ANGOC participates in Global Conference on Community Participatory Mapping in Indigenous Peoples’ Territories

ANGOC joined the Global Conference on Community Participatory Mapping in Indigenous Peoples’ Territories last 25-27 August in Lake Toba, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Tebtebba and AMAN jointly organized the conference, which convened representatives of indigenous peoples’ organizations, networks and communities and experts (who have extensive knowledge and experiences in community participatory mapping) to share their knowledge, experiences and lessons learned in doing this work.

One of the overall concerns in the conference is the rationale of producing maps, Some groups produce maps for the sake of producing maps. For others, maps support advocacy – maps help determine boundaries, resolve conflicts. Given that maps serve many purposes, the objectives of producing maps should be clear from the start. Producing maps should be need-driven (for most cases to secure their lands) and not for research. Another issue revolves on ownership of data, including intellectual property rights (IPR).  How can communities be protected? What data can be shared online as such data can severely affect communities? Why make the data available online when most IP communities do not own computers and do not have internet access? At the end of the day, who benefits?

In terms of possible follow-up, ANGOC intends to contribute in piloting the indicators on IPs’ access to land through its CSO Land Reform Monitoring initiative.  Also, as input to the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in 2014, ANGOC and LWA partners will produce a regional summary and country scoping studies on IPs.

The event was also featured in the Jakarta Globe. Click here to read the article.