We support local custodians of biodiversity, such as indigenous peoples to continue protecting the vital ecosystems they live in. Participatory Video can help document and promote traditional knowledge, local culture and languages; and build bridges with scientists, conservationists and decision-makers. Here are some examples.
A group of 11 farmers, members of the Bukonzo Joint Co-operative, came together for a participatory video project to plan and shoot a video about their local environment, before creating a screening in the community to raise debate around sustainable agricultural practice.
In this participatory video project a film is made by 11 members of the Ericaville Farming Trust. A complicated process led to the participants going out into their community to enable a group of youth, elders and women to come together to tell their stories through a participatory video process, and community screening. The video tells the story of their journey together as a community. The past displacement from the West Coast and their resettlement along the coast of the Southern Cape, South Africa, their longing to own land and to farm became a reality after a wait of 30 years.
In this participatory video project a group of people in Chanya (Malawi) explore key issues affecting them as individuals and the wider community, in relation to climate change locally and/or globally. Video was used as a tool by which the subject could be explored and perspectives shared amongst the participants themselves and with the wider community and beyond.
In this participatory video project 12 cocoa farmers made a video, which focused on the negative impacts of deforestation. They succeeded in generating a video that carries the seldom heard voices of Ivorian cocoa farmers, and clearly demonstrates the problems that they are experiencing as a result of climate change. The completed video has the potential to raise awareness of how climate change is impacting on people in this region and may serve to generate interest in supporting efforts to mitigate these problems.
In this participatory video project a team of coffee farmers identifies and documents sustainable land management practices through video, which could then be used to share knowledge locally, and potentially further afield. Participants were selected by the organisers from two neighbouring coffee co-operatives. InsightShare facilitators helped the group to identify the main threats to farmers, and look at changes in the local environment and weather. They produced a video, which was subsequently made into 3 short videos: ‘Climate Change’, ‘Land Management’ and ‘Land Subdivision’.
In June and July 2012, eleven farmers from the Cariango Commune in the province of Kwanza Sul, Angola, took part in a participatory video project to explore the impacts of climate change on their livelihoods. After much debate the group decided to focus on the issue of drought as something common to all, and to use the video to explore different ways in which it is impacting the four different communities, by gathering local ideas and stories.
'Standing in the middle of a scorched savannah in Oltepesi, about 40 miles southwest of Nairobi, Benson K. Letuya, a youth leader from the Maasai community, holds a microphone in the searing sun. He stands next to a zebra, dying of thirst during the devastating drought that hit Kenya in 2009.' This article by MediaGlobal give an overview of our work as part of the Conversations with the Earth partnership since the launch of the programme since 2009.
Climate change is seen by many as being perhaps the greatest and most urgent threat to the culture, environment, livelihoods and spirituality of indigenous communities around the world. Over the past 3 years InsightShare supported the development of an unique network of autonomous community media ‘hubs’ in eight different communities; fueled by the dedication, passion and energy of extraordinary individuals, who have organised and facilitated projects with hundreds of people within their regions and beyond. It is their words that are quoted in this article and their perspectives on climate change and related issues that are represented by the CWE project.
The process of collaboratively planning and producing videos can bring people together to record and celebrate cultural food practices, strengthen traditional knowledge of the environment, and build strategies for a sustainable and resilient future. This article describes three recent examples of participatory video projects that aimed to stimulate food sovereignty - from Meghalaya (India), Gamo Highlands (Ethiopia) and Chiang Mai (Thailand).
Commissioned case study prepared for the Centre for Development Informatics, University of Manchester, UK, for their Climate Change, Innovation & ICTs Project.