FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS

PARTICIPATORY NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
IN THE TONLE SAP REGION

Contents

Applications

GIS Unit strategies

INTRODUCTION

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), "Tonle Sap Project" based in Siem Reap (Angkor), Cambodia, currently involved in introducing and applying resource information technologies in Cambodia, perhaps the only one doing so at the provincial level
• Wish to include effectively the RS/GPS/GIS tools into its efforts to launch a participatory forest resource use planning and management, for the direct benefit of local communities
• Valuable experience on how these tools could be used within a mostly field-oriented project and strictly provincially-based

PROJECT'S OVERVIEW

GIS BACKGROUND AND CURRENT STATUS

• Initially, no GIS component in itself formulated in the Phase 1 project document
• Some GIS-related activities during Phase 1
• GIS component officially included in Phase 2 project document
• GIS now: active role in implementing activities and achieving project's objectives

Overview: Current Status of GIS and Mapping Materials

GIS Data

• administrative data (province, district, commune, village, protected areas)
• land cover data
• rivers and roads
• elevation data
• soils data

- Fishing Lots boundaries

- Community Forestry Sites boundaries

- Dikes location

Maps

- US toposheets: 1150,000, 1970's

Aerial Photos

- Black and white aerial photos at 1:25,000 scale taken in 1992 and 1996 and at 1:15,000 scale of 1996

GPS

- 2 non-differential GPS navigation units linked to GPS software

APPLICATIONS

GIS UNIT STRATEGIES

- Applications directly usable for the project's main focus, community forestry ("CF")

Present focus - Community Forestry process

• Short-term strategy of the GIS Unit : to make the existing GIS data sets and other resource information techniques as useful as possible while implementing the Community Forestry process

Overview: Community Forestry development strategy

• Goal of community forestry: to reduce natural resource degradation and loss by placing resource control and responsibility under local communities who have traditionally utilized the resources
• Approach: facilitation to assist local community members to articulate what they want, what they see as their problems, what are the options and opportunities, and to help them reaching a consensus on how to proceed

• GIS Unit task: to prepare technical maps using Remote Sensing data. GPS, ground checking and GIS, used as base map for discussion with the local people

• Whenever needed, participatory/sketch maps still made on the spot

Present GIS Unit involvement

• Two GIS activities with direct impact on implementing the CF process:

i.e. scanning, importing into GIS and geo-referencing them

• enlargeable from 1:25,000 to 1:5,000 scale
• used in discussions with villagers, e.g. which identifying boundaries of potential community forestry sites

2- Import data from GPS surveys into GIS

i.e. GPS data from the GPS receivers used by the project field staff downloaded into computer and then imported into GIS

By developing the use of remote sensing and GPS tools, the GIS Unit involved itself directly in detailed mapping of Community Forestry Site, in

• spotting the different features which might serve as physical boundaries (such as rivers or roads),
• collecting GPS points all along parts where no physical boundaries can be identified,
• drafting map of the potential area limits,
• producing base map for discussion,
• finalising maps and prints out to be included in the official CF agreement to be signed

For CF are limits demarcation: field check made by the GIS Unit using GPS navigation tool

For more advanced CF sites, community forest management plan;

• additional large-scale maps based on scanned aerial photos as base map for discussion on dividing the CF area into compartments for different forest management strategies ;
• CF area divided into different blocks (per forest product) and sub-blocks (per village), and GPS measurement during demarcation made on request.

Future GIS involvement

• Target new community forestry sites based on the degree of utilization;
• However, in reality, communities are approaching the project for assistance.
• Current criteria for selecting suitable sites to initiate community forestry:

• interest and assistance request from a local community ;
• idealistically, area with an existing local forest management system
• area with no serious disputes (land ownership claims, encroachment, military presence)
• forest resource users belonging to the same community.

GIS: valuable tool in identifying potential target sites for community forestry by

• use the land cover data sets mapped from the 1:25,000 scale aerial photos (1992, 1996) to get a better overall picture of available forest resources at the district level;
• re-group the various interpretation classes according to their current estimated productivity (e.g. Evergreen > Forest > Deciduous Forest > Woodland > Shrubland);
• produce maps showing the current forest productivity rather than the land cover, e.g. map showing a productivity ranking (e.g. very high - high - medium - low - very low).

• combine information on areas of current forest productivity with information on population density and population distribution, available in the commune and village data sets;
• add other valuable information such as forest products demand and supply.

Future objective - Natural Resource dB

• Data base to be built comprehensively, with the main information layers to be considered:

• Other sources of information are therefore to be found.
• Once the situation of information request and availability clear, the GIS Unit can make a sound assessment of what additional data have to be generated
• However: human resource of the present GIS Unit am very limited

Þ To consider establishing a GIS based planning procedure by the example of 1 or 2 districts instead. Establishing a planning procedure might serve the project and the provincial Forestry and Fisheries Departments better than establishing a full coverage GIS data base for all districts.

CONCLUSION

Prospects of using GIS within a field-oriented project: large - as the difficulties one would face setting up an efficient GIS Unit at a provincial level.

• Short-term basis: the project's focus on community forest: very encouraging. Regarding resource information technologies, the GIS Unit is making its best to prove that these tools can be successfully apply at the very field-level, for the direct benefit of the local communities.
• Long-term basis: the project's objective of drafting district action plan, which would include natural resource use pluming : a tremendous challenge.

Perhaps the main difficulty facing the GIS Unit: neither technical constraints, nor human resources limitation. The GIS Unit will succeed first if components and outsiders are convinced by the usefulness of resources information techniques for ground level activities planning and implementation.

The GIS Unit very existence and lasting will then be justified as a technical service unit at the provincial level rather than a project activity that runs on its own.

Being able to succeed in these objectives would truly mean having an efficient GIS Unit as the key-tool for both:

• facilitating the integrated resources management by community at the local level, and
• contributing to give natural resources use planning options to decision-makers at higher level.