One of my vices: I love old maps and studies… so much can be learned from old data sources yet so few are willing to take the time. The amount of misinformation about forest cover in Indonesia is particularly shocking… “activists” have invested for decades in painting a far bleaker situation than is the case.
It is less time consuming to start a project from 0 than to go back and sum up what happened in the past and build a development plan from there. (We can see this among donor organisations – if we take time to look around.) On the down side is of course (aside from the occasional ridicule among residents in the project area) a weak foundation and increased risk of failure. – Will internet and sosmed change this? Strengthen our “Common Memory”?