To travel to the study areas, to locate the centre points and to find local stakeholders did not constitute major obstacles in the fieldwork.
Slightly different strategies were tried for the data collection at the three sites. At the first site, the field team split up in two groups. One group did field observations, while the other identified the stakeholders for interviews. The team later joined together to do the transect walk with the villagers. It then became evident the great value for the interviewers to have knowledge of the physical characteristics of the study area. Likewise, the forest team was helped in the interpretation of the terrain and signs of land-use activities. At the two other locations the team visited the study area before conducting further interviews and land-use surveys.
Forest change is a controversial issue with conflicting interests and must be approached with care. Often the perception of rules or events is very different, depending on the viewpoint. Consequently, the experience is that it is very important to have knowledge of different stakeholders’ roles and to invest time and effort in crosschecking of information. However, in general, all stakeholders were willing to provide information on the observed vegetation changes and the possible causes.
In the discussions with the stakeholders, field observations and aerial photographs were of great value. First of all for verification of information, but also for getting ideas of questions to ask. In study area 1, for example, the extent and characteristics of the fairly intensive cutting going on both in the forest and in the open land would have been very difficult information to catch only from the interviews (more likely is that the farmland cutting would never have been discovered). On the other hand, that the cutting in the farmland was allowed and legal and that the cutting in the forest was predominantly illegal could not be seen from the observations in the forest.
The aerial photos were of course of utmost value for confirming the interpreted change in the remote sensing study, especially when two photographs from different dates were available. More unexpected was the possibility they gave to relate the discussions and interviews to the study area. Many of the villagers could quite easily orient and point out different features such as specific agricultural fields and their respective owners.
Many things went smoothly also thanks to the efforts and skills of national collaboration partners. Besides interpretation, their services concerning logistics, safety, local knowledge as well as expertise on the subject was of great value.
