Research Method-Participatory Methods
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Research Method-Participatory Methods
Participatory Action Research is a methodology that involves researchers and the local community working together to understand a problematic situation and change it for the better (Kemmis et al., 2013). Deforestation as a problem can be solved by technological and systemic changes that lessen environmental impacts. Even though technological change is essential, it is also necessary to change human activity processes. I worked with a team of five to investigate tropical deforestation, a significant threat to biodiversity, indigenous communities, and contributes to global carbon emissions (Cramer et al., 2014). My crucial team members were;
We all underwent training to help build the capacity to make policies that will lead us in the research on deforestation and provide us with knowledge and skills. We looked for online courses on deforestation, for instance, one offered by the United Nations (Kindt et al., 2010). We also accessed relevant online journals with the necessary information, detailed case studies, and practical exercises designed to build capacity to combat deforestation.
We got involved in three techniques to curtail tropical deforestation (Beaudoin et al., 2016).
| Technique | Reason |
| Transect walk | To get a clear view of the effects of deforested land and jolt down notes. |
| Participatory mapping | To get insights into the current situation and view of the local people. |
| Seasonal calendar | To help keep track, analyze cyclical changes in the deforested area. |
As a team, we invited and encouraged participants to be involved in the different aspects of your research as a whole, not partly. The reason being the techniques we chose needed intense reviewing by everybody who got involved. Besides, the local community understood the area better, and their input would be significant (Bekele et al., 2013). For instance, our leading choice of the technique was a seasonal calendar technique that would enable them to reach out for a very long time because they are the ones who were going to benefit from our fight against deforestation directly.
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Reference
Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R., & Nixon, R. (2013). The action research planner: Doing critical participatory action research. Springer Science & Business Media.
Bekele, T., Kassa, K., Mengistu, T., Debele, M., & Melka, Y. (2013). Working with communities to address deforestation in the Wondo Genet Catchment Area, Ethiopia: Lessons learned from participatory action research. Res. J. Agric. Environ. Manage, 2(12), 448-456.
Cramer, W., Bondeau, A., Schaphoff, S., Lucht, W., Smith, B., & Sitch, S. (2014). Tropical forests and the global carbon cycle: impact of atmospheric carbon dioxide, climate change, and rate of deforestation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359(1443), 331-343.
Kindt, R., Boffa, J. M., Lengkeek, A. G., Degrande, A., Mbosso, C., & Van Oijien, D. (2010). Trees Species Diversity in Cultivated Landscapes: Investigation of Biodiversity Patterns through Training of African Researchers. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).
Beaudoin, G., Rafanoharana, S., Boissière, M., Wijaya, A., & Wardhana, W. (2016). Completing the picture: Importance of considering participatory mapping for REDD+ Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV). PloS one, 11(12), e0166592.