Community Mapping
To answer the question about sustainability and managing of the commons, it is important to understand which values, memories, current issues, ideas for the future are spread into the Simeto Community. However, in a context where the word Community itself is not always clear, this question has to be posed in a public arena in order to enhance the debate and to start the dialogue among different points of view, as a path to improve the sense of being a Community.
The following video was realized to invite inhabitants of Paternò, one of the small cities along the Simeto path, in order to let them participate to the Community Mapping more and more. It describes one phase of the Community Mapping Process, that lasted from the end of 2009 to May 2010.
Enjoy the images and the athmosphere! (subtitles will be provided soon).
The following video was realized to invite inhabitants of Paternò, one of the small cities along the Simeto path, in order to let them participate to the Community Mapping more and more. It describes one phase of the Community Mapping Process, that lasted from the end of 2009 to May 2010.
Enjoy the images and the athmosphere! (subtitles will be provided soon).
By the way, what is Community Mapping? Who defined this practice?
A mixed group, made by University of Catania students and scholars together with activists of local NGOs network, rolled up their sleeves and created a way to involve farmers, tourism operators, small businessmen, intitutional representatives, and, in general, inhabitants, workers, users of the Simeto Valley, in order to reflect together about their land, supported by friendly tools and using maps as a catalyst for the debate.
A mixed group, made by University of Catania students and scholars together with activists of local NGOs network, rolled up their sleeves and created a way to involve farmers, tourism operators, small businessmen, intitutional representatives, and, in general, inhabitants, workers, users of the Simeto Valley, in order to reflect together about their land, supported by friendly tools and using maps as a catalyst for the debate.
Participatory maps are not a new practice. Starting from the Bioregional Movement, for example, whose principles were spread in Italy through Eco-Institutions or Ecomuseums, participatory maps have already been widely used.
Here, with the term Community Mapping we refer to any representation of a landscape made by its inhabitants, synthesized in a common document which is an opportunity to speed up the dialogue among inhabitants themselves.
It is the effort to answer together the question: Which is our history, and which present and future do we want, being the Simeto Community?
Here, with the term Community Mapping we refer to any representation of a landscape made by its inhabitants, synthesized in a common document which is an opportunity to speed up the dialogue among inhabitants themselves.
It is the effort to answer together the question: Which is our history, and which present and future do we want, being the Simeto Community?
In November 2009, before designing and implementing the Simeto Community Mapping , it was helpful and encouraging to look at other similar experiences in the world, being aware that every context is different, and that Community Mapping has to be related to the peculiarity of the place where it is developed.
After having defined the objectives we wanted to accomplish through the Community Mapping process in the Simeto Valley, we decided to use the following tools:
- Map of Mappers. To register participants and to understand how they are distributed into the watershed.
- Interviews in-depth and Mental Mapping. To allow participants describing their different perceptions about the River, through words and drawings.
- The Collective Map. A huge map 1:10000 scale into the wall, 4x8 yards wide, where participants can point and mark what they like, what they do not like, what they remember but now it is lost, what they would like for the future, their doubts about the Simeto Valley, writing down their thoughts and ideas, in order to allow participants sharing different vision about the Valley.
- The Water Map. Everything that participants think it is important about this precious resource, intended as the basic requirement for the community to exist (it has been widely recognized, by participants themselves, that without water there are no agriculture, no historical and cultural heritage, no wildlife and plant life, no beauty and pleasure, no tourism, nothing.)
From December 2009 to May 2010 Community Mapping was implemented in Adrano, Paternò, Biancavilla, S.M. di Licodia, in a rural house, in a school, in a center for old people, in a parish, in a museum, in a civic center. 500 people have been registered; they were invited by word of mouth among the NGOs network, by letters of invitation and local media advertising.
In May 2010, contents were organized as a Community Strategic Plan into a Report that synthesized the activities. Six relevant themes emerged: Sustainable Living, Sustainable Agriculture, Environmental Regeneration Responsible Tourism, Energy and Resources, Water Common Good. The Report was presented during a Participatory Design Workshop in Biancavilla, called: Planning together is possible! An Agreement between Citizens and Institutions to revitalize the Simeto Valley. During three days of working, the aforementioned themes were deepen into six sessions of participatory design; six documents were produced in the form of letter to start the dialogue with institutions.
During the workshop, we focused on the importance of starting a meaningful collaboration between the University/Associations Partnership (that led the Community Mapping at that point) and local institutions, through a new practice that we called River Agreement.
The idea is to involve actively institutions in order to answer the questions Which Sustainable Management of the Commons? Which life-styles do we want to have? Which is our history, toward which future do we want to go, being the Simeto Community?
In the meanwhile, we decided to implement two community projects in the short run:
We hope that these projects will not be forgotten.
The idea is to involve actively institutions in order to answer the questions Which Sustainable Management of the Commons? Which life-styles do we want to have? Which is our history, toward which future do we want to go, being the Simeto Community?
In the meanwhile, we decided to implement two community projects in the short run:
- To revitalize a derelict area close to the River in Paternò, that is used as illegal dumping ground for different kinds of contaminating trash, like tires that are often set on fire, or asbestos cement remains. The aim is to give the community back an access point to the River (nowadays they are quite rare), restoring the area planting native trees, like other wise people did into the past (see also the work of the Nobel Prize for Peace Wangari Maathai, and L'homme qui plantait des arbres, a story by Jean Giono that inspired the Oscar Winner short movie by Frédéric Back);
- To realize a community garden in an abandoned municipal park in Adrano, that a local grassroots association of neighbors adopted and cleaned up from being another illegal dumping ground. The strategy was to start a partnership with a school, let children garden in order to have experential learning opportunities, according to "Peace Gardening" principles, a national network that has some active representatives in Sicily.
We hope that these projects will not be forgotten.
SIMETOPAR by Simeto Partnership is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Condividi allo stesso modo 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.simetopar.org/.
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