Community Forestry Planning in Cameroon: Practical Lessons Learned with PGIS

This article describes the lessons three Cameroon villages learned when they used a participatory geographic information system (PGIS) approach to gather the information needed to apply for a government forestry management contract. The article was published in the September 2005 issue of ICT Update, which focuses on the challenges and benefits of PGIS.

The three villages described by the author worked together with the Living Earth Foundation and a geographic information system (GIS) consultant to create the map, reports, and forest management plan required to obtain a government contract.

The author lists the following lessons learned (summarised below):

1. Having learned new skills in geospatial analysis and the use of geo-information, the village communities became more confident in their abilities, and gradually took control of the 'planning process'.
2. The participation of the village communities could have been improved if the scales of the maps and aerial photographs of the Tinto area had been between 1:12,500 and 1:1,000, rather than the 1:200,000 and 1:50,000 maps and 1:20,000 photos that were initially provided.
3. Both democratically elected village representatives and forest user groups should be involved in the PGIS process.
4. The village communities themselves, rather than the GIS consultants, should decide what information should be included in the map and how it should be displayed.
5. The communities involved should agree in advance on the terms of storage of and access to the physical and digital PGIS products.