Cornwall is represented at an international conference in Italy

Cornwall was represented this December at an international conference that was all about creating maps with communities so they would get to know their environments better. The Rockefeller Foundation sponsored the conference. The Rockefeller Foundation, a world leading knowledge-based foundation, is committed to enriching and sustaining the lives and livelihoods of poor and excluded people throughout the world. The conference was held on the spectacular banks of Lake Como in Northern Italy at the Rockefeller conference centre.

Dominica Williamson of Cornwall, the only representative from the United Kingdom, was one of 23 delegates, who came together to drive forward innovative ways in which you can create maps with community groups. A central goal of the conference was to ascertain the benefits of such maps and how one can measure impact. A key theme that emerged was how to mobilize a community so that they become makers and users of maps.

At the conference Dominica was able to present to the delegates work she was carrying out in Cornwall. She showcased to the group how she was working with the private and public sector to co-ordinate a new map for Cornwall. Like many of the other delegates the aim of Dominica’s work is to create a map that brings together social, cultural and environmental information into one visual dynamic picture, using digital and print based media.

Dominica explained what was most amazing about the conference, “The Rockefeller foundation enabled different people, who came from different backgrounds and were trained to work in different organizations to come together and share how they were making or had made maps with their community. No matter what their background, all were committed and united instantly because they belonged to a group called Green Map System.”

The goal of Green Map System, which comprises 170 community-mapping projects worldwide, is to promote community sustainability and citizen action through locally created maps featuring the natural and cultural environment. Dominica joined the System in the year 2000 and her work to date has been sponsored and supported by Timothy Guy Design through a grant funded by the Department of Trade and Industry that is managed by the University of Plymouth Enterprise. Timothy Guy and Dominica hope to bring to Green Map System some innovative new ways in which you can design and communicate maps, and the work is endorsed by Cornwall County Council, Centre for Climate Change and Impact Forecasting, Cornwall Research and Information Group, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Agenda 21 Kerrier District Council, South West Regional Observatory and South West Tourism.

As a result of her contribution to the conference, Dominica has provisionally been invited to give a lecture about the Cornwall map in Chicago and in the New Year will be setting up a European Green Map System Hub with such countries as the Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Iceland and Romania. If you would like to know more about the Cornwall map you can visit www.futuremap.info and you can find out about the world-wide collection of maps at www.greenmap.org