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What are the relevant customary laws, rules, norms, and values that regulate practices and
resource use around the festivals, rituals, sites, or routes?
Are there particular people or groups within the community who make these decisions?
Are the festivals, rituals, visits to sacred sites, or pilgrimages held on particular occasions or
times of year? What are these occasions linked to or initiated by?
Are there certain songs, dances, designs, handicrafts, or other art forms connected to these
events or sites? How do the values and knowledge contained therein affect how the community
understands, manages, and uses resources?
Are the festivals, rituals, sites, or routes under threat or in danger of being harmed or lost?
What are the factors leading to this? How are they currently being or could they be addressed?
Would you want this information to be made public?
Key Resources on Sacred Sites
Barcelona Statement of Custodians of Sacred Natural Sites and Territories (2008)
Preliminary Action Plan for the Conservation of Sacred Natural Sites (WCPA Specialist Group on the
Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas, 2010)
Sacred Natural Sites: Guidelines for Protected Area Managers (IUCN and UNESCO, 2008)
D.
MAPPING THE COMMUNITY’S ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS
KEY READING
Part I: Section III
Part II: Section II (Introduction, Box 35-36)
KEY TOOLS
Community institutions sketch map
Historical timeline
Trend line analysis
Assessing community capacities
Forum theatre
Identifying appropriate forms of resource
mapping
Participatory video
Photo stories
Audio interviews
Community visioning
Assessing key opportunities and threats
The following box contains guiding questions for community discussion about their livelihoods and
sources of sustenance and income. In the community protocol, you may wish to include the following
main types of information, among others: how livelihood strategies relate to the environment and
different types of resources; relationships between customary and more recent practices; viability of
customary practices; sharing or restriction of resources and knowledge; and visions and plans for the
future.
Livelihood Strategies
What are the main sources of livelihoods and income in the community? How long have they
been practiced?
To what extent are customary subsistence livelihoods currently practiced? How does this
compare to 10, 20, 50, or 100 years ago?
To what extent do the youth learn about and maintain customary practices and knowledge?
Overall, to what degree do these sources of livelihoods and income sustain the health and
wellbeing of the whole community? What are the gaps or shortfalls, if any?
If there are any excess resources, how are they shared with other communities or exported to
markets? How are benefits and costs shared within your community?
Are there any tensions between customary subsistence and market-based practices such as
cash crops? If so, how are they currently being or could they be addressed?
If the community cultivates crops, uses medicinal plants, or keeps livestock, what are the cycles
or timeframes for exchange, migration or grazing routes, breeding, cultivation, and harvesting?