A reflexive cartography and environmental conservation: a model of participatory zoning

The Model of Participatory Zoning was developed by the Cartographic Laboratory Diathesis at the University of Bergamo (Italy) and was applied in the framework of Program Régional Parc W/ECOPAS (Ecosystèmes Protégés en Afrique Sahélienne). This model establishes a specific research methodology and develops some GIS (geographic information system)-based analytical tools. The research team designed these analytical tools in order to employ environmental protection models in the field research, which are based on sustainable development and participative management (UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) zoning model). The Model of Participatory Zoning, based on participatory mapping that includes geographical competence in applied research, allows the transformation of theoretical concepts into management tools, that is, it embraces all project management phases, from methodological design to the digital capitalization of the outcomes achieved. This model considers territory not merely as something that conveys the material conditions of the humans who settled there, but also as something that embodies symbolic, cultural, and communal values, on which the functioning of any given society depends. For these reasons, maps must be approached with attention to cartographical semiosis, a theory whereby the drawing of a map must not be separated from an analysis of the territory since maps act as symbolic agents for a given society, that is, they prescribe the conditions for any territorial action. Far from being only a useful representational tool, maps, and in particular participatory maps, set out the place where the viewpoints of institutional agents – who are appointed to plan environmental and territorial conservation – are brought into question and placed side by side with those of local actors – who employ specific territorial knowledge either to promote or hinder conservation.