The following examples illustrate some typical examples of GTZ supported projects involved in applications of resource information technologies.

Implementation of Geographical Information System in the Forestry Sector: ’The Sarawak Forest Department, MALAYSIA

Project Tasks:

1. To enable the Sarawak Forest Department to provide accurate and up-to-date information for forest monitoring, management and planning
2. To establish a Forest Information System

Major Results

• Capacity building
• Establish a database on forest resources
• Development of forest management applications
• Support in institutional development

Problems

• Inter-institutional co-operation
• Inter-institutional data sharing
• Forest related information is considered as confidential
• Inefficient intra-institutional data flow (following vertical hierarchy)
• Lack of transparency of data availability
• Missing quality monitoring schemes
• Data are scattered, inconsistent and often duplicated
• Financial constraints to update the system (hard- and software)

Implementation of GIS for Land Use Inventory and Monitoring, Indonesia

Background

• The National Land Agency (BPN) has the mandate to control land use and to implement land use plans.
• 200 Mio. ha have to be managed.
• Modernisation of the system is required in order to secure a cost and time efficient land management procedures.

Goal:

Institutional strengthening, assisting BPN in the development of the capability to apply modern methodology and technology to land use mapping and monitoring, while producing the land use maps required for planning and monitoring in priority areas.

Implementation of GIS for Land Use Inventory and Monitoring, Indonesia

Major Activities:

Problems:

• Integration in management and hierarchical structures
• The need for restructuring a part of the organisation (data flow, responsibilities, etc.)
• Technical overkill: pragmatic approaches are not considered
• Distance between technicians and planner
• Staff fluctuation

Typical Problems

Strategies/ Lessons learnt

• Transfer of Information has to be appropriate, considering the available human resources, motivations and cultural backgrounds of people
• Technology has to be brought to the user: Technology has to be transferred and adjusted in such a way, that the user can easily execute the given task in an efficient way
• Information systems should be introduced in phases:
  (Initiation, Implementation, Institutionalisation)

Organisational Aspects:

• Information Systems bring changes:
• Ownership of the information
• Distribution of power within an organisation
• Accessibility of data
• An organisational setting has to be adopted according to the need of information flow and the decision process
• Hierarchical information flows are challenged by information networks

Need for Strategic Planning

• Identify objectives why the organisation wants to use GIS
• Assess manner in which information is currently used in decision making in the organisation
• Identify organisational constraints
• Develop a vision for the information system’s use in the organisation
• Estimate cost, risk and organisational impact of the vision
• Determine feasibility of the vision.

Concluding Quotation: Globalisation and the information revolution present no threats, but hopes and opportunities. They give the developing world a dramatic chance to leapfrog into the future, breaking out of decades of stagnation and decline.' [after A. Fatoyinbo, D+C 2/1999]’