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Conference Paper Maps, Metaphors, and Meanings: Boundary Struggles and Village Forest Use on Private and State Land in Malawi(2000) Walker, Peter A.; Peters, Pauline E."Recent studies have begun to closely examine social and cultural perceptions of spatial relationships, with particular attention to contests over boundaries. Counter mapping has emerged as a technique to represent local claims, but this approach creates tension between efforts to empower social groups and recognition that Western cartographic methods may inadequately represent complex socio-spatial ideas among non-Western peoples. Specifically, whereas recent studies emphasize contests over the legitimacy or location of boundaries, this paper presents case studies from Malawi illustrating equally important non -territorial contests over the meanings , the de facto rules and practices of boundaries. Complex strategies, embedded in local history and culture, have emerged involving efforts to untie resource rights from territorial claims. These strategies, which effectively seek to create a kind of de facto commons for specific resources on private and state land, would be poorly represented or even obscured by mapping efforts focused on (re-)drawing linear boundaries. This suggests a need for critical examination of the use of mapping and map metaphors in social analysis and practice."Conference Paper Towards a Participatory Approach in Developing Environmental Education Programs: Reflections in Cape Peninsula National Park, South Africa(2000) Songelwa, Nomvuselelo C."In the new democratic era in South Africa (SA), South African National Parks (SANP), as with all other government-related organizations, has had to undergo a restructuring and transformation process. In the process of reviewing policies and transforming the organization and its corporate image, the Social Ecology (SE) department was established in 1994, to play a key role in implementing the new mission and vision of the organization. While from the point of view of bio-diversity management SANP parks are regarded as the best managed in the world, the SANP is, however, influenced by the legacy of colonialism and apartheid (SANP Corporate plan, 1998). The SE department has thus been mandated to develop appropriate policy frameworks, to build the capacity of SANP personnel in articulating and implementing economic, cultural and educational empowerment initiatives that will benefit the local communities neighboring national parks. Recognizing the significance of community participation in conservation (SE policy, 1995), the department has continually strived to influence the SANP policies and practices to accelerate a shift from the traditional expert-driven conservation practices to a more holistic, community-oriented management of natural and cultural heritage resources. "From a practitioner's perspective, with an experience of working in two of SANP parks and involvement in various debates of unravelling the concept and the philosophy behind SE within and outside the organization, the presenter will share her experiences on the challenges of implementing this relatively new approach in SA. In particular, the presentation will focus on challenges experienced in the process of developing Environmental Education (EE) programs in Cape Peninsula National Park (CPNP), a recently established park. It will further explain how these challenges have been transformed into a research opportunity."Conference Paper Rehabilitation of CPRs Through Re-Crafting of Village Institutions: A Comparative Study from Ethiopia and India(2000) Wisborg, Poul; Shylendra, H. S.; Gebrehiwot, Kindeya; Shanker, Ravi; Tilahun, Yibabie; Nagothu, Udaya Sekhar; Tewoldeberhan, Sarah; Bose, Purabi"The study examines approaches and experiences of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with social and ecological rehabilitation of common pool resources (CPR), specifically the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme in India and the 'area enclosures' programme in Tigray, Ethiopia. The paper is based on comparative field-research in the marginal, semi-arid project areas of N. M. Sadguru Water and Development Foundation (SWDF), Dahod District, Gujarat, India and the Relief Society of Tigray (REST), Wori Leke Woreda, Tigray, Ethiopia. A multidisciplinary team of practitioners and researchers carried out field observations, mapping and interviews with households and key informants in two villages from each of the project areas. "Similarities were observed in histories of resource depletion through increasing economic pressures and institutional break-down, as well as present-day community-initiatives to revert negative trends. In both India and Ethiopia the government claims ownership to the village commons, and in both situations people refer to lack of or unclear property rights and short-sighted CPR policies as the explanation for resource depletion. However, within similar institutional frameworks, local specific histories and empowerment processes shape contrasting outcomes. "The comparison of the two study villages in India showed a considerable achievement, but also vast untapped potential, for regeneration of commons. Major reasons for the depletion of forest resources and absence of appropriate institutions appeared to be the lack of long-term resource security through CPR ownership or well-defined and substantial user rights. People favoured the re-framing of rules, practices and remuneration patterns which the JFM framework provides. JFM appears to be the major avenue for the NGO to support management of CPRs. Yet, in spite of the formal instruments, conflicting interests and uneven motivation among government officials continue to create hurdles, uncertainty and conflict. "The area enclosures in Tigray, Ethiopia evolved through a grass-root process. Local people support it as a positive initiative for soil and water conservation, and it has had a clear bio-physical impact on large parts of the degraded commons. The local government institution (the baito) is empowered to control the management of commons, unlike in India where the formal local government body (Gram Panchayat) is not involved in CPR management under the JFM. "Differences in the empowerment of local institutions is interpreted as one of the main factors responsible for the varying processes and outcomes observed in the two study areas. "The political and institutional contexts of the two countries present NGOs with contrasting rules and opportunities, creating a need for a thorough, local-specific understanding of the processes of CPR management. The present South-South research cooperation has documented and analysed similarities and differences, and will further pursue their context-specific implications for NGO strategy, advocacy and policy. The study confirmed that partners gain from joint learning and experience sharing on CPR approaches, but also showed that institutional, cultural and economic differences make transfer of models and practices challenging."Conference Paper The Role of Macro-Political Economic Systems in CPR(2000) Lindayati, Rita"This paper focuses on the role of macro political-economic influences on common property regimes (CPR), with specific reference to Indonesia. The thesis of this paper is that macro political economic structures shape property rights patterns of common pool resources. Accordingly, structural changes in the political system--as has recently occurred in Indonesia--are bound to significantly impact on a countrys CPR dynamics. The discussion will be approached by looking at Indonesias Outer Island forest management history, from the colonial era to New Order and post New Order governments. In each historical period two interrelated trends are highlighted: 1) the states economic development orientation, with particular attention to forestry and 2) policy making processes that shape property systems legal frameworks. First, the linkage between CPR and the broader political economy structure, from which the papers argument is predicated, will be presented."Conference Paper Selective Privatization of Forest Lands in the Philippines: An Alternative Approach to Forest Development(2000) Soriano, Marietta"The forest resources in the Philippines are diminishing at a very fast rate. This has been attributed to destructive logging on the part of the logging companies and slash-and-burn farming practiced by the uplanders and kaingineros. The traditional policy of state ownership of the country's forest lands implies that the government should assume a dominant role in the conservation, protection, and development of forest resources. The burden of the overall management of forest resources is placed on the government's shoulder, being the owner of forest lands. With the seemingly unstoppable and rapid rate of forest denudation, it may be said that the present forest management policies and strategies are ineffective. There seems to be a need to explore other approaches in order to solve the present forest management problems. One possible alternative to consider is the privatization of forest lands on a selective basis. In this case, selected forest lands in the country may be disposed by the government for private ownership to logging companies, forest dwellers, tribal groups and rural communities. It is the objective of this paper to discuss some realities whereby privatization of forest lands on a selective basis would be appropriate along the principles of productivity, sustainability, social equity and ecological stability."Conference Paper Adaptive Management, Organizations and Common Property Management: Perspectives from the Community Forests of Quintana Roo, Mexico(2000) Bray, David Barton"For over 15 years an unusual experiment in community-based management of common property resources, particularly forest resources, has been underway in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Mexico's ejido system gave communities permanent and secure access to common pool forest resources under defined common property management regimes in two stages, 1) When the ejido land grant was originally given as far back as the 1920s, and 2) when communities won the right to exploit the timber on their forest lands in the early 1980s. It is a system of common property management which was almost entirely induced from the outside, a 'donor-initiated common pool resource institution,' although in some cases it clearly was able to draw on indigenous cultural forms and practices. Thus, it is not 'self-organized' although in the best of the cases it now has a significant degree of self-governance. It involves the organized industrial production of timber for commercial markets, an economic activity which occurs in few other common property regimes in the world outside of Mexico. It involves not just sets of rules in use, or 'institutions' but formal community organizations, indeed, market-oriented 'community enterprises' dedicated to commercial forest exploitation. These formal organizations occur not only at the community or ejido level, but also participate in and depend upon second-level organizations at the state level and third-level organizations at the national level in a 'nested' fashion. "These and other factors to be discussed in this paper make community forest management in Quintana Roo an exceptional but still little described case within the common property literature. I will be attempting a synthetic analysis of the history of these organizations, the social and ecological conditions which forged their emergence, and how they have transformed over time within a turbulent policy and political environment and in interaction with the constraints and possibilities of the ecosystem. Some of the key conceptual elements I will use in the discussion include adaptive management and organizational learning, the linking of social and ecological systems, common property theory, social capital, and community-based conservation. The adaptive management approach is a framework that allows us to look at the Quintana Roo organizations as actively adapting and reacting to a typically complex social and ecological environment, as organizations that 'learn.' A practical implication is that it calls for the elimination of the barrier between research and management. In this approach, resource management policies, and resource-directed actions should be treated as 'experiments' from which land managers and 'stakeholders' at all levels of a social system can learn. It takes the assumption of 'trial and error' in the evolution of self-organized CPR systems, and attempts to place it on a more formal foundation of scientific research and adaptive organizational strategies."Conference Paper Political Economy of Tropical and Boreal Forests(2000) Contreras, Antonio P.; Pas-ong, Suparb; Lebel, Louis; King, Leslie; Mathieu, Paul"This paper outlines a framework and a set of research questions relating to the effects of institutions on human activities affecting boreal and tropical forests. The boreal forests of the Russian taiga, Fenno- Scandia, and the North American Subarctic and the tropical forests located around the equator in both the eastern and western hemispheres are among the planet's largest carbon sinks. The fate of these forests will constitute a major determinant of levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) resident in the Earth's atmosphere during the 21st century. These forests, especially the tropical forests are also major repositories of biological diversity, a fact that makes it easy to understand why countries like Brazil and Indonesia rank among the top ten in all assessments of biodiversity. At the same time, rapid deforestation is a fact of life in the tropical forests. Pressures that could lead to deforestation in the Russian taiga are also mounting steadily. In institutional terms, what makes this topic particularly interesting is the opportunity it affords to study not only the performance of forest management regimes (e.g. the regime articulated in Indonesia's Basic Forest Act of 1967 and implementing regulations/decrees) as such, but also the interplay between regimes dealing specifically with forest management and broader political and economic institutions (e.g. Indonesia's changing political system, the international plywood market, the World Trade Organization) which operate as underlying causes of deforestation and aforestation. For this flagship activity, biogeophysical conditions in the boreal and tropical forests constitute the key dependent variables. The research puzzle, then, centers on an exploration of the role of interactions between specific forest management regimes and broader economic and political institutions as determinants of biogeophysical conditions prevailing in the forests."Conference Paper Forest Co-Management as if History Mattered: The Case of Western Himalayan Forests in India(2000) Chhatre, Ashwini"Kangra district in the western Himalayas has been witness to a succession of institutional arrangements between the people and the state for the management of forests in the last 150 years. This history has serious implications for the sustainability of the current efforts at creating village-level institutions for the co- management of forests. "In the mid-19th century, in exchange for proprietary rights over trees and timber, co-parcenary bodies of cultivators at the village level were formed and ceded the proprietary rights over the soil of the forests along with ownership of all non-timber forest products. Additionally, a one-fourth share in the proceeds from the sale of trees was also granted to this body, in order to secure its interest in timber conservancy. Over the next few decades, as the demand for timber and the need felt for securing control over timber yielding areas grew within the state, the co- parcenary bodies negotiated with the state and successfully extracted large concessions in exchange for ceding their proprietary rights over the soil. "Again, in the 1930s, responding to calls of impending doom due to forest degradation and erosion, the state negotiated with communities for enclosure of forest areas it was finding it impossible to manage. The resultant forest co-operative societies were given the full income from the forests, provided they managed the forests according to simple working plans prepared by forest officers and accepted the enclosure of forest lands. "Till date, in spite of offering varying degrees of incentives to local communities while at the same time trying to restrict local use, the forest department has failed to enforce its agenda of enclosure. The two cases discussed illustrate an ability of the communities to negotiate with the state, something which has been completely ignored, and sometimes negated, in the current efforts at co-management of forests. The cases also point to the futility of offering short term incentives and demonstrate the need to reconstitute the commons, with local institutions as equal partners."Conference Paper Watershed Management, Self Help Groups, and Inter-Institutional Linkages(2000) Sharma, Kailash C."Generally speaking, watershed management involves harnessing rainfall, improvement measures on barren hill slopes, privately owned lands, commonly owned lands and water recourses in rain fed areas with peoples participation. It begins with two most important resources i.e., water and land. Watershed Management has a strong technological component encompassing conservation of rain water as much as possible at the place where it falls and drainage of excess water safely to storage ponds; avoiding gully formation and putting checks at appropriate intervals to control soil erosion and to recharge ground water; and utilization of land according to its capability. "However, the medium of watershed management is people's participation. Without people's participation, the technological aspects have limited relevance. In the past, the technical details were emphasized and less attention was given to people's participation. "Collective management of resources is a prerequisite for successful watershed management and it requires strong village level institutions. In the absence of strong village level institutions, common resources are exploited. Therefore, institutions, be formal or informal in terms of organizational setup are needed for sustainable watershed management. "As the existing institutions are not performing as expected, the need for evolution of alternative institutions is strongly felt. The process of institution building is essential but is a time taking and difficult task. This is where the role of good non-government organisations (NGOs) becomes crucial for mobilising people for collective action. Initially, confidence and friendship are developed with the local people. Then, they are encouraged to participate in decision making regarding improvement in the watershed. Once a sort of trust is established a somewhat formal institution is built for collective action. "The Khulgad Micro Watershed case of Uttar Pradesh Hills presented in the paper shows that watershed management activities have made significant progress in reversing the land use trends in favour of agro forestry and social forestry in the study villages. It is optimistic to note that it is possible to reverse the land use dynamics in favour of environment if suitable interventions are implemented with peoples participation. An NGO of professionals, the Central Himalayan Environment Association (CHEA) played the role of organising people. The changes in land use have been possible with involvement of people's institutions at village level called Gram Sansdhan Prabandh Samitis (GSPSs) (Village Resource Management Committees) and Mahila Mangal Dals (MMDs) (Women Welfare Groups) in the villages. "The dependency syndrome in participatory mode of development is prevalent almost everywhere wherein people have become conditioned to expecting subsidised inputs from government sponsored programmes of watershed development or any other external agency. Therefore, watershed management activities are carried out as long as there is support from outside either directly or indirectly. Once support from outside is withdrawn, the watershed management activities also come to a halt. This is not sustainable watershed management. For watershed management to become sustainable, the people should own it and should be able to fund it on their own. This can be achieved through the institution of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their linkage with formal financial institutions such as commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks. "Self Help Groups are informal groups that are formed around felt need and are used for collective action. In the context of making watershed management self-sustaining, these groups promote savings among members and use their pooled savings to meet their consumption, production and investment credit requirements. The group savings are supplemented by outside fund be in the form of bank loan or grant from NGOs who promote them. However, these groups continue on their own even after the withdrawal of the NGO, thus, providing sustainability to watershed management activities. The experiences of Mysore Rehabilitation and Development Agency (MYRADA) in Karnataka and Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, India (AKRSP (I) in Gujarat amply demonstrate the power of SHGs in this regard. "For watershed management activities to be carried out on a sustainable basis, it is important to consider the inter-institutional linkages amongst the institutions that need to interact frequently. Basically, two sets of institutions are involved internal and external. For the internal or village level institutions, it is important to form federations and have linkage with panchayats. For external institutions i.e., government departments, NGOs and donors, it is important to work together for synergy and to give top priority to capacity building and financial sustainability of village level institutions right from the beginning."Conference Paper Land Tenure, Access to Resources, and Food Security in the Amazon Estuary(2000) Siqueira, Andréa D.; Murrieta, Rui S. S.; Brondizio, Eduardo"Competing paradigms of rural development and food security often focus on collective versus private resource management while overlooking the combination of both strategies as part of contemporary adaptation to socioeconomic and land tenure changes taking place in many parts of the world. Drawing from examples of the Brazilian Amazon, this paper looks at how different strategies of food production (swidden and mechanized agriculture, fishing, hunting, agroforestry) are constrained by different land tenure systems, and in turn, how these arrangements affect food security of Caboclo populations in the Amazonian estuary. Caboclosnon-Indian population of the Brazilian Amazon have developed a diversified economy based on fishing, hunting, slash-and- burn, agroforestry, and the extraction and commercialization of forest products as well as trade and off-farm jobs. This paper focuses on three Caboclo populations differentiated by land tenure and land use systems (small owners, sharecroppers and cooperativists, respectively). The population of small owners presents a characteristic pattern of Caboclo economy marked by a diversified land use. The population of sharecroppers has specialized on a palm fruit (açai) agroforestry management, while the population of cooperative members has based their economy on mechanized agriculture and pasture. Food intake surveys were collected at the level of household in 1991 and 1994, rainy and dry seasons, using the 24-hour recall method during seven days each. Quantities of food consumed were converted into energy and protein values and compared to FAO/WHO guidelines for calculating the recommended allowance for energy intake and safe level of protein consumption. Food surveys included information on the types of food and quantities consumed within the household, its preparation, as well as their origins (household production, exchange, market acquisition). Consumed food items were also divided according to their sources: family plots (manioc, palm fruit, and vegetables), collective fields (rice and beans), forest (fruits, game, oils), and rivers (fish and shrimp). Our data shows that among the study populations like many other Amazonian populations, urban and rural alikesources of protein (often from open access areas) are more abundant than sources of energy (often from private holdings and/or market). Fish and shrimp are the main source of daily protein intake, while manioc flour and palm fruit are the main source of energy. Game plays a lesser importance on the total protein intake. This paper discusses that no single land use and acquisition strategy provide sufficient grounds for food security. A combination of acquisition strategies (from open access areas and private holdings) seem to dominate in this area independently of tenure system."