Natural Resource Conflict Management Case Studies: An Analysis of Power, Participation and Protected Areas

Abstract

"Natural resource conflict management and resolution is a priority area of the Forestry Policy and Institutions Branch (FONP) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FONP has been actively involved in this area for more than eight years, including issuing working papers, conducting an electronic conference, devising training materials and holding international, national and regional workshops on the topic. All these activities aim to support diverse and multiple stakeholders in managing conflicts that will inevitably arise in the protection, use and control of forests and other natural resources. A related goal is to strengthen the role and recognition of local resource users, particularly among disadvantaged groups, by building up their capacity to participate in resource management.

"FONP continues with these capacity building goals in presenting this collection of case studies focusing on natural resource conflict management and resolution. FONP's experience in addressing natural resource conflict issues suggests that much can be learned through comparison of diverse situations. The 12 cases presented here deal with a range of intervention strategies, methods and tools used to address community-based natural resource conflicts in a variety of social, environmental and regional settings. The collection includes cases from Africa, Asia and the Americas. The cases were selected by FONP as representative of general trends in the field of natural resource conflict management and resolution as identified in its previous publications, including The role of alternative conflict management in community forestry and the proceedings from its electronic conference and the XI World Forestry Congress satellite meeting on natural resource conflict management."