Communication and social learning tools
Sep 14th, 2007 by leb3
The methods and techniques described below will help to foster interaction among people and organizations involved in visualizing the future of their landscape and assessing its performance. Gaining meaningful participation throughout the process — from setting goals, to identifying performance criteria, to deciding what indicators to measure, and finally to collecting data and interpreting the results will lead to stakeholder’s owning the process and assuming responsibility for its outcome.
A variety of communication and social learning tools that have been applied and tested in multifunctional landscapes by Ecoagriculture Partners and/or IUCN’s Livelihoods and Landscapes program are described in Learning from Landscapes.
Visioning or ‘visualization’ is a creative group activity in which stakeholders think about desired future goals and then brainstorm strategies for reaching them. The approach encourages discussion about past and current changes in the landscape and how these may affect the future. The Visioning and Pathways approach developed by CIFOR and partners applies and is available at Guide for Participatory Tools for Forest Communities.
Scenarios help stakeholders identify factors that may affect the future of their landscape. Scenarios can be quantitative models or narratives conducted between participants that stimulate creative thinking and help stakeholders examine situations and planning from a new perspective. Scenarios can help change the ways people think about relationships between current actions and long term consequences. For information on the use of scenarios see Anticipating change: scenarios as a tool for adaptive forest management.
Participatory modeling provides a way of linking conservation and livelihood issues in a landscape so that synergies and trade-offs can be better understood and discussed. CIFOR has developed a robust participatory modeling activity using the modeling software package (STELLA) for application in these contexts. It is accessible through the Virtual Toolbox at CIFOR’s site on Tools for Integrating Conservation and Development.
Repeat landscape photography is the process of selecting landscape features that will be monitored over time with the use of a digital camera and data base to record how important characteristics change over time. Stakeholders are engaged to decide which features are important. Click here for a description of the repeat photography tool.
Mapping tools can be used to portray important physical features of the landscape as well relationships of communities to these features. They can be as simple as pen and paper diagrams that local people create, or complex computer-based geographic information systems (GIS). The visualization power of maps and mapping help to focus attention, generation information and insight, frame debate, and plan future activity in open and transparent ways. Resources on Maps and Mapping can be found here.
Facilitation serves the needs of any group who are meeting with a common purpose, whether it be making a decision, solving a problem, or simply exchanging ideas and information.
Focus Groups are used to estimate various phenomena in the landscape by different configurations of stakeholders.
Delphi Panels help to generate expert opinions and judgements about what the future may hold for a particular landscape. They are a credible way of evaluating ‘scenarios’ generated by stakeholders.
Landscape Level Planning or regional planning, is a tool that can harmonize disparate goals and stakeholders while balancing economic development and conservation initiatives within the same geographic area.
Co-Learn CIFOR is a computer software package that facilitates and enables users to navigate around a range of tools and processes engaged in group learning processes.
Adaptive Collaborative Management (ACM): This is an approach to natural resources management that is rooted in social learning, and utilizes many of the methods and tools identified here. Developing the capacity for ACM is embedded in the institutional performance goal of the Landscape Measures framework. Resources on ACM are available here.
Additional Resources: Numerous methods have been developed to engage stakeholders in complex assessment and planning processes. A selection of additional resources that are readily accessible and applicable to landscape measurement and tracking are available here..
