Strengths » As it is open

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3. Strengths » As it is open

source, there is a big global community involved in its development and improve- ment. They are great for prob- lem-solving. You are not working alone. » Tailored to user needs. The user can develop a form depending on the community needs and also train members on the basics of the tools. This helps communities take owner- ship and improve it for their own needs. » Forms can be created in Excel, and information can be collected easily by community members. » Open source. » Can work ofline and without phone signal. » Dynamic legend. » Comprehensive survey. » Can help deine land-use conlicts local communities, government and private sector. » Avoid private initiatives to overlap with the communities. » Open source. » Multilingual French and English. » Transparency element as users can upload and edit information. » Social networking element and story behind the maps. » Civil society can upload and edit data coming from different projects. » The commu- nity itself. If you want to do forest monitoring, the best way to doing it is with the communities. » Participatory approach: the tool and icons are developed considering the community needs. » Get detailed and good- quality information gathered on the ground by the communities. » Same as Sapelli. » Can be relatively easy to record information, as the icon system is fantastic. » Represent local spatial knowledge. » Agreements with the communities on data low, cross-checking and ownership. » Reduce bias in species identiication: you can always play back recordings and ask some experts. » Enables cross-valida- tion. » Recordings are available for the future and for training of new surveyors. » Allows learning and interaction with specialist. » Low-cost tools. » Produce quality data. » Easy to use. » Automatic recording, and can record during the night or at peak activity times without interference of surveyors. » Provides real-time interaction of the surveyor with the remote- sensing data from a particular area. » Enhanced communica- tion. » Unexpected results e.g. community in Guyana asked the govern- ment for extension of their territory as a result of PM. » Is a process that empowers communities and supports better resource management, well-being and development projects T ools and A ppr oac hes 26 ODK GEOODK MOABI DRC SAPELLI CYBERTRACKER SOUND RECORDING INTERACTIVE FOREST MONITORING PARTICIPATORY MAPPING

4. Weaknesses and Challenges