PARTICIPATORY MAPPING OF THE CULTURAL HERITAGE

Environmental Defenders have activated and implemented monitoring and reporting from the ground. In its strategy it uses the study of land dynamics through the collection and analysis of geographic-environmental-social data to frame and implement projects addressing ecological justice, starting from a rights-based approach.
In particular, participatory mapping with communities is aimed in this context as a process for knowledge building, networking and cooperation, supporting community-based biodiversity conservation as the basis for ensuring food security and sustainable livelihoods.

Participatory mapping of cultural heritage is understood as a process aimed at the identification and recognition of tangible and intangible elements with cultural and social significance, in order to write the memory of this territory.
In the Mahagi territories a collective activity of recognition of the cultural heritage as unprecedented is necessary. The censorship and cancellation of cultural heritage, together with the transformations that began during colonial occupation, have in fact determined a cultural loss that has had disastrous effects in the protection of land rights, triggering conflicts over the use and management of resources.

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