The Radical Mapping in Social Movements presentation illustrated the possibility and effectiveness of mapping social movements, a deviation from the historically flat and categorized practice of map making. If we can map social movements, I think we can map any sort of movement: social, physical, ideological, etc. One movement conservationists have begun to map are those of sea turtles. Researchers are able to map the migration patterns and nesting sites of sea turtles around the globe, which creates visual evidence of the need for specific conservation sites and makes scientific research more accessible to the public.
Andrew DiMatteo, cartographer and database manager of the State of the World’s Sea Turtles (SWOT) Project and Associate in Research at Duke University won a conservation award from Conservation International for using GIS software to map green sea turtle nesting sites. Discussing critical cartographies, we identified maps as avenues for collaboration. The sea turtle nesting map produced by SWOT has promoted collaboration among scientists from all over the globe with a long list of countries contributing data on sea turtles as well as collaboration between the public and researchers on conservation efforts. Maps have the potential to be seen as “productive, producing something, not just representing something” (Radical Mapping in Social Movements). From conservation efforts to social movements, maps provide visuals that engage and apply information into something physical that demands space and attention, and attention to efforts like conservation and social movements is exactly what we need to garner support for change.
