Project Toolbox

Project Toolbox: Participatory Communication in South America

Cofán community members in Zábalo, Ecuador help to evaluate printed materials.

ECP's Project Toolbox, a visual media production and training initiative, provides research based science information that will enable rural communities to participate as full partners in conservation programs. Goals include the documentation of grassroots involvement in conservation, and the extension of indigenous knowledge and conservation experiences to other communities.

Non-formal teaching materials, produced with community involvement, cover topics such as the protection of threatened river turtles, native Amazonian fish farming, soil conservation practices, and biological census techniques. Other subjects include traditional plant use, public reports on biological inventories, and community involvement in conservation planning and monitoring.

With an emphasis on appropriate media such as posters, visual presentations, and small format print materials, Project Toolbox is supporting conservation programs and rural development in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Project Toolbox goals:

To work with communities to identify themes and content needs
To use appropriate media that involve local people in the communication process
To document and record indigenous knowledge and local experiences in conservation
To help communities learn to document their own knowledge and experiences in order to retain and share what they know
To “train the trainers” as community members, so they can become extension agents
To undertake communication research on how communities use media

For more information e-mail Dan Brinkmeier at dbrinkmeier@fieldmuseum.org.

Posters of completed work:

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