collaborative exchanges between the oil palm impacted indigenous communities of Palawan and those of Mindanao which are facing a similar fate.  These exchanges and cross-visits will include training courses on geotagging and participatory videos done by indigenous peoples (ALDAW staff) to other indigenous groups such as the Higaonon of Bukidnon.  In addition to this, during such cross-visits, common advocacy strategies to resist oil palm expansion nationwide will be identified.

In response to recent research findings, see Palawan Oil Palm Geotagged Report 2013 (Part 1 and Part 2)

ALDAW has launched two major campaign initiatives:

• Petition 1 (covers Palawan and Mindanao, addressed to the National Government) 
• Petition 2 (covers Palawan specifically, addressed towards the Provincial Government, the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)

Oil palm expansion on indigenous land both in Palawan and Mindanao should be stopped with haste, before its adverse socio-ecological impact becomes irreversible. Please, give your contribution by signing the above petitions.

Extreme Citizen Science in the Congo Basin

Jerome Lewis began working with Pygmy hunter-gatherers and former hunter-gatherers in Rwanda in 1993. This led to work on the impact of the genocide on Rwanda's Twa Pygmies. Since 1994 he has worked with Mbendjele Pygmies in Congo-Brazzaville researching child socialisation, play and religion; egalitarian politics and gender relations; and language, music and dance. Studying the impact of global forces on many Pygmy groups across the Congo Basin has led to research into discrimination, economic and legal marginalisation, human rights abuses, and to applied research supporting conservation efforts by forest people and supporting them to better represent themselves to outsiders.

Talk: Extreme Citizen Science in the Congo Basin

The talk describes the unusual collaboration between Pygmy hunter-gatherers and UCL's Departments of Anthropology, Engineering and Computer Science. Though many Pygmy hunter-gatherers in the Congo Basin are unable to read the numbers on banknotes or write their own names they have begun to use handheld computers and hacked smart phones with software that they have developed collaboratively with UCL staff and students in the Extreme Citizen Science Research Group. Participating hunter-gatherers can now geo-tag key resources that they do not want to be damaged by industrialists, monitor logging activities that take place in their forest areas, and identify commercial poaching activities that damage wildlife and their ability to lead a secure hunter-gatherer life. By bringing together these different perspectives, exciting new technologies are emerging that can efficiently communicate across linguistic and cultural barriers to give a voice to normally marginalised people.

Knowledge holders add value to the 3D model of Tobago

Historical and cultural knowledge emerges along with awareness on environmental change

SCARBOROUGH, 06 October, 2012.  Excitement is growing as the blank 3D model is populated with data.  What is astonishing is that nobody uses satellite images or existing maps where to source information.  All data comes from memory, and one added piece of information offers new cues to memory, hence everybody is discovering and learning by doing.

A team from Golden Lane add their data to the model

Day by day, more information is added to the once blank model.  The second group of informants arrives to transpose their information.  And still, members from the first group of informants are returning to the workshop because, according to them, they went off, did some research and have returned to “add more value to the model”.

The residents of Tobago, the actual custodians of local and traditional knowledge are eager to put their stamp on the model.  As the updating of the map legend continues, some of them are resolute in their view that present as well as past names of map features, like points, areas and lines must be included.

The participatory 3D model exercise is being facilitated by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) with financial and technical assistance from The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) and the United Nations Development Programme, Global Environment Facility - Small Grants Programme (UNDP GEF-SGP).

Historical perspective

The excitement of the participants echoes around the Island and the P3DM initiative  is attracting keen interest from Tobagonians from all walks of life.  Laura Williams of Golden Lane returns to the workshop with Lyris Walker and Veslin Alleyne in tow; they have information for the model.

Gang Gang immortalised on the model!

Lyris says she is glad to be a part of the project because it is “for the people by the people”.  Pointing to places she had forgotten about, she says the project is successful because it is “very educational”.  She jogs her memory for details while consulting The changing society of Tobago, 1838-1900: Vol I and II a historical publication written by Susan E. Craig-James.  This historical publication should inform the P3DM, says Lyris.

Lyris, Laura and Veslin are excited to see the point on the model which identifies Gang Gang Hill in Golden Lane.  They tell of the legend that gave the hill its name: Gang Gang Sarah was a witch who flew from Africa to meet members of her family who were captured and brought to Tobago after being sold into slavery.  In Tobago, Gang Gang Sarah met and married Long Tom.  After her husband died, she attempted to fly back to Africa, but fell to her death from the top of the silk cotton tree which she had climbed to begin her journey.  She could no longer take off because she had eaten salt and salt makes it impossible for witches to fly!

Tobago has a rich cultural history, but the legends are heard less frequently as the years go by.  To preserve the island’s past, a Heritage festival is held annually to celebrate all aspects of the island’s history.

Climate change adaptation

Contributing to the participatory 3D model overwhelms Bryan Bain of Belle Garden.  He understands the importance of the exercise because he has seen the effects of unsustainable harvesting practices and climate change in his community.  He talks of crab catchers harvesting thousands of crabs weekly.

A fisherman from Castara is oriented to
the model by one of the trainees

He admits that he also harvested over two hundred crabs per week, in 2005.  Back then, he says, crabs walked “by the hundreds in the wetlands”, while at present only four or five perch above their holes.  As a result of the dwindling crab population, Bryan says he has stopped catching crabs and is now assisting in encouraging hunters to leave the young crabs to thrive.  He adds that he joined the Belle Garden Wetlands Association and Environment Tobago to meet like-minded people to preserve the environment.

Bryan also points to deforestation as a major problem in his area.  This, he observes, has lead to the shortage of wildlife in the forest, among other things.  He feels that the P3D model will make members of the community more aware of the damage they are causing.  Increased awareness, he notes, should bring about enough change in people's attitudes and trigger changes in the way they act.  He plans to build a P3D model of his village to enhance tourism.

Similarly, Goldberg Job, informant from Belle Garden, says people have to be encouraged to adapt to climate change by changing their lifestyles.  He says people must be told to tie the roofs to their houses to prevent these from being blown away during adverse weather conditions.  Additionally, he notes that fishermen should build bigger boats and invest in technology in order to continue fishing further afar from the coastline.  He wonders whether architects are part of the P3D model-making.  He is told that he is the architect, as well as the other informants.

The work on the participatory 3D model of Tobago continues apace.  Another group of informants is expected on Sunday.  If the trend continues, the same group of informants that came on Saturday and Friday will return to further contribute data on the model.

Related posts: 

• Tobago P3DM - The missing islet
• Blank 3D model of Tobago accommodates first set of community inputs
• P3DM blank model of Tobago ready for accommodating community’s knowledge
• Participatory 3D Modelling in Tobago - key venues
• Caribbean nationals eager to develop P3DM in their countries: "P3DM a unique, totally new experience" 
• Participatory 3D Modelling exercise kicks off with much gusto in Tobago 
• ICTs for Climate Change Adaptation: Introduction of innovative technologies in the Caribbean 
• Tobagonians will build a participatory 3D model of Tobago to plan for impacts of climate change and extreme climatic events 
• Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM): five years after receiving the World Summit Award

Participatory 3D model of Tobago seen as time capsule

SCARBOROUGH, 07 October 2012.  On the morning of Sunday 7 October, the air in the room where the participatory 3D model is being built, is tense but hopeful.  Trainees, facilitators and informants work at a steady pace, but there is animated discussion on the ICC Twenty 20 Cricket World Cup game between the West Indies and Sri Lanka, being played halfway across the world.  Later in the day, after much anxiety, the West Indies is declared the winner of the cricket match and there is a brief pause to celebrate!

A facilitator assists one of the informants in
putting detail onto the model

More than anything else, the screams of joy reverberating around the room remind the trainee-facilitators, facilitators and informants of their common heritage and shared geographical space.  The reflection on the impacts climate change is having on natural resources and on the actions being taken to deal with these changes takes on a new dimension.

Jacinthe Amyot of IOC-UNESCO/Marine Affairs Program, Dalhousie University/Canadian International Development Agency IYIP says that after hearing fishermen talk about the effects of the Orinoco river on the Tobago shrimp fishing industry, she has developed a keen appreciation for its effects.  She says this information will inform her actions in the future.

Cocoa farmers discuss their
contributions to the model

Jacinthe is one of a number of persons participating in this capacity building event, representing different government, inter-governmental, civil society and academia from across the Greater Caribbean.  These persons have been in Tobago since September 29th to participate in this training which is meant to introduce a participatory mapping method which could be adopted across the Caribbean region as it previously happened in Africa and the Pacific.

Meantime, a steady stream of informants continues to trickle in.  They had stayed at home in the earlier part of the day to watch the World Cup cricket match while others had gone to church, as is the local tradition.  Members of the Cocoa Farmers Association of Tobago (TCFA) and various fisherfolk associations throughout the island transpose their spatial knowledge on the model with the guidance of the facilitators.  The farmers talk about the climatic changes they have observed and they also identify areas where cocoa farms exist and verify other bits of information on the model.  The farmers share how changes in climate have affected the cocoa crop cycles and caused a high level of unpredictability over the years.

Clement Bobb, President of the Cocoa Farmers Association, says the “sporadic rainfall - short burst of intense rain followed by hot sun – means that there is a longer bearing season”.  This kind of weather is causing the trees to flower all year round, he says.  Mr. Bobb adds, “we do not know when to plant”.

A fisherman adds information to the model

Mr. Bobb does not own a cocoa farm but manufactures dark chocolates under the ‘House of Orlando’ brand.  Talking about the value of the P3DM workshop, the chocolate entrepreneur says its value will last for generations as it is a time capsule documenting the status quo of the island.

Similarly, informant Andre Greene, a fisherman from Parlatuvier, says the P3DM exercise is generating “vibrant information for the coming generations”.  He thinks that segments of the model would have to be updated as changes occur due to the impact of climate change.  On the issue of fish stock, Andre says it is “getting harder to find fishes in the sea, all year long”.  He has to go further out to the sea and stay further away from other fishing vessels.  He mentions that while he appreciates the value to the country of natural gas exploration taking place at Block 22 just off the north coast of Tobago, he has concerns that this activity may be a contributory factor to the low level of fish stock.

Continuous Evaluation

The first act of the day, as trainees and facilitators gather, is the assessment of the previous day’s activities and agreement on the agenda for the day.  Today, Nicole Leotaud, CANARI’s Executive Director and conservation biologist, takes the debriefing session a little further and does an assessment of the entire workshop.  She looks at the areas on the model that have been mapped and examines the information added about Tobago’s resources and the effects of climate change.  How locals adapt to the changes is also a part of the assessment, to the extent to which the information is being captured on the model.

In the meantime, as informants come and go, they transpose their mental maps on the model and check existing ones.  It is a process of constant cross-checking and verification marked by recurrent negotiations.

There is discussion, sometimes heated, on where lines, areas and points should be located.  When there is no consensus, CANARI facilitators and Participatory GIS experts Kenn Mondiai from Papua New Guinea and Kail Zingapan from the Philippines come in to assist.

The workshop is soon drawing to a close, with only four more days to go.  In that time, the facilitators look forward to welcome new teams of informants coming from the south western end of the island.

Related posts: 

• Knowledge holders add value to the 3D model of Tobago
• Tobago P3DM - The missing islet
• Blank 3D model of Tobago accommodates first set of community inputs
• P3DM blank model of Tobago ready for accommodating community’s knowledge
• Participatory 3D Modelling in Tobago - key venues
• Caribbean nationals eager to develop P3DM in their countries: "P3DM a unique, totally new experience" 
• Participatory 3D Modelling exercise kicks off with much gusto in Tobago 
• ICTs for Climate Change Adaptation: Introduction of innovative technologies in the Caribbean 
• Tobagonians will build a participatory 3D model of Tobago to plan for impacts of climate change and extreme climatic events 
• Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM): five years after receiving the World Summit Award

Blank 3D model of Tobago accommodates first set of community inputs

Informants express pleasure at being part of exercise

SCARBOROUGH, 04 October 2012.  Bubbling with excitement, informants who came from far and wide to help fill in the blank model of the P3DM of Tobago could barely contain themselves as they realize the importance of their knowledge.

Kail Zingapan, GIS expert being interviewed
by Clyde McNeil of Tobago Channel 5 

The room is buzzing with activity as the informants locate features on the map.  Four groups of trainee facilitators accompany Tobago residents in transferring their mental maps on the 3D model under the watchful eye of facilitators from the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), GIS expert Kail Zingapan from the Philippines and Kenn Mondiai of Partners with Melanesians (PwM). .

The island of Tobago, for which the participatory 3D model is being developed, is an island nation and part of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.  Tobago is the smaller of the two islands and has a land mass of approximately 300 km².  The P3D model represent the island at a 1:10,000 scale hence one centimetre on the model corresponds to 100 meters on the ground.  The island is home to the largest brain coral in the world and the oldest Forest Reserve in the Western Hemisphere - the Main Ridge Forest Reserve.

Democracy Walls

Teenager Zenniethe Balfour (in blue shirt) transposes data
on the model based on her recollection from memory

Not only are informants transferring their personal knowledge of Tobago, and its surrounding waters up to a depth of -100 meters to the model, but they are also sharing their feelings about the activity on a "Democracy Wall" in a specially marked off area on the wall of the workshop area.

The "Democracy Wall" provides one additional channel for participants to express themselves.  To contribute to the Wall, the informants write their notes on small pieces of paper which they then post onto the Wall with tape.  Open ended headings such as ‘I believe …’ and ‘I feel …’ stimulate contribution.

Teenager Zenniethe Balfour of the Anse Fromage Ecological Environmental Protection Organisation - Golden Lane sticks her contribution to the Wall:  “I did not know Tobago is shaped like a snake”.  She says that listening to the contributions of others as they transfer images from their mental maps is a learning experience.  In fact, she says she is learning many new things about her community although she has been living there for the past eighteen years.

Asked to convey her feelings about contributing to the blank model, Zenniethe smiles broadly and says she feels “important”.  In terms of the value of the entire exercise, she says there is value in knowing the natural resources in one’s community.  “As you become aware you will instinctively protect”, she says.

Selecting data for the model

Goldberg Job of Belle Garden shares his views during the
orientation  session prior to engaging with the 3D model

Prior to inserting pins and outlining yarn on the model, informants had to agree on colour codes and symbols for particular features such as different types of forests, reefs and other features of importance to them that would be located onto the model.  Symbols and colours were associated with legend items to compose the map interpretation key.  Throughout the session, informants sought clarification on what types of information could be placed on the model and how they could symbolise it in line with the existing legend.

A fisherman asks why he is seeing government offices, seaports and airports but no banks on the chart.  CANARI’s facilitator Neila Bobb-Prescott responds by asking him to what extent the position of a bank is impacted by climate change.  He scratches his head, pinches his chin, nods and moves on to another question.

Laura Williams from Anse Fromage adds detail to the model

Before engaging with the model, informants take part in short orientation sessions with facilitators.  These sessions include mutual introductions, sharing information on the 3D modelling process, climate change and what the concept of “participatory” means.  The orientation sessions also sought to learn about the informants understanding of these concepts and their views on what value they felt the development of this model has for them and would have for Tobagonians.

Laura Williams from the Anse Fromage Ecological Environmental Protection Organisation is busy working on the model, identifying areas in her village, Golden Lane.  Golden Lane is a rural village on the north eastern end of Tobago.  The Great Courland is one of a few beaches in the world where the endangered leatherback turtles gather every year to lay their eggs.  She says she is devoted to ensuring that Golden Lane is well represented; she wants it to be known that the Courland Watershed, the Great Courland, is not so great anymore as it is being heavily impacted by climate change.  Noting that deforestation is a big problem in the area, she says man is contributing to  this destruction.

Laura says the P3D model will make people of the community more aware of the impact their actions are having on the environment.  People outside of the area will also be aware of the problems, she says.

With a wealth of information being shared and mapped by the knowledge holders, the workshop facilitators are looking forward to welcoming more and more members of the communities across Tobago who are expected to arrive over the coming week.

Related posts: 

• Participatory 3D Modelling in Tobago - key venues
• Caribbean nationals eager to develop P3DM in their countries: "P3DM a unique, totally new experience" 
• Participatory 3D Modelling exercise kicks off with much gusto in Tobago 
• ICTs for Climate Change Adaptation: Introduction of innovative technologies in the Caribbean 
• Tobagonians will build a participatory 3D model of Tobago to plan for impacts of climate change and extreme climatic events 
• Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM): five years after receiving the World Summit Award

P3DM blank model of Tobago ready for accommodating community’s knowledge

SCARBOROUGH, 3 October, 2012. Facilitators working on the blank model for the P3DM of Tobago all agreed that... “it has been challenging!”

The P3DM of Tobago undergoes the smoothing process u
sing crêpe paper cut-outs

Looking at an example of a model during the orientation, they thought that building a model would have been an easy task, but reality turned out to be quite different.  Expressions of relief echo around the workshop area as the blank model is finally complete on day three of the project.  Yet, in the same breath, they also give heartfelt thanks for being among the 'chosen few' selected to be part of the workshop.  Facilitators are from regional and national non-governmental organizations, government agencies, inter-governmental technical agencies and members of academia.

Held in Tobago at the Mt. St George Blenheim Sheep Multiplication and Research Project, the workshop is being conducted by experts from the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) with financial and technical assistance from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) and the UNDP Small Grants Programme of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF-SGP).

CANARI's project concept note of July 2012 states that the workshop’s aim is to get members of the community involved in "climate -related decision making" through a process involving the manufacture and use of Participatory 3D Models.

Confidence soars as the hands-on experience continues

Addana Pigott-Henry, an agricultural scientist working at CARDI, Tobago, says the experience for her was different from expectations, since she had envisaged a more formal lecture-style approach to the workshop.  After the hands-on experiences of the last couple of days though, she says she now feels empowered to assist in conducting a P3DM exercise with the help of experts.  She has learnt a lot from the interactive method and the lessons are invaluable, she says.  Addana, is of course happy that the workshop is being held in Tobago so that the regional and international participants can get a chance to experience the hospitality of Tobagonians and its rich and varied cuisine.

Meteorologist Anthony Moore of Barbados says that he is also fairly confident that if he was to build a P3DM, he would be able to do so as he is now equipped with adequate knowledge and experience.  Representing the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), Anthony says that at the beginning of the workshop he was lost and thought that building the model was a 'huge undertaking'.  His experience with maps and drawing, cutting and layering contours on a daily basis did little to allay his fears.  "A lot has been cleared up because of the hands-on experience," he admits.

Anthony acknowledges the value of a facilitation lesson shared by CANARI's Neila Bobb-Prescott and lists it as a highpoint of the workshop.  As a stakeholder in water resource management, he says the lesson is valuable and will help him to get information from farmers for an impact assessment study.  "Interaction with them would be easier,” he says.

Not unlike Adanna and Anthony, Adam Jehu of the Institute of Marine Affairs in Trinidad (IMA), also feels he now has the ability to construct a P3DM of an area and acknowledges that this approach to mapping is a "very novel way of capturing spatial data from the members of the community, the people who have the knowledge."  Adam is also grateful for the lesson on how to facilitate a P3DM exercise, since although he did know how to use GIS technology, he did not know how to build on community’s knowledge of the landscape.

Community insights

In the middle of one group orientation, a few residents popped in.  They stood around the model, and immediately without prompting, they started pointing out places in the island, the river, the forest and many other things, and recognized features on the blank model.  And almost as quickly, they pointed out features that were lacking on the model: Little Tobago, the reefs, the rocks, the islets.  They began to improve on this omission by contributing the names of the rocks and the islets that lie successively along a chain around the north-eastern tip of Tobago.

“This doesn't cease to amaze me when I see it happen.  Local people can immediately spot errors or omissions on GIS maps and correct them” noted Kail Zingapan.

Crucial lessons 

Participants create the storyboard using yarn, Playdoh
and other materials

Facilitators learned the components of two more aspects of the P3DM exercise on Wednesday.  The first was about monitoring and evaluation of the process.  CANARI’s Executive Director, Nicole Leotaud brought some clarity to the concepts and introduced the tool of participatory video (PV) which will be used in the evaluation process.  Desiree Sampson, videographer, gave tips on the shooting of videos.  This session featured a mix of hands-on training and feedback from trainees.

The facilitators created images of the results they want to achieve from the P3DM process in Tobago with Playdoh, yarn and pins.  They then created a storyboard for the video which will be developed to evaluate the effectiveness of P3DM in realizing these desired outputs.  The storyboard that was developed is a sequence of drawings which depict the shots planned for the video production.

Cassandra Mitchell of Grenada practices using
one of the PV video cams.

As part of the hands-on training, the participants took the cameras outside the building and took turns in learning how to operate them.

On Thursday 4th October, the facilitators will get ready to capture the workshop action on camera as community informants are expected to arrive in droves to ‘transpose their mental maps’ onto the blank model.

On a lighter note...

Though the trainers and experts themselves have been 'on the go' since the beginning of the workshop, they have found time for lighter moments, such as celebrating the birthday of Wellington Martinez from the Dominican Environmental Consortium.  Wellington had the joyful experience of having "Happy Birthday" sung to him in his native language, Spanish.  ¡Cumpleaños feliz, Wellington!"

Related posts: 

• Participatory 3D Modelling in Tobago - key venues
• Caribbean nationals eager to develop P3DM in their countries: "P3DM a unique, totally new experience" 
• Participatory 3D Modelling exercise kicks off with much gusto in Tobago 
• ICTs for Climate Change Adaptation: Introduction of innovative technologies in the Caribbean 
• Tobagonians will build a participatory 3D model of Tobago to plan for impacts of climate change and extreme climatic events 
• Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM): five years after receiving the World Summit Award

Tobagonians build participatory 3D model of Tobago to plan for the impacts of extreme climatic events

The Caribbean Natural Resource Institute (CANARI) has partnered with the Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-UE (CTA) and the University of the West Indies among other groups, to build a 3 dimensional model of Tobago, with the aim of advising persons of being proactive regarding climate change.

Participatory 3D Modelling in Tobago - key venues

The workshop on Participatory 3D Modelling and Participatory Video organised by CANARI and the UWI in Tobago with assistance provided by CTA and UNDP GEF-SGP will come to an end on October 11. the venue is the Blenheim Sheep Multiplication & Research Center (yellow placemarker). The presentation of the outputs by representatives of participating communities will take place on October 12 in the morning at the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute - Tobago campus (green placemarker)


View P3DM and PV Training in Tobago in a larger map

If you are interested in attending the closing ceremony on October 12, please get in touch with Neila Bobb-Prescott, Senior Technical Officer, The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI).

Related posts: 

• Caribbean nationals eager to develop P3DM in their countries: "P3DM a unique, totally new experience" 
• Participatory 3D Modelling exercise kicks off with much gusto in Tobago 
• ICTs for Climate Change Adaptation: Introduction of innovative technologies in the Caribbean 
• Tobagonians will build a participatory 3D model of Tobago to plan for impacts of climate change and extreme climatic events 
• Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM): five years after receiving the World Summit Award