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December 2000

Dear WOCATEER!

As the end of the first year of the third millennium is approaching, WOCAT wishes all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and good health for your families and yourself, and also many good WOCAcTivities!

A brief update with new materials after the recent Annual Workshop in Wageningen is given below. This update will be distributed by (E)mail and also be published on the WOCAT website (WWW.WOCAT.NET). Please notify us of any Email address errors!

Latest News of WOCAT: December 2000

Since the previous and first newsletter in March, WOCAT has seen several activities, starting with the distribution of the newsletter itself. Despite our call for contributions to the newsletter these have remained somewhat meagre. We would like to be kept informed about any WOCAcTivities going on anywhere, in order to be able to inform others about that. What follows is about activities that we know of, so if yours is missing, please inform us!

· WOCAT participated in the UNCCD Conference of the Parties (COP4) in Bonn, December 11-22 2000. A WOCAT side event was held on December 14 and a stand with posters and CD-ROM installed.

· WOCAT formed an important part of a two-weeks ITC/ISRIC refresher course which was held in Pretoria in November. There were 20 participants from 8 southern African countries, some of them having attended the WOCAT workshop in Magoebaskloof (RSA) in 1995. The participants’ reactions were positive and interested. They were asked to contact ex-WOCATeers (from earlier workshops) in their countries to update the previously collected information so it can be included in the database on the Internet

· WOCAT was present at the recent ISCO conference in Buenos Aires (23-28 October) where it was presented in a few sessions and mentioned in a few additional ones. A combined WOCAT/ISRIC/FAO corner in the poster hall received considerable attention.

· Directly after the WWSM in Wageningen, a successful information and training workshop was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for several countries in Central Asia, namely Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The Workshop was organized by the Central Asian Mountain Partnership (CAMP, an SDC Programme) and The National Center to Combat Desertification in Kyrgyzstan (NCCD). Hanspeter Liniger and Gudrun Schwilch from CDE (Bern) were present as resource persons. 

Beside a presentation of WOCAT, discussions on the issue of sustainable use of land and water resources were held and preparations of further joint initiatives CAMP-WOCAT-NCCD were made. The workshop successfully showed how WOCAT could be included in already ongoing programmes and structures (e.g. NCCD). A draft of the Russian translation of the questionnaires was available during the workshop, but will be improved in the next few months. CAMP agreed to act as a regional node and co-ordinator of the follow-up WOCAT activities in Central Asia.

Download a short report of the workshop or contact the secretariat.

· The 5th International Workshop and Steering Meeting was held at ISRIC in Wageningen, the Netherlands from 4-11 September. Some 20 participants from various institutions and 13 countries attended the meeting The workshop addressed issues like progress and plans for the future, WOCAT PR, organisational set-up and funding, outputs and products, methodological developments and how to make best use of the WOCAT methodology and products. It became clear that many activities are underway and that WOCAT is getting much wider international recognition. Funding is still not fully adequate in view of the many on-going activities and future plans. Besides on-going and much appreciated funding by SDC and (since 1999) DANIDA much in-kind support is provided by participating institutions.

Working group in action in ISRICs Soil Exposition Hall  

It was decided that there should be less Task Forces (TF), with less members. The TFs are an important instrument for the development and co-ordination of WOCAT and a strong commitment by their members is required. However, these con-tributions are still unpaid and (hence) on a voluntary basis which is the (potential) Achilles heel of the project. Nevertheless the reported progress invoked optimism for the future and it was made clear that if adequate products (and use of these products) can be provided and shown, more donors may be attracted.

And plenary discussions…

In the Management Group, Dirk Pretorius (NDA, South Africa) will replace Anneke Trux (OSS, Tunis). WOCAT is grateful to Anneke for her (and OSS’) contributions to WOCAT and hope that the good collaboration will continue in the future.

Various national and regional institutions reported on their activities and/or plans. Major or minor activities during the past year were mentioned for Kenya and East Africa (RELMA), South Africa (ISCW / NDA), the Philippines (BSWM, UPLB and other institutions), Western Africa (INSAH/ OSS and ICRISAT), Fujian Province in China (FSWCC), Thailand (DLD), HKH region (ICIMOD), Middle East and Central Asia (ICARDA). SDC and DANIDA confirmed their ongoing support confirmed for core and/or regional/ national activities. Plans for the coming year(s) were also presented and complemented by newcomers such as Yugoslavia and SE. Europe (Belgrade Univ.), India and Eritrea (with DANIDA support).

Download the full workshop report (1.4 MB) or contact the secretariat. 

· A new brochure was printed and distributed in June among collaborating institutions and interested individuals.

· Guidelines have been developed on "How to get started with WOCAT" and "How to make best use of WOCAT" (draft).

· A CD ROM version 2 was prepared and a final draft presented during the Annual Workshop in Wageningen. Some small bugs were still discovered and the final version was ready (and distributed) by November 2000.

· An 18 minute WOCAT video was also presented in Wageningen and enthusiastically received by the participants.

· The WOCAT Website was drastically refurbished and given a menu structure similar to the CD ROM.

· WOCAT databases can now either be downloaded from the Website (though the rather large size may be an obstacle for slower machines/connections) or on-line consulted through a specially devised query system.

· Contact was established with UNEP’s ‘Initiative on Success Stories in Land Degradation and Desertification Control’ and a proposal for a joint activity was discussed with a UNEP representative during the Wageningen Workshop.

· In June a meeting took place in Pretoria to discuss the WOCAT map methodology. The users/uses of ‘map(s)’ were re-iterated as being planners and policy makers at regional, national and sub-national (e.g. provincial) level, as well as the general public (awareness creation). The hot spots (degradation) with good potential for improvement as well as those that need a high investment for improvement should be shown on the map. The extent and effectiveness of the achievements as well as the type of conservation are other items to be displayed.

Can the WOCAT map also be used for monitoring purposes? Since the methodology is qualitative and based on expert judgement, monitoring could at best reflect changes in perceptions.

Another question concerned the Productivity item in the QM. This in practice gives contributors a lot of trouble and the usefulness of the data was questioned. Also, productivity is not used for map display (yet), but as additional information only. On the basis of this discussion this item was simpliefied.

The WOCAT map can help to identify existing Technologies (that can subsequently be described in a QT) and is a good assessment tool for SWC planning in general. WOCAT must produce user-friendly outputs (and show the practical use of these outputs). SWC projects should incorporate WOCAT. This should be achieved through brochures and posters, Handbook, CDROM v.2, Internet, courses/conferences/ workshops/ meetings and – last but not least - personal engagement and promotion.

A WOCAT map of Kwazulu Natal Province should be produced as a real test case for the methodology before the 5th annual workshop in Wageningen (September 2000).

Other issues were also discussed, such as the S. African contribution to the CD ROM v. 2, Quality Control, links to other databases and programmes (such as the South African Agricultural Information System site (http://www.agis.agric.za/) and Dr. Klaus Kellners ECORESTORE database – no Website yet).

During an intermediate long weekend a visit was made to an interesting dune rehabilitation programme in the Kalahari desert (Mier area), showing measures to control encroachment of invasive bush that compete with local (and for the game more palatable) grasses. 

Project leader André van Rooijen giving explanations

Contact the secretariat or download the full report of this meeting

· A double Task Force (TF) and management group meeting took place in April at FAO in Rome.

The main objective of the meeting was to discuss the organisational set-up of WOCAT and a fundraising strategy. Various FAO staff members attended the meeting in full or partly to increase familiarisation of FAO staff with WOCAT. As often, the agenda was expanded to cover many more issues such as Brochure, CD-ROM v.2, Website development, SWC categorisation, QM, Evaluation Criteria.

Much of the discussion on funding revolved around the role of DANIDA, which has committed itself to a contribution of US$ 70,000 for a first year, to be divided among core activities (secretariat, workshops etc.) and in-country activities, and follow-up action was agreed upon. The need for concrete and clearly visible outputs was stressed again. If these can be shown, it will supposedly attract other donors and interested parties.

Regarding the organisation set-up it was noted that Management Board is now called Management Group (MG), to avoid incorrect connotations associated with a Board. The discussions then focused mainly on the Task Forces, which are considered of main importance to WOCAT but at the same time do not always perform as desired. It was decided that beside a "technical co-ordinator" in each TF, one MG member per TF (both topical TF and national/ regional TFs) should have a general co-ordinating role. The mode of operation of TFs was further discussed. It is clear that there are no sufficient funds to sponsor regular TF workshops with TF members coming from all over the world meeting. But as a second best option, a lot can be achieved by email.