Building Community Capacity in Land Use Planning for Biodiversity Conservation

1. Building Community Capacity in Land Use Planning for Biodiversity Conservation By Mohammed Conteh

2. Traditional Land Use Planning • Remote sensing to delineate the study area and develop a base map • Identify and demarcate the different land types as mapping units • Carryout surveys including: • Soils • Vegetation and land use • Drainage and • Topography

3. Traditional Land Use Planning (Cont.) • Surveys used to determine land characteristics of each land type, including: • Soil texture, • Soil depth • Drainage • Soil reaction • Soil fertility status

4. Traditional Land use Planning (Cont.) • Identify land use requirements of the proposed land use types • Match the land use requirements of each land use type against the land characteristics of each land type (mapping unit) • This leads to suitability classes of each land type for the proposed uses, such as: • S1 = Very suitable • S2 = Fairly suitable • - S3 = Moderately suitable • N = Not suitable

5. Traditional Land use Planning • Based on these classes, best land use maps are produced • National land use policies are then developed based on these plans

6. Major Problems • Where are the people who are supposed to use the land in the whole process • Because they were not involved in the process, plans and policies developed are largely ignored

7. Participatory Land Use Planning • Approach developed in Lesotho with the following objectives: • To protect the wetlands in the mountains which are sanctuaries for migrating birds and wildlife • To stem soil erosion which was occuring at an alarming rate • To protect the catchment areas and prevent water courses from drying out

8. The process Consists of four stages: • initial consultations • Headman village workshop • Community workshop • Technical surveys

9. Initial consultations • Meet VDC and chief and explain objectives of the process • Explain to community leaders the adverse effects of not planning now. • Agree on a date and venue for the planning workshop • Request VDC to invite all community members to the workshop to ensure that: • All voices are heard • All issues are raised

10. Headman village workshop • Planning meeting that lasts between 2-3 days • Using standard PRA tools to identify main needs of the communities • As issues are raised, categorize them into • Agriculture and biodiversity matters • General • Let community prioritize the biodiversity and agriculture related issues • Community develop action plans to address the 1st three priority areas

11. Community workshop • Lasts for about three days • Participants include VDC, chiefs and heads of households • Day one: land use planner and community demarcate community boundary (place transparent paper on topographic sheet of the area ) • Ask the community members to demarcate boundary • Together, delineate the land types and give them local names.

12. Days 2 and 3 • Planner and community members walk to each land type • Discuss present use • Discuss problems associated with the present use • Suggest alternate uses and management • Agree on best use and ways to mitigate present problem • This is mapped out as the best land plan • At this stage, advise community leaders on national policies and priorities to ensure that their plans are in line with national development plans

13. Technical surveys • Physical Survey • To confirm or negate community plan • Soil texture, slope, drainage soil reaction and soil depth • If there are glaring discrepancies, planner goes back to community members to rethink their plan

14. Socio-economic survey • Demographic data • Survival strategies • Coping mechanisms • Economic opportunities

15. Alternative livelihoods • Community members form common interest groups around economic opportunities • Formulate common interest group plans around opportunities • Mobilize funding for projects

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