INCORPORATING DIVERSE VOICES IN DECISION-MAKING FOR GEOCONSERVATION

Geoconservation initiatives and actions aim to protect the memory of the Earth, and decision-making is an integral part. Participatory decision-making is desirable when decisions involve diverse stakeholders and multiple criteria, which is the case in geoconservation. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a methodological approach to multicriteria decision-making that uses pairwise comparisons to assign values to different components of a decision model, representing preferences in given scenarios. The approach requires separating the decision into a hierarchy with three main components: An overarching goal, alternatives, and criteria that are important to decide among the alternatives. Here, we present a hands-on strategy that was designed to facilitate the implementation of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, with diverse local stakeholders in Portland Jamaica, including fisherfolk, farmers, representatives from the Moore Town Maroon Council, local environmental organizations, community organizations, local artists, as well as students and faculty from The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. Participants were directly involved in building the decision-making model. The goal was: land conservation in connection with the ocean. The two alternatives considered were resort vs. community-based tourism, using funding and coral reef health as the criteria. The hands-on strategy combines elements of Participatory Action Research and collaborative learning by facilitating conversations about hypothetical scenarios to protect ocean, land, and people as part of an interconnected system. We designed a tool “the decision maker” that participants used to assigned values to the model based on their preferences. While, the alternatives were hypothetical, the activity was successful; it allowed every person to incorporate their voice in a decision-making model relevant for geoconservation. An important product of the activity is a model with values that reflect the conversations that emerged among participants during the hands-on session. This participatory model has potential application in a broad spectrum of decision-making scenarios in geoconservation and in other disciplines where the Analytic Hierarchy Process is used.