Case Study: Mobile GIS to record and monitor carbon stored in forests by communities in India, Senegal and Tanzania

International Institute for Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation (ITC) in Enschede, the Netherlands.2005

The Problem: Lack of accurate, verifiable baseline measurements of the carbon stored in natural forests, as well as effective ways to monitor changes in carbon stocks to access funds under the clean development mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol.

The Solution: development of an easy to use mobile GIS unit by the communities to record and monitor the carbon stored in natural forests

Context: Traditional communities dependent on forests for their livelihoods around the world know how to manage their forests in a sustainable manner. With mobile GIS technology they can now apply that knowledge to measure and monitor the carbon stored in community forests, and thus may become eligible for project financing under the ‘clean development mechanism’ of the Kyoto Protocol, which aims at reducing global carbon emissions. For local communities to benefit from the funding in the future they will need to provide accurate, verifiable baseline measurements of the carbon stored in natural forests, as well as effective ways to monitor changes in carbon stocks. Given this background, the University of Twente and the ITC launched a research and capacity building project to determine how local knowledge and GIS technology could be brought together to meet the requirements of this international agreement, and to promote sustainable forest management.

The Project: The project’s objective was to identify a suitable methodology for gathering and managing geoinformation that will enable communities in developing countries to monitor forest carbon stocks. Since it was unlikely that communities themselves would be able to meet all the data requirements in the short run, the project aimed to show that community involvement could serve as a short cut or replace some of the procedures required in formulating climate projects, and reduce project transaction costs considerably. The question was how to enable local communities to do their own ‘carbon accounting’ as cheaply as possible.

Implementation process: The first step consisted of training the communities in India, Senegal and Tanzania using participatory methods, to carry out forest surveys and to define indicators for sustainable development.

The second step was to assess the usability of the standard GIS interface, including which parts of the interface needed to be modified, and to what extent, as well as what training was needed for users who had never used a computer. The initial step was to assemble a mobile GIS unit that could be used to record data in the field. It was decided to use an HP iPAQ pocket PC, a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) loaded with Windows and GIS software ArcPAD 6.0.2. For data recording, ArcPAD has the advantage that it can be used to display maps and images as georeferenced background layers, and can also be tailored to include a user-friendly interface for data entry and basic operations. The equipment also includes a GPS so that users can register directly the exact locations of all data recordings.

The third step was to organize workshops in India, Senegal and Tanzania, where the community members with no previous experience with the technology were invited to evaluate the mobile GIS unit, and to record its strengths and weaknesses. During these workshops, the villagers, most of whom had little formal education, were taught how to use the mobile GIS unit to collect data. Some had never even seen a computer before, yet within a few hours they had mastered the basics of the iPAQ and learned how to locate themselves using the iPAQ-GPS system, and to retrieve pre-recorded data points. They also managed to plot an area, while watching the polygon develop on the screen, and (with some assistance) to enter data describing the plot on a predesigned form. The villagers learned very quickly both the forest measurement techniques and how to use the iPAQ. They were also able to provide feedback on problems related to the computer system itself, as well as about what should be measured in the forest. What was needed most of all was a simple, well illustrated manual to accompany the system; the rest would become easier with practice.

Outcome: The project team succeeded in determining what is practically possible with hands-on participatory GIS. Community members can learn without much difficulty to use the mobile GIS to compile inventories of natural forest resources. In the near future, as more user friendly portable computers become cheaper and more widely available, communities around the world will be able to use this technology to record and quantify their natural resources.

Source: Content extracted from: http://www.communitycarbonforestry.org http://ictupdate.cta.int/index.php/article/articleprint/486/-1/87

Contact for more information: Jeroen Verplanke (verplanke@itc.nl) who is a researcher at the International Institute for Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation (ITC) in Enschede, the Netherlands.


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