Participatory mapping
Sylvia P., Blue Ventures
Participatory mapping for management
Participatory mapping is undertaken with communities to understand spatial patterns (land use, land tenure, land cover type and historical change and trend) and the state and use of mangrove resources in the project area.The participatory mapping creates maps which will later support the management planning/zoning. Google Earth imagery covering the whole area of interest (AOI) combined with questionnaires is used to assess community perceptions of resource use. All stakeholders (farmers, loggers, fuel wood collectors, charcoal producers, lime makers, elders and fishers), identified through interviews with key informant(s), are involved on this exercise and are created resource use map of the AOI. They are divided according to activity groups and the number of people per each group should be at least 5. Only one person is designated to the group to draw the boundary of each land use type on the map. Ideally each group should be assisted by one staff member from the support organization. Each group comprises a range of sex and age (male and female/young and old) that are already active in the respective activities (usually over 15 years old).
- High resolution Google Earth map of the area is available and contains familiar landmarks (e.g school building, church) to facilitate community reading.
- The questionnaires for the stakeholders aiming to gather additional information about the resources use is available and translated into local dialect to avoid confusion.
- Make sure the village is informed in advance and would be better to check with community their convenience time to undertake the exercise (neap tide when they are not going for fishing or at spring tide when they get back from fishing,);
- The mapping exercise should last between 2 hours and 3 hour to ensure that the stakeholders are focused on the activities.
- The staff from the support organization should be familiar with the local dialect and avoid using scientific/very technical word.
- Consensus between groups must be respected before drawing/delineating the boundary on the map.
- The facilitator must be able to make a quick analysis of information given by the community during the exercise.