URL: http://www.amazonteam.org/index.php/236/Participatory_Ethnographic_Mapping_Suriname
Participatory Ethnographic Mapping: Suriname
In Suriname, at the close of the 20th century, increasing threats from encroachment prompted leaders of ACT's indigenous partner communities to seek assistance from ACT to help obtain title to their homelands.
In 1999, with assistance from the government of Suriname and other organizations, ACT began teaching the Trio indigenous community of the Kwamalasamutu area to develop a cultural and land use map of their ancestral land through participatory ethnographic mapping. A map of this type is a prerequisite for fruitful multi-stakeholder discussions on land rights.
During the project, ACT trained the Trio in basic cartography and the application of GPS/GIS technologies, and invited the surrounding communities to observe the process. The effort culminated in the creation of the first officially recognized map produced by indigenous peoples of the Amazon that demonstrates the extent and land-use patterns of their traditional lands.
The success of this initiative prompted successive mapping efforts with the two predominant tribes of the area, the Trio and Wayana, to map the entirety of indigenous lands in southern Suriname, an area totaling over 20 million acres. The maps have greatly enhanced ongoing discussions with the government of Suriname regarding the creation of a legal framework for handling indigenous land claims, and in 2008 led to ACT being named the executing institution for an IDB-financed government project to map and demarcate all national indigenous and native lands, resulting in 2010 in the land use mapping of nearly two-thirds of Suriname's area involving eight distinct indigenous and semi-indigenous groups.
