Community dialogs on the probabilities of community-based mangrove institution

Abstract

Active community participation is necessary for sustainable mangrove management. This two-year qualitative cum action research immersed into the context of a mangrove community in Krabi, Thailand with a three-fold purpose: (1) to understand the momentum of community roles in mangrove management over the past seven decades, (2) to devise a dialogic learning process for the community to create a community-based institution (CBI) for mangrove management, and (3) to identify the internal factors that influenced the probabilities for the community to realize their desirable CBI choice. The results revealed that the relations of the studied community to the local mangroves were oriented toward utilization, competition, exclusion, incentive-driven participation, and underground management. To empower their self-management capacity, a dialogic process entitled the Learn-to-Institutionalize Commons Management Model (L-ICM) was devised for the community to review their socio-ecological relations, to self-elevate their consciousness of the necessity for collective management, and to expose them to self-organizing experience. The community drafted three village mangrove rules and attempted to integrate them into a tambon mangrove rule. The factors that influenced the probabilities for the community to realize a genuine CBI for mangrove management included both foundation and procedural factors. The community dialogs must be founded on a deep awareness of the socio-ecological relations, high consciousness of the necessity of joint management, and clear understanding of the principles of commons management. They must continue in order to promote the community residents’ deeper and wider recognition of the benefits of institutional changes and adequate background knowledge for a systematic self-organization for pro-active and transparent mangrove management. Dialog facilitators working in lagging parts of the community were recommended to expand from smaller neighborhood dialogs instead of village dialogs.