Going Beyond Panaceas: The Diversity of Land Observatory Forms in Africa

Abstract

<jats:p>In recent decades, mechanisms for observation and information production have proliferated in an attempt to meet the growing needs of stakeholders to access dynamic data for the purposes of informed decision-making. In the land sector, a growing number of land observatories are producing data and ensuring its transparency. We hypothesize that these structures are being developed in response to the need for information and knowledge, a need that is being driven by the scale and diversity of land issues. Based on the results of a study conducted on land observatories in Africa, this paper presents existing and past land observatories on the continent and proposes to assess their diversity through an analysis of core dimensions identified in the literature. The analytical framework was implemented through i) an analysis of existing literature on land observatories, ii) detailed assessments of land observatories based on semi-open interviews conducted via video conferencing, iii) fieldwork and visits to several observatories, and iv) participant observation through direct engagement and work at land observatories. We emphasize that the analytical framework presented here can be used as a tool by land observatories to undertake ex-post self-evaluations that take the observatory’s trajectory into account, or in the case of proposed new land observatories, to undertake ex-ante analyses and design the pathway towards the intended observatory.</jats:p>

Coprodução de conhecimento com organizações da agricultura familiar: um observatório de ciência cidadã na Amazônia brasileira

“…Mais importante ainda, esta colaboração ajudou a construir confiança com as organizações de agricultores, um alicerce fundamental sobre o qual podemos continuar a construir juntos nosso observatório de ciência cidadã. Planejamos esta coconstrução como um processo passo a passo, não visando um observatório a priori de longo prazo, que poderia não ser relevante ou significativo para os atores sociais (GRISLAIN et al, 2020), mas sim através de etapas concretas e negociadas que envolveram progressivamente os atores na produção de sentidos e significados (NORSTRÖM et al, 2020).…”

Volume 26, Número 1

“…Mais importante ainda, esta colaboração ajudou a construir confiança com as organizações de agricultores, um alicerce fundamental sobre o qual podemos continuar a construir juntos nosso observatório de ciência cidadã. Planejamos esta coconstrução como um processo passo a passo, não visando um observatório a priori de longo prazo, que poderia não ser relevante ou significativo para os atores sociais (GRISLAIN et al, 2020), mas sim através de etapas concretas e negociadas que envolveram progressivamente os atores na produção de sentidos e significados (NORSTRÖM et al, 2020).…”

Co-producing knowledge with family farming organizations: a citizen science observatory in Santarém, Brazilian Amazon

“…Most importantly, this collaboration has helped build trust with the farmer organizations, a fundamental bedrock on which to continue to build our citizen science observatory together. We planned this co-construction as a step-by-step process, not aiming at an a priori long term observatory, which might not be relevant or meaningful for the stakeholders (Grislain et al, 2020), but rather through concrete and negotiated steps that progressively engage the stakeholders in the sensemaking (Norström et al, 2020).…”