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This-two-week course corresponded to steps 5 and 6 (out of 12) of the on-going Asia IT&C Project on Multi-Agent Systems, Social Sciences and Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) coordinated by the IRRI-Cirad team based at IRRI Thailand office (see a project description sheet in appendix 3). Also supported by the Regional Cooperation Office of the Embassy of France in Bangkok, IRRI, and Cirad, the sessions aimed at improving the participants understanding of how to link MAS with GIS when developing applications in community-based approaches to participatory Integrated Watershed Management.

An increasing population pressure, a rapid integration in the market economy, and new national environmental protection policies are fueling the transformations of former slash and bum systems towards semi-pennament, more intensive household-based farming units in northern 'Thailand montane agro-ecosystem. Understanding the causes, extent and consequences of such a rapid differentiation among highlanders is a pre-requisite to appropriate development-oriented research efforts in this highly heterogeneous ecosystem. Such efforts have to balance improvements in land and labor productivities with conservation of the natural resource base, and especially contribute to the limitation of soil erosion through alternative diverse and more sustainable farming systems. The paper analyzes the agro-ecological transformations caused by changes in prevailing socio-economic conditions in an Akha village of Chiang Rai province, now also targeted by a new reforestation scheme. A farming systems survey led to a diagrammatic synthesis of the diversity and functioning of whole family-based systems. They were classified into a farmer typology and plotted along evolution trajectories displaying their respective patterns of changes. A complementary field-level on-farm survey was carried out to rank the main cropping systems, accross different land form situations, for their respective susceptibility to soil erosion. The most critical types of farming systems, comprising important susbsistence upland rice and/or ginger cash crops sub-systems, were then targeted for future soil conservation measures. The integration of the farm and field levels information into GIS maps visualized the spatial distribution of the erosion risk at watershed level. This output was designed to facilitate a dialogue on reforestation between stakeholders. If guided by relevant policies, the current agricultural diversification process provides options for significant progress in both resource base conservation and improvement of farmers' living conditions.

Avec la décentralisation progressive de la gestion des ressources naturelles dans plusieurs pays d'Asie, il est nécessaire de recourir à des méthodes et à des moyens nouveaux pour permettre des travaux de recherche véritablement interdisciplinaires et fondés sur l'action en matière de gestion intégrée des ressources naturelles (GIRN), de manière à donner aux parties concernées davantage de maîtrise et de pouvoir de décision. Les parties prenantes doivent accéder au savoir, comprendre le problème en cause, acquérir les qualifications et les outils permettant de mieux communiquer et négocier. Elles doivent aussi être capables d'exprimer leurs objectifs divergents, négocier le respect de leurs exigences et, pour finir, adopter et adapter les interventions appropriées, à l'échelle convenable. Les grands défis pour la recherche sont de générer un savoir pertinent en matière de GIRN et les outils pour l'appliquer, et de faciliter la mise en partage, sans contrainte, de ces connaissances entre chercheurs, décideurs, directeurs et usagers de ces ressources. Le présent article met en exergue plusieurs résultats de travaux de recherche participative effectués en ce sens.