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THE WOCATEER (No.
5 - Summer 2002)
(WOCAT Newsletter)
The WOCAT
Newsletter is distributed by Email to those who have been subscribed to
the WOCAT-L mailing list (or as hard copy to
those without Email). You can check whether your address data are correct
by opening the on-line Address
Database. If they are not, or missing altogether, or if you wish to
be removed from the WOCAT Address database, please inform the WOCAT
Secretariat!
Dear
reader
This
was intended to be a relatively short newsletter, with as most important
issue the announcement of the next Annual Workshop and Steering Meeting
and a brief update on progress and developments since the previous Newsletter.
However we have received quite a number of news updates from our partners
in various countries that we do like to share with you. Many thanks to
the contributors!
7th
WOCAT Workshop and Steering Meeting (WWSM), 28/10-4/11 2002, Rome
As
suggested by the annual WOCAT meeting held in September 2001 in Nyeri,
Kenya, possibilities to hold the next workshop in Europe have been explored.
FAO has generously offered to host the seventh WOCAT Annual Workshop and
Steering Meeting (WWSM). FAO has suggested to link this WOCAT workshop
to a meeting of the project Land Degradation Assessment for Dryland Areas
(LADA) in which WOCAT is also supposed to play a significant role. This
meeting will take place in the week after the WOCAT workshop (5-7 November),
thereby enabling some participants to attend both meetings.
This
will be the second WOCAT meeting hosted by FAO this year, after the Workshop
for WOCAT Facilitators held in January. The 7th WWSM will take place from
October 28 till November 4, 2002, the last day being reserved for the
Steering Meeting. The latter is a wrap-up of the technical issues discussed
before and a planning session for the coming year(s), with hopefully a
strong attendance by donor representatives and some observers (e.g. from
FAO). The venue will be a place just outside Rome (still to be selected).
Invited
for the 7th WWSM are all those involved in the coordination of WOCAT activities
at the global, regional or national level, and/or involved in any of the
WOCAT Task Forces. Interested "outsiders" (i.e. those not yet involved
in WOCAT) are also welcome, if they are willing and able to fund their
own participation. Also for the "insiders" only limited sponsoring is
available and everyone is strongly encouraged to find means of cost sharing.
Besides
progress and future plans of Task Forces and global, regional or national
initiatives, the following issues for discussion have already been suggested:
- CD-ROM
v3
- Data Quality
- Video
CD
- World
Map
- Other
products
Latest
"Global" News: July 2002
Since the
previous Newsletter in April 2002 the following new and on-going activities
have taken place:
- From 9-12
April an introductory WOCAT workshop was held in Ratlam district,
Madya Pradesh State, India, ± 800 km south of New Delhi. This
workshop was organized by the Comprehensive Watershed Development Project
(CWDP), to explore the potential of the WOCAT methodology within the
context of their project and possibilities of collaboration between
WOCAT and the Indo-Danish Watershed Development Project (DANWADEP) in
general. The workshop was attended by 35 participants from three districts
(Ratlam, Petlawad, Dhar) in Madya Pradesh. Reactions were critical but
overall very positive and the participants agreed to go ahead with a
testing phase. Click here
for a more detailed report and see below for a brief report on follow-up
activities.
- The 12th
ISCO conference in Beijing from 26-31 May saw a very good WOCAT
representation with 10 WOCATeers attending the conference and 7 presentations
and papers (including WOCAT overview, Mapping, SWC classification, and
presentations by WOCAT collaborators from Ethiopia, Philippines, Tanzania,
Yugoslavia, as well as a poster about the mapping in Thailand). Posters
on the WOCAT methodology were prominently displayed and promotion materials
such as CD-ROMs, brochures and flyers handed out, including 400 copies
of the Chinese brochure prepared by the Fujian team.
HanspeterLiniger
giving his presentation on WOCAT
WOCAT
was mentioned once by the UNEP representative during the opening ceremony
and three times during the closing ceremony as a global tool for documentation,
evaluation, monitoring and exchange of information. An informal WOCAT
evening session was held with the WOCAT collaborators present at the
conference as well as interested others, totalling 22 persons. A brief
update on the present status of WOCAT was given by Hanspeter Liniger,
followed by brief verbal statements on the national activities in
the Philippines, Thailand, China, Yugoslavia, Tanzania, Kenya/RELMA,
Ethiopia. Possible dates for the annual WOCAT workshop were discussed,
with a preference emerging for late October rather than late September
(confirming a preliminary agreement in Nyeri, last year).
Many
interesting bi-lateral discussions were held, e.g. with a Chinese
team on expansion of WOCAT at a national scale, with representatives
of SYNGENTA Ltd. on possible joint activities in Europe, Asia and
world-wide (see below), with FAO about the forthcoming Annual Workshop
and LADA, with LDD about activities in Thailand, with ICARDA on continuation
of the activities started in 1999, etc. A more detailed report on
the Conference can soon be found on the Website.
- After
the ISCO conference, six of the ten WOCATeers (Samran Sombatpanit, Daniel
Danano, Romy Labios, Attya Phinchongsakuldit, Hanspeter Liniger and
Godert van Lynden) continued their journey to Fujian where Mr.
Yang Xuezhen and his team had prepared an excellent and most pleasant
programme from June 1-5. The meeting took place in the Wuyi Shan (mountains),
a UNESCO World Heritage site, in the northern part of the Province,
which besides a large extent of forest also has a high production of
tea. A press conference was organised with over 30 journalists and as
many as six TV stations from different provinces. Some of the tea plantations
were visited and the SWC measures studied and discussed. The spectacular
"Nine-bend River" was explored by bamboo raft, and the highest point
of the region, the Huanggang shan (2158 m.) was climbed, though with
mechanical means (by car). One day was entirely spent on discussions
regarding the current state of affairs, plans for China (Fujian and
national) and short feedback from the other countries represented (Thailand,
Philippines, Ethiopia) as well as global progress and plans for the
coming year. A more detailed report of this meeting will soon appear
on the Website.
- The well-known
and widely distributed National
Geographic Magazine has approached WOCAT with regard to an environmental
map that will be published in their September issue. Among the items
covered on the map is soil degradation (GLASOD map), and examples of
recognized successes of sustainable agricultural practices will be included
on the map. This will be a highly simplified representation of the global
distribution of SWC activities, but it also shows that there is a need
for maps at global scales - the original objective of WOCAT in 1992.
Also, National Geographic is interested to know what criteria WOCAT
uses to classify areas that have been successfully managed with regard
to soil conservation practices. This request from National Geographic
has provoked a new internal interest in a true WOCAT World Map. Besides
on-going mapping activities at national and regional scale an initiative
will soon start through this mailing list to collect information on
important SWC activities and their distribution, with the aim to come
to a first "quick and dirty" approximation of a SWC world map.
- The WOCAT
Website is regularly updated and improved. Its layout is very similar
to that of the latest CD ROM (v. 2) but of course its content is more
recent. The Website contains some important additional items, such as
the "News" section (containing all issues of
the Newsletters); a "Reports" section containing
workshop reports and published documents, an "Updates,
Tips and Tricks" section giving some important technical hints e.g.
on how to solve some problems with the databases or the CD ROM; on-line
(as well as downloadable) databases; links
to other interesting sites; etc. Please bookmark the WOCAT Website and
pass it on! We also would like to get your comments and suggestions
or hear about any problems you might encounter in accessing the site
or any of the pages.
Regional/national
initiatives
Our thanks
are due to the respective countries and individuals that provided the
following reports.
- China
- Seven
additional QTs have been finalised
- Software
and WOCAT brochure have been translated into Chinese
- QM Fujian
consists of 60 units (polygons) equalling one county each; 1 prefecture
(Quanzhou) will be selected as more detailed test case on county basis
- Discussions
on WOCAT at national level (see ISCO report above)
- Through
Malcolm Douglas 10 Ts and As from the Loess Plateau will be added
(however, they need improvements and clarifications concerning the
Approach)
- Thailand
- Cooperation
with other institutions like LDD and universities needs more work
- QM in-progress,
first result for SE Province, will be done at 'tambon' or district
level later this year
- A number
of QTs and QAs will be finalised within a few months
- Cooperation
within SE Asia: contacts in Vietnam, China and India; will collaborate
in a number of QTs and QAs in Yunnan and Guangdong provinces in South
China.
- Philippines
- Publications/Promotions:
participation in Food Security symposium, Jan. 2002, Chiang Mai (poster
presented by Samran Sombatpanit); ISCO-XII, May 2002, Beijing (Romy
Labios); IUSS, August 2002, Bangkok (Joe Rondal)
- Joe
Rondal is working on QM, E-mail assistance by WOCAT core
- 2-3
QTs to be submitted before the WWSM7
- Book/Publication
of SWC Abstracts: in-press
- Pool
of WOCAT Trainers: awaiting for the approval of the Training proposal
submitted to Dept. of Agriculture
- EthiOCAT
by
Daniel Danano
Achievements
May 2001 - May 2002
A national
awareness creation workshop was conducted in April 2001 at Nazareth,
in which soil conservation experts from government and nongovernmental
organizations participated. It was in this workshop that EthiOCAT as
a focal network for implementing WOCAT activities established. A national
coordina-tor (Daniel Danano) and data base manager (Berhanu Fentaw)
were assigned to facilitate the EthiOCAT / WOCAT programme in Ethiopia.
The workshop events were recorded in the proceedings,
indicating objectives and action plans of EthiOCAT/ WOCAT. Following
this, the data base manager and the team leader for soil and water conservation
participated in the WOCAT Steering Meeting held in Nyeri, Kenya, September
2001. It was in this meeting that work plan for the year 2001-2002 prepared.
The following
is the evaluation of the achievements of the workplan. The national
coordinator and data base manager have participated in the Facilitators
Training held at the FAO, Rome, January 2002. After this workshop EthiOCAT
focused mainly on preparatory activities for launching the programme.
Four regions are selected for initial identification of technologies
and approaches for which QTs, QAs and QMs will be completed. The collection
and filling in the questionnaires of the technologies, approaches and
map is to be undertaken in one Woreda (an administrative unit in a region)
each of the identified regions. To facilitate EthiOCAT activities, a
Regional Coordinator and a Data Manager are assigned for each region.
A follow up training of the facilitators training held in Rome just
took place from June 17-22, 2002 in Addis Ababa, in which regional facilitators
participated.
Impressions
of the follow-up training for regional facilitators in Addis Ababa
The EthiOCAT
National Coordinator participated in ISCO2002 Conference held in Beijing,
May 26-31, 2002. This was a golden opportunity for EthiOCAT to learn
from global experiences and in the mean time share its own experience
with others. This year is marked for EthiOCAT with better opportunities
to meeting WOCATeers and discuss on many important issues and devising
mechanism for strengthening its activities. Among the major events was
the WOCAT workshop at Wuyishan (see above). The workshop provided an
opportunity to learn from the remarkable Fujian experience in natural
resources management. The workshop and field trip showed that our Fujian
colleagues have done a lot in getting WOCAT activities done. We would
like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to the
Fujian WOCAT group for the excellent hospitality they have provided.
EthiOCAT
has achieved 70% of its targeted activities for the period September
'01 to September '02 and shall try its best achieving the remaining
activities shown in its work plan.
- South
Africa by Rinda van der Merwe
Currently
the expansion of the datasets in the database is a priority. Included
are 10 new Technology and 9 new Approach questionnaires in the database,
which currently consists of 55 Technologies and 51 Approaches in total.
The Image database includes more than 360 photo's/figures. Four more
sets of data are to be digitised. We envisage that these tasks will
be completed in the next couple of weeks. Thereafter we will start making
concise summaries for distribution.
A new project on WOCAT is to get WOCAT as a user-friendly tool on the
South African AGIS website.
- Central
Asia by Zulfira Zikrina
After the
meeting in Kenya the following work has been carried out. The Kazakh
scientific -research Institute of Agrigulture has been selected as the
appropriate institution for collaboration in WOCAT activities in the
Republic of Kazakhstan. We selected a SWC technology for including in
WOCAT database. The name of technology is "Rational using of the sloping
lands ex-posed to water erosion". We held two training meetings with
WOCATeers. Now the QT and QA are being filled in, as well as the data
for mapping are collected and analysed.
Also I have had a trip in Kegen region with CAMP representatives and
met with local farmers, they are interested in implementation this technology
on their lands.
On May
17 a follow-up meeting to the Ratlam workshop was held at the Project
Manager's office attended by key staff from the three field teams. We
had an in-depth look at the QT, formed 4 working groups and decided
on a Technology for each group (tentatively, Badnawar-Pasture Development
at Tikhi hill vegetative, structural, management; Petlawad-Dugouts at
Mahudipada structural; Ratlam-Doh with odee at Badia structural). Additionally
the PMU group will attempt to use the QA for the watershed approach
adopted by the project. An Action Plan was prepared which should enable
us to finalise the Questionnaires by end August to mid September. Late
May we have initiated use of the QT for Badnawar (Silvipasture on Tikhi
Hill). The Ratlam (Undwanala) watershed team has initiated the QT which
will cover the doh technology. We plan to initiate the QT for Petlawad
and continue with the QT for Ratlam and Badnawar in July. Shall work
on the QA during August. The project also has forwarded a note on WOCAT
to Govt. of Madya Pradesh (GoMP) at it's request. A communication from
GoMP to the Govt. of India is forthcoming. The next WOCAT training workshop
at Ratlam may be scheduled during October. The very hot summer is finally
over. The monsoon has set in over the past couple of days and sowing
operations are in full swing.
- Yugoslavia
by Miodrag Zlatic
Since the
workshop in Nyeri up the following activities were carried out: QT,
QA, and QM, as well as the WOCAT glossary translated into Serbian. The
Serbian language is easy understood in the surrounding former Yugoslav
republics. The translation still has to be revised and were financed
from the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management (Department
for Water Management), after the WOCAT programme was accepted in this
Ministry as a part of the National Water Management study. Unfortunately,
this Ministry has no further investments for this year. Efforts are
underway to move the WOCAT activities into the Secretariat for Ecology
and Environment, which is on the way to become a Ministry and which
may be in a better position for sponsoring.
At the
moment, some "seed money" would be highly welcome, in order to start
with the workshop and questionnaires at the national level, because
everything is prepared for starting/running the programme. After starting
a national WOCAT programme, WOCAT on a regional plan could also become
real: (1) contacts and agreements have been made with 5 countries; (2)
UNECE and UNEP (Mountain Dept.), both situated in Geneva, have been
contacted for regional support.
Since some
time promising contacts exist between the SYNGENTA agro-chemical company
and WOCAT. SYNGENTA is interested in solutions for sustainable agriculture
and sees a role for WOCAT as an independent qualified organisation with
appropriate tools for this purpose. The most concrete ideas now focus
on conservation agriculture for intensive mechanised farming in Europe
- opening new grounds for WOCAT, but there seems to be promising scope
for activities elsewhere.
Roger White
from ICIMOD reports that the PARDYP
project had a successful review and a three-year phase 3 is planned
to run from Jan 2003. The reviewers thought linking with WOCAT was a
good idea, so hopefully there will be more news during the meeting in
Rome. An invitation from ICIMOD to host an annual WOCAT workshop is
still standing.
Other
issues
RE-Source
Award for Sustainable Watershed Management
As one of
the world's leading reinsurers, Swiss Re (Swiss Reinsurance Company) has
committed itself to supporting the planning, evaluation and implementation
of water-related projects with the aim of promoting awareness and encouraging
the efficient use of this precious resource. To support and encourage
water-related initiatives, Swiss Re is now launching the RE-Source Award
for Sustainable Watershed Management. The RE-Source Award is worth USD
100 000 in total and is granted to one or several projects selected by
our jury.
It is an
attractive possibility for the WOCAT collaborators to compete for this
award and get support for funding concrete implementation activities related
to watershed management, water (& source/spring) protection and to be
proactive rather than reactive in protecting the environment, the water
and the land.
More details
see http://www.swissre.com/resource
All applications
for "RE-Source Award 2002" no later than 31 August 2002!
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