The Role of Scale in Community Resource Management Programs

Abstract

"This paper is built on the premise that scale issues (national versus community) are a major cause of tension between government planners and village users of public domain resources. The paper begins with a discussion of the 'scale problem' and its relationship to data aggregation. The paper then reviews hierarchy theory and multiple scales, two methods (one theoretical and the other practical) for dealing with problems that span many scales. The application of these methods to community resource management programs is examined by way of an example. Finally the paper discusses methods for dealing with the conceptual and practical problems of changing scales."