A Reflexive Cartography to Tackle Poverty: a Model of Participatory Zoning

1. INTRODUCTION The present study advocates a strategy aimed at implementing the principles of sustainable development through operational tools to be used in programs for environmental conservation. To be more precise, I lay out a proposal of participatory zoning that is innovative in two main respects: i) it is based on an assessment of the territorial setup and the social values of the peoples who inhabit the peripheries of parks; ii) it is represented through customized GIS cartography. As a matter of fact, cartography and field research have been seen as two complementary phases which provide both theoretical reflection and practical application when ordinary criteria in the zoning of park peripheries are challenged. The new zoning criteria rely on the recovery of the territorial perception of local communities whose consensus on plans for environmental conservation is thus ensured. In sum, we advocate a zoning model that may prevent conflict between local communities and international agents while also promoting development of the former [1]. This zoning model is the result of new theoretical approaches that show how a given territory may be used together with its local systems of representation in order to examine and understand the functioning of a social group [2]. Yet this model is not merely theoretical, for its pragmatic value has been demonstrated within the ECOPAS program in a specific territorial context-the peripheries of the trasboundary W Park (Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso)—where it has proven effective.