Developing Capacity For Community Governance Of Natural Resources Theory Practice

Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is a compelling concept that combines community custodianship of natural resources with sustainable development and poverty reduction. However, there is a large gap between the conceptual promise and actual performance of CBNRM. CBNRM is complex and challenging, and one of the major challenges is what we call micro-governance--how to replace the ubiquitous problem of elite capture within communities with genuine participation and equitable benefit sharing. This book is for people want to understand and implement CBNRM governance more effectively, including graduate students, scholars and practitioners. It is targeted most specifically at the scholar-practitioner who wants to draw upon micro-governance theory to know why and how to work with communities to implement sound local institutions. the perspectives and resources presented have been developed and tested over many years working with CBNRM communities in southern Africa. the book offers convincing evidence for preferring participatory democracy over representational forms of governance, and discusses how to manage the scale paradox that economies and ecologies are better managed at larger scales, but that larger representational institutions invariably forfeit critical public goods like participation and equitable benefit sharing. the book's purpose is to provide the reader with the practical tools to operationalize "good governance" at the village level, in ways that are theoretically sound. It provides the reader with theoretical insights and practical lessons about micro-governance in the context of CBNRM, tools for designing and implementing conceptually rigorous community constitutions that enable communities to govern themselves fairly and effectively, and resources for developing the management and monitoring systems necessary to protect these conditions.

This book develops the Sustainable Governance Approach and the principles of Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). It provides practical examples of successes and failures in implementation, and lessons about the economics and governance of wild resources with global application. CBNRM emerged in the 1980s, encouraging greater local participation to conserve and manage natural and wild resources in the face of increasing encroachment by agricultural and other forms of land use development. This book describes the institutional history of wildlife and the empirical transformation of the wildlife sector on private and communal land, particularly in southern Africa, to develop an alternative paradigm for governing wild resources. With the twin goals of addressing poverty and resource degradation in the world’s extensive agriculturally marginal areas, the author conceptualises this paradigm as the Sustainable Governance Approach, which integrates theories of proprietorship and rights, prices and economics, governance and scale, and adaptive learning. The author then discusses and defines CBNRM, a major subset of this approach. Interweaving theory and practice, he shows that the primary challenges facing CBNRM are the devolution of rights from the centre to marginal communities and the governance of these rights by communities, a challenge which is seldom recognised or addressed. He focuses on this shortcoming, extending and operationalising institutional theory, including Ostrom’s principles of collective action, within the context of cross-scale governance. Based on the author’s extensive experience this book will be key reading for students of natural resource management, sustainable land use, community forestry, conservation, and development. Providing practical but theoretically robust tools for implementing CBNRM it will also appeal to professionals and practitioners working in communities and in conservation and development.

This book develops the Sustainable Governance Approach and the principles of Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). It provides practical examples of successes and failures in implementation, and lessons about the economics and governance of wild resources with global application. CBNRM emerged in the 1980s, encouraging greater local participation to conserve and manage natural and wild resources in the face of increasing encroachment by agricultural and other forms of land use development. This book describes the institutional history of wildlife and the empirical transformation of the wildlife sector on private and communal land, particularly in southern Africa, to develop an alternative paradigm for governing wild resources. With the twin goals of addressing poverty and resource degradation in the world’s extensive agriculturally marginal areas, the author conceptualises this paradigm as the Sustainable Governance Approach, which integrates theories of proprietorship and rights, prices and economics, governance and scale, and adaptive learning. The author then discusses and defines CBNRM, a major subset of this approach. Interweaving theory and practice, he shows that the primary challenges facing CBNRM are the devolution of rights from the centre to marginal communities and the governance of these rights by communities, a challenge which is seldom recognised or addressed. He focuses on this shortcoming, extending and operationalising institutional theory, including Ostrom’s principles of collective action, within the context of cross-scale governance. Based on the author’s extensive experience this book will be key reading for students of natural resource management, sustainable land use, community forestry, conservation, and development. Providing practical but theoretically robust tools for implementing CBNRM it will also appeal to professionals and practitioners working in communities and in conservation and development.

Ordinary people, community leaders, and even organizations and corporations still do not fully comprehend the interconnected, “big picture” dynamics of sustainability theory and action. In exploring means to become more sustainable, individuals and groups need a reference in which to frame discussions so they will be relevant, educational, and successful when implemented. This book puts ideas on sustainable communities into a conceptual framework that will promote striking, transformational effects on decision-making. In this book practitioners and community leaders will find effective, comprehensive tools and resources at their finger-tips to facilitate sustainable community development (SCD). The book content examines a diverse range of SCD methods; assessing community needs and resources; creating community visions; promoting stakeholder interest and participation; analyzing community problems; designing and facilitating strategic planning; carrying out interventions to improve

In recent years, knowledge systems have become key areas of concern for researchers, policy-makers and developmental activists. Knowledge Systems and Natural Resources is a unique collection of case studies from Nepal. It provides rich and incisive insights into critical social processes and deliberative governance. It analyses how knowledge is produced, disseminated and applied in various aspects of natural resource governance in Nepal. The book challenges the dichotomy between traditional and scientific knowledge. It proposes to differentiate among systems of knowledge on the basis of political standing of social actors engaged in natural resource governance. It further proposes that change in governance hinges on how the diverse systems of knowledge come into deliberative interface and to what extent the unequal distribution of power and knowledge resources in society constrain the process of deliberation.

Front and Back Stage of Tourism Performance situates our travel imaginaries, those dream destinations on our travel bucket lists, as co-constructed by the tourist industry, state development policies, and community negotiations, and as framed by modernity’s new global cultural economy. As more people travel for pleasure than ever before, host communities and intermediaries are presented with tourism opportunities that all too often become flashpoints for local contestation and mechanisms for displacement. The ethnographically-grounded chapters describe tourist encounters shaped by geopolitics, complicated by war, and troubled by and enacted within the economic inequities of neocolonialism. The points of contact afford a unique vantage from which to view cultural identity, entrepreneurial strategizing, and natural resource management as global politics and relations of difference. They also illustrate the power of social networks, cultural display, and artistic performance as collective presentation, management apparatus, and structural critique. Drawing on a range of international case studies, this book will appeal to those interested in tourism, anthropology, global studies, environmental issues, microeconomics, and identity studies.

In one volume, this book brings together a diversity of approaches, theory and frameworks that can be used to analyse the governance of renewable natural resources. Renewable natural resources are under pressure, with over-exploitation and degradation raising concern globally. Understanding governance systems and practice is essential for developing effective and fair solutions. This book introduces readers to key concepts and issues concerned with the governance of renewable natural resources and illustrates the diversity of approaches, theories and frameworks that have been used to analyse governance systems and practice. Each chapter provides an introduction to an area of literature and theory and demonstrates application through a case study. The book covers a range of geographical locations, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries, and several types of natural resources. The approaches and theories introduced include common property theory, political ecology, institutional analysis, the social -ecological systems framework and social network analysis. Findings from across the chapters support an analytical focus on institutions and local context and a practical focus on diverse, flexible and inclusive governance solutions. The book serves as an essential introduction to the governance of renewable natural resources for students, researchers and practitioners.

Natural resource governance is critical for linking poverty reduction and sustainable natural resource use. This book brings together authors from various disciplines with extensive field experience to promote an integrative understanding of cross-scale and adaptive governance in Africa and Latin America. The authors make the case for reaching beyond decentralization to promote adaptive governance that serves local priorities, but through interactions with local, district, national and global governance structures. The book focuses on the governance of common pool resources such as forests, wildlife, water, carbon and pasture resources in both Africa and Latin America. This book will appeal to development practitioners and scholars concerned about the conservation of natural resources and the sustainable development of communities. It synthesizes experience with the governance of different natural resources from a broad geographic perspective. It also provides theoretical and practical suggestions for taking adaptive natural resource governance forward, including participatory methods for measuring and monitoring governance.