A participatory approach for integrated conservation planning in a small catchment in Loess Plateau, China -: Part I.: Approach and methods

The participatory approach is recognised world-wide as a desirable approach for the success of research and development projects in the field of land management and conservation. A participatory approach (PA) for soil and water conservation is presented in this paper. The approach was one important part of Integrated Participatory Conservation Planning (IPCP) and aimed at involving farmers as our research partners in the whole conservation planning process in order to define relevant alternatives for sustainable land use. The work was carried out in the small catchment of Danangou, situated in the heart of the Loess plateau of China, by a multidisciplinary and multinational team, during the period 1998-2000 as part of the EROChina project. Several participatory methods, including group and team dynamics methods, sampling methods, interviewing and dialogue methods and visualisation and diagramming methods, were used for different purposes through a three-step process of the PA. The PA process can be described as researchers learning about local conditions (Step 1), followed by analyses of land use carried out by local farmers (Step 2), and finishing with farmer-researcher two-way feedback on the different land use scenarios (LUS) and their potential effects on erosion and household economy (Step 3). A Participatory Household Economy Analysis (PHEA) was developed and shown to be a suitable method for analysing the current and the potential changes in the household economy due to different land use scenarios (Step 3). The three steps of PA integrated closely with the modelling and land evaluation tools of the IPCP. The PA developed involved interactive learning between professionals and farmers, seek multiple perspectives and make use of systematic and structured learning processes and give a highly effective participation. The approach is promising in improving farmers' awareness of environmental problems and solutions, as well as in linking local and scientific knowledge. The conditions for the successful use of the participatory methods in local conditions as well as of the teamwork are also discussed. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.