Location-specific forms of agroforestry management can reduce problems in the forest–water–people nexus, by balancing upstream and downstream interests, but social and ecological finetuning is needed. New ways of achieving shared understanding of the underlying ecological and social-ecological relations is needed to adapt and contextualize generic solutions. Addressing these challenges between thirteen cases of tropical agroforestry scenario development across three continents requires exploration of generic aspects of issues, knowledge and participative approaches. Participative projects with local stakeholders increasingly use ‘serious gaming’. Although helpful, serious games so far (1) appear to be ad hoc, case dependent, with poorly defined extrapolation domains, (2) require heavy research investment, (3) have untested cultural limitations and (4) lack clarity on where and how they can be used in policy making. We classify the main forest–water–people nexus issues and the types of land-use solutions that shape local discourses and that are to be brought to life in the games. Four ‘prototype’ games will be further used to test hypotheses about the four problems identified constraining game use. The resulting generic forest–water–people games will be the outcome of the project “Scenario evaluation for sustainable agroforestry management through forest-water-people games” (SESAM), for which this article provides a preview.
Land use decision making in the Upper Suriname River area knows a history of disempowerment and marginalization of the Saamaka communities inhabiting the area. Non-recognition of land rights is at the origin of this problem. This is aggravated by the increasing over-exploitation of timber resources by powerful stakeholders and the unfair distribution of timber benefits. This has left Saamakans marginalized, causing distrust and opposition among themselves and towards outsiders. Furthermore, as a result of deforestation, Saamakans face detrimental changes in the ecosystem services (ES) that support their traditional livelihoods, with important effects for their wellbeing. This environment of distrust, opposition and marginalization makes it difficult to assess these concerns. Hence, an ES assessment approach that would generate salient ES knowledge while generating trust, communication among stakeholders and local capacity building was needed. In this paper we evaluate whether Participatory 3D modelling (P3DM) is an effective approach for ecosystem services assessments in such disenabling environments. We evaluate this by using empirical data from an ES assessment in the Saamaka region using a P3DM approach. Results show the efficient identification and evaluation of 36 ES representing provisioning, cultural and regulating service categories with crops, fish, wild meat, timber and forest medicines identified as most important. We found a decrease in the demand and supply of crops, fish and wild meat associated with ecosystem degradation, out-migration and changes in lifestyles. Further, our findings show an increasing demand and decreasing supply for timber related to over-exploitation. We provide evidence of the utility of P3DM to foster multi-functional landscape development among wary communities. Further, we discuss the usefulness of the approach and the necessary conditions needed for P3DM process to tackle the needs of the local communities as well as the need for a broader P3DM implementation strategy beyond the engagement, screening, and diagnostic phases of ES assessments when the aim is to enhance ES outcomes for marginalized communities.
Nowadays, tropical forest landscapes are commonly characterized by a multitude of interacting institutions and actors with competing land-use interests. In these settings, indigenous and tribal communities are often marginalized in landscape-level decision making. Inclusive landscape governance inherently integrates diverse knowledge systems, including those of indigenous and tribal communities. Increasingly, geo-information tools are recognized as appropriate tools to integrate diverse interests and legitimize the voices, values, and knowledge of indigenous and tribal communities in landscape governance. In this paper, we present the contribution of the integrated application of three participatory geo-information tools to inclusive landscape governance in the Upper Suriname River Basin in Suriname: (i) Participatory 3-Dimensional Modelling, (ii) the Trade-off! game, and (iii) participatory scenario planning. The participatory 3-dimensional modelling enabled easy participation of community members, documentation of traditional, tacit knowledge and social learning. The Trade-off! game stimulated capacity building and understanding of land-use trade-offs. The participatory scenario planning exercise helped landscape actors to reflect on their own and others’ desired futures while building consensus. Our results emphasize the importance of systematically considering tool attributes and key factors, such as facilitation, for participatory geo-information tools to be optimally used and fit with local contexts. The results also show how combining the tools helped to build momentum and led to diverse yet complementary insights, thereby demonstrating the benefits of integrating multiple tools to address inclusive landscape governance issues.
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