Cartographie et participation pour la coopération environnementale: le terrain et la restitution des savoirs traditionnels en Afrique subsaharienne

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the role of participatory mapping in field research concerning projects of environmental cooperation and to reflect on the issue of field research. The text is based primarily on the author’s experience in Sub-Saharan Africa and analyzes the case of participatory action research in a programme of environmental conservation concerning a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The first two parts are intended to present participatory mapping, its methodologies and issues. The first one hinges on a genealogy of the different methodologies and presents the different types of maps and their objectives and the instruments and procedures used to implement them. The second part focuses on the issue of communication of local geographies in mapping practice. After this introduction, we illustrate the methodology for realizing participatory mapping systems within a project of environmental cooperation involving some villages in West Africa sited around a large protected area. The case study presented shows the potential of such systems to represent and convey some aspects of local people’s traditional knowledge. The last part of the text will highlight the relation between field research and participatory mapping.