Methods of Consensus Building for Collective Action: Community Based Aquatic Habitat and Floodplain Fisheries Management in Bangladesh and the Mekong Delta

Abstract

"Experience in community-based natural resource management in Bangladesh has shown that consensus building among all stakeholder groups in the communities that use and benefit from the resources is an essential element of collective action. A method of consensus building initially developed in Bangladesh in collaboration with partners from the UK and Bangladesh, and funded by the UK DFID, is now being applied in both Bangladesh and the Mekong delta. This paper describes the process in the context of building social capital through consensus, and compares the outcome of a consensus building workshop conducted in a Vietnamese village in the Mekong delta as part of a community-based aquatic habitat management project with the outcomes of a similar process conducted in an area of floodplain in Bangladesh. In Vietnam the objectives were to: strengthen the capacity of the research partners from Can Tho University (CTU) in participatory natural resources management; assist the local community to gain a shared understanding and common management strategy for their own resources; and translate group discussion and learning initiatives into an action plan. The process provides a clear analysis of problems, their causes and solutions. It also identifies the collective actions that are needed to arrive at preferred solutions, and determines the potential impacts on different stakeholders and responsibilities for implementation, monitoring and evaluation. In Vietnam these outputs of village level consensus building were validated with the local, district and provincial government authorities through a subsequent workshop. The plan is currently being implemented by the community itself and the local peoples organization, with research support, technical inputs and training from CTU and ICLARM funded by Oxfam Americas Mekong Learning Initiative (MLI)."