FoxHershockMappingCommunities

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EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES THROUGH MAPPING: EVALUATION OF PARTICIPATORY MAPPING IN TWO HANI VILLAGES, YUNNAN PROVINCE, P. R. CHINA formulate these kinds of rules before the mapping activity. However, after the MIGIS mapping activities these two villages had several discussions in 2000 regarding villagers' regulations and rules. At present, they have developed some rules for administrating village affairs as well as for managing natural resources. These include, for instance, that: (1) households can not cut down trees and then plant crops, including lemon grass; (2) each village will hire one forest guard to take care of all forests, including collective forests and individual households' forest. Each household will pay 2 RMB Yuan per year to subsidize the forest guards; (3) villagers stealing trees will be fined in cash 11 ; (4) owners of domestic animals loose in the young forests and closed hills will be fined 5 RMB Yuan per head per incident; and (5) tree harvests must be approved by village cadres, and three trees must be planted for every one tree cut down. A key issue is how to enforce these kinds of regulations and rules. Animals, especially cattle, still contribute a great deal to households' cash income and engage in labor such as plowing fields, carrying products, and so forth. In many cases households must graze animals in forests. It is thus necessary to find a compromise in dealing with this issue. A question we asked the villagers was why they needed villagers' regulations and rules after the MIGIS activities. One young man about twenty-five years old told us that it meant it was necessary for them to have villagers' regulations and rules, but no one was willing to take the responsibility for organizing villagers to discuss and formulate them. The MIGIS mapping exercises showed that all the villagers were facing the same problems resulting from deforestation so they needed some regulations and rules to protect their forests. Before, not all people had the same understanding as to how important the forests are for everyone. One point we argue here is that the empowerment should come from the community inside. However these does need to be an external spark lit. This can be a way of facilitation. In other words, the community may not be empowered by outsiders; however the outsiders may take roles of starting and speeding up the process. The community participation mapping activity more or less took this kind of role in these two villages. Construction of bio-gas systems. In order to decrease firewood consumption, the two villages organized households to construct bio-gas systems. Initially, the village cadres faced much opposition because most households thought that a bio-gas system with three cubic meters would cost about 1500 RMB Yuan. This was not affordable for almost every household. At that time they visited Mr. Heng Chunqing and reported this issue to him. Mr. Heng then made a phone call to the county forest bureau. Later the village cadres visited the county forest bureau three times and finally they got a subsidy for materials, including cement, steel and plastic pipes, gas stoves, and gas pulp. The forest bureau also sent technicians to design the biogas tank for every household and provided training for households on how to maintain the system and how to use the bio-gas equipment. With the subsidy from government, each household only needed to contribute labor and stones that they may prepare themselves. Villagers explained the many advantages of the bio-gas systems: (1) it is not necessary to pay for electricity for lighting since they use bio-gas; (2) smaller households (three to four family members) could save on firewood consumption since they could also use bio-gas for cooking; (3) it decreases the labor burden for firewood gathering and carrying, especially for women and children; and (4) forests can be more effectively protected. We asked Mr. Heng Chunqing a question about the linkage between the construction of bio-gas systems and MIGIS activity. He said he could not give us a clear answer. However he mentioned one point we thought was important. He said that during the mapping process villagers not only analyzed the reasons for deforestation, they also analyzed how to resolve the problem. One woman presented what she saw at her parents' village concerning 65
the bio-gas project that was implemented there. She said we could decrease consumption of firewood if we could have that. He said this could be one link between bio-gas construction and MIGIS mapping activity. Construction of drinking water scheme. With financial and technical support from the Luchun County Environment Protection Bureau, these two villages implemented a drinking water scheme in April and May 2003. We asked villagers and village cadres whether this project came about because of MIGIS mapping activities. They said it might be part of the reason. The Shang Shapu Village headman explained to us that there actually was an agreement to implement a drinking water scheme in 1997 when the bureau rented a place from Shang Shapu for storing waste materials and rubbish. However before the MIGIS mapping activities, the villages made two inquiries to the bureau and did not receive a positive answer. After the MIGIS mapping activities village cadres asked the bureau again and got a clear answer that the drinking water scheme would be implemented in 2003. From this discussion we might say that the involvement of Heng Chunqing from the bureau took an important role. According to him, villagers in these two villages really needed help. Furthermore, he told us that it was the first time he recognized how poor the villagers were and how anxious the villagers were to get help from outsiders. Moreover, according to Mr. Heng's explanation and our observations in other places, the designing responsibility basically was taken by technicians without any consultation from beneficiaries. The MIGIS mapping activities provided many good suggestions from villagers. He cited the water source sites' selection as an example. The technicians took the draft design to the villages and tried to get village cadres' feedback. The village cadres held meetings and reported back to them that this kind of thing must be decided by villagers themselves collectively. They then held villagers' meetings to discuss the design, and most villagers proposed different designs that were finally approved by the technicians and the bureau. The suggested design by the villagers themselves not only gave more households convenient access to water tanks, but also linked the pipes with farming fields adding to the water supply for rice fields. This is a very good example of how the mapping approach may help local communities exchange information with government bureaus. Moreover it once again demonstrates how knowledgeable the local villagers are. They are not only the learners, but also the experts. They not only find ways to resolve practical problems but can also contribute their knowledge to government officials as well as scientists. We can thus say that community participation mapping is not only a way to empower local communities but also an approach where government officials were empowered as well. Impacts of participatory mapping activities The evaluation group summarized the following general impacts of the MIGIS participatory mapping initiative: The visualization effect of the maps is much improved after being transcribed from sketch maps on big sheets to GIS maps. This is one reason why they need GIS maps. We may take the following maps as examples. Community maps. The evaluation group observed that most villagers who visited or participated in the group meetings could identify their own houses and some other typical construction such as toilets or dragon trees. They also could point out other households' homesteads, and explain subsequent changes, for example how many homesteads increased or decreased, who moved out of the village, and who moved in, and so forth. They also could analyze the direction of change and the reasons behind the change by themselves, for example, because the road was collapsed in many places; because the school was stopped, because the water tanks, headwater sources, and pipe lines were changed, etc. Seven households in Xia Shapu Village moved to roadside places and some villagers admired these households that could now access the main road more easily. Other villagers thought that it resulted in more difficulties, for instance, that it is more difficult to carry 66
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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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Page 16 and 17:
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COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PARTICIPATORY
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COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PARTICIPATORY
Page 22 and 23: 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 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: tree cutting and animal grazing in
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
Page 115 and 116: eserve boundaries, develop a common
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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