Changes in the global environment over the past several years are unprecedented in their pace and degree. Studies have revealed that developing countries and the poor, particularly those in Africa, will be greatly affected by the global environmental changes increasingly observed in the world. Recent food crises have already demonstrated the vulnerability of many developing countries.

The concept of global environmental change expands discussion beyond climate change to incorporate other biophysical changes such as those related to vegetation cover or biodiversity. Moreover, it also incorporates changes in the social, political, and economic interactions between humans. The concept of global environmental change thus emphasizes the interconnectedness between human action and the natural environment. It provides an appropriate conceptual basis from which to approach issues of food security, land tenure, agriculture, and natural resource management, issues that both result from and contribute to global environmental change.

Given the implications of global environmental change for developing countries, creating a new emphasis for research on global environmental change and the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is of great importance. More particularly, the creation of a research agenda on the linkage between ICTs and small-scale agriculture and natural resource management (NRM) is needed. The potential of ICTs in this area is not well known, although it is anticipated that they offer many opportunities for capturing information, analysing trends, and raising awareness. These tools are important for governments, researchers, development practitioners, civil society, and activists in order to address the challenges posed by global environmental change.

The Acacia programme initiative of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is committed to supporting research on the innovative use of ICTs in African development where it leads to improved livelihood opportunities, enhances social service delivery, and empowers citizens by increasing community ownership and building the capacity of African researchers and research networks.

Under its current programmatic cycle (2006-2011) Acacia has identified ICTs and small-scale agriculture, including environmental and natural resource management (NRM), as one of its key focus areas within the broader research theme of ‘economic development and opportunity.’ Acacia has also identified ICTs and small-scale agriculture and NRM as related to several of its ‘emerging areas’ of focus. Agriculture and the harvesting of natural resources provides livelihoods for over 70% of the African population, meaning that much of what constitutes effective rural development relates directly to these sectors. Yet while the large-scale, commercial agricultural sector on the continent has adopted ICTs, the use of ICTs is rare in the small-scale, largely informal, sector. Acacia is dedicated to improving the use of ICTs in this sector, recognizing that an important component of any agricultural or natural resource management system is the flow of information and the strength of the communication and information systems managed by governments, farmers, and NGOs.

Given Acacia’s focus on small-scale agriculture and natural resource management, and flowing from discussions held during its annual team meeting in October 2008, Acacia decided to host this NRM-ICT workshop in an effort to better frame a coherent strategy for research on ICTs for small-scale agriculture, natural resource management, and local development.

The overall objective of this NRM-ICT workshop is the establishment of a research agenda that will lead to greater understanding of the NRM-ICT nexus. Acacia has also identified several sub-objectives for the workshop. Firstly, the workshop will aid Acacia in mapping existing NRM-ICT research and programming in order to identify research and programmatic gaps. Secondly, the workshop will ideally facilitate the establishment and/or strengthening of working relationships between Acacia’s partners involved with NRM-ICT issues in Africa. Thirdly, the workshop will identify the potential for collaboration between partners in pursuing the research agenda resulting from discussions during the course of the workshop.

Acacia foresees the creation of a research agenda that might proceed in conjunction with three existing domains of research with which Acacia is already involved:

Through its Eastern and Southern African Regional Office, Acacia has already begun investigating the establishment of a research agenda on the role of ICTs in linking small-scale farmers to markets. To this end, Acacia funded a scoping study on ICTs and small-scale agriculture in Africa that was completed by Hilda Munyua in 2007. This study paved the way for the creation of the eAgriculture Research Network (eARN) which has been approved for funding by Acacia in 2009 and which explores the usage by and impact of ICTs on smallholder farmers in linking to agricultural markets in order to better improve the design of future ICT-based interventions.

Through its West and Central Africa Regional Office, Acacia is currently exploring the potential usage and impact of Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) in gaining knowledge about land use, access to land, land reform, natural resource management, and local economic and social development. To this end, Acacia has commissioned a scoping study to be completed by ENDA-Lead this year. Acacia is also organising a PGIS capacity development workshop for select participants on 15-16 May 2009 as part of this ongoing initiative. Acacia envisions that these endeavours will lead to the outgrowth of a new African research network on the role of PGIS for natural resource management and local economic and social development.

Through its Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Regional Office, Acacia is exploring the role of ICTs for agricultural development and natural resource management specifically in the MENA region, which due to its aridity is particularly fragile. This initiative is investigating the importance of knowledge management (KM) for sharing, exchanging, disseminating, storing, retrieving, and maintaining knowledge on agricultural development and natural resource management. To this end, Acacia has commissioned a scoping study on research capacities and research initiatives on ICTs for agricultural development and natural resource management in MENA. Also, building upon the success of the Knowledge Access for Rural Interconnected Areas Network (KariaNet I), Acacia is presently preparing, in conjunction with IFAD and partners in Africa and the Middle East, the creation of KariaNet II which might further pave the way for ICTs in rural agricultural development. KariaNet II will gather evidence on potential benefits of ICTs and KM for rural and agricultural development. Research networks will focus on food security, rural enterprise development and marketing, as well as KM strategies and methods in NRM projects.

This NRM-ICT workshop is expected to be instrumental in pulling together current knowledge from these Acacia programmes, facilitating information exchange between them and other relevant initiatives, and building the capacity of potential project partners to propose and undertake additional research. In addition to PGIS technology, to be explored by select participants at the PGIS training workshop that follows this NRM-ICT workshop, other ICTs and activities that might be worth exploring for NRM-ICT research projects include:

1. Satellite and remote sensing technologies for environmental monitoring
2. Consumer mapping tools such as Google Earth and MS Virtual Earth for analysis and awareness raising
3. Content production for mass media (broadcasting and press) based awareness raising
4. Knowledge resources for sharing and dissemination of information – email, web and mobile (includes common data standards for structured data sets)
5. Free and Open Source software for data and information management, and for visualisation
6. Social networking and crowd-sourced information gathering – via web and mobile
7. Low cost remote communications systems – mesh networking, satellite handsets and VSATs
8. Intellectual property rights to support innovation and access to knowledge
9. Multilingual tools for local knowledge production, translation and sharing
10. Gender inclusive strategies for access and management of land and other natural resource management