A model to promote socially-inclusive climate action
Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, Cambodia – 1 Oct. 2024 – More than 30 members of the youth, elderly, women, village leaders, and local officials this month participated in a 3D participatory mapping exercise that organizers hope could become a model for community-led and socially inclusive climate action planning in Southeast Asia.
By fostering awareness through community engagement, the Building a Participatory 3D Model for Putrom village in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary strengthens local participation in sustainable landscape management and highlights the importance of biodiversity, thus promoting effective conservation as well as long-term economic and agricultural development.
The Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary is a REDD+ project led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) that aims to reduce emission from deforestation and forest degradation while benefiting local communities through sustainable forest management, biodiversity and enhancement of forest carbon stock.
REDD+ refers to a process moderated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which supports developing countries' efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
While participatory 3D modeling has been implemented in the past, it is the first time that SERVIR Southeast Asia (SERVIR SEA) is partnering with collaborators in the region to combine its geospatial data collection and mapping prowess with community development assets and networks of others.
“SERVIR SEA’s geospatial technology empowers Cambodia through the Biophysical M&E Dashboard, a vital tool for monitoring land use, land cover change and conservation project progress. Participatory 3D mapping is the approach that fosters conservation within wildlife sanctuaries. This collaborative approach promises to increase communities’ engagement and enhance land management practices, paving the way for a resilient Putrom village,” says Nguyen Hanh Quyen, ecosystems and carbon management theme lead at SERVIR SEA.
SERVIR SEA – a joint partnership between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) – uses publicly available satellite imagery and geospatial technologies to address climate change challenges in the region.
With support from USAID/Cambodia, SERVIR SEA works on geospatial applications that inform decision makers and the public on sustainable agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and climate actions, ultimately contributing to decreased greenhouse gas emissions and improving the local communities’ livelihood. USAID/Cambodia Morodok Baitang project and WCS were the main SERVIR SEA partners in this exercise.
“The participatory 3D modeling in Putrom village is an important step in getting the community involved in forest conservation work. WCS aims to empower local communities to take an active role in forest protection. Through 3D mapping exercises, we hope to learn more about the local knowledge and how to wisely protect forest and wildlife. By working together with local communities, we can understand the landscape better to improve the livelihoods of the local community,” says Kimheak Chhay, Community and REDD+ manager for WCS’s Cambodia Program.
The WCS program in Cambodia oversees community engagement work with a primary focus on empowering indigenous communities to exercise their land and natural resource rights and improving the well-being of the communities residing in and around the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary.
During the first two days of the August workshop, youth teams, with technical assistance from WCS, produced a multi-colored 3D model of the village, with the relevant high-and-low contours. On Day 3, after an introduction on the 3D mapping process and community land management zoning exercise, and in the presence of the village community leaders, the participants engaged in group discussions on marking land boundaries. The discussions helped suggest which land portions could be used better for crop yield or for conservation, and how the exercise can advance knowledge and information sharing on protected area land management.
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