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Chapitre 12; National audience; Les démarches de modélisation d’accompagnement (ComMod) et celles du Groupe d’expérimentation et de recherche : développement et actions localisées (Gerdal) facilitent l’émergence de solutions ou de plans d’action négociés au sein de groupes de pairs ou d’arènes d’acteurs hétérogènes, en stimulant les interactions entre leurs participants. Leurs fondements théoriques, éthiques et méthodologiques sont décrits, et leur usage illustré par deux études de cas. Afin d’aider les praticiens à raisonner leur mode d’intervention auprès de collectifs, l’analyse comparée de ces démarches porte sur des points clés de leur accompagnement, tels que la situation initiale, la construction de collectifs pertinents, l’animation des processus, le partage des savoirs et des points de vue, le suivi et l’évaluation des effets, et le renforcement de la capacité à innover collectivement.

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.

Le partage de l'eau d'irrigation est souvent l'objet de négociations entre des acteurs ayant des connaissances de natures différentes : chercheurs et acteurs locaux, irrigants et gestionnaires. La construction d'accords sur les modalités de gestion de la ressource doit alors s'appuyer sur une traduction des connaissances et des cadres de référence de ces acteurs hétérogènes. Dans cette perspective, nous nous intéressons dans cet article au rôle d'" objets frontières ", ayant un sens différent dans différents mondes sociaux, mais suffisamment rigides pour conserver une identité propre. Ce cadre théorique est mis à l'épreuve par l'analyse d'une expérimentation de modélisation d'accompagnement menée au Bhoutan et reposant sur des jeux de rôles. Le suivi des sessions de jeu permet d'expliciter les frontières entre un groupe de scientifiques et deux groupes d'irrigants et de rendre compte des processus de traduction qui s'y opèrent. Ces informations peuvent être mobilisées en pratique pour la coconstruction de nouvelles règles d'usage de l'eau pour une gestion adaptative de cette ressource.

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.

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?

National audience

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.

En Thaïlande, un zonage spatial et historique a été entrepris dans la vallée de la Mae Nam Kwae Noï, dans le cadre du projet DORAS, qui concerne plusieurs pays d'Asie : la Thaïlande, le Laos, le Vietnam, le Cambodge et la Birmanie. Une série chronologique de photographies aériennes et satellitaires prises en 1969 et 1989 a été analysée et complétée par une étude historique et une enquête de terrain. Différentes zones agro-écologiques homogènes pour les actions de développement ont ainsi été définies. La vallée de la Mae Nam Kwae Noï apparaît représentative des situations agraires des hautes terres thaïlandaises par sa diversité, ses cultures de front pionnier et ses paysages naturels contrastés. Son évolution est marquée par trois grandes étapes : la dégradation progressive de la forêt dense, l'avancée des cultures annuelles parallèlement à l'introduction d'une économie de marché et enfin une récente extension des cultures pérennes. Le diagnostic ainsi réalisé confirme la complémentarité des observations de terrain et des images de télédétection

Ce document traite de la zonation agroécologique à petite échelle, comme outil essentiel dans la recherche orientée sur les systèmes agraires en vue du développement. Ces systèmes sont définis comme modes d'exploitation adaptés à l'environnement (naturel et humain) y compris échanges de produit et patrimoine culturel; l'étude comprend systèmes de production et de culture, et types d'utilisation des sols. Les diverses relations entre éléments sont analysées dans l'espace et le temps de façon à dégager la dynamique des transformations. Le projet a fait intervenir des équipes pluridisciplinaires comprenant agronomes et spécialistes des ressources naturelles en sociologie et télédétection; le tout aux niveaux de la parcelle et de l'exploitation agricole. Le texte, qui comporte un glossaire technique précis, est illustré de six clichés en couleurs (cultures de maïs, cotonnier, manioc, manguiers) et d'une image digitale en couleurs d'une partie de l'ouest de la Thaïlande vue du satellite Landsat-TM

This paper is a charter presenting a scientific posture shared by signatories in the use of simulation tools when dealing with complex systems. This posture is based on a cycling approach, in interaction with field processes, including discussion of assumptions and feedbacks on the field process. Confrontation between field and modelling processes has to be permanent because of openness and uncertainty features of these systems. This approach is used with two possible aims: learn on systems or support collective decision processes in these systems, which corresponds to an objective of increasing knowledge either for the scientist or the field actors, always through an interaction between them mediated by an evolutionary model. Both aims lead to different implementations of this companion modelling approach, but each one is side effect of the other one, and has to be taken in account as such. Scientists ready to work in that way and make this posture alive are kindly invited to join.

In this new century, there is an urgent need to integrate and organize knowledge into suitable frameworks to examine essential problems with the people involved in solving them. Recent advances in computer science, particularly distributed artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems (MAS), are creating a strong interest in using this new knowledge and technologies for various applications to better deal with the increasing complexity of our fast-changing world, particularly for studying interactions between societies and their environment. By emphasizing the importance of interactions and points of view, the MAS way of thinking can facilitate high-level interdisciplinary training and collaborative research among scientists working in ecology and social sciences to examine complex problems in the field of integrated natural resource management (INRM). This paper describes how a recent project based on a series of short courses in the field of MAS, social sciences, and INRM at three different universities in Thailand tried to transfer European expertise and research results to an Asian audience of graduate and postgraduate students and young researchers interested in innovative and action-research-oriented interdisciplinary approaches. The course structure, organization, and contents are described and assessed. The course participants are characterized and their opinions are used to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this very interdisciplinary training program. The first sustainable outputs and key preliminary lessons learned from this innovative collective learning experience are presented. In conclusion, the authors suggest ways to support the emergence of a regional network of "MAS for INRM" practitioners in Southeast Asia to build on the dynamics begun by this project and serve the need for such interdisciplinary training across Southeast Asia.

D'importantes réformes sont en cours dans le système semencier thailandais. Dans ce contexte, une série d'ateliers de modélisation participative ont été organisée avec les acteurs du système pour éliciter les besoins et les processus de décision concernant les variétés de riz et l'approvisionnement en semences dans la province d'Ubon Ratchatani. Un modèle conceptuel UML a été produit et partiellement implémenté dans un modèle multi-agent. Le modèle multi-agent permet de simuler sur un pas de temps les besoins et l'allocation des semences des deux principales variétés de riz par les institution publiques, privées ou coopératives au niveau des villages, des districts et des provinces. Un prototype a été présenté et discuté avec les représentants des institutions principales concernées par la réforme en cours. Après cette validation par les usagers, des scénarios possibles ont été proposés pour être simulés avec les modèles multiagents et discutés.