Nackoney, J. and Rybock, D. and Dupain, J. and Facheux, C. (2013) Coupling participatory mapping and GIS to inform village-level agricultural zoning in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Landscape and Urban Planning, 110. pp. 164-174.
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Abstract
Participatory methods that consider the land use of local communities are critical to resource planning. In the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba (MLW) Landscape located in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is leading efforts to engage the DRC Government in developing strategies for sustainable forest management and micro-zoning. In developing these strategies, we used participatory mapping to determine collaboratively with the local communities the delimitation of village-level agricultural zones for 16 villages located in easterncentral MLW Landscape. For this, we developed methods that combined participatory mapping, satellite image interpretation and GPS data collection. To inform the dynamics of agricultural land use, we collected human population data at the village level and calculated the maximum distance from each agricultural area to the nearest road. The surface area of the delineated village-level agricultural boundaries ranged from 241 ha to 2616 ha. We found a significant and positive relationship between the villages’ human population and the surface area of their agricultural limits (r2 = 0.43, p = 0.005). There was also a significant and positive relationship between the villages’ population and the maximum distance that their agricultural limits extended from the road. We highlight observations from our participatory mapping experiences and explain the applicability of our findings to participative micro-zoning and understanding agricultural land use in the DRC.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | This work was funded by the Central African Regional Programme for the Environment (CARPE) program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Participatory mapping; GIS; Zoning; Land use planning; Agriculture; Central Africa |
| Author Affiliation: | Department of Geographical Sciences, 2181 LeFrak Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. |
| Subjects: | Atmosperic Science > Climatology Social Sciences > Agricultural Extension,Technology, ICT Soil Science and Microbiology > Soil Sciences |
| Divisions: | General |
| Depositing User: | Mr Balakrishna Garadasu |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Jan 2013 13:20 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Jan 2013 13:20 |
| Official URL: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2012.11.00... |
| URI: | http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/9385 |
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