COLLECTIVE ACTION TOOLS
Social cartography
Also known as ‘community mapping’, the method supports the notion that local inhabitants hold unrecorded knowledge and information about their customary use of natural resources and expert knowledge of their local environments which can be expressed in maps by themselves.
The maps will represents the knowledge of the entire community and will use ‘earth maps’ (usually a drawing in sand in a communal space in a village) to sophisticated digital maps using a GIS (geographic information system).
Surveys and Interviews
The project surveyed the linkages between water scarcity, biodiversity loss, and governance among community participants. Along the same line, we interviewed local community leaders and members, including farmers and hunters, and micro-entrepreneurs (change of activities); landowners and private firms (changes in land use); local environmental authorities (research and knowledge about the governance of the commons across communities); universities (prioritization of research needs and demand for local knowledge); international development organizations, including Swedish agencies, (research to guide their interventions) and national, sub-national, and municipal governments (quality of policy).
Environmental DNA
Groundwater organisms provide ecosystem services for the quality of ground and surface waters (Mammola et al., 2019). These micro-organisms and invertebrates can transform and degrade contaminants, or maintain hydraulic conductivity. However, biodiversity assessments for aquifers are generally not available. To monitor and assess biodiversity levels in the aquifers and their surroundings, eDNA will be used to ensure the possibility to study rare and/or elusive species.
Field experiments and social games on water extractions and groundwater protection
We will set up CPR action situations through field experiments of water extraction decisions in two waves. The participants will be divided in a treatment and a control group. The participants in the treatment group will receive hydrogeological and climate information for the management of aquifers while the control group serves as a valid counterfactual for estimating the effect of the intervention.
