Transforming Bureaucracies: Institutionalising Participation and People Centred Processes in Natural Resource Management: An Annotated Bibliography (original) (raw)
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Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences - Master's Student Project, 2020
The United Nation’s programme, Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation(REDD+) is an international policy mechanism to mitigate global climate change. REDD+ has a significant global impact that is changing how forests are managed around the world, particularly in developing countries and where natural resource-dependent communities live. Most REDD+ projects are expected to be participatory, and this builds on existing trends in natural resource management. Nevertheless, existing research has shown that participation in REDD+ is uneven, while the benefits from projects are often inequitably distributed. Using a case study of the Gola REDD+ project in Sierra Leone, this study aims to understand how local-level decision-making for forest management happens under REDD+ and the distribution of benefits for REDD+ projects at the local community level. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and observations to capture the views and experiences of participants in their local setting. Drawing on existing theories on Community-Based Natural Resource Management, I used the concepts of Political Representation and Bourdieu’s Notion of Capital to analyse how entrenched power relations influence the ability of local people to meaningfully participate in natural resource management initiatives. Analysis shows that project implementers’ choice of empowering non-elected institutions as representatives of the local people in natural resource management initiatives has undermined opportunities for inclusive public participation in decision making, thus, leading to an inequitable distribution of benefits among the target population. The findings revealed that decision-makers i.e., the project implementers and non-elected local elites used their positions of power within the social field to gain control of the forest management system. As a result, benefits shared during such initiatives do not fully compensate the local people for the loss of livelihood opportunities. On this basis, it is recommended that there should be a review of the policies to ensure that intervening agencies work directly with elected local institutions instead of non-elected local authorities. This will empower elected local institutions to formulate responses and negotiate bureaucratic procedures in natural resource management interventions to better address local needs.
Institutional aspects of local participation in natural resource management
Field Actions Science Reports the Journal of Field Actions, 2009
The Philippine Local Government Code provides the legal basis for local natural resources management. However, the Code, which was enacted into Law in 1991, is not always the driving force for many Local Government Units (LGU's) that have made breakthroughs in local natural resources management (NRM). This paper provides case studies that reveal the policy and institutional hurdles in implementing local and participatory natural resources management programmes; the lessons and experiences among LGU's in linking good governance with NRM; the research and development activities on local and participatory NRM; and the key institutional and policy issues to be communicated at the national level. Through the development of the Natural Resources Management and Development Plan (NRMDP), employing public-private partnerships and capitalizing on the presence of research and non-governmental organizations (NGO), agri-business and other community sectors, the Municipality of Lantapan, an LGU, succeeded in overcoming constraints such as: lack of budget, manpower, technical skills, and poor community involvement. A key feature of the NRMDP is the Landcare Program which centers on formation of community landcare groups that mobilize resources for wider adoption of conservation practices. The Landcare Program is a grassroots approach for rapid and inexpensive dissemination of available, simple, and lower-cost technologies of agroforestry and conservation practices. It was determined that communities have important roles to play but LGU have greater responsibility to provide the policy and institutional basis for supporting community-based initiatives.
Ecology and Society, 2008
The lack of understanding on how to integrate ecological issues into so-called socialecological natural resource management hampers sustainability in tropical forest landscape management. We build upon a comparison of three cases that show inverse gradients of knowledge and perceptions of the environment and human pressure on natural resources. We discuss why the ecological dimension currently lags behind in the management of tropical forest landscapes and to what extent participatory development can enhance the fit among ecological, socio-cultural, and economic systems. For each case study, socio-cultural and anthropological aspects of society and indigenous knowledge of the environment, the distribution of natural resources, classification, and management are documented in parallel with biophysical studies. Our results confirm that the ecological dimension remains weakly addressed and difficult to integrate into development actions when dealing with tropical forested landscape management in developing countries. We discuss three issues to understand why this is so: the disdain for traditional ecological knowledge and practices, the antagonism between economy and ecology, and the mismatch between traditional and modern governance systems. Participatory development shows potential to enhance the fit among ecological, socio-cultural, and economic systems through two dimensions: the generation and sharing of information to understand trends and the generation of new coordination practices that allow stakeholders to voice environmental concerns. In the absence of a "champion," institutions, and financial resources, the expected outcomes remain on paper, even when changes are negotiated. Future research in natural resource management must emphasize better integration at the interface of ecology and governance. Finally, we identify three challenges: the design of operational tools to reconcile ecology with social and economic concerns, the creation of governance systems to institutionalize collaborative and integrated resource management, and the design of enabler organizations close to local communities. Ecology and Society 13(1): 15 http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss1/art15/ Ecology and Society 13(1): 15
International Journal of the Commons
Though there is an increasing trend of natural resources governed by local communities, disadvantaged groups who are highly dependent on natural resources are still far behind in terms of being involved in the natural resource governance. When the wider public is included in decision-making in natural resources governance, the ways in which people protect and cope with the changing environment in their daily lives are exposed and can advance the search for alternatives in sustainable development. This paper compares natural resources governance interventions in Nepal and Tanzania, and searches for differences and similarities in the patterns of engagement of disadvantaged groups. The special focus is on Dalits in Nepal and rural women in Tanzania. The study reveals that though disadvantaged groups are included in principle, in practice their special needs are not taken into consideration. Our findings indicate that the formal possibilities for engagement do not provide citizens with sufficient and equal space for meaningfully participation. The theoretical background of the paper builds on two approaches of engagement: Chamber's view of power at the grassroots and Fung and Wright's thoughts on empowerment.