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What customs and values regulate the sharing of key resources (such as seeds, plants, or
animals) and related knowledge within your community? with nearby communities? with
outsiders? Who is responsible for making these decisions?
What is unique and valuable about how your community uses local crop varieties, medicinal
plants, livestock breeds, wildlife, or other resources? How do you manage and use them
differently than other communities or external actors?
If you think about 10, 20, 50, or 100 years from now, what will be the main sources of
livelihoods and income? Does this reflect the community’s visions?
What are the main threats and opportunities that are likely to affect future livelihoods and
sources of income? How could the community proactively plan and address these?
COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE:
Valorizing Indigenous Knowledge through Participatory Mapping in Ethiopia
Resource: Adapted from material provided by MELCA-Ethiopia
Also see Participatory 3-Dimensional and Eco-cultural Mapping for Indigenous Knowledge
Documentation (Refera/MELCA-Ethiopia, 2009)
With the support of local organization MELCAEthiopia, the communities of the Bale
Mountains, Sheka forest, Foata Mountain
Complex, and Wechecha Mountain Complex
have been using participatory mapping to
mobilize knowledge related to their territories
and areas and to build resilience and learning
about change. The maps demonstrate the
importance of traditional knowledge and
cultural practices in the communities’ deep
understandings of and relationships with their
landscapes. In each of the four communities,
over 200 elders, adults, and youth participated
in the construction of the maps. This process
has created social cohesion around a common
purpose, further contributing to the
communities’ resilience and capacity to
respond to change.
Figure 16: An elder placing a pin on the location of a sacred
site that the community is struggling to protect against the
negative influence of major religions (Courtesy: Million
Belay, MELCA-Ethiopia)
The maps are currently being used as the basis to revitalize intergenerational learning amongst students
from local elementary and secondary schools and universities. This is contributing to greater awareness
of and pride in community identity, revival of traditional ecological knowledge, focused planning to
rehabilitate degraded ecosystems, and advocacy efforts to protect areas of cultural, social, economic,
and environmental importance.
E.
MAPPING THE COMMUNITY’S POLITICAL AND
INSTITUTIONAL FOUNDATIONS
KEY READING
Part I: Section III
Part II: Section II (Introduction, Box 35-36)
KEY TOOLS
Community institutions sketch map
Assessing community capacities
Assessing key opportunities and threats
Framework for research and action
Identifying key actors
Understanding relationships between key