Training and Equipment Delivery with the Arhuaco Community of the Indigenous Council of Magdalena and La Guajira

With the collaboration of the Indigenous Council of Magdalena and the Arhuaco Indigenous House in Santa Marta, Kadaster, as part of the Land-at-Scale project, conducted two training sessions for Arhuaco people on Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This initiative aims to empower community surveyors with spatial data collection technologies to manage their land projects and apply the Fit For Purpose (FFP) methodology within their indigenous territories.

The first GIS training was carried out with ESRI Colombia from July 28 to August 2. The objective was to provide a general introduction to GIS. This session was conducted with the support of the Indigenous House of the Magdalena and Guajira Council (CAMG), Asoarhuaco (the Arhuaco people's economic association), Sacred Forest (an environmental conservation initiative), and the Land-at-Scale project partners ICCO Cooperation and Tropenbos.

Due to the success of the first training and the interest shown by participants, a second, more advanced training was held for experienced community surveyors from October 7 to 11, 2024. This second phase focused on advanced use of ArcGIS Pro, data conversion from other sources, data editing and creation, using ArcGIS Online, publishing content, and developing dashboards with ArcGIS Dashboard.

As part of the effort to strengthen territorial management for the Arhuaco Council, Kadaster provided a laptop with the required software. Additionally, ESRI Colombia donated five one-year ArcGIS licenses.