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THE WOCATEER (No. 8 - Autumn 2003)
(WOCAT Newsletter)

The WOCAT Newsletter is distributed by Email to those who are subscribed to the WOCAT-L mailing list (or as hard copy to those without Email).
It is distributed only in English for the time being, but Websites like http://babelfish.altavista.com/ or http://www.google.com/ language_tools offer fairly good translation facilities. The result is not perfect but quite understandable.

8th WOCAT Workshop and Steering Meeting (WWSM)
28/10 - 2/11 2003, Kathmandu, Nepal

The 8th WOCAT Annual Workshop and Steering Meeting (WWSM) was hosted by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD; PARDYP project), after China had to cancel its offer as a result of to the SARS problem. The meeting, which took place at the Summit Hotel in Kathmandu, with the impressive backdrop of the Himalayas, was attended by 22 participants from 12 countries. Five participants from Kenya and Tanzania, sponsored by RELMA, unfortunately had to return home from Bombay because of an Indian visa problem.

The meeting started on Tuesday 28-10 with a review of the progress and problems encountered at global, regional and national level. Most national or regional institutions indicated considerable progress and achievements of targets set at the previous WWSM in Rome (see "News from Regional and National Initiatives" below). Problems and drawbacks mentioned were financial for some, organisational or instituti-onal for others. All felt that data quality remains an issue requiring attention (this also was a discussion topic later in the meeting).

At the global level, it was noted that SDC is committed to continue and even increase its (core) funding, however without direct benefits to the activities in view of increased overheads at CDE. "Core group" members participated in several international workshops, e.g. the LADA meeting directly after the WWSM7 in Rome (Nov. '02), a DFID /ICIMOD workshop in Kathmandu on Renewable Natural Resources Management for Mountain Communities (Feb. '02), an OECD meeting on Soil Erosion Indica-tors in Rome (March. '03), a meeting at IAEA in Vienna (May '03), an ICIMOD/FAO workshop on Achievements in Watershed management, Kathmandu (Sept. '03). Assistance in training courses was given in Tajikistan (Sept. '03).

WWSM8 participants at the Summit Hotel, Kathmandu (Photo H.P. Linger)

On Wednesday 29-10, Topic 2 (Quality Assurance) and Topic 3 (Use of WOCAT) were more or less combined in view of the overlap in the subject and two parallel working groups were formed. For both topics task forces had been established last year in Rome, with clear ToR for at least the one on the Use of WOCAT - with considerable implications for the Quality Assurance issue. Based on these ToR a consultant, Malcolm Douglas, had been assigned to review the existing WOCAT data with regard to their quality and to make recommendations on how to improve the latter. This report served as a basis for the discussion during the meeting. Unfortunately the author himself could not be present. The meeting concluded that the major responsibility for data quality lies with the national and regional institutions and that "peer review committees" should be formed at those levels. It was stressed that the documentation, self-evaluation and dissemination of the knowledge should be seen as the major motivation to collect good information and store it in the database. Quality assurance is the prime interest of those documenting and evaluating their own experiences such that it helps them to better understand SWC and improve land management. For data to be included in the global database an international review panel should be established, thus also providing a more scientific status to the documented case studies (to be further explored). An UNEP publication ("Overview book") will be the first output of "quality assured data" from the WOCAT database. This book will contain about 25 case studies and will be published in May 2004 (i.e. before ISCO XIII).

Presentation of group work (Photo H.P. Liniger)

On Thursday 30-10 a field trip was made to the ICIMOD test and demonstration site at Godawari, just south of Kathmandu. Originally a PARDYP field site about one hour outside the valley had been envisaged but this had been reconsidered in view of the deteriorated security situation. The Godawari site shows a range of rural development options, from soil and water conservation measures through various energy generation techniques to Angora rabbit and Nuba goat keeping. It also covers an area (25 ha) varying from gentle slopes with wetland conditions to steep sloping mountain forest.

On Friday 31-10 two parallel sessions were held: Digital Products (testing and reviewing a draft of the new version of the WOCAT CD, including databases, questionnaires, etc.) and Mapping (WOCAT World Map and QM, mapping at more detailed scales). The Digital Products group mainly concentrated on the (draft) new CD ROM v.3 and its contents, in particular the databases. Also the subject of "E-learning" (training through the Internet) was discussed. The WOCAT Website statistics showed a strong increase in traffic since last year from less than 10000 requests to almost 30000 per month, with a striking rise in hit frequency in May 2003. Of course a number of hits are "accidental" and not from interested people but the number of specific pages visited (i.e. other than home page) does give some indication of interest shown. The high number of requests for the Worldmap page are remarkable in this respect. Databases and the report of previous WWSMs are also high-ranking. The WOCAT mailing list (WOCAT-L) has grown to almost 450 subscribers who receive a newsletter twice a year and a few ad-hoc WOCAT updates or questions by other subscribers. Its role as a discussion forum is still underexploited however.

Feedback and progress for both the World map and (sub) national or regional mapping had been below expectations. A clear exception being the Philippines, which has used the ASSOD (physiographic) base map for mapping of SWC in about 2/3 of the country (Luzon and Mindanao) and has plans to finish the remaining third within the next year. Some progress was also mentioned in Ethiopia and Serbia/Montenegro. Moreover, various participants announced plans for applying QM at varying scales (e.g. ICIMOD for their PARDYP sites in Nepal, India, Pakistan). The World Map initiative, which was launched after a request by the National Geographic Magazine a year ago, had been announced through the WOCAT mailing list, as well as during the previous WWSM, where the participants showed considerable interest. Yet promised or spontaneous contributions remained low (in spite of reminders) and the meeting was invited to make suggestions for enhancement. An announcement in the coming WASWC newsletter and through the Mountain Forum was seen as one of the options, while new promises were made by all participants. It was pointed out that the requested contributions could be made relatively easily and rapidly by someone (or preferably a group of experts) with an overall knowledge of the SWC situation in the country. It was also explained that the map currently displayed on the WOCAT Website is only an example of what the map could look like, and is not reflecting the actual situation. In fact the latter should even be an encouragement for people to send their contribution, in order to make the map more accurate.

Topic 6 on Saturday 1-11 comprised operational issues of WOCAT: functioning of the Management Group, Task Forces and fund raising issues. With regard to the MG it was noted that communication had been far from optimal and the main workload was being shared by Hanspeter Liniger and Godert van Lynden. This can also partly explained by the fact that these two have a direct time (and budget) allocation for WOCAT, whereas other MG members are supposed to use their own (institutions') funds for the time spent on WOCAT MG matters. However a minimum contribution to Email correspondence might be expected from other members of the Management Group. The meeting agreed with the new structure of the Management Group, in which Hanspeter and Godert, together with FAO as a global organisation (to be verified), will deal with daily coordination issues. Various national and regional organisations will then share responsibilities on an ad-hoc and/or regional basis: BSWM (Philippines), Institute of Soils (Tajikistan), SWCMC (China), ICARDA (to be confirmed), ICIMOD, INSAH, RELMA, India/DANWADEP/S. Asia.

With regard to the operation of task forces, it was noted that this has not been very satisfactory either, in spite of recommendations in earlier WWSMs. Feedback to Emails from the Secretariat/"Core group" saw very little response. Participants tend to commit themselves too easily during a meeting but once back home other priorities take over, also because the time spent on the task forces is assumed to be an implicit part of the WOCAT work and hence self-sponsored. However, this is not entirely realistic since the tasks typically concern methodological or organisational issues at the global rather than national or regional level and hence task forces are partly a means to support the "core" group. Unfortunately no or only very little funds can be allocated for TF work. The only occasion this was done in the past year had indeed resulted in concrete outputs: the discussion paper by Malcolm Douglas on the Use of WOCAT and Quality Assurance, and inputs by Will Critchley for the UNEP "Overview book".

Some recommendations to improve the functioning of the TFs were:
- To tack on a TF meeting to WWSM (2 days before and/or after)
- Regional responsibility: regional institutions take a leading role in one or more TF(s)
- ICIMOD will organize a regional meeting in March to discuss progress on various issues/TFs and will invite, besides from ICIMOD member countries, one representative from C. Asia, from China and from India. The possibility to invite someone from RELMA (E. Africa) was raised, in order to explore/enhance a similar regional role for RELMA.
- Invitation for workshops based on deliverables of TF members
- Partial use of funds for regional/national activities for contribution to TF

The following TFs were identified
- Use of WOCAT
- Fund raising at both regional and global level
- Strengthening regional structures
- QM / worldmap
- E-learning
- Quality assurance at both regional and global level
- Digital products

On the last day of the workshop (Sunday 2-11) plans for the coming year were presented and discussed (see also national/regional activities below) For the next Annual Workshop and Steering Meeting (WWSM9) the participants unequivocally decided to accept the (postponed) offer by the Soil and Water Conservation Monitoring Centre in China to host the meeting. Probable period is the second week of November 2004, with as suggested possibly a few days before and after for any Task Force work. Exact dates and venue will be communicated later after consulting other potential participants.

Please check the Website for the complete proceedings of the workshop on the Website (coming soon!).

WOCAT training for ICIMOD countries; 3 - 8 Nov. 2003

Directly after the WWSM, a WOCAT training was held for participants from ICIMOD member count-ries. This training was a follow-up of the 2-days introductory workshop held in March 2003 in Kathman-du (see WOCATEER 7). The background of participants varied from Govt. department employees wor-king at the field level (e.g. District Soil Conservation Officers) to University and other scientific institutions. Several of the participants of the present training were already familiar with WOCAT, some of them even having filled in several questionnaires. This enabled a "flying start" and a different set-up of the training, with less time spent on introduction and theoretical issues (e.g. WOCAT methodology, structure of the questionnaires, etc.) and more time in the field. Instead of 1 field day and 4 class room days, as in most training exercises to date, the emphasis was now on the field exercise, preceded by one introductory day and succeeded by a wind-up session on the last day.

Typical scene of the training area: intensive cultivation on alluvial terraces in the foreground, hillside terracing on steep slopes in the background (Photo H.P. Liniger)

The field exercise consisted of one reconnaissance day in a NE section of the Kathmandu valley showing a rather wide range in natural and agricultural environment (from broad, irrigated alluvial terraces with deep, relatively fertile soils and 3-4 crops per year, to narrow rainfed terraces on very steep mountain slopes with shallow infertile soil, and 2 marginal crops/year). Various SWC technologies were identified and selected for documentation and evaluation during the two following days. Because a full documentation of a technology and an approach would not be feasible within this short time, only a number of selected questions - that appear in the Technology and Approach summary sheets - were studied. The local farmers were strongly involved in the documentation. It was also useful for the participants to realise where they would need the farmers' advice and where they could answer questions by themselves.

One of the groups reporting their findings (Photo H.P. Liniger)

This new set-up proved to be very successful and was valued by the participants, as was clear from the filled in evaluation forms as well as verbal comments. Participants expressed their appreciation of the methodology and the usefulness for their daily work.

The collected data may be included as case study summary sheets in the UNEP "Overview Book" after some quality checking and refinement.

On the last training day some more time was spent on QM (mapping questionnaire) and the WOCAT World map, as this was not really explored in the field due to lack of time. After this, conclusions and follow-up activities were discussed, revealing a clear interest by the participants to proceed with the WOCAT methodology.

WOCAT participation in the 5th International Danida Workshop On Wa-tershed Development
10th -19th November 2003, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Hanspeter Liniger attended this event from 10-12 November. On arrival day (10 November) a field trip was organized (together with Rahul Sen and Poul Richart Jensen from DANIDA) to a site where a SWC Technology (silvi-pasture technology in watershed development in Badnawar Tehsil) was documented during the previous WOCAT activities in India. On 11 November a WOCAT presentation was given to the participants from the different DANIDA watershed programmes all over the world.

Visit and discussion with farmers and DANIDA project staff, who have implemented and documented an SWC technology. (Photo H.P. Liniger)

WOCAT was presented as a possible and suitable tool for capacity building, since it compiles the wealth of existing knowledge, and helps in the self-evaluation and the dissemination of activities carried out in the DANIDA (and other) watershed programmes. As it documents the knowledge in a systematic and comprehensive manner (covering both the natural and human environment) it also helps in identifying strengths and weaknesses and knowledge gaps that need to be addressed by the project. Through the documentation of the approach the question about capacity building of the extension and project staff as well as the land users is raised. The mapping tool was also presented as a useful method to build up the capacity by assessing degradation and conservation achievements.

When DANIDA watershed programmes end, the knowledge should be maintained and still be available for future projects. The WOCAT network has been highlighted as a pool for capacity building. As DANIDA projects in India will come to an end, WOCAT was assessed and proposed as a suitable tool to assure that gained knowledge is kept through the documentation of the experiences.

During the very fruitful discussions in the 3 days of WOCAT involvement in the workshop plans were made on how to include WOCAT on the national level in India (through the Ministry of Agriculture), how to continue and enhance the documentation, evaluation and dissemination of the DANIDA watershed experience in India, and on the role of DANIDA in future WOCAT activities. Results for these discussions will soon be available.

News from regional and national initiatives:
(Summary of reports presented during the WWSM8. For full reports see the Workshop Proceedings on the WOCAT Website)

East Africa
Progress was reported from Kenya (Kithinji Mutunga, Min. of Agric) and Tanzania (Kimamba Lyoba, Min. of Agric.), whose representatives unfortunately did not make it to Kathmandu. The Kenya Overview book "Soil and water conservation in Kenya as documented through WOCAT" is now published in the RELMA series as "Working Paper No. 19, 2003". An upgrade to a "technical report" status is depending on availability of funds. Some new case studies on Technologies and Approaches were documented in both Kenya and Tanzania, and mapping was done in Tanzania for 5 polygons. Several existing case studies in the database were updated and improved, some of which will be included in the UNEP Global Overview Book. An internal (national) training was conducted in Tanzania. WOCAT has also been used by NGO's and other institu-tions/organisations at different levels of intensity. Plans for the coming year involve further promotion of WOCAT and documenting more case studies.
Ethiopia (Daniel Danano, Min. of Agric.) reported documentation of case studies for 19 QTs, 12 QAs and 14 QMs, and updating of 8 Ts and 2 As. A training was conducted for 8 field staff participating in the data collection from the Southern Region. For the planned overview book, more data is required from remaining regions. Two review meetings were conducted for checking the quality and standard of the information collected.

South Africa (Rinda van der Merwe, ISCW)
Updating of existing data received priority during the past year. The Images database was updated and new images included. An Info-book is currently been put together, using data from the 4-page summaries and appropriate figures. South Africa is also planning a one day seminar, to inform all stakeholders of the progress of WOCAT in South Africa up till now, and also incorporating WOCAT in our LandCare initia-tive. WOCAT will also be available on the AGIS - webpage (http://www.arc.agric.za) in the near future.
Lack of funding hindered progress for some other activities.

PARDYP-ICIMOD (Sanjeev Bhuchar, PARDYP)
The People and Resource Dynamics Project (PARDYP) at ICIMOD is a regional interdisciplinary and research for development project in the field of mountain watershed management with institutions in China, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Application of WOCAT for assessment of its own activities and linking with the global network for dissemination of the project's findings is considered important by PARDYP.
Through this initiative, it is envisaged that ICIMOD will be able to build a good database for the HKH on various SWC measures, which will hopefully be of direct value to the land users and SWC specialists in the region. Adopting WOCAT is also looked at by PARDYP a one way to link with other relevant pro-grams supported by SDC.
PARDYP's interest in WOCAT application, and its commitment to this initiative on a regional basis, is evident from the following events and activities carried out during the current year:
· Capacity building of identified WOCAT regional partners
· Organising WOCAT training for representatives from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Nepal with WOCAT trainers in March 2003.
· Continued discussion on future strategies with these participants and a few new ones through emails and by personal contacts, e.g. with the Eco Science Centre in Nepal.
· Follow-up training for participants from across the HKH countries from 3-8 Nov. 2003.
· Developing joint programs on WOCAT for the coming year.
· Co-sponsoring of the WOCAT's 8th Annual International Workshop and Steering Meeting
· Documentation of case studies from PARDYP-Nepal, from Sikkim (India) and from Bangladesh
· Based on the database generated through WOCAT tools, contributing of a success story for an SDC meeting in Bhutan in October 2003.
· Contribution of up to 30% of time for WOCAT by key staff in PARDYP/ICIMOD.

India (Roland Benson, DANWADEP)
WOCAT activities in India are carried out within DANIDA's watershed programme (DANWADEP). Following two training workshops held in Ratlam in 2002, data collection in Madya Pradesh has seen a good start, resulting in documentation of several case studies. An introductory workshop followed by a training and subsequent data collection was organised in Tamil Nadu, while another orientation workshop is foreseen in Karnataka towards the end of this year. WOCAT would also be presented during an international DANWADEP meeting in Indore directly after the WWSM in Kathmandu.

Philippines (Romeo Labios, Univ. of the Philippines; Joe Rondal, BWSM)
The Philippine Conservation Approaches and Technologies (PHILCAT) initiative continued its planned activities for the past year. Best efforts were exerted to meet pre-set objectives and targets. WOCAT was promoted during various national and international conferences in the region and in journal articles and a flyer.
Several case studies were revised and updated to contribute to the UNEP Overview book.
WOCAT has also been used as instruction material on natural resource management for undergraduate and graduate students.
Mapping (QM) for Luzon Island was finished involving about 40 physiographic units. With the comple-tion of mapping activities for Mindanao and Luzon islands, only the Visayas Island group remains to be documented and mapped.

Thailand (Samran Sombatpanit, WASWC)
A change in the administration of the Land Development Department (LDD) in Nov 2002 caused the THAICAT team not to be successful in proposing the draft MoU to their superiors for consideration. However, the Thai team, comprising of Mr Kamron and Mr Somporn, is determined to operate as proposed during the WWSM7 in Rome once the MoU has been signed.

WASWC (Samran Sombatpanit, WASWC)
WASWC supported conferences in Belgrade, Yugoslavia and Sofia, Bulgaria where WOCAT was presented prior to the launch of the WOCAT SEE (Southeast and East Europe). WASWC also supported a Wocateer to attend the 3rd International Conference on Vetiver in China where WOCAT was presented to a number of participants. Samran coordinated with the Thai team from LDD to sign agreement with WOCAT. WOCAT highlights are published in the WASWC Newsletter every 3 months. A chapter on WOCAT is also included in two books (to be) published by WASWC.
A special publication of the WASWC will highlight the accomplishments of WOCAT from 1992-2004 (early 2005).

FAO (Yuji Niino, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific)
Mr. Niino highlighted several activities of FAO related to WOCAT activities, such as the Agro-ecological Zoning (AEZ) / Land Resource Information System (LRIS), Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA) Project, Development and Applications of a Multi-purpose Environmental and Natural Resources Information Base for Food Security and Sustainable Development (ASIACOVER), Asia Soil Conservation Network for Humid Tropics (ASOCON) and other soil and water conservation programs (Conservation Agriculture, Problem Soils Management, Promotion of Biodiversity and Carbon sequestra-tion, Integrated Soil Nutrient Management Systems, etc.). FAO-RAP is prepared to make a contribution to the regional coordination of WOCAT in S. and SE. Asia.

China (Feng Xu, SWCMC)
The past year (Oct.2002-Oct.2003) marks the beginning for activities at the national level. In September 2002, the Ministry Of Water Resources (MWR) gave approval to the Soil And Water Conservation Monitoring Center (SWCMC) to join WOCAT as the national coordinating agency in China. After then, SWCMC started the activities as per its commitment in Rome. A Memorandum of Understanding for WOCAT development in China nationally was signed during the WWSM7 in Rome. In 2003, SWCMC organized 2 major training programs for soil erosion in southern China, in which WOCAT was introduced as a useful tool. The trainee numbers of these programs exceeded 100. A training on how to get started with WOCAT is expected to be organized early next year. Links have been established with the WOCAT programme in Fujian province that has been ongoing for some years. SWCMC has applied such funding from MWR and other resources. Hosting the WWSM8 unfortunately had to be cancelled as a consequence of the SARS problems. However approval and financial support from MWR is currently pursued for hosting the 9th Annual Workshop and Steering Meeting in 2004.
Beside the plans for hosting the 9th WSM, efforts in the coming year will mainly be focused on training programs. A WOCAT training program for Chinese trainers is planned. These future trainers will take the responsibility for (sub)national WOCAT training programs in 2004. At least 1 national training program for Chinese trainees will be implemented in 2004. The number of trainees presumably will amount to 200.

Central Asia (Aida Gareyeva)
CAMP is the Central Asian Mountain Programme, with the mission of sustainable development of mountain regions in Central Asia. CAMP has translated QT and QA into Russian and updated them. Two WOCAT workshops were organised (in Bishkek and Dushanbe). Three working groups were established, in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, involving 3 local organisations. CAMP started in 2003 with the of collection 40 technologies and approaches in these three countries, using shortened questionnaire forms. A0 posters were designed for presentation of these case studies. An exhibition with these posters will be held from 12 -15th November in 3 countries. During this exhibition CAMP will organize 2 trainings for rural advisory service specialists (Helvetas) and for students. All posters will also be translated into English. A roaming exhibition will further be organised for mountain alliance villages (19 villages in Central Asia) in December 2003.

Serbia - Montenegro (Miodrag Zlatic, Univ. of Belgrade) The search for donors for a national programme continued, with some success at the Ministry for Natural Resources and Environment. Various promotion activities were carried out, a.o. during the IYM Conference in Belgrade in December 2002 and the WASWC meeting for Balkans in Sofia (July 2003). Some case studies of technologies and approaches were documented and Map questionnaires were filled in for 4 communities in Southeast Serbia (Qm).

Europe (SOWAP) (Godert van Lynden, ISRIC)

The project "Soil and surface water protection using conservation tillage in Northern and Central Europe" (SOWAP) is installing pilot sites to investigate the agronomic, environmental, economic and social effects of minimum tillage in three countries: UK, Belgium and Hungary. Dissemination of results will take place through WOCAT, farmer networks and the SOWAP website (feedback welcome!). Funding (3M € for 3 years) is primarily from EU-Life/Environment and Syngenta, with a WOCAT share of € 200.000. WOCATs primary role will be:
· To provide training and technical assistance to project staff
· To disseminate the acquired results to land users, planners, institutions, etc.
WOCATs expectations of SOWAP are:
· To expand the global WOCAT database with European case studies
· To evaluate the effectiveness of selected SWC measures in England, Belgium and Hungary
· To include European countries/institutions/ companies/NGO's in the WOCAT Network
· Detailed documentation of SWC case studies in NW Europe (technologies & approaches)