1:5,000-scale model of the West Garo Hills, Tura and Sasatgre, Meghalaya, India. (Yr 2003)

Method/tools: P3DM and GIS

Note: Land tenure is extremely complex in the Project context. The traditional clan controlled-system, which secured subsistence cultivation rights and access to forest produce, is presently rapidly eroding. The uncertainty of long-term access to land, or the ownership status, is one of the major limiting factors when a farmer or a community makes decisions on land use and on longer-term investments.

In May 2003, within the context of the North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project for Upland Areas Project (NERCRMP) the West Garo Hills Community Resource Management Society (WGRHCRMS) hosted a training on P3DM facilitated by Philippine Association for Intercultural Development (PAFID), a Filipino NGO. The event has been supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

"Sasatgre residents received their guests with a song that thanked their forebears for taking care of the traditional lands, or akhing. Many community members from Sasatgre as well as the nearby song of Sakaladuma helped in depicting land use on the model. Nokmas, or traditional leaders of the akhings, from adjoining villages also helped the Sasatgre nokma to identify the boundaries of the Sasatgre akhing on the 3D model."

More details on the exercise:

"It is crucial to understand that land use management, particularly optimization of land use is essential if pressure on forests (and hence, on biodiversity and other natural resources) is to be arrested and subsequently reversed. In NERCRMP, we realized that given the marginalization of shifting cultivation, we need to gradually sedentarise agriculture so that the pressures on resources can be reduced. It is absolutely critical that food grains - staples as well as vegetables are be grown on a rotational basis on permanent plots. In the existing context permanent farming need the development of terraces based on the identification of suitable land (slope, soil quality, water availability). For this purpose, P3DM was found to have the most potential. It helped establishing a transparent and participatory process of site identification, hence, everyone in the village was ensured access to terraces. It also helped selection of sites in a participatory, equitable and scientific manner ( taking care of slope, land capability, water availability, etc) and also promoted planning for water management (catchment protection, etc) and forest conservation. In the process, it has also set the tone for a participatory buffer zone management of the Nokrek Biosphere Reserve." (Adapted from information provided by Dr Dhrupad Choudhury)

In the NERCRMP, community based planning through village-based organizations (natural resource management groups) has proven to be effective for optimization of land use leading to improved livelihoods. In these villages, livelihoods aspirations of the communities are captured through 2-D participatory mapping. Communities covered by the project have their own sketch maps representing present land uses, land capability and planned land uses. However, the maps are neither geo-referenced nor drawn to scale, making it challenging to determine the relative size and area of the various land uses, e.g. jhum fields, forest cover, etc. The same is true with the location of village boundaries making it difficult to accurately grasp the area covered by each village. It was felt that a spatially representative tool would strengthen on-going community planning and development processes. Hence, the introduction of Participatory 3-D Modelling (P3DM).

Upon the initiative of the NERCRMP, with the guidance of Philippine Association for Intercultural Development (PAFID) a Mission was undertaken in February 2003 to: (i) determine areas for improvement in the documentation of local spatial information; (ii) provide information on participatory mapping using P3DM to the Project staff and village members; and (iii) determine its appropriateness and acceptability from the stakeholders and the project staff of the NERCRMP. Based on the findings from this Mission, the P3DM method was tried out in May 2003, in Sasatgre village, which lies in the Nokrek Biosphere Reserve.

At ICIMOD, in addition to enhancement of natural resource management planning and livelihoods goals, we envisage that P3DM would assist in developing a model, which would be replicable for other Protected Areas. The objective is to ensure that local plans developed by communities are included in larger management plans for Nokrek National Park and the buffer zone area. Currently, drafting and development of a buffer zone management plan is high in the priority of the Forestry Department. However, initial efforts by the Forestry Department to draft such a plan have given limited attention to the actual resource management and utilization initiatives of the communities. This situation is due to lack of updated information on current resource utilization and management activities. Later, when more villages will be able to come up with P3DM, recommendations could be formulated on a workable policy for participatory buffer zone management and guidelines developed.

More Case studies on P3DM used in the context of Participatory Land Use Planning (PLUP)