Reflexive Cartography to Tackle Poverty: A Model of Participatory Zoning

In this 9-paper, Casti argues for a participatory zoning model for environmental conservation programmes. The strategy is aimed at both preventing "conflict between local communities and international agents" and encouraging economic development in the local community. The proposed method, according to the author, is innovative in two respects:

• it is based on an assessment of the territorial setup and the social values of the peoples who inhabit the peripheries of parks
• it is represented through customised GIS cartography

The model draws on the idea of cartographic semiosis, "a theory whereby the drawing of a map must not be severed from an analysis of territory, for maps act as mediatory agents between a given society and its territory." The map, with its communicative power, is seen not only as descriptive, but prescriptive. The idea that the map is an objective mirror of reality is rejected. Rather, a map is a means of communication, with the ability to influence those who interpret it and the decisions that they make. The participatory zoning model aims, through the involvement of local communities in participatory mapping, to introduce a representation of the social value of territory into the territorial planning conversation.

Casti describes the participatory zoning model by drawing on experience of the ECOPAS (Ecosystèmes Protégés en Afrique Sahélienne) Programme, in which this strategy was used to map the W Park, which extends over parts of Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso.

In order to ensure that maps reflected the local social practices, the information collection took part in two stages:

1. direct observation of the territory
2. socio-territorial inquiry

Collation of these two data sources "yielded a representation of the socio-territorial layout at the peripheries of the Park, and served, above all, to highlight change factors and to suggest plans and modes of intervention." Both regional and local maps were created, with regional maps provIding a basis for comparative analysis and local maps highlighting "community values and knowledge items which conventional methods of inquiry would have neglected."

[This paper was presented at the International Conference on Nature held in Bangkok in November 2004]