Leah Kintai heard that there were birting caves used by forest elephants on her territory around the Elgon Mountain in Kenya, but never saw them. Leah is a member of the Ogiek community, the indigenous group in the Chepkitale area of Mount Elgon, who lived in harmony with the forest for generations. However, their way of right to life and land has repeatedly influenced the efforts to create national reserves and wooden farms – plans that can damage the local environment.
In the more responsible community, Ogiek has developed a soil management system that documented their ancestors connection with land and ecosystems that protect. They recognize the importance of technology in this effort and have started using Comepeo, a tool for mapping landscapes developed by Awana Digital. Since 2021, the key environmental sites of Leah and other community members, such as salt caves shared by goat herd and forest elephants, record the destruction of the environment caused by protocol.
Especially women play a crucial role in this work. “We are rich in knowledge that are important to the community,” Leah explains. “We know where to collect firewood and vegetables and find a special ground for decorating our works of art. We women also know more about the history and traditional rituals that occur in the caves. It was cold that this mapping witnessed elephants and calfs in caves and deepened its recognition of the land through the comet.”
Why does it depend on users’ mapping
Native communities such as Ogiek Steward 80% of the world’s biodiversity. Yet they often lack infrastructure, resources and tools for sustainable management of their landscape. Most of the existing mapping technologies are inaccessible – it depends on the Internet connection, only available in English and is managed through centralized databases that exclude local ownership. Gaining support for the derived Landcape Administration decisions is critical of the community level at the global level.
The Cisco Foundation supported two community tools that allow local leaders to map the landscape: Awana Digital’s Comepeo and Tech Matters’ Terraso, developed through community design processes with the aim of efficient effective decisions of local leaders.
Awana Digital: Building a decentralized technology
Awana Digital cooperates with the frontline communities to use technology to protect their environment and human rights. They cooperate on cooperation and together develop tools they can use to protect critical ecosystems and indigenous cultures, and work in a world where all people can participate in decisions that control their lives.
The Cisco Foundation Foundation financed Awana Digital in 2023 for the construction of COMAPEO, designed in cooperation with indigenous communities, he likes Ogiek to make it easier to map their territory and create a database without any Internet connection.
In 2024, Cisco expanded the financing and introduced Awana Digital to Foundation Equinix Foundation, which also expanded financing. This year, Cisco and Equinix Foundation CAM together finance the strengthening and growth of the komapeo in new ways. This peer-to-peer database allows you to own local data and offline workflows so users can collect data in remote rent without any problems. While most data collection applications are focused on the form, COMAPEO uses the map access to be intuitive for non -technical users.
The Ogiek community now maps their land use of their land; Since 2021, the community mapping team has mapped and actively watched 80,000 hectares of its territory, which benefits 4,000 members of the Ogiek community.
But mapping the vision of Ogieka Vision Goyond. They undertake to show how their administration leads to better protection and the results of biodiversity. Ogiek with the support of Oxford University, Forest Peoples Program and Awana Digital implements the project monitoring of biodiversity to collect evidence of their effective community protection. This data could help them get them back more on their predecessor and improve management procedures.
One of the exciting new COMAPEO features is its sound function, which allows Ogiek to capture Brirsongs in the forest. The elders can then identify these species and enrich data on local ecological knowledge and monitor the biodiversity in these countries.
COMAPEO can be used free of charge and is designed to be user -friendly and adaptable, which makes it easier for everyone to start mapping and monitoring their soil or environmental projects.
Tech matters: tech solutions that serve humanity
The Cisco Foundation also supports Terraso, a tool for mapping and narration of Tech Matters narration to help the communities collect, store and share landscape data. Terraso is designed with local partners and is accessible and cost fees are particularly valuable for non -profit and local organizations that cannot afford, commercial alternatives.
In India, Paani Earth faced a significant challenge: Bangalore’s rivers were rapidly deteriorating, but the general population lasted awareness of urban hydrological systems. The problem was enhanced by the absence of a reliable integrated data system of the river, which may endanger decision -making and lead to poor water resources.
To solve this, Paani Earth used Terraso to create an available, interactive map of river systems in the region, draw up data from government agencies, independent studies and satellite sources. With the stories map feature, they created an interactive, visual narration combining data, photos and videos. Cofounder Madhuri Mandava explains the transformation: “Our old website – people called it very academic. People said,” I don’t see that I should be interested. “
This has changed with Terraso.
The story of the forgotten rivers was presented at the exhibition of the local museum. His last chapter is a call to action – inviting people to join the WhatsApp group dedicated to walking and local cleaning.
“This group now has dozens of members,” says Madhuri. “We go to the nearby river to rebuild this connection. We make art and poetry and discuss how we can take steps to protect this space.”
PAANI EARTH plans to expand its use maps of stories in future projects. With continuing support from Cisco and others, Tech Matters actively improves the platform based on the actual user feedback, such as Madhuri.
Terraso remains a free and open resource, and the organization is invited everywhere to use it to tell their stories based on the spot, defend the change and engage their communities.
Efforts, such as Ogiek, show that when local leaders are equipped with the right tools, they can protect the biological diversity and transform the future of their landscape. Platforms such as Awana Digital’s Comepeo and Tech Matters’ Terraso – supported by Cisco and Equinix Foundation Foundations – help. As these technologies continue to evolve, they offer strong examples of how on -site innovations can protect the environment and benefit local communities.
For more information, see Cisco Foundation Foundation.
This blog was with the help of Anastasia Baranoff, Temsystems in Cisco.
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