ABSTRACT
This chapter describes experiences with two pilot communities in Michoacán, Mexico, where community members with extensive knowledge about their forest received training on the collection of data on carbon sequestration and forest management. Although these communities were not involved in the full data collection exercise as carried out in the other K:TGAL sites, they applied the same basic participatory mapping and PGIS (participatory geo-information system) procedures as the K:TGAL communities in East and West Africa, the Himalayas and Papua New Guinea (see Chapters 9–13), but pioneering a new set of technologies based on freeware (free open-source software). The idea was to test whether data collection could be done more easily, efficiently and cheaply using Google Earth imagery (which can be freely accessed on the internet) and CyberTracker geo-spatial software (which is also freely available and which can be modified by the user to suit different applications). These were used in combination with handheld computers or personal digital assistants (PDAs) as in the other K:TGAL sites, but also on newly released HTC Smartphones. One of the advantages of Smartphones is that they have builtin GPS capacities as well as camera and video functions, meaning that the number of pieces of equipment, batteries, etc. needed in the field is minimized, and they are generally simpler to handle than PDAs. Moreover, Smartphones have very large storage capacity with a chip for images and software, as well as web-accessibility for uploading and downloading. Our hypothesis is that as the technology develops and the scale economies of volume production emerge, Smartphones will lead to lower costs, as well as to greater simplicity and ease of use, especially by young people in rural communities.
