Browsing by Author "Halpern, Guy"

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Catalyzing Collective Action to Address Natural Resource Conflict: Lessons from Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake
(2011) Ratner, Blake D.; Halpern, Guy; Kosal, Mam
"This paper reports on outcomes and lessons learned from a 15-month initiative aimed at strengthening collective action to address natural resource conflict in Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake. Employing the Appreciation-Influence-Control (AIC) model of participatory stakeholder engagement, the initiative aimed in particular to build collective understanding of the sources of vulnerability in fisheries livelihoods and to catalyze efforts to support resilience in this valuable and productive social-ecological system. Outcomes include important shifts in fishery access rights and resource management authority--notably the transfer of a large, commercial fishing concession to community access, and the resolution of a boundary dispute involving community fishery organizations in neighboring provinces. Motivated by such successes in collaborative problem analysis and advocacy, the main national grassroots network representing fishing communities have also modified its internal governance and strategy of engagement to emphasize constructive links with government and the formal NGO sector. The experience demonstrates the potential of such an open-ended process of action research to enable collective action and improve natural resource governance, even amidst ongoing resource conflict. We conclude with a set of lessons learned to guide such efforts in practice."
Collaborating for Resilience: Conflict, Collective Action, and Transformation on Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake
(2014) Ratner, Blake D.; Mam, Kosal; Halpern, Guy
"We report on outcomes and lessons learned from a 15-month initiative in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake. Employing the appreciation-influence-control (AIC) model of participatory stakeholder engagement, the initiative built shared understanding of the sources of vulnerability in fisheries livelihoods and catalyzed collective action to support resilience in this valuable and productive social-ecological system. Outcomes include the transfer of a large, commercial fishing concession to community access, and resolution of a boundary dispute involving community fishery organizations in neighboring provinces. Motivated by these successes, the main national grassroots network representing fishing communities also modified its internal governance and strategy of engagement to emphasize constructive links with government and the formal NGO sector. The AIC approach, we argue, provides an effective route to enable collective action in ways that strengthen dialogue and collaboration across scales, fostering the conditions for local-level transformations that can contribute to improvement in governance. We conclude with a discussion of the broader implications for resilience practice."