Prototype Design Guidelines for ‘Collaborative Governance’ of Natural Resources

Abstract

"Current forest management in Japan and tropical and sub-tropical Asian counties requires collaboration between the local people and outsiders affected by globalisation. When designing the governance of local commons under such circumstances, there are three possible strategies by which local people may respond to external influences. The first is ‘resistance strategy,’ in which people do not adapt to globalisation and mostly refuse involvement by outsiders in order to preserve their autonomy. The second is ‘adjustment strategy’ meant to assimilate the benefits of globalisation. The third is ‘eclectic strategy,’ which is a compromise that incorporates a partial resistance strategy and limited adjustment strategy. This third strategy presents an advantage in reconciling contradictory concepts such as ‘closure/openness’ and ‘inherent values/universal values’. Under this strategy, ‘collaborative governance’ (kyouchi in Japanese) of natural resources could be achieved. This type of governance is organised through collaboration among various stakeholders who have a range of interests in local resource use and management. In the field, however, the opinions of people residing in forest regions, usually minorities with less political power, might not be ultimately reflected in governance, even though equal participation by all stakeholders is formally ensured. In order to overcome such issues, this study offers prototype design guidelines for collaborative governance. These guidelines are derived from and evolved out of the design principles for CPRs, and enable conditions for sustainability of the commons, where researchers have pointed out the importance of linkage with outside organisations and nested enterprises. In particular, this paper proposes three vital guidelines to bring about collaborative governance of the forests: ‘graduated membership’ and ‘commitment principle’, which are underpinned by ‘trust building’."