[HOT] Advice from HOT for controversial land reclamation - Ghana

hyances at gmail.com hyances at gmail.com
Thu Jul 26 17:27:41 BST 2012


Hi Sam,

I just want to share some conclusions taken with an ongoing pilot (and
small) project in http://bit.ly/laboquilla, where converge land
property, natural conservation and flood hazard problems (in the
middle of an area with etno - ecotourims potencial).

1)  Land property problems usually came with violence scenes, we
realize that this kind of problems are out of our scope (and tools);
the best we can do is delivery updated cartography, hoping dialogue
between actors spark over printed maps.  We delivery map to community
conceil with MapOSMatic [1]

2) To help get recognition over official land property, now we are
planning to create a public GIS finally published in Mapbox.  Recently
they receive a common land titulation as a ethnic group.

3) To promote, monitor and protect natural reserve: we are close to
delivery a mapbox instance with etnological a biodiversity (focused on
birdwatching) layers, to share it into other tourism sites; planning
to use Ushahidi feeded by local community players to gathered data for
situation report, supporting advocacing (and legal) activities with
local goverment.

We just provide new technology; but community has to do the job to
resolve his own problems.

In your case I think NGO and Goverment institutions must act quickly
to structure a legal support for land historic ownership, maybe to
treat displacement issues and land restitution.

Humberto Yances

[1] http://maposmatic.org/maps/?query=la+boquilla

2012/7/26 Mikel Maron <mikel_maron at yahoo.com>:
> Hi Sam
>
> Mapping the before and after could be interesting for this case. OSM
> wouldn't be appropriate for the before data ... perhaps create a KML layer
> in QGIS, which could be used elsewhere. Ushahidi could be useful, you would
> expand the scope of the project to include citizen reporting training; the
> KML overlay of before could be added easily. Printing maps, there's good
> instruction on LearnOSM to do this with QGIS, and I've used TileMill to
> create maps as well.
>
> Using these tools in advocacy and legal claims ... are there local
> organizations already working on these rights issues? Land tenure is one of
> the most complicated and controversial topics that mapping touches, and a
> successful effort needs an organization that can deftly work in both
> communities and governments, in both legal matters and community organizing.
> In many places, affiliates of Slum/Shack Dwellers International take up this
> role.
>
> -Mikel
>
> * Mikel Maron * +14152835207 @mikel s:mikelmaron
>
> ________________________________
> From: Sam Larsen <samlarsen1 at yahoo.co.uk>
> To: HOT <hot at openstreetmap.org>
> Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2012 6:48 AM
> Subject: [HOT] Advice from HOT for controversial land reclamation - Ghana
>
> Hi Hotties,
>
> I'm looking for a little development mapping advice.
>
> I'm working on a development mapping project in Tamale, Northern Ghana [1]
> and while communicating with some locals to gather their specific mapping
> needs I was made aware of the following scenario and asked how our work (OSM
> Development Mapping) can help them.
>
> "the military had claimed some land back after 40 years of no use. In Ghana,
> the law states that if a government organisation doesn't use the land for
> 20years it should be handed back to the community. This is why there was
> such uproar when the military came in and reclaimed the land, that and the
> manor it was completed - intimidatingly destroying 100 homes"
>
> Now i realise - OSM is probably not the best tool to help local communities
> in this case.  But i would guess that someone on this list has come across
> and advised on how mapping in general can help similar scenarios.
>
> Aside from mapping what is on the ground now (i.e. the new military base or
> whatever) - there's not much that can be done directly with OSM here.
> However, tools like Ushahidi & Taarifa spring to mind as a means of
> communicating local injustices, potentially collecting locations of
> pre-existing residences, or at least provide a mechanism to capture the info
> as it happens.
>
> I would like to be able to advise Ali on how mapping & GIS in general can
> help, but i would like to canvas a few opinions from this group before i
> reply.
>
> Some initial suggestions for long-term reconciliation support as opposed to
> real-time help:
> 1) We could attempt to access satellite/aerial imagery from before the land
> seizure and map in detail the dwellings - collecting information about the
> inhabitants.
> 2) Use any number of web mapping tools (MapBox, GeoCommons, ArcGIS, Custom
> via Leaflet, Google et al...) to present web maps (without including
> individual names)
> 3) Generate printed PDFs
> 4) Use 2) & 3) above to support any legal claim for justice/compensation to
> local/national government
> 5) As 2) & 3) could create public facing web content, attempt to gain
> traction via local & national social/traditional media to support 4)
>
> Any other angles are welcome.
>
> [1] http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=9.4055&lon=-0.838&zoom=14&layers=M
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Sam Larsen
>
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Samlarsen1
>
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