FoxHershockMappingCommunities

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EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES THROUGH MAPPING: EVALUATION OF PARTICIPATORY MAPPING IN TWO HANI VILLAGES, YUNNAN PROVINCE, P. R. CHINA 1 By Zheng Baohua This paper seeks to evaluate the products of a mobileinteractive GIS (MIGIS) activity conducted in 1999 to determine whether the activity had any long-term impact on the community. The paper suggests that participation in the mapping process helped villagers to read and interpret simple maps and charts. With some assistance from the evaluation team members, they could even interpret more complicated maps and charts. Sketch mapping was an effective tool for communities to collectively analyze their own situations. MIGIS mapping activity provided a catalyst in raising villagers’ awareness of environmental degradation caused by deforestation. It might also have catalyzed villagers’ actions to build their infrastructure. The maps also helped local communities to communicate with government bureaus. Many development workers in China, especially in the southwest provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, have adopted participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and rapid rural appraisal (RRA) tools for soliciting community participation in action research. However, many government officials and some scholars view the products of PRA and RRA exercises as rough and unscientific. Meanwhile community participation practitioners are beginning to realize that the design and implementation of PRA and RRA exercises need to be tailored to the particularities of local situations. These developments are pushing development workers to look for new ways to utilize PRA and RRA methods and tools. In 1999, a joint group of scientists and development specialists, with financial support from the New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry, conducted an action research project in Shang Shapu and Xia Shangpu Hamlets, Luchun County, Yunnan Province. 2 The participants collected data and information by using different PRA and RRA tools and methods, including mapping. The data they collected were later transcribed into a geographic information system (GIS). The participants later returned their results back to the villagers for sharing and correction. After at least two rounds of this process they finalized the maps and charts. They named this activity “mobile interactive geographical information system” (MIGIS). Five years later a group from the Center for Community Development (CDC) revisited these communities to assess whether this GIS-oriented participatory mapping process had any long-term impact on these communities. The evaluation group conducted two field trips to these villages in 2003 and discussed its findings with other CDC staff members who provided many good suggestions and recommendations. 3 This paper seeks to evaluate the mapping processes undertaken by the MIGIS group and to assess whether MIGIS had any notable impacts on these communities. We sought to learn whether participatory mapping affected natural resource management by asking questions about the local community's perceptions of the mapping process and results and about how mapping affected natural resource management. 57
BACKGROUND According to the MIGIS proposal, the overall goal of this initiative was to place PRA results within a spatial context by entering them into a GIS. This would serve the duel purpose of allowing development workers and other interested groups to access research findings more easily, as well as to place PRA results within a spatial context. MIGIS also expected that linking PRA and GIS might assist grassroots communities, local government officials, and development workers to develop more efficient communication, to build a common understanding of local situations, and to improve their working efficiency. The specific objectives of the MIGIS initiative were to facilitate villagers, who generally had little or no formal school education to understand their living conditions better; analyze the opportunities and threats related to their living conditions; evaluate and analyze the priority of potential development areas; and formulate feasible development action plans. The MIGIS group stayed in villages for more than four weeks. They conducted many exercises with villagers by using PRA methods and tools such as community mapping, community resource mapping, transect mapping, historic mapping, seasonal calendars, big events, and venn diagrams. During this processes they facilitated villagers to record most of this information on big sheets of paper. In order to interpret the information collected from the PRA exercise fully and to make these data more visual, they scanned the information sheets into a computer and then transcribed them into GIS maps. The MIGIS group then engaged in a participatory mapping process showing the maps to villagers and making many rounds of consultation and changes based upon villagers' recommendations and suggestions. Using both the PRA and GIS toolboxes made it easier for the MIGIS group to discuss different topics with villagers; these topics included for example, grain crop production and food security, land-use patterns and historic changes, human resources and labor divisions, farming and nonfarming activities, seasonal constraints, development opportunities and difficulties, and social relationships among villagers and between villages. The MIGIS group also helped villagers to formulate ten action plans (five for each village). The MIGIS group concluded from this action research that it was necessary and feasible to undertake community development work in Shang Shapu and Xia Shapu Villages. The group thought the villagers possessed abundant and practical indigenous knowledge of farming and forestry even though they were poor in terms of material assets and had not received much formal school education. The MIGIS group expected villagers would receive financial help, information, and technical support from outsiders, especially the local government. Villagers, however, recognized how 58
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MAPPINGCOMMUNITIES ETHICS, VALUES,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS vi vii viii 1 11
Page 5 and 6:
ACRONYMS AMA: adaptive management a
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INTRODUCTION MAPPING POWER: IRONIC
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Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15: INTRODUCTION MAPPING POWER: IRONIC
Page 16 and 17: INTRODUCTION MAPPING POWER: IRONIC
Page 18 and 19: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PARTICIPATORY
Page 32 and 33: APPENDIX I: FORMAL INTERVIEWS AND G
Page 34: APPENDIX II: RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND
Page 37 and 38: land-use plans in various stages of
Page 39 and 40: egan to argue that these areas were
Page 41 and 42: conflicts. The NTFP also assists vi
Page 43 and 44: illegal logging activities and to s
Page 45 and 46: property is defined according to th
Page 47 and 48: the real outside pressure has not y
Page 49 and 50: 7. How well do NTFP staff members u
Page 51 and 52: further and further away from areas
Page 53 and 54: Methods Projecting aerial photograp
Page 55 and 56: RESEARCH QUESTIONS The underlying q
Page 57 and 58: In Samout Krom Village, villagers h
Page 59 and 60: who have not attended the sketch ma
Page 61 and 62: concrete sensorial experiences much
Page 63: CONCLUSION Based on mapping researc
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 and 114: REFERENCES Herlihy, P. H., and G. K
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eserve boundaries, develop a common
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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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