An interesting posting on the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog today brought back memories of my involvement with a participatory mapping exercise in Fiji when working on the Development of Sustainable Agriculture in the Pacific (DSAP) project. DSAP, with other partners, worked with rural communities on Ovalau Island, Fiji to help map their natural resources and tangible and intangible cultural heritage (it was part of an exercise to assist with Ovalau's application for UNESCO World Heritage listing). Further information about the exercise and participatory mapping in general can be obtained from the IAPAD website.
The posting referred to above on the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog called 'Mapping for Change' is a brief video on the international Mapping for Change conference that took place in Kenya in 2005 and is well worth watching.
For those interested in participatory mapping, IIED have published a special issue of Participatory Learning and Action dedicated to the Kenya conference. Robert Chambers has also written about the development of participatory mapping/GIS in his recent publication From PRA to PLA and Pluralism, which I recently posted on.
It would be interesting to learn about any similar participatory mapping exercises that might have been carried out locally with rural communities to map natural resources, cultural heritage or other community assets.
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2 comments:
I believe that participatory mapping work in Fiji has won some kind of award?
Yes Luigi, you are correct. Anju Mangal from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in Fiji has been in touch with the following:
Dear Colleagues,
At the 2006 PICISOC-PACINET (http://www.picisoc.org) in Samoa, I had the opportunity to present the Participatory GIS (PGIS) project to a wide audience of the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society (ICT Pacific Community).
I was approached by Jan Bieringa who represented the NZ Summit Awards (http://www.wsa-awards.org.nz/). She had taken notes of the PGIS project and was very impressed with the outcomes of the PGIS workshop in Ovalau, Levuka.
This year, a call for submission in 8 categories to participate in the World Summit Awards was made by Jan Bieringa and I took the opportunity to submit the contents of the PGIS initiative under the category e-culture.
The nomination was made to the World Summit Awards (http://www.wsa.hr/) and since then I have been in touch with the organizers in regards to the nomination process.
It is a pleasure for me to announce that the PGIS project has been selected as one of the World Summit Awards (WSA) winners in the category e-culture.
Thanks
Anju
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