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International audience; The contribution of overgrazing to high-elevation rangeland degradation is a problem across the Himalayan region, and it leads to tensions among users. In the alpine areas of eastern Bhutan, 2 communities of settled and seminomadic herders have been engaged in enduring open conflict over access to a large natural pasture. To reestablish a communication channel between these communities, a participatory modeling and simulation process was implemented with the concerned stakeholders. A training workshop on this collaborative approach and its key tools, particularly computer-assisted role-playing games, was attended by research and extension officers and was immediately followed by a field workshop attended by 6 herders from each community. The participants used their empirical knowledge to improve the relevance of the spatial distribution of the land degradation problem on the proposed game board. They also established a link between the features and rules of the role-playing game and the actual circumstances of the rangeland. The gaming sessions allowed the participants to share their respective viewpoints on the land degradation process in a nonthreatening environment. The assessment of the field workshop identified multiple effects regarding awareness of the problem, participants' confidence, colearning, and mutual trust. This intervention enabled the emergence of social capital ahead of the preparation of major development-oriented interventions in the watershed. This study demonstrates the pertinence of using simple but relevant abstract models, codesigned with their users, to mitigate tensions between parties in conflict over the use of renewable natural resources.

Asia and the Pacific, an immense region, both new and old, in which two thirds of the world lives. A region of superlatives, exceptions, China, continually facing disasters and risks from its past, India, a continent of its own, Japan, archipelago of the future. It is a region that is attracting global growth and becoming the centre of the world. Who could have predicted that the GDP of Asia and the Pacific would be equal to that of the European Union? And what will tomorrow bring? This compilation gives an overview of Asia's world, bringing together roughly a hundred texts written by researchers and specialists and that have been published on Asia and the Pacific Network's website (CNRS/FMSH) between 2002 and 2011. These works covering the humanities and social science recount the past, tell us of the future and illustrate the complexity of Asia and the Pacific through its flaws, strengths and challenges. They reveal the profound roots and depth of the dynamism of these new powers that could soon take over the future of humanity. Numerous researchers and academics specialising in contemporary Asia and the Pacific are bringing into light many aspects of this great and inevitable shift in the world.

May 2011 The rice plant (Oryza sativa species) was domesticated in Asia some 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. At the beginning of the 21st century, it is still the leading cereal in human food systems, the main source of energy and represents a significant share of proteins consumed by almost three billion people. In certain Asian developing countries, the annual consumption per capita can reach 200 kg of white rice, but it falls to approximately 50 kg of high quality grains in rich and industriali...

For centuries, rainfed lowland rice production associated to sugar palm (Borassus flabellifer) hedges planted in the paddy field bunds (RLR-SP) has been an emblematic cultural agroforestry system in the indianized Southeast Asian countries. But recent changes in communication infrastructure, commercialization, urbanization, private and state interventions are driving the rapid transformations of these multi-functional systems. In the absence of in-depth analyses documenting the socio-ecological impacts of such change on household livelihoods and landscapes, a case study on the transformations, over the past four decades, of one of the most sophisticated coastal RLR-SP agroforestry system was implemented in Sathing Phra peninsula, Southeastern Thailand. Chronological series of satellite images and ground truthing were used to characterize and quantify land use change during 1983-2015, and 120 interviews with concerned stakeholders were carried out to understand agro-ecological, social, and economic effects of the driving factors of change on their livelihood systems. We show a process of diversification of farming (and off-farm) activities along their gradual market integration, since the opening of bridges and all-weather roads linking the area to neighboring cities in the 80s. We found that the traditional RLR-SP agroforestry system survived, almost unscathed, a first series of agrarian change. It was characterized by attempts at introducing irrigated rice, shrimp farming small perennial tree plantations in the paddies, or converting deep-water rice areas into small-scale integrated farming systems. The much improved communication infrastructures, and lack of irrigation water to switch from the low and unstable RLR yields to higher-value cash crops, increased the mobility of family farm laborers. They sized wage-earning opportunities, in the village or in fast developing urban centers, and escaped the drudgery of tapping sugar palms, in increased numbers. But a rising and profitable demand for sugar palm fruits from caning factories allowed the maintenance of the multiple functions of dense and healthy palm groves. A more recent “palm narang” government policy, supported by the establishment of new palm oil companies in the area, promoted small oil palm plantations in abandoned paddy fields to raise farm incomes. As the conversion to oil palm plots was the most important land use change observed during the last decade, it seems to be a more serious threat to the survival of the RLR-SP agroforestry system. In addition to these impacts of peri-urbanization combined with private and state interventions, an increase in the frequency of extreme rainy and windy events was also uncovered. This is underlining the need for the collaborative design of land-use scenarios and related collective and coordinated action plans to adapt this, diverse but increasingly vulnerable, iconic agro ecosystem to future challenging socio-ecological circumstances.

Chapitre 12; International audience; The ComMod (Companion Modelling) and Gerdal (Group for Experimentation and Research: Development and Local Action) approaches facilitate the emergence of solutions and action plans negotiated within peer groups or arenas of heterogenous actors by stimulating interactions between their participants. Their theoretical, ethical and methodological foundations are described, and two case studies illustrate their use. In order to help practitioners reflect on their mode of intervention to collectives, the comparative analysis of these approaches highlights the key points of their accompaniment, such as the initial situation, creation of relevant collectives, management of processes, sharing of knowledge and points of view, monitoring and evaluation of effects, and strengthening of the capacity of collective innovation.

Efforts to rehabilitate the forest cover in upper watersheds of northern Thailand have led to frequent land use conflicts between government agencies and smallholders belonging to ethnic minorities. Hmong herders exploiting grasslands and fallows with an extensive cattle rearing systems are increasingly constrained by the regular expansion of tree plantations. To mitigate the looming land use conflict between herders and forest agencies, an iterative and evolving process of collaborative agent-based simulation activities was implemented in Nan Province. The communication describes the adaptation of the methodological tools to the context and the outputs of the three successive sequences of activities carried out with the local stakeholders. The result and discussion section focusses on the exchange and integration of local empirical knowledge on the vegetation dynamics and extensive cattle rearing system to co-design interactive simulation tools used to explore innovative land use options accommodating the dual interests of the parties in conflict. A quantitative analysis of the communication among the participating stakeholders also shows how an active sub-group of Hmong herders became gradually the drivers of this companion modelling process.

In Northeast Thailand, about 80% of the 20 million inhabitants are engaged in rainfed agriculture. Climate vagaries combined with coarse-textured sandy and unevenly distributed saline soils explain low agriculture yields and the endemic relative poverty of the population. We conducted an in-depth analysis of change in the rainfall pattern using daily records (1953-2010) from 18 gauging stations scattered across Northeast Thailand. Based on an intimate knowledge of the local farming systems, particularly their strategies to deal with climate variability and their evolution during the past decades, we analyse and discuss how the cropping systems can adapt to the detected rainfall changes. We used the Mann–Kendall trend detection test, modified to account for serial correlation at each individual station, and the regional average Kendall's statistic designed for the detection of regional trends across the entire studied area. On-farm surveys carried out during the past two decades in both the upper and lower parts of Northeast Thailand provide a detailed understanding of the functioning of the agricultural production systems and their diversity. The analysis reveals very limited changes in rainfall frequency, intensity and extremes during the humid monsoon and therefore little change in the existing climatic constraints to agricultural production (early dry spells in the wet season and risk of floods at its peak in September). But we found a significant regional trend toward a wetter dry season that could offer new limited opportunities for agricultural production. The paper will discuss the implications of these findings and compare them with recently published research results. Differences in statistical significance between local and regional rainfall trends are also interpreted. If these trends extend, households would not face many difficulties because of their renowned adaptive capacity built over centuries of facing highly variable rainfall patterns, and due to the diversity of their resilient farming systems. (Texte intégral)

International audience; Despite the widespread use of the concept of sustainable development, interactions among its ecological, economic and social pillars are more often seen in terms of trade-offs than in terms of synergies. Drawing on the case of a conflict between a new national park and two villages about access to forest and land resources in the highlands of Northern Thailand, this paper shows that the concept of integrative negotiation can be used to reveal potential synergies between environmental conservation, farmers' livelihoods and social equity. In this case study, participatory agent-based simulations supported a creative and integrative mode of negotiation among different types of farmers from two villages, foresters in charge of reforestation and the national park rangers. They allowed the conflicting parties to reframe the problem at stake and to uncover mutual interest in stopping deforestation and the management of non timber forest products.// En dépit de l'usage croissant du concept de développement durable, les interactions entre ses trois piliers (environnementaux, économiques et sociaux) sont plus souvent pensées en termes de compromis qu'en termes de synergies. A partir d'une étude de cas sur un conflit autour de l'accès aux ressources foncières et forestières entre un parc national en cours d'établissement et deux villages dans les hautes terres du Nord de la Thaïlande, cet article montre que le concept de négociation intégrative peut être intéressant pour révéler des synergies potentielles entre la préservation de l'environnement, la subsistance des agriculteurs, et l'équité sociale. Dans cette étude de cas, des sessions participatives de simulations multi-agents ont favorisé l'émergence d'un mode de négociation créatif et intégratif entre différents types d'agriculteurs, des forestiers et des agents du parc national. Ces simulations ont permis aux différents protagonistes de reformuler le problème en jeu et de réaliser qu'ils avaient des intérêts en commun, notamment dans la limitation de la déforestation et la gestion des produits forestiers de collecte.

The debate about the expansion of agriculture in forest areas and the conservation or reforestation of head watersheds is still going on in montane Southeast Asia but in a rapidly changing context. Tremendous change occurred in the highland agrarian systems of northern Thailand during the past decades, leading to new farming practices, an increased diversity of stakeholders concerned by land management issues, and new relationships between villagers and national policies (decentralisation of resource management, shift from forest exploitation to conservation, etc.) and international conventions. In this context, the debate about the true participation of rural people in managing local renewable resources is taking central stage. New conceptual and practical tools to understand rural change in a more distributed, inclusive and interactive way have also emerged. System approaches relying on collaborative modelling are used to facilitate communication, knowledge sharing and the exchange of points of view among different types of stakeholders about a common resource management problem. The iterative and evolving Companion Modelling (ComMod) approach relies on multi-agent systems and makes use of the synergistic effects between role-playing games and computer agent-based models to co-construct simulation tools with stakeholders used in the joint exploration of possible future scenarios of their choice as part of negotiation processes leading to concrete action plans. In the past three years, such a ComMod process has been implemented in the head watershed of Nan province to understand the effects of recent change in forest management on the agrarian system and to mediate a land use conflict between foresters and Hmong herders. A preliminary diagnostic-analysis showed the influence of increased forest conservation efforts on the dynamics of deforestation in the local Hmong agrarian system. These land use dynamics were represented in a spatially explicit computer-assisted role-playing game. This tool was enriched and validated with the herders and foresters during a first set of gaming and simulation sessions aiming at the production of a shared representation of the problem at stake. The debate that followed identified innovative cattle management techniques to be tested and the simulation tool was modified to accommodate them. A second set of collaborative simulations tested the use of these innovations and led to an agreement on a joint experiment between herders and foresters seen as a first concrete step toward the co-management of the local forest -farmland interface. These results are discussed and the relevance of the approach, as well as the strengths and limitations of its main tools are assessed. Finally possible methodological improvements are suggested for collaborative modelling and simulation to better support the emergence of effective decentralized co-management of renewable resources in similar socio-ecological systems.

In the remote highland forest-farmland ecosystem of Doi Tiew, a Hmong village in Tha Wang Pha District of Nan province, Northern Thailand a land use conflict is taking place between the local herders and two government agencies (Nanthaburi National Park and the Nam Khang headwater research and development unit) having different interests, objectives and perceptions on land use and land management. In this research we are using the integrative companion modeling approach (http://www.commod.org) to co-construct a simulation tool representing the dynamic interactions between vegetation dynamics, reforestation efforts, and livestock grazing at the study site. This paper focus on the participatory modeling process implemented with concerned stakeholders. Three main investigation tools were used to gather knowledge on the relevant ecological and human decision making processes: field surveys (history of land use and analysis of vegetation dynamics at landscape level), farmers' interviews (analysis of decision making and determining factors across different types of farms), institutional analysis (changes in land use policy and related state interventions). This knowledge was first assembled in simple gaming exercises used with local herders and foresters to validate the researchers' understanding of key interactions regulating vegetation and land use dynamics. The outputs of these collaborative modeling activities were used to design the suitable features and rules of a role-playing game representing the complex human and ecological interactions at the landscape level. This game allowed stakeholders to criticize and improve this comprehensive formalization of the landscape dynamics. It was also used to introduce gaming and simulation exercises and to stimulate stakeholders to identify possible future land management scenarios mitigating the current conflict. The results from two gaming and simulation field workshops allowed local stakeholders to set up of co-management action plan collectively. Moreover, it proved that the gaming and simulation could facilitate the communication and shared learning among conflicting parties. Regarding the next steps, an agent-based model under the CORMAS simulation platform to facilitate the exploration of future scenarios in a time efficient way.

Agronomic problems tend to become more complex and their solution found at the interface between agro-ecological and social dynamics. They involve an increased diversity of actors having different objectives, strategies and perceptions of the issue depending on their type of knowledge and empirical experience. In this context the transfer of technology method does not operate anymore. There is a need for innovative approaches linking researchers, extension agents and farmers in a more inclusive and adaptive fashion. The two-way exchange and integration of different (scientific, technical, expert, empirical, indigenous, institutional) types of knowledge among stakeholders to facilitate the emergence of a shared understanding of the problem to be solved is widely considered as a necessary step before launching a joint search for innovative solutions acceptable to all parties involved. A collaborative modelling process was carried out for such a purpose in the rainfed lowland rice (RLR) socio-ecological system of northeast Thailand. In this largest RLR producing region of the country, the low average yield (1.8 t/ha) is mainly due to erratic rainfall distribution and coarse textured soils, leading to low farm incomes and the highest poverty rate in the kingdom. Seasonal or more permanent migrations of young labourers have long been a key farmer strategy to mitigate climatic risk and diversify sources of income. Seasonal migrants move during the dry season, but stay on the farm during wet months to participate in RLR transplanting and harvesting. The current higher mobility of farm workers and increase in permanent migrations create labour scarcity on large rice farms during peaks of labour demand periods. A regional plan for major investments in irrigation infrastructures underlines the importance of understanding how increased water availability could impact on current migration patterns. The objectives were (i) to understand the relationships between land & water use and labour migrations and (ii) to test a participatory modelling approach to facilitate dialogue among research, extension and diverse types of farmers while enhancing the capacity of expression of the marginal farmers, knowledge integration, joint learning, and the collective identification, simulation and assessment of scenarios of change.

Farm land expansion in former forest areas and conservation of head watersheds is a very controversial issue in northern Thailand highlands. In the last 3 decades, tremendous change occurred in these very heterogeneous and variable montane agrarian systems, leading to new farming practices, an increased diversity of farm types, but also new relationships with national environmental policies and global conventions. The livelihoods of marginal ethnic minority farmers who cultivate the sloping highlands will remain socially and economically vulnerable if they do not decrease the risk of land degradation. Following many failed projects aiming at introducing external soil erosion control techniques, the true participation of farmers is crucial for the on-farm agronomist aiming at improving local land management. Innovative approaches, conceptual and practical tools for systems agronomists emerged in the last decade to better interact with farmers in a dynamic and integrative way. Collaborative modelling can be used to facilitate dialogue among types of stakeholders (including researchers), to share knowledge and different perceptions about land and crop management issues, and to provide adapted mediation support tools for collective decision and action. But how to share research results with producers and extension workers in an appropriate way in the above-mentioned context? What kind of models could facilitate such exchanges and be really used to support farmers' individual and collective decision-making?

Landscape modelling integrating spatial information in Geographic Information Systems has been widely used to represent knowledge and support decision-making in the field of natural resource management. However, creating suitable visual representations of the landscape and its dynamics to stimulate the participation of diverse stakeholders in co-management of the land is still needed. This paper focuses on the design and implementation of a virtual landscape based on iconic representation used with herders and foresters, which both of them have contrasted perceptions on forest regeneration, to observe vegetation dynamics and emerging landscape features depending on different cattle and forest management strategies. This spatial interface was used during computerassisted Role-Playing Game sessions as part of a Companion Modelling process aiming at facilitating learning and support decision making among the concerned stakeholders in an upper watershed of northern Thailand. Before designing the spatial interface used in the model, an historical analysis of land use and land cover changes based on remote-sensed data was carried out, as well as a field survey on the impact of cattle grazing on vegetation dynamics. Then, the first set of vegetation states and their dynamics were produced and were validated with herders and foresters later. Thereafter, the simplified landscape representing landscape heterogeneity was constructed and used in two gaming and simulation field workshops. The different patterns of landscape emerged from herders' and foresters' decisions and interactions stimulated them to think about how to manage agro-ecosystems. Both of them agreed to implement a pilot plot of Brachiaria ruziziensis pasture in reality after finish the second workshop. This process proved to be instrumental in facilitating communication among the parties in conflict and increasing their motivation to improve the current situation. However, the use of such virtual landscape in gaming sessions proved to be time consuming and the managed area as well as the number of players was limited. Therefore, to get rid of these constraints, a fully autonomous Agent-Based Model making use of the same kind of simplified virtual landscape will be developed and used with local stakeholders to run possible future scenarios of change in a more time efficient and inclusive way.

Rainfed lowland rice production in lower northeast Thailand is a complex and adaptive farming activity. Complexity arises from interconnections between multiple and intertwined processes, particularly agronomic practices and labor migration. Having faced a heterogeneous and very variable environment for centuries, local rice farmers are very adaptive and used to adjust their behavior in unpredictable farming conditions. Based on the principles of the Companion Modelling (ComMod) approach, indigenous and academic knowledge was integrated in an Agent-Based Model (ABM) to build a shared representation of this complex and adaptive system. The ABM was codesigned over a 3 years long process with a group of different types of rice growers from Ban Mak Mai village in southern Ubon Ratchathani province. This participatory modeling process also aimed at stimulating participants¿ thinking and co-learning through the collective exploration of simulated scenarios with varying levels of water and labor availability, with the ultimate goal of further strengthening their adaptive management ability. The ABM consists of three interacting modules in a virtual rainfed lowland rice environment: Water (hydro-climatic processes), Rice, and Household. "Household" is a rule-based agent making daily decisions based on its available means of production depending on the stage of the rice crop, and water and labor availability. Key decisions made are related to: i) rice nursery establishment, ii) rice transplanting, iii) rice harvesting, and iv) migration of household members. The spatially-explicit model interface represents an archetypical toposequence made of upper to lower paddies in a minicatchment farmed by 4 different households and includes also water bodies and human settlements. According to participating farmers, after many iterations between the lab. and the field, this ABM adequately represents their rice farming and labor migration management practices. Using the model to raise farmers¿ awareness of the system emergent properties as a consequence of interactions between rice farming and labor migration is also discussed.

The trans-disciplinary companion modeling (ComMod) approach for adaptive renewable resource management aims to facilitate knowledge integration, collective learning, creative negotiation, and institutional innovation about concrete problems faced by communities In this paper, we compare the effects of different ComMod processes on collective water management at five sites located in northeast and northern Thailand, and west-central Bhutan. At the three highland sites, agricultural commercialization leads stakeholders to review the loca/ water management rules while in Northeastern Thailand land/water management dynamics are interlinked with labor migrations and the market integration of farming activities The main effects of the ComMod processes at these sites are analyzed based on a common framework focusing on the stimulated processes of individual and collective learning, communication, negotiation, and coordinated action. The following effects are documented: individual learning about current situation, increased awareness of a collective problem, understanding each other's perceptions, reaching a common agreement on the problem, exploration of new water management rules, implementation of new practices, and institutional innovation. The discussion focuses on how methodological choices made in the implementation of ComMod influenced the observed effects. The factors contributing to, or limiting, the achievement of institutional innovation are underlined, in particular the role of the local institutional context and the possibility to establish inter-institutional dialogue among multiple levels of organization are highlighted. finally, we point out the need for specific monitoring and evaluation procedures adapted to such highly interactive and adaptive processes.

Northeast Thailand has the largest rainfed lowland rice (RLR) ecosystem in the kingdom and is notoriously known for its high rate of poor smallholders. The unstable rice productivity as a consequence of an unfavourable ecological environment (erratic rainfall and infertile soils) interacting with low price of rice drives these poor people to migrate for more profitable employment leaving often their land and its water underused. During the last 15 years, small water resource improvement programs launched by the Thai government under its poverty alleviation agenda had limited success. Labour migration is an adaptive strategy to cope with the uncertainty of rainfall and its distribution. As a consequence, off-farm employment becomes a more and more important source of income. But the relationship between labour migrations and land and water management on the farms is still poorly documented. Therefore, we used the Companion Modelling (ComMod) approach to improve the understanding of this key interaction and to reinforce stakeholders' adaptive capacity to deal with uncertainty linked to water dynamics and labour management in the Lam Dome Yai watershed of Ubon Ratchathani Province. ComMod facilitates dialogue, shared learning, and collective decision-making to strengthen the adaptive management capacity of local communities through integrative collaborative modelling. The cyclic ComMod process is made of iterative loops comprising field investigations, modelling, and participatory simulations relying on the combinations of Role-Playing Games (RPG) and Agent-Based Models (ABM) used with stakeholders. In this case study, 5 ComMod loops were carried out to better understand the problem being examined, stimulate exchange of points of view and enhance the creativity of the participants while lessening the black box effect of computer models. The key processes embedded in the models are based on stakeholders' decision-making driven by human-environment interactions. We take into account the diversity of farm types with their specific strategies and means of productions. The RPG and the ABM represent this diversity as rule-based agents (local farmers) managing this specific RLR ecosystem. The RPG mainly helped the stakeholders to understand the rules and sequence of ABM simulation while the ABM helped the stakeholders to better understand self-situation and examined causes of actions of other players. The ABM is used to identify the scenarios with local farmers, and simulated for discovery learning towards to desirable scenarios. The communication presents and discusses the various effects of this participatory modeling and simulation process on the different components of farmers' adaptive capacity: learning and understanding the problem, capacity and network building through social learning, and new behaviours and practices such as more cash crops the dry season when additional water is available by very small farming households. The preliminary results of scenarios simulated with farmers are also discussed. In conclusion we explain how the outcomes of such a ComMod process could be used to inform water policies at the regional level.

An Agent-Based Model (ABM) was co-designed with local rice farmers to represent the human-environment interactions between land/water use and labor management. A rainfed area of Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand was the study site. This ABM evolved along a Companion Modeling (ComMod) process to integrate the research team¿s scientific point of view with the local farmers¿ desired development outcomes. The model consists of four interacting components: Climate, Hydrology, Household, and Rice. The "Household" is a rule-based agent that makes daily decisions on the different stages of rice production including water and labor availability. Four main rice decision-making processes are modeled: i) nursery establishment, ii) transplanting, iii) harvesting, and iv) post harvest decisions including labor migration. The toposequence of lower to upper paddies and types of land use (water bodies, human settlement, paddy fields) are defined in model¿s spatial settings. The paper describes the structure of key decision-making algorithms implemented in this ABM. The participatory use of this model to facilitate the discovery and assessment of different water and labor availability scenarios is also explained. The impact of such scenarios on farming practices and labor management is also analyzed and discussed.

Water management problems tend to be complex and take place in rapidly changing and uncertain realities. A growing number of stakeholders are involved with own interest and perceptions of the problem at stake. Their points of view are legitimate and need to be incorporated through mediation and negotiation. The approach needs to reconcile ecological and social dynamics, improve collective learning, coordination mechanisms, and stakeholders¿ capacity for adaptive management.

The Companion Modelling (ComMod) approach for renewable resource management (RRM) is a highly interactive collaborative modelling process used by researchers and local stakeholders to co-construct a shared representation of a given complex issue, and to use it to explore possible solutions of their choice through simulations. The scientific posture of the ComMod researcher creates an original relation between him, the models he develops, and the field actors and circumstances. By considering him/herself as part of the system under study, the researcher is one stakeholder among others in such action research process. ComMod main objectives are (i) to better understand a complex agro-ecosystem through the collaborative construction and joint use of different types of simulation models integrating various stakeholders' points of view, and (ii) to use these models within platforms for collective teaming to facilitate multiple stakeholders' coordination and negotiation processes leading to the definition of agreed-upon collective action plans to mitigate their common RRM problems. The ComMod approach relies very much on the use of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) combined in various ways with Role-Playing Games (RPG) to facilitate Integrated RRM (IRRM) by focusing on the management of interactions between ecological and social dynamics. A ComMod process alternates lab. modelling and field work phases in an iterative but evolving way, during which its hypotheses and methodology are systematically explicated and regularly questioned and adapted. Since the introduction of this approach and its tools in 2002, a dozen of ComMod case studies have been developed in the Southeast Asian region, most of them in Thailand. They looked at a broad range of topics ranging from highland catchment management, access to non timber forest products and cattle grazing in forest areas, crop substitution and market integration, land/water use and labour migrations, agro-biodiversity management in a rice seed system, and biodiversity conservation in coastal management. Following a brief history of the ComMod approach and a short presentation of its theoretical references, its objectives and fundamental principles are introduced. The main phases of a ComMod process, i.e. initialisation, conceptualization, model implementation & validation, scenario exploration, and monitoring & evaluation, are also presented. Finally, the future perspectives for the development of the ComMod approach and the current hot issues being debated are briefly discussed.

Decentralization of renewable resource management provides an opportunity for local stakeholders to increase their participation in decisions affecting them. Research should propose adapted methodologies and tools enabling the numerous stakeholders of complex socio-ecosystems to identify and discuss about possible solutions to their common problems. We show that in participatory modelling processes, simple models can be as useful as comprehensive and sophisticated ones to accommodate multiple interests among stakeholders, on the condition that the modelling and simulating process itself is carefully participatory, i.e. pays much attention to the initial socio-political context in which this participatory modelling process takes place to ensure the genuine participation of all concerned stakeholders (including the usually voiceless and ressource-poor ones). This assumption is discussed by drawing on a Companion Modelling (ComMod) experiment on water management in a Northern Thailand highland community. The basic principle of the ComMod approach is to develop simple simulation models integrating different stakeholders¿ points of view on the problem at stake, and to use them in communication platforms to explore and discuss collectively various scenarios for the future. By combining a preliminary analysis of the heterogeneous socio-political context with a very simple Agent-Based Model, a Role-Playing Game, individual interviews, and group debates, this ComMod process was efficient at stimulating collective learning and coordination among multiple stakeholders exploring pathways to solve their common water use problem.

International audience; In the highlands of northern Thailand, ethnic minorities are accused by lowlanders of aggravating the risk of soil erosion on steep slopes through recent land use changes. Government authorities have threatened to further restrict their access to farm land. But whether this risk is increasing or not, and how to prevent this problem are complex questions. In the recent past, an impressive amount of research efforts to control soil erosion led to limited success and highlighted the need for more integrated approaches to deal with this problem. Soil and water conservation is embedded in complex eco-socio systems, with numerous interacting ecological and social dynamics, and an increasing number of stakeholders with different interests and perceptions. Companion Modelling (ComMod) is an emerging approach designed to facilitate collective learning in such complex systems. By combining tools such as Multi-Agent Systems and Role Playing Games, it aims at developing simulation models integrating different stakeholders' perceptions to use them within the context of platforms for collective learning. A ComMod process has been tested since 2002 in an Akha village of upper northern Thailand to examine collectively the interactions between soil and water conservation, agricultural diversification, and social equity. The objective of this paper is to present the way a shared representation and understanding of the problem and its key dynamics is achieved, and how it can be used to support collective learning. It describes the concrete use of the ComMod approach with Akha villagers and illustrates how farmers' interest shifts along the learning process from agronomic concerns (soil erosion) to socioeconomic mechanisms (allocation of rural credit to invest in non-erosive perennial crops). The flexibility and adaptive characteristics of the approach are highlighted as they fit with the evolving nature of collective learning processes. The paper ends with suggestions on how to improve the ComMod process by establishing a dialogue with higher levels of organization to sustain the dynamics emerging at the village level.

Forest management through the establishment of headwater management units and the new Nantaburi National Park in Nan Province, northern Thailand, deals with many stakeholders. They have different points of view and interests on forest resource use, different kinds of knowledge, and different opportunity to participate in setting up a management plan. This creates conflicts on forest resource use and management, particularly about the rules for collecting non-timber forest products in the National Park area. This kind of problem is complex not only because it involves many stakeholders, but also because it deals with several interacting ecological and social dynamics. The Companion Modeling (ComMod) approach adopted in this case study seems adapted to facilitate participatory and adaptive management in such complex situations. Role-playing games, multi-agent systems, and a geographic information system will be used to build a communication platform integrating various points of view, knowledge (scientific and indigenous), and disciplines (social and ecological ones). There are four main iterative phases to be implemented with the stakeholders i.e. i) diagnosis and problem identification, ii) sharing, adjustment, and improvement of knowledge and perceptions on the problem with gaming simulations, iii) collective discussions to generate acceptable scenarios to be tested and agreed-upon indicators for their evaluation, iv) computer simulations to support the collective assessment of these scenarios and decision-making on further action to be taken. The expected outcome of this action-research process is an improved collective planning and management of forest resources and the construction of a generic model that could be adapted to similar situations at other sites. Following a presentation of the forest management problem at the study site, the first implemented steps of the ComMod process are described. The initial diagnosis and the first set of participatory gaming simulations provided the research team with a better understanding of local stakeholders' needs and perceptions. These preliminary results allow us to precise the subsequent steps based on key resource management problems identified with the stakeholders. In particular models integrating ecological and socio-economic aspects of cattle grazing in the forest and the gathering of non timber forest products will be constructed to facilitate adaptive forest management by various stakeholders, in particular villagers and national park officers.

International audience; Decentralization of natural resources management provides an opportunity for communities to increase their participation in related decision-making. Research should propose adapted methodologies enabling the numerous local stakeholders of these complex socio-ecological settings to define themselves their problems and to identify agreed-upon solutions. In the research presented in this paper, a Companion Modelling (ComMod) approach combining Role-Playing Games (RPG) and Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) has been conducted in a highland community of Northern Thailand to support collective learning for adaptive land management. A representation of the situation was collectively built and used with local stakeholders as a platform to explore future scenarios. The results of this experiment highlight the need for adaptive and continuously evolving models because learning is evolving by its nature. The initial objective of this ComMod experiment was to address the problem of soil erosion. The participants identified the expansion of perennial crops as a promising solution and these discussions raised in turn a new problem related to unequal ability of villagers to invest in such crops. The researchers flexibly adapted their tools to the new emerging question. After an evaluation of the learning effects of this experiment, this article identifies two main factors that contributed to the success of this learning process : an increased participation of the local stakeholders, and the flexibility of the modelling process. The main suggestion of improvement is a stronger linkage with organizations at a higher institutional level to ensure concrete and sustainable impacts for the communities.

The Lam Dome Yai watershed is a drought-prone area dominated by the rainfed lowland rice (RLR) ecosystem. It is also a homeland of the poor and the only recourse for better livelihood is to migrate to cities. Poverty and labour migration are a result of the interaction between agro-ecological constraints such as erratic rainfall distribution, lack of irrigation and poor soil quality, and socioeconomic dimensions such as economic disparity. In this research, decision-making process of stakeholders regarding farm and labour management is a key to better understand such interaction. A participatory modeling approach like Companion Modeling (ComMod) can be used to understand stakehoders' decision-making process and acquire the mutual recognition of different points of view on a given problem to build a comprehensive knowledge. It is very important to take this knowledge into account for successful investments when the sustainable livelihood of this local community is targeted. In this experiment, we aim at modeling the interaction between land/water use and labour management on different types of RLR farms. The results of three successive participatory modeling workshops using combined-tool, Role-Playing Game (RPG) and Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) model, are presented. The results indicate that the diversity of farms plays an important role to alleviate the labour scarcity. An improvement of water availability is likely to affect only small holders in terms of more farm intensification and fewer migrants. The perception of water availability in farmponds and the use of water are different based on rainfall situation and farmer's means of production. However, a similar rice-growing practice emerged as a collective agreement among players when a community pond was introduced into the RPG.

The strongly incised mountain landscape of Northern Thailand has changed dramatically during the last few decades due to increased population pressure, agricultural commercialization, limitation to use old fallows and reforestation of upper catchments. The traditional shifting cultivation with fallow periods of 7 years and longer was gradually replaced by 1 to 4 year fallow periods. As a result, in high population areas the landscape became dominated by rainfed parcels, wetland terraces, secondary fallow vegetation and patches of disturbed forest. This new land-use system triggered severe land degradation. The objective of this research was to assess the multiple effects of land-use intensification in a tropical steepland environment on land degradation processes. A case study was conducted at Pakha village (located in Thailand¿s northern most Chiang Rai province), which is dominated by steepland with average slope gradients ranging from 30 to 70%. Soil erosion processes were monitored in a selected catchment for 2 years, and informal interviews were conducted to elucidate farmers¿ perceptions regarding land degradation processes. The rapid land-use changes at the Dze Donglo catchment (164 ha) resulted in severe and accelerated land degradation, including tillage erosion (386 ton/year), inter-rill and rill erosion (502 ton/year), gully erosion (423 ton/year), and landslides (7572 ton during 1994). Water erosion is most common in intensively farmed areas. The combination of runoff-generating areas, runoff concentrating features and connectivity led to extensive gully erosion. Landslides were most common in steep fallows and in wetland terraces along incising streams. Many of these steepland degradation processes interacted with each other (i.e. rills with gully erosion, tillage erosion with water erosion, gullies with landslides). The observed land degradation processes matched very well with farmers¿ perceptions. This study enabled to identify "potential land degradation hotspots" and indicates the necessity to analyze steepland degradation processes in a holistic way.

The purpose of the interdisciplinary Companion Modelling (ComMod) approach in renewable resource management is to facilitate collective learning, negotiation, and institutional innovation about concrete problems faced by rural communities. The objective of this communication is to present and to compare the effects of the ComMod approach on collective water management at three different pilot sites located in upper northern Thailand (two sites) and west-central Bhutan. At these sites, water management is a cross-cutting problem: the processes of agricultural commercialization and increased pressure on the land led to the need for stakeholders to agree on new rules for the management of limited water resources. In the Lingmuteychu watershed of Bhutan, water sharing at rice transplanting has been a perpetual issue, without a way forward, while in montane northern Thailand a looming water scarcity is linked to the increased demand from expanding irrigated horticultural cropping systems. The paper compares the way this approach was flexibly adapted and implemented at the three sites according to the local contexts. The main effects of the ComMod process at the three sites are then presented according to a common framework analysing the processes of collective learning, negotiation, and coordinated action that were stimulated. It emphasizes the following effects: learning about the current situation and awareness of a problem to be solved collectively, understanding each other's perceptions and common agreement on the nature of the problem, exploration of new management rules to solve the problem, and concrete implementation of institutional innovation. The discussion focuses on the factors contributing to, or limiting, the achievement of institutional innovation. The role of the local institutional context and the possibility to establish inter-institutional dialogue among multiple levels of organization is highlighted. Finally, we point out the need for specific monitoring & evaluation procedures adapted to such a highly participatory and adaptive process.