Participatory Video for Community-Led Research: Natural Resource Management in the Mountain Regions of Asia (NORMA)

At NORMA's core was the use of participatory video techniques for the purpose of enabling the local communities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and grassroot organisations to communicate their views and ideas themselves - directly to scientists, senior policy makers and donors. The vision is as follows: The process of involving the whole community in creating their own video focusing on their innovations, ideas, and perceptions puts them in control and values their local knowledge. The tool also helps to build consensus and the produced video represents the collective voice of the community. A community representative is then selected to show this video rather than give a speech, putting them on a more equal footing with scientists, NGO participants and so on, who may have more experience of conferences and public speaking. The participatory videos are also meant to be a tool for helping external agencies to appreciate not only the problems but also the solutions that local communities see for the management of their natural resources. In addition to helping synthesise local knowledge and scientific knowledge, video is used as a medium for cross-regional exchange and learning.

During the first phase of the project, community groups and local NGOs in 3 countries (India, Pakistan and China) took part in participatory video workshops. Insight reached out to nomads in Eastern Tibet and Ladakh and farmers in Pakistan and Ladakh, choosing relatively isolated communities living at high altitude. To facilitate this participation, in each country Insight facilitators collaborated with local NGO groups with a grassroots and participatory ethos, and with strong links to communities and local government. From these organisations, Insight trained 2 local facilitators in each country (one man and one woman) in Insight's participatory video methodologies. A key training tool was use of the games and methods detailed in Insight's handbook in an effort to foster effective work with a cross-section of participants within each community from different gender, age and status groups. Insight spent between 5-10 days in each community, involving as many people in the participatory video process as possible - whether they were filming, planning or being filmed. The footage that emerged was translated and then edited by Insight back in the UK. Draft versions of the participatory videos were sent back to local partners for them to show to the communities and to record comments and suggested alternations.

The second phase consisted of a multi-stakeholder workshop held in Scotland that was attended by representatives of national research organisations and universities, government departments, development organisations, and NGOs from the local communities involved. Edited versions of the community-made participatory videos were presented at the workshop by these local representatives. The goal was to enable community members, rather than government organisations and research establishments, to prioritise and determine which areas of NRM require attention. Attendees then worked in small groups, using participatory methods to foster an equitable exchange of views between all the key stakeholders, irrespective of their level of formal education. The aim was to identify the major research needs, how they could be achieved, and the relative likelihood of their success. The workshop was documented on film to enable villagers to see what impact their participatory video made on the attendees. Videos of the event were translated into local languages and were sent back to the communities, along with translated copies of all 4 participatory videos made in the different countries. This process of translation was meant to maximise the cross-border sharing and learning potential of the videos in the KHHK region. (To view a 40 minute synthesis version of the 4 community-made participatory videos and/or the short film produced from the workshop, visit the Insight website).

Natural Resource Management.

According to Insight, more than 50 people in each community got directly involved in the participatory video making process, and more than 40 participants, including villagers, community workers, scientists, NGO and government representatives from the mountainous KHKH region (as well as from Norway, Switzerland and the UK), attended the workshop. The communities sent positive feedback and felt their knowledge and opinions were being listened to and were having an impact. One attendee at the Scotland workshop commented, "I was impressed by the ease and clarity with which illiterate nomads and farmers expressed their concerns related to environmental change. Such videos carry messages that go far beyond language." The produced videos have already been shown widely to a range of audiences, such as researchers attending the Global Climate Change in Mountainous Regions (GLOCHAMORE) conference in Perth.

Among the lessons learned from NORMA, in the words of Insight: "We saw how it is essential to get involved at every stage of the process from selecting local partners, communities to work with, locals to train as facilitators to finding a suitable workshop location and arranging suitable food and accommodation. Involving local stakeholders in such international workshops requires great sensitivity to their needs to ensure they feel at ease."

Organisers hope to disseminate the films broadly in the region as part of an effort to develop a longer-term research project with participatory video as a community-led action research tool enabling communities, researchers and policy makers to document and share local knowledge, visions and innovation within and beyond national borders.