Example from the Makushi communities in Guyana - of how collective action and Aichi targets may be measured and data aggregated
[#1081]
The Global Canopy Programme (GCP) would like to submit the following example of how collective action of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities can be reported, using technology such as smart phones to support the aggregation of data. This example comes from our collaboration with the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB) and Iwokrama in Guyana between 2011 and 2015.
As part of a Norad-funded initiative to create a bottom-up system of information collection, which could contribute towards the national level, the Makushi communities of the North Rupununi developed a monitoring framework with the following themes: forest change, natural resource use and well-being. Questionnaires to collect data on these themes were elaborated with community participation and guidance, and then loaded onto smartphones. Subsequently, having received training from GCP, the questionnaires were used by community monitors and local support team to undertake several rounds of surveying, analysis and reporting.
The data from the smartphones was aggregated by village and at the regional level in a portal that can be accessed by the local NRDDB Project Management Team. This data can be used by communities to manage their resources and the data can also give insights into several of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. For example , information on forest loss recorded by community members, relevant to target 5 related deforestation and forest degradation, was used collectively to manage forest areas by applying changes in land use practices, such as farming in savannah areas rather than forest plots. Another example is target 6, which relates to management and harvest of fish stocks, community-led surveys established change in fish stocks, in particular rare and endangered species such as Sudis gigas. Subsequently community-appointed leaders, known as "Toshaos", with the support of their village councilors established harvest quotas based on their community-collected data.
It may be of interest that while this initiative was originally developed to support communities to ensure that REDD+ activities at national level were appropriate for indigenous peoples and transparent, community monitoring and information systems precede any such national REDD+ programme. Further, while the initiative supports communities to collect and aggregate relevant data for REDD+, this data has significant overlaps with information that needs to be recorded under the UNCBD Aichi Targets.
The technology used to transfer and aggregate the information is the "Open Data Kit" software, which is free to use on any smart phone. You can read more about the software here:
http://forestcompass.org/how/digital-technologies/open-data-kit, and the initiative here:
http://forestcompass.org/case-studies/community-based-forest-monitoring-north-rupununi-guyana. We hope this example is useful input for the June meeting and we are happy to respond to questions here in this forum or on
forestcompass@globalcanopy.org
