99 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 10 of 99
Conference Paper Ensuring 'Collective Action' in 'Participatory' Forest Management(2004) Ghate, Rucha; Mehra, Deepshikha"After a decade and half since policy change in India, there are evidences that 'participatory' efforts in forestry are becoming acceptable at various levels of governance. Although community initiated and NGO promoted collective action based resource management has emerged sporadically throughout India in last 20 years, government has also come up with three subsequent resolutions related to joint forest management (JFM) since 1990, each more liberal than the earlier. "This paper is based on three case studies, each belonging to one of the three types of institutional structures: Self-initiated, NGO promoted, and government sponsored JFM. Despite similar basic objectives of all the three institutional structures i.e. strengthening the ecological security and meeting subsistence biomass needs of the local people, each institutional structure is different, with its strengths and weaknesses. If these factors can be identified it could have useful policy implications. The three case studies undertaken belong to similar eco-geographical area; have comparable forest area, and all the three communities with heterogeneous population belong to similar socio-economic background. The data has been collected by using International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) methodology, which helps combine the botanical information with the socio-economic information, with the help of ten research instruments. The study brings out the importance of autonomy for the communities to make decisions. Indigenously formed rules and conflict resolving mechanism are found not only to be more flexible and acceptable to the community, but also helpful in the development of mutual understanding, common norms i.e. in building social capital. Although both, the community-initiated and NGO promoted communities, have eventually adopted government sponsored JFM program because of the authenticity/legality that the program provides, the two have continued with the institutional provisions that were developed through their informal efforts. Thus, rather than oscillating between the simplistic models of either state or 'village community', there is a need to conceive of more complex arrangements in which forest areas are protected for multiple objectives, under the working of multiple institutions."Conference Paper Land and Forest Allocation and Its Implication on Forest Management and Household Livelihoods: Comparison of Case Studies from CBNRM Research in Central Laos(2004) Fujita, Yayoi; Phanvilay, Khamla"National University of Laos (NUOL) conducted a research capacity building project on community based natural resource management (CBNRM) between November 1999 and May 2003, funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The project supported three multi- disciplinary case studies conducted in central Laos in Vientiane, by groups of 11 academic faculty at NUOL focusing on the impact of government reform on resource management on local resource tenure. "The current paper reviews a landmark policy on resource management in Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), the Land and Forest Allocation Policy, which was introduced in the early 1990s as a mean to legitimately recognise customary rights of the local communities to access and use land and forest resources, as well as to management them. The paper will particularly examine the impact of the Land and Forest Allocation Policy on customary resource use practice in three case study sites studied by the NUOL academic faculty. "Comparison of the three case studies elucidates the nature of deconcentration in resource management administration from the central government to the local authorities. Land and Forest Allocation Policy is thus perceived as a state effort to simplify resource boundary and tenure to consolidate its political and fiscal control in remote areas where central government influence had been minimal in the past. The three case studies also indicates the gap between expected goals of the land reform and the varying realities of resource management in the three research sites based on their diverse geographical setting, historical access to resources, and access to market and to agricultural capital. In particular, the study indicates that the reorganisation of space through the Land and Forest Allocation had instigated population displacement of households in the upland communities with little access to productive resources instead of improving their livelihood basis in their villages."Conference Paper Evolving Spaces in Landscape Management: Linking Spatial Information for Effective Decision-Making(2004) Ravindranath, R.; Singh, Subrata"Community, in the policy context, is defined on the basis of fixed in place socio-political unit having residential proximity to the resource or according to state recognized political units. With the boundaries drawn at the village level and the custodial rights of the common lands vested with various departments of the state, it is difficult on the part of the communities to manage such resources. With the advent of participatory forest management powers have been devolved to the communities for protection and use of the resources. Apart from the institutions at the village level, many of the discussions in recent times have focused on the need for nested institutions at various levels to help conserve and protect large landscapes. "The need for nested institutions emerges to resolve conflicts and work towards reshaping the boundaries to establish stable governance of the resource. Despite the regulated use of the resources by community institutions, the resources have tended to get degraded gradually. Conservation of large landscapes requires mechanisms to bring in equilibrium the demand and supply within and among the communities in the larger socio- political setting. These institutions in many circumstances feel incapacitated to understand the entire landscapes and assess the quality and the availability of the resources and therefore take decisions based on the 'who is right' and not 'what is right'. "The protection and use posits a need for 'means' to understand the entire resource base to take decisions effectively. Geographical Information System (GIS) technology is one of the widely used tools to assist in the management of larger landscapes in terms of forest conservation, pastures, water resource management and wildlife management. The integration of both spatial and non-spatial data allow users to efficiently and effectively make well-informed decisions using visual aids and three-dimensional models that simulate the environment. This paper discusses a participatory Geographic Information System (GIS) with community forest management groups in India and the importance of putting people before technology in order to make GIS a truly participatory process in landscape management. The process of dialogue can lead to better information and more transparency about community needs, strategies and the problems at stake."Conference Paper Compromised Co-management, Compromised Outcomes: Experiences from a Zimbabwean Forest(2004) Mapedza, Everisto"Zimbabwe embarked on decentralization of forestry resources after the 'success' ofdevolved management of wildlife through the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE). This paper looks at theoutcomes of the introduction of co-management in the Mafungautsi Forest in Zimbabwe. Decentralization through co-management introduced new institutional arrangements, which have resulted in a shift of the power loci and relationships. Co-management in the Mafungautsi has not devolved meaningful powers to the newinstitutions. This has meant that the new institutions are upwardly accountable to the forestry department than they are towards their constituencies - whose interests they are supposed to advance. In the Mafungautsi, this has resulted in negative environmental, social, economic and ecological outcomes. Having realized that co- management was not meeting their needs, the local actors resolved to use the various weapons at their disposal to counter the powers of the forest department. These tools in the Mafungautsi have included arson, increased poaching and the starting of fires in the forest area. The results from the Mafungautsi case study in Zimbabwe demonstrate that decentralization, which establishes institutions that are upwardly accountable to the centre, is more likely to result in negative environmental outcomes."Conference Paper The Riung Conservation Area in Flores, Indonesia: Lessons from Failure in Improving Governance, Managing Conflict, and Inducing Institutional Reform(2004) Moeliono, Ilya; Maing, Ben Polo"The Riung Conservation area is located on the North Coast of the Ngada District on the island of Flores, in the Nusa Tenggara region of Eastern Indonesia. The area is a mosaic of forests interspersed with grasslands and a patchwork of small farms sloping downwards to the sea. The coastal zone of Riung is dotted with a number of small islands harboring outstanding reefs and marine life. "...A number of original tribes settled the uplands at one time, but have since been resettled along the coast. Several fishing communities from Sulawesi and Selayar have also migrated to the area in more recent times. Facing recurring droughts and harvest failures, in the late 1980s, communities along the coast began converting forested areas back into gardens in order to ensure their survival. Ever since, government agencies responsible for the protection and management of these protected areas have tried to enforce existing laws to curb the encroachment. Squeezed between the coastal and terrestrial reserves, these communities have had little choice but to clash with government. "This conflict was brought to the attention of the Nusa Tenggara Community Development Consortium (NTCDC), a multi-stakeholder network, by Sannusa, a local NGO working in the area. The NTCDC, through Koppesda4, then initiated an area wide participatory action research (PAR) and conflict resolution effort involving all stakeholders, including the seven villages in the area and several key agencies of the district government. The Ngada District Planning Board (Bappeda) was formally appointed to coordinate this initiative. The aim of this effort was to identify natural resource conflicts and to prepare the stakeholders to negotiate comprehensive solutions. In the process, a myriad of conflicts beyond the initial dispute around the land-clearings in the protected forest were uncovered, including many horizontal conflicts within the government and among the communities."Conference Paper Building Knowledge about Variability in the Abundance and Distribution of Natural Resources: A Case Study on Berry Harvesting from Northern Canada(2004) Parlee, Brenda; Berkes, Fikret; Teetlit Gwichin Renewable Resources Council"Local and traditional knowledge is disappearing at an alarming rate, however, there are examples in many parts of the world, including northern Canada, where new knowledge is being created. This case study on berry harvesting provides valuable insight into how knowledge is generated; specifically knowledge about variability in the abundance and distribution of a common pool resource. Knowledge is created when observations about changes are interpreted and shared from year to year within a family group, the community or across the region. When this knowledge is shared and interpreted over many generations, traditional knowledge is generated. It is argued that the success of berry harvesting in any given year, is dependent upon feedback between what is observed and interpreted and the decisions women make about where, when and with whom to harvest."Conference Paper Local Institutional Changes and Collective Forest Management in Taohua Village of Lijiang, Yunnan, China(2004) Su, Yufang"This paper is an extension of a previous study on collective forest management in Taohua village, Lijiang County, Yunnan Province, China. The original paper explored local adaptations in village rules for forest management, and the degree to which multi-ethnic village communities in China can sustainably manage forest resources. This update investigates in greater depth changes in the village's institutional landscape since the implementation of China's logging ban in 1998. While the original research illustrated ways in which multi-ethnic village communities can sustainably manage forest resources as common property, more recent fieldwork indicates that the logging ban is overwhelming the Taohua village community's power to adapt and enforce rules. As a result, an initiative designed to promote conservation is, in this instance, ironically leading to increased forest degradation as village rules for protecting the forest give way to an open access regime. Additionally, without the considerable share of income that villagers formerly received from forestry, many villagers in Taohua have returned to poverty. This more recent evidence reinforces the overarching conclusion of the original paper -- future forest polices in China should indeed involve general guidelines for forestry management and development, but at the same time leave some flexibility for local government and village communities to adjust guidelines to their specific local situations. Nurturing a better policy environment by allowing for greater participation in decision-making comprises an essential step in this process."Conference Paper Implications of Democracy in Forest Management of the Sierra Norte, Mexico(2004) Mitchell, Ross E."This study examines democratic parameters within the framework of common property systems. While common property institutional rules and norms have been discussed at length in the relevant literature, democracy has not been rigorously applied to communal forest decisionmaking. Two forest-based communities of the Sierra Norte in southern Mexico were selected for comparison on key democratic features, including governance, leadership, inclusiveness, and trust. Both communities have taken different forest use paths, resulting in both positive and negative consequences. Their respective forest land-use decisions have been regulated by usos y costumbres, local practices of governance based on indigenous systems of community service. Democratic governance of community forest resources is not yet consolidated, but is well on its way for both communities. These findings bring new insight into the meaning of democracy and common property systems."Conference Paper Co-Opting Conservation: Migrant Resource Control and Access to National Park Management in the Philippine Uplands(2004) Dressler, Wolfram H."This paper examines a case in the Philippines where the transition from coercive conservation (Yellowstone Model) to more devolved management (community-based conservation) has been implemented at one national park, the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park (see Dressler and McDermott). Here, both migrants and an indigenous people (named Tagbanua coexist in villages adjacent to the park, where the latter faces the brunt of inequitable social relations of production and exchange, while having access to forest resources curbed by park managers. For decades each factor has built on the other to increase indigenous peoples livelihood vulnerability. Changes from coercive conservation (restrictive resource access) to current 'community-based' conservation (local involvement and livelihood support), has only exacerbated pre-existing patterns of social and economic differentiation. While new laws grant Tagbanua certain land rights and greater political leverage, migrant control over trade and resources by-passes the efficacy of new legal measures, such as ancestral domain claims, and does little to offset the risks imposed by park management. By using historical accounts, I show how migrant settlers land uses, political networks, and wealth grew in parallel to and shaped park management to support their own agricultural base. Colonial era classifications of land uses and identity have dichotomized migrants and indigenous peoples and led to inequities in wealth and political power, a pattern further exacerbated by national park management (Dressler and McDermott, 2004). "The papers second section provides the background for the case study by describing early Philippine land laws, forestry policy and transitions in national park management. Section three introduces the case study area, while section four introduces Tagbanua and migrant settlement periods. These sections trace patterns of socio-economic differentiation by comparing and contrasting changes in social relations and land uses between each group before and after migration. Against this backdrop, section five shows that despite the transition from punitive to community-based management at Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, managers still favor migrant lowlanders paddy rice over uplanders swidden agriculture. As park management became institutionalized, so did the suppression of indigenous livelihood strategies around the park. Conversely, since migrant land uses were favored, they were the first to be drawn into the national parks management structure. Section six examines why social inequities persisted despite changes in land classification, particularly ancestral domain claim delineation, management authority and expansion of the park as a World Heritage Site. Section seven finds that the shift to community-based conservation at the park has neither redressed socio-economic differentiation between households, nor achieved the dual objectives of poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation."Conference Paper Building Knowledge and Facilitating Learning through Adaptive Community Forest Management(2004) Nayak, Prateep Kumar"The theme of the paper is a set of conceptual frameworks that discusses how conservation and management knowledge develops, and how this knowledge is acquired by the local resource management systems through a continuous process of adaptation. It also examines the process of knowledge building as an integral part of adaptive co-management. Through analysis of certain bases of adaptive Community Forest Management (CFM) and various modes through which the process of adaptation occurs, the paper argues with examples that the entire process of adaptation is actually synonymous to creation and acquisition of knowledge by the Community Based Resource Conservation and Management (CBRCM) systems. It emphasizes that the management systems learn through their actions in an evolutionary manner and that this learning is a conscious process. New or modified knowledge and learning make adaptation a creative response to developments in the micromacro environment and a part of their coping approach to deal with uncertainties. The discussions in the paper primarily revolve around both social-institutional and ecological processes in collaborative and participatory forest management with specific reference to India."