FoxHershockMappingCommunities

UNDERSTANDING AND USING COMMUNITY MAPS AMONG INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
IN RATANAKIRI PROVINCE, CAMBODIA
villagers had been divided into female and male groups to
encourage women to give their ideas.
Often the map is kept at either the village chief's or at one
of the NRM committee members' homes. There was a
problem when the map was kept at the commune chief's
house, and villagers could not go and get it if they needed
it. In another case the village did not receive the map at all.
The government staff responsible said they thought they
had already distributed it. Sometimes the village only
received a copy of the scale map and not the sketch map,
when it would be useful for them to have a copy of both.
Participants in both the workshop and the interviews
suggested that the map should be displayed somewhere
accessible for all villagers such as the meeting house.
However, some meeting houses are not suitable due to roof
leaks or inadequate security.
DISCUSSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
All participants in this research responded that both sketch
maps and scale maps are important since they serve
different purposes and are both required for understanding.
However, the maps are not solving all of their problems.
Land is still being sold, encroachment and logging are still
occurring and national level priorities can override the maps
and plans. Some of these issues will hopefully be solved
with the new standardized process, since this will mean that
the maps will be recognized at the national level.
There appears to be a trade off between community
understanding of maps and the speed in which areas are
mapped. The region needs mapping to occur urgently and
quickly to ensure land security benefits for all villages;
however it is also important for communities to understand
the maps so they can use them and explain their
boundaries to outsiders. A balance needs to be found so
that there is maximum benefit for all stakeholders.
From the research it is clear that amongst the villagers there
is limited understanding of maps and mapping processes.
Even those who have received training forget what they
have learned, as there is no review of the training. This is
not surprising as maps contain complex concepts that are
difficult to grasp. Those involved in the sketch mapping
process tend to understand the sketch map better than the
scale map. Those with more education and those who can
read find the scale map easier to read as they can
understand the legend and labels on the map.
One option is to raise the level of education and
understanding of maps in the community. The capacity of
the trainers could be built upon, the frequency of training
sessions could be increased, and map reading and GIS
could be introduced into the school curriculum. This is a
long-term solution and also difficult given the expertise,
money, and time required. One solution could be to
develop more community level mapping trainers and local
experts. Villagers should be used to train other villagers.
Community mapping trainers were tried but government
bureaucracy did not allow it in the CBNRM project, and it
was stopped.
One of the problems with map understanding is that
literacy levels amongst villagers are extremely low. The
national literacy average for Cambodia is 62.8 percent, and
for Ratanakiri it is 23.5 percent (National Census 1998).
Maps generally require some text for labels and in the
legend.
Map concepts are also complex and abstract. Villagers
know their land extremely well, but they are not used to
viewing this information in scale map form. To local
people, place names are very important and one
suggestion from participants was to include all the small
streams as the scale maps only show the large ones. This
would make it easier for the villagers to orient themselves.
Mountains are not shown on the final maps because adding
contours makes the map appear crowded and difficult to
read; however they are also important for orientation on the
map. Experience has shown that people from poor,
isolated areas with low levels of education understand
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