Local Perspectives on Climate Change: Participatory Video in Somotillo, Nicaragua

Participatory video (PV) is a methodology premised on particular attitudes and behaviours that value collective and consensual decision-making and equalised power relations, seeking local solutions to local problems through coming together, reflecting, communicating, and taking positive action. To understand and assess this approach, a team of researchers from the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), CCAFS, and the CGIAR Research Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics (Humidtropics) conducted a PV project following the implementation of the Quesungual Agroforestry System in the community of La Danta in the Municipality of Somotillo (Department of Chinandega, Nicaragua). The objectives of this PV project were to: (i) increase participants' awareness of ways they can influence and mitigate the effects of climate change; (ii) empower local groups to take part in a process of analysis and response that celebrates indigenous knowledge and practice; (iii) generate a better understanding of gender differences as they relate to climate change adaptation and mitigation; and (iv) generate knowledge and information that allows future projects in the region to better understand the local context when creating inclusive climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

After the Quesungual Agroforestry System project (see Annex 1) worked with farm families in La Danta to replace traditional slash-and-burn farming with more sustainable resource management practices, PV was chosen as a tool to observe and examine rural livelihoods, particularly from a gender and youth perspective, to allow local populations to share their stories and voice their opinions about their community's way of life, how this is linked to their resource management practices, and the positive changes they are capable of generating through the improvement of their farm practices, both on an individual and community level. The 10-day PV workshop was held in May 2014 with a group of community members involved in agricultural activities. The 7 men and 8 women, most of whom were between 19 and 23 years of age, learned basic camera skills through games and exercises in which the participants practiced and played with the different ways of using the equipment. Drawing, drama, and improvising skills were used in participatory methodologies designed to allow people to come together to express themselves around issues by enacting typical situations in all their complexity, with the relative anonymity of fiction, as well as the opportunity to act out and demonstrate potential solutions. Exercises such as community mapping, timelines, and the recording of local areas by local people gave the participants (and their community members) an opportunity to reflect on and appreciate their local environment, history, and knowledge. (For a detailed description of the PV methodology and activities, see pages 13-21 and Annex 2.)

As part of the process, participants went out into the streets in three groups of five, each group with a tripod, a camera, and a microphone, to interview people from the town on the topic of climate change. The exercise included formulating questions, obtaining the interviewee's consent prior to recording, recording the interview keeping in mind all the technical aspects of filming, and sharing the recorded material with the interviewee to obtain consent after recording. Together, participants then created a storyboard and, finally, screened the final film and presented a photo slideshow to share the highlights of the workshop. The message the interviewed community members gave was that they were thankful to the group for the video they made. They expressed the message was very clear and left the community thinking about the ecosystem and its conservation. The interviewees were grateful and inspired by the group of young video makers, and felt that this gave a push for young people to take action regarding the issues being faced by the community. The audience agreed with the practices proposed in the video and asked for more young people in the community to take up these practices.

Based on the PV experience in Somotillo, it can be concluded that the PV tool works especially well with young people, who tend to naturally present a certain curiosity for technology and creative, imaginative ways to approach various subjects. The PV methodology gave them confidence and ensured all participants had a voice in the final video message. An element that resonated throughout the elaboration of the PV is that giving community leaders a more prominent role in project dissemination activities can increase the adoption of new technologies. Creating a network of groups of respected community leaders, including women and young people, in each community, and investing in developing their leadership skills and technical knowledge, could be an effective system for communities to share new knowledge and information with the rest of their community and beyond.