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Expert wants communities
involved in land mapping
The Standard
Thursday September 8, 2005
By Allan Kisia
Local communities should be
allowed to participate in land demarcation to avert conflicts, a workshop
heard yesterday.
Giacomo Rambaldi, a participant
from Italy told the International Conference on Participatory Spatial
Information Management and Communication meeting that local people, especially
in marginalised areas, should be involved in developing new maps and land
demarcation.
Rambaldi is the regional
coordinator of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
(CTA).
More than 160 people from 45
nations around the world are attending the three-day conference at Kenya
College of Communications Technologies (KCCT), Mbagathi.
It seeks ways to help marginalised
communities use new technologies to define boundaries. Maps are developed
using the Geographic Information System (GSI) and Global Positioning Systems
(GPS) technologies.
The method is already in use among
the Ogiek community, Mau Forest.
Julius Muchemi, a local
participant, said involving communities would give them a chance to tell
policy makers the features marking boundaries, hunting grounds and other
natural resources.
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