Short course on Biocultural Diversity, Ethnoecology and Community-based Conservation
Access Privileges
Access is currently restricted to the following group(s):
Building the capacity of stewards of biocultural diversity and collaborating researchers is of critical importance to the success of community-based conservation initiatives. The Global Diversity Foundation, drawing on experiences of its International Training Programme, proposes a two day mini-course that will give selected WCC participants a hands-on introduction to some of the concepts and methods that that are included in our longer courses and the online learning guide on biocultural diversity that we are developing.
The course will begin with an introduction to the methods and issues that define the current debate on the role of local knowledge and practice in conservation. In addition, we will discuss conventions, laws and policies on indigenous rights and protected areas. The following themes and techniques will be covered in our overview: (1) Social, Cultural and Economic Aspects of Resource Use documented through interviewing; household inventory and wealth ranking; market surveys; (2) Spatial Representations analysed by interview-driven participatory mapping and ground truthing; participatory GIS; using maps and participatory three dimensional modelling to understand intangible heritage and intergenerational transmission of knowledge about natural and cultural systems; and (3) Ethnoecology with a focus on domain analysis, including freelisting of landscape and resource use categories; understanding pilesorting; defining local priorities through weighted ranking; assessing valuation and importance.
The second day, coordinated by Insight (a UK organisation that collaborates closely with GDF on community video projects) will explore participatory video (PV) and its use in empowering local communities to identify and analyse important issues in biodiversity conservation. Insight trainers will distribute a PV handbook and will present a prototype PV web portal complete with search facilities, a blog, discussion forum, and film reviews.
Additional materials – such as annotated bibliographies and web resources – will supplement the necessarily brief introduction to the topics covered in the course. Participants will attain a basic understanding of the potential for incorporating interactive methods and participatory video within their communities or field projects.
The course will begin with an introduction to the methods and issues that define the current debate on the role of local knowledge and practice in conservation. In addition, we will discuss conventions, laws and policies on indigenous rights and protected areas. The following themes and techniques will be covered in our overview: (1) Social, Cultural and Economic Aspects of Resource Use documented through interviewing; household inventory and wealth ranking; market surveys; (2) Spatial Representations analysed by interview-driven participatory mapping and ground truthing; participatory GIS; using maps and participatory three dimensional modelling to understand intangible heritage and intergenerational transmission of knowledge about natural and cultural systems; and (3) Ethnoecology with a focus on domain analysis, including freelisting of landscape and resource use categories; understanding pilesorting; defining local priorities through weighted ranking; assessing valuation and importance.
The second day, coordinated by Insight (a UK organisation that collaborates closely with GDF on community video projects) will explore participatory video (PV) and its use in empowering local communities to identify and analyse important issues in biodiversity conservation. Insight trainers will distribute a PV handbook and will present a prototype PV web portal complete with search facilities, a blog, discussion forum, and film reviews.
Additional materials – such as annotated bibliographies and web resources – will supplement the necessarily brief introduction to the topics covered in the course. Participants will attain a basic understanding of the potential for incorporating interactive methods and participatory video within their communities or field projects.
