FoxHershockMappingCommunities

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BUILDING LOCAL CAPACITY IN USING SIT FOR NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN EAST SUMBA, INDONESIA 1 By Martin Hardiono, H. Radandima, Krisnawati Suryanata, and Jefferson Fox This paper examines a project designed to build local capacity for natural resource management through training and by providing basic GIS equipment in order to raise the technical quality of community maps. The paper documents the contradictions that arose from this effort. On the one hand there was a need to “formalize” community maps in order to meet cartographic standards and to enhance their legitimacy for boundary negotiations against the state. On the other hand, the shift toward more technical mapping exacerbated the conceptual gaps between mapping facilitators and villagers or other stakeholders interested in natural resource management. The project managed to produce excellent GIS maps with the help of community members and encouraged villagers to “tell their own stories” through “their own maps.” But the project failed in many other important respects. The project demonstrated the complexity of personnel management and interorganizational dynamics of a loose networks of NGOs. Local capacity, in terms of both skills and equipment, was not improved. Despite numerous efforts to consult community members regarding map “ownership” throughout the mapping process, the final agreement regarding the fifteen maps that were produced by the project failed to satisfy many stakeholders. INTRODUCTION Spatial information technology (SIT) can be a valuable tool for the planning and management of natural resources. Maps can also be used by communities who wish to defend their customary rights against the incursions of external interests, including the state. One may argue that a community's best chance for retaining access to a resource may be to prove that they are indeed already managing it. SIT can help demonstrate the close and continuing connection between a community and their land by illustrating the spiritual, political, and economic dimensions of human land relations. One set of methods that emphasizes mapping as a means both for understanding how communities use space and for empowering communities in defending their customary rights, is participatory rural appraisal (PRA). Participatory mapping encourages villagers to draw and model their territory and resources as a means for negotiating their rights. For example, Sirait et al. (1994) demonstrated a method for mapping the customary land systems of people living in or near a nature reserve in Indonesia using oral histories and sketch maps that was combined with data from Global Positioning System (GPS) units to produce Geographic Information System (GIS) maps. Information was gathered from different groups within the community– village elders, youths, and women. These views were then compared and discussed in order to revise village and 107
eserve boundaries, develop a commonly agreed zonation model, strengthen local customary institutions, and raise awareness of nature conservation. While SIT provides tools for telling alternative spatial stories and for giving voices to people at the periphery, it is important to understand the context and complexity of these efforts. While local people's spatial knowledge may seem to be incomplete, distorted, schematized, and augmented (Downs and Stea 1973:18), they are generally fluid and flexible. Boundaries can be constantly adjusted and negotiated to respond to ecological, economic, and demographic changes. Translating these cognitive maps into cartographic maps carries the risk of weakening this fluidity. This impact is even more pronounced if the maps are considered to be “final products,” neglecting the reality that working with spatial information is a process requiring revisions and changes. Community maps are generally created through a series of interviews with local people. As such, the product is socially constructed and subject to the types of relationships that develop between villagers and the people who facilitate the mapping. Mapping facilitators play a critical role in “translating” local spatial knowledge into a cartographic map or GIS. While mapping facilitators are generally aware of epistemological biases in conventional mapping that often exclude the voices of local people, they are not immune to this problem either, especially if the facilitators come from outside the community. Meanwhile, there is a growing realization that sketch mapping's effectiveness for asserting community rights against external interests is limited. Technical maps that meet cartographic standards are required in formal negotiations with the state. This paper examines the experience of a project whose goal was to build local capacity in the management of spatial information in Sumba, Indonesia. The project had two objectives: 1) to raise the technical measure of participatory mapping activities, which might include building GIS; and 2) to minimize the distance between mapping facilitators and communities, allowing the maps to become “living documents” that could be revised and remapped as circumstances change. The project suffered from structural challenges in both the conceptual and organizational realms that hampered its effectiveness. BACKGROUND OF COMMUNITY MAPPING IN NUSA TENGGARA In Nusa Tenggara, the use of maps and mapping by local communities can be traced back to the early 1980s when the World Neighbors, a U.S.-based NGO that had been working with small farmers in Sumba and Flores, introduced sketch mapping to assist in the planning of tree planting and soil conservation strategies in individual farm plots. During a series of sketch mapping exercises in the field, it 108
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MAPPINGCOMMUNITIES ETHICS, VALUES,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS vi vii viii 1 11
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ACRONYMS AMA: adaptive management a
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INTRODUCTION MAPPING POWER: IRONIC
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COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PARTICIPATORY
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APPENDIX I: FORMAL INTERVIEWS AND G
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APPENDIX II: RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND
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land-use plans in various stages of
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egan to argue that these areas were
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conflicts. The NTFP also assists vi
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illegal logging activities and to s
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property is defined according to th
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the real outside pressure has not y
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7. How well do NTFP staff members u
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further and further away from areas
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Methods Projecting aerial photograp
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RESEARCH QUESTIONS The underlying q
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In Samout Krom Village, villagers h
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who have not attended the sketch ma
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concrete sensorial experiences much
Page 63 and 64: CONCLUSION Based on mapping researc
Page 65 and 66: BACKGROUND According to the MIGIS p
Page 67 and 68: many schools, resulting in the clos
Page 69 and 70: members, the Beima, and villagers'
Page 71 and 72: tree cutting and animal grazing in
Page 73 and 74: the bio-gas project that was implem
Page 75 and 76: During the evaluation process we al
Page 77 and 78: 1 Mr. Zhao Yaqiao, Ms. Wu Chengrui,
Page 79 and 80: Events / Dates Bio-gas systems cons
Page 81 and 82: communities to take advantage of SI
Page 83 and 84: Hayfork based NGO focused on commun
Page 85 and 86: likely to be more knowledgeable abo
Page 87 and 88: planning processes, especially with
Page 89 and 90: and implement projects. Some NGOs a
Page 91 and 92: CONCLUSIONS SIT training provides p
Page 93 and 94: REFERENCES California Fire Safe Cou
Page 95 and 96: map strengthened the community's cl
Page 97 and 98: 1994 and 1995 with community mapper
Page 99 and 100: to the mapping. These disagreements
Page 101 and 102: CONCLUSIONS For too long now, the D
Page 103 and 104: APPENDIX B The table below lists th
Page 105 and 106: uncritically or simply misused. As
Page 107 and 108: However, the equipment acquired for
Page 109 and 110: degrees in social sciences, agricul
Page 111 and 112: photo: Martin Hardiono photo: Marti
Page 113: REFERENCES Herlihy, P. H., and G. K
Page 117 and 118: NGO that focused on facilitating co
Page 119 and 120: left their organizations within a y
Page 121 and 122: eadily use the available computer a
Page 123 and 124: local capacity both in terms of ski
Page 125: Nusa Tenggara Community Development
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