Photovoice: a Participatory Program to Protect Yunnan’s Environmental and Cultural Resources
 Spokesperson: Ma Ruoyu
Organization: TNC China Program
E-mail: rma@tnc.org.cn
Web: www.nature.org
Photovoice Project
A community participation project using cameras and photographs by local villagers to bring indigenous knowledge and traditional culture into conservation planning in northwest Yunnan Province
Photovoice is an innovative community involvement project of The Nature Conservancy’s China Program in northwest Yunnan Province. It provides cameras and film as a way for local villagers to share indigenous knowledge about their rich but threatened environment and unique traditional cultures and to build a visual documentation of nature, culture and village life. The photographs and their accompanying stories provide valuable community-based information necessary to develop sustainable strategies for conservation and compatible economic development.
The Photovoice concept is beautiful in its simplicity – by using cameras and photographs; villagers convey information not available from any other source. For all but a few villagers, this is their first experience with a camera. The resulting self-portrait – part documentary, part art, part storytelling – provides villagers a visual voice to inform public-policy makers about the world they live in and the issues of concern at the grassroot level, and by doing so, to influence decisions that directly affect their lives.
Village  photographers are proud to represent their village and have become more confident through the project. Most had never had the opportunity to share their lives, knowledge and concerns with the outside world. At the end of each project, village exhibitions are held to honor the photographers and to provide the community-at-large an opportunity to discuss the issues raised by the pictures and stories.
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