Participatory Resource Management Research Articles

Assessing Farmers’ Perception of Enclosures, Kewot District, Northeastern Ethiopia

The environmental and socioeconomic effects of land resources degradation are severe, especially in developing nations, where inappropriate land use and farming systems are practiced. Consequently, management options like enclosures are among rehabilitation strategies practiced in the degraded areas of Ethiopia. This study was conducted to assess the farmers’ perception of enclosures in Kewot District, North Shoa, Ethiopia. Observation and questionnaire were used to collect data in the study sites. A total of 168 households were selected from two peasant associations using systematic sampling technique. Data were presented in descriptive statistics. The results indicated that the local farmers had perceived the existence of land degradation and its possible causes. Local farmers perceived enclosures positively and are optimistic to the performance of enclosures. However, the benefit sharing has satisfied the community moderately. As a result, participatory resource management strategy is recommended to ensure the sustainability of the enclosures.

Resource Management and Conservation through Rural Participation in Agriculture, Kankara Local Government, Katsina State, Nigeria

Resource management and conservation is our natural capital as well as our life insurance. Therefore, we must manage and conserve the available resource within our natural environment for sustainable development. A rural participatory activity in Kankara local government area is one of the key measures takingby the local community in order to manage and conserve the available resource in the area through rural participation in agriculture. In due course the study has designed the following objectives: to describe the level of rural participation in agriculture, to describe the level of resource management and conservation as a result of rural participation, to determine the relationship between rural participation in agriculture and resource management and conservation. The study used simple random sampling techniques in selecting the potential respondents and descriptive statistics was employed as well as correlation analysis to describe the level and relationship between rural participation in agriculture and resource management and conservation. Findings shown that, there is high level of rural participation in resource management and conservation and the strength of relationship is (r = .346, p = .000), this shown that there is significant moderate relationship between rural participation and resource management and conservation. Finally study recommended that, developmentcan be sustainable when participatory process is encouraged among the local people/community. (

Blundering Intruders: Extraneous Impacts on Two Indigenous Food Systems

Indigenous communities commonly face a major impediment in their ongoing efforts to participate effectively in the stewardship and sustainable management of their traditional lands, waters and resources. Externally driven projects and policies can overwhelm communities' abilities to respond, severely impact in their resource base, and significantly eclipse traditional knowledge, practices and values. Such projects and policies can be devastating to small, Indigenous communities struggling to maintain their culture and economic independence in a changing world. While many examples of external impacts on small-scale resource use could be drawn upon for these communities, we illustrate this situation by examining the impact of fisheries management regimes on Indigenous coastal communities in British Columbia, Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand. We characterize the problem and identify key stressors involved. Within the context of Indigenous rights and Indigenous peoples' knowledge, perspectives and experience, we highlight the need to recognize this type of constraint on Indigenous Peoples' resource use and effective participation in resource management.

The Fauna Biodiversity of Ikot Ondo Community Forest in Essien Udim L. G. A. of Akwa Ibom State, South Eastern Nigeria

Prolonged deforestation, poaching and wildlife habitat loss has been a serious threat to wildlife conservation in Nigeria, thereby endangering fauna diversity resources in the country. This study was carried out to determine the population estimate of wild fauna in the communal land of Ikot Ondo Community forest in Essien Udim L. G. A. of Akwa Ibom State. The forest is situated in a rainforest ecosystem surrounded by villages whose source of livelihood is mainly through exploitation of the forest resources. The study showed the avifauna species to be more abundant with species indices of -1.2985 and 11.6246 respectively when compared with those of mammals (-1.1914 and 12.5174), amphibian and reptiles (-1.0441 and 8.4831) and the insect species (-1.1357 and 6.5977). The mammals, amphibian and the reptile species were largely depleted as a result of over exploitation. Participatory resources management between the various stakeholders is therefore recommended to ensure the sustainable conservation of wildlife resources in the area.Keywords: Biodiversity, Conservation, Community Forest, Participatory management

Revisiting development potential of riverain sunt (Acacia nilotica) forest reserves — A case study in Sinnar State, Sudan

The present study is an attempt to find a solution for the forest management conflicts existing between local people and the central authoritarian forest services in Sinnar State, Sudan. Sinnar was purposely selected as a study area because 9% (496.4 × 103 ha) of the forest reserve area of the entire country is located in this state. A comprehensive survey consisting of field observations, questionnaires and interviews was carried out specifically in the Alsabonabi area for its heterogeneous local community. The results show that the existing management system of the sunt forest reserve (the Alumbwa forest) has failed to support the local people, both residents and semi-nomads. Hence, the present study proposes a series of strategic and organizational changes in order to help in showing the way for integrated and participatory forest resource management and improving the welfare of all impoverished rural communities.

The Perceived Impact of Customary Marine Resource Management on Household and Community Welfare in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia

This article examines the influence of socioeconomic factors on the perceived success of customary management systems in Indonesia. We test the hypothesis that socioeconomic conditions will differ between fishermen who perceive the system has positive impacts on household and community well-being compared to those with negative or neutral perceptions. We found out that a majority of respondents think that this system is beneficial. The socioeconomic conditions that are related to the different perceptions are wealth, local participation in resource management, level of trust, and involvement in community events.

京都府北部の農村地域を対象とした地域資源管理への参加に対する関連因子の分析

Recently, social capital has been known as an important factor of participation in regional resource management. Few empirical researches, however, have investigated social capital because it is difficult to grasp its nature. In addition, although the necessity of distinguishing between bonding and bridging social capital has been recognized, no detailed analysis has been conducted. This study aims to determine the associations between bonding and bridging social capital, and participation in regional resource management. The questionnaire survey was conducted in overall rural areas of three cities in northern Kyoto prefecture in 2006. The ratio of respondents was 30.5% (N = 9,954) and 3,568 samples which didn't include any missing values were used for analysis. Trust was focused on among social capital elements (trust, norm of reciprocity, and network). Community trust was adopted as bonding trust and generalized trust was adopted as bridging trust. 10 types of regional resource management were summarized in ‘General attitude of participation in resource management’ and ‘Agricultural characteristic of the resource’ by using categorical principal component analysis. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the related factors of these two primal components. As a result, 1) bonding trust was more closely related to participation in regional resource management than bridging trust; 2)residents who closely relate to non-agricultural resource management had higher bonding trust than residents who closely relate to agricultural resource management; 3) the related factors of participation in regional resource management differs depending on the relations of residents with agriculture. The possibilities that the results of the analysis are positively biased cannot be denied. If the associations still remains after considering the positive bias, suggestions as follows can be led; It is important for the enhancement of participation in regional resource management 1) to maintain bonding social capital, 2) to build up bonding social capital of residents who closely relate to agricultural resource management along with to develop norm and institutional foundations of participation of residents who closely relate to non-agricultural resource management, and 3) to implement individualized approaches according to the associations of residents with agriculture.

Social Network Analysis: A Tool to Improve Understanding of Collaborative Management Groups

Social network analysis (SNA) is a tool used to analyze the connections between people and organizations. However, despite its usefulness to the study of these relations, there have been relatively few applications to situations in agriculture and natural resources. SNA was applied to the study of a watershed collaborative group in southern Arizona. We found that even a fundamental application of SNA was valuable to a watershed initiative and, furthermore, believe that U.S. Extension professionals are positioned to advance the effectiveness of participatory resource management groups through more widespread use of this methodology.

The Goldilocks Solution: Exploring the Relationship between Trust and Participation in Resource Management within the New Zealand Commercial Rock Lobster Fishery

Our understanding of the role natural resource users, and the governing institutions they create, has grown considerably in recent years. At the same time, our understanding of the role of trust in human interactions continues to grow. We use the case of New Zealand rock lobster (jasus edwardsii and Jasus verrauxi) to ask the question “What is the role of trust in an individual's decision to participate in natural resource management institutions?” Using data from a survey of constituents of the commercial rock lobster fishery, our analysis shows an inverted “U” relationship between trust and participation. We suggest that this may be described as a “Goldilocks solution” in which having both too much and too little trust is problematic; but a healthy level of is “just right.” Theoretical and policy implications of these findings and directions for future research are explored.

Harmonizing Through Judicial Review: Statutory Interpretation and Participation in Sub-Arctic Resource Management

This article describes how statutory interpretation by the courts can impact the effectiveness of co-management initiatives in Canada. Canada has recently undertaken a massive restructuring of the administrative regimes that license and permit resource development across the country to better incorporate Indigenous participation. These co-management boards now take part in governing resource use across Canada and most recognizably in parts of British Columbia, the Yukon Territories, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Nevertheless, the degree to which Indigenous participation may impact the regulatory output of co-management boards remains uncertain in law. This article uses one co-management statute in Canada, the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, to explore the complexities of accounting for participation in resource management in the sub-Arctic. The article argues that construction by the courts of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act as similar to its predecessor, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, has the effect of construing the former statute as a procedural tool, which effectively divorces participation from the regulatory output of co-management boards. While by no means settled, this trend towards participation as a procedure of co-management is construed from a reading of the legislation as a legal transplant and its concomitant harmonization by the court with other statutory schemes. This article thus analyzes how the effectiveness of co-management is impacted by assumptions that the meaning of law can remain unaltered despite stakeholder participation.

South-South exchanges enhance resource management and biodiversity conservation at various scales

International conservation organisations have invested considerable resources in fostering biodiversity conservation programs in the humid tropics, the most biologically diverse areas on earth. Recent approaches to conservation have centered on integrated conservation and development projects and participatory resource management programs, co-managed between governments and local communities. But these programs have had only mixed success and often suffer from insufficient quantity or quality of participation by local communities. We pose that participatory resource management is more likely to succeed when community members, 1) gain a global perspective on how their social, economic and environmental conditions compare with peer communities in other similar areas of the world, and thus better understand issues of relative scarcity and the benefits of sustainable resource management, and 2) engage as decision-makers at every stage of the conservation process up to reflective program evaluation. This paper examines the role of South-South exchanges as a tool to achieve these intermediate goals that ultimately foster more effective and participatory conservation and support sustainable local livelihoods. The data are extracted from the initiatives of the authors in two different environments- marine and coastal communities in Central America and the Caribbean, and lowland rainforest communities in the western Amazon of South America. We conclude that the exchanges are effective ways to build stakeholder comprehension about, and meaningful engagement in, resource management. South-South exchanges may also help build multi-local coalitions from various remote areas that together support biodiversity conservation at regional and global scales.

Policies, Regulations, and Eco-ethical Wisdom Relating to Ancient Chinese Fisheries

Marine ecosystems are in serious troubles globally, largely due to the failures of fishery resources management. To restore and conserve fishery ecosystems, we need new and effective governance systems urgently. This research focuses on fisheries management in ancient China. We found that from 5,000 years ago till early modern era, Chinese ancestors had been constantly enthusiastic about sustainable utilization of fisheries resources and natural balance of fishery development. They developed numerous rigorous policies and regulations to guide people to act on natural laws. Being detailed and scientific, the legal systems had gained gratifying enforcement, due to official efforts and folks’ voluntary participation in resource management. In-depth analyses show that people’s consciousness of ecological conservation was derived from the edification of kinds of ancient eco-ethical wisdom, such as totemism, nature worship, Zhou Yi, Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Mohism, etc. All this Chinese classical wisdom have the same cores: “Nature and Man in One” spirit, frugality and “All things are equal” concept. The findings show that eco-ethical thinking is never inconsistent with social ethic systems, and it’s of great importance to give legal effect to usual ecological moral claims and eco-ethical requirements of the public in protecting the environment. The eco-ethical wisdom is efficient in assisting and urging people to fulfill humans’ obligation for nature. Finally, it’s believed that present world fisheries management will benefit a lot from all these ancient Chinese thoughts and practices. People are expected to make the most of the eco-ethical wisdom, strengthen fishery legislation and fully stimulate their voluntary participation in both marine fishery resources conservation and fishery cyclic economy.

Efforts to reduce sea turtle bycatch in the shrimp fishery in Northeastern Brazil through a co-management process

The neritic waters of the state of Sergipe in Northeastern Brazil is adjacent to the main nesting area of the olive ridley sea turtles ( Lepidochelys olivacea) in the Western Atlantic Ocean and an important area for shrimp trawl fishery. To address the problem of incidental mortality of sea turtles captured during trawling and reduce the risk of overexploitation of shrimp stocks, Projeto TAMAR/ICMBio, a Brazilian sea turtle conservation program, has adopted two main strategies: (1) the implementation of a marine monitoring program and (2) active participation in local forums. This paper describes the conflicts among stakeholders, the arrangements and established mechanisms of negotiation aimed to protect sea turtles and shrimp grounds, and strategies to reduce conflicts between user groups. The analysis of this co-management process highlights the importance of stakeholder participation in resource management decision-making through a cooperative process, the role assumed by non-governmental organizations as mediators, and the factors that influence this system. The key factors and actions learnt from the current study include clear identification of the conflicts, identification of stakeholders – both local and external, and local leaders, encouragement of actors and leaders to participate, support and strengthening of local groups, legitimization of the discussion forums through involvement with government, formalization of decisions taken through legislation, and monitoring of the management efficacy.

Biodiversity conservation in community forests of Nepal: Rhetoric and reality

Community forests management in Nepal has been exemplified as one of the most successful programs for participatory resource management. The success of community forestry is described in terms of restoring degraded land and habitats, conserving biodiversity, increasing supply of forest products, empowering women and disadvantaged groups, generating rural incomes, and developing human resources. However, the contribution of existing community forest management practices to biodiversity conservation in the form of enhancing species diversity and ecosystem functioning is questionable. We reviewed the role of community forest management practices to biodiversity conservation based on published materials and our own observations. Practices such as seedling plantation; controlling wildlife hunting, forest fire and grazing; regulating forest encroachment; protecting soil erosion prone area and water resource area assist biodiversity conservation, paradoxically other practices such as species selection; removal of unwanted species during silvicultural activities; leaf litter collection; elite dominance in decision making; and traditional knowledge depletion have detrimental impact on biological diversity and ecosystem function of community managed forest.

Perceptions of forest resource use and management in two village communities in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa

Rural communities in South Africa are similar to communities in other parts of the developing world in terms of their use and management of natural forest resources as a means of sustaining their livelihoods. Participatory surveys were conducted with communities living near a communal woodland and a State Forest in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa, to determine the use and extent of management of woody resources under different tenure regimes. The results showed that all the respondents considered fuelwood as the most important wood product, followed by fencing material. More respondents living next to the State Forest felt that they could still easily find the products they needed from the forest compared to those living next to communal woodland, but respondents in both study areas believed they would not be able to easily find these products in future. Neither group was aware of current or future management strategies for the woody resources nor any well-defined natural resource management authorities at either village committee or government level. There were differing opinions as to who should be in charge of woodland and forest management in future, depending on the villagers' experience of government practices in the past. This study concluded that rural communities in the area will continue to use the forest and woodland resources in future, mainly for fuelwood, fencing, medicine and traditional ceremonies. Participatory resource management strategies for the two areas would encourage sustainable ways of using and managing the forest and woodland resources, including local cultivation of the most preferred indigenous tree and shrub species for the production of medicinal products, poles and other wooden commodities.

The Role of Formalisation, Participation and Context in the Success of Public Involvement Mechanisms in Resource Management

In the face of complex and uncertain issues, one important goal of public participation in resource management and research is to foster communication and the inclusion of non-expert knowledge—thus the effective flow of information between project organisers and stakeholders. We compare different methods (instruments, tools) that were employed in the German–Austrian ‘PartizipA’ project to structure information flows in participatory processes. Depending on their goals and context, more or less ‘formalised’ and ‘participatory’ methods were applied, the most important being guided interviews, focus groups, agent-based modelling, nutrient modelling, cognitive mapping and group model building as well as the development of a common document. Two regional case studies, both concerned with European-induced institutional change, are portrayed in which the specific participatory methods were embedded. The Austrian case study involved the analysis and modelling of agricultural land use in the region of St. Polten against the background of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, while the implementation of recent European water policy was the issue in the German agricultural region north of Osnabruck. Presenting both cases in their regional context, the applied methods are first described according to the logic of the entire respective process. Subsequently, the specific methods are systematically analysed and compared according to their objective, context and degrees of participation and formalisation. Finally, we evaluate all methods regarding their effectiveness in terms of goal attainment and their potential generalisation, seeking to respond to the question of when a particular method might best be used.

Political ecology of Jharkhand conflicts

Abstract: Although India's Jharkhand movement resists classification as either an ethnic or an environmental movement, it has, at different times, mobilised clear elements of both with frequently violent outcomes. This paper examines the movement from a political ecology perspective and focuses on violence arising from natural resource‐related grievances, notably land alienation, forest policy and employment from Jharkhand's mines. Drawing from political ecology's emphasis on the need to examine conflict from a range of different spatial scales, the paper emphasises the importance of a micro‐political ecology approach for understanding how locally based conflicts over natural resources can harden into more established grievances that can be mobilised politically as part of a wider and potentially violent protest movement. It is also suggested that micro‐political ecology approaches can assist participatory resource management initiatives in ameliorating local conflicts over access to resources, thus helping to prevent them from escalating into more widespread violence.

Learning for sustainability: Participatory resource management in Cambodian fishing villages

Considerable attention is now being given to the role and importance of education and learning implications of participatory resource and environmental governance. The contention is that such learning has the potential to transform behaviour, and in the case of resource management, may help change current patterns in resource use towards a more sustainable social–ecological system. Our purpose is to establish the opportunities for learning afforded to those participating in local level resource management committees in two Cambodian fishing communities and consider the learning outcomes from such opportunities. Our approach was qualitative and used a case study design. The findings establish a wide range of committee resource management activities that resulted in both instrumental (e.g., learning about administrative procedures) and communicative (e.g., insights into the need to conserve mangroves) learning. It was revealed that such learning can lead to changes in behaviour at the community level (e.g., managing local waste). Our findings also indicated a number of motivators and enablers of learning such as opportunities for dialogue, leadership and the presence of declining resources.

Women, Equity and Participatory Water Management in Brazil

Public participation in resource management is regarded as a central pillar of sustainable development. Water management is a foremost example, and women globally are prime users and protectors of water. Yet the effectiveness of participatory water management practices is seldom examined from a feminist perspective. This article establishes a methodological framework for such an inquiry, drawing on ecofeminist theory and the Brazilian concept of ‘feminist transformative leadership’ to consider gender, race and class aspects of participatory water management in Brazil.

The development of appropriate ecological criteria and indicators for community forest conservation using participatory methods: A case study in northeastern Thailand

Abstract The paper reports the development and evaluation of relevant local ecological criteria and indicators for participatory resource management of community forest. The study site, the Nong Meg-Nong Hee community forest, Maha Sarakham Province, is in northeastern Thailand. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) was adopted as a decision-making tool to evaluate criteria and indicators, using coarse and fine screening, based on local community participation. The criteria and indicators set consisted of 3 principles, 7 criteria, and 41 indicators covering the main attributes of forest ecosystem conservation. Relevant data were processed in a hierarchical framework and used as a template for further assessment, i.e., Principle 1 (forest ecosystem structure and composition), Principle 2 (forest ecosystem function), and Principle 3 (disturbance signs). The two selection phases comprised (1) the coarse screening based on scoring and ranking, and (2) fine screening, using a pair-wise comparison analysis to classify the order of relative weights of the indicators (importance value) and the consistency index (CI) of each criterion. As a result of coarse screening one criterion and 16 indicators were eliminated from the analysis, while the remaining 3 principles, 6 criteria, and 25 indicators were retained for fine screening. Most criteria showed an acceptance value of less than 10% (tolerance consistency index threshold level). The final set of criteria and indicators, based on locally understandable ecological concepts of forest conservation, was ranked in order of importance under each criterion and applied to the study area. We conclude that these techniques are appropriate for selecting criteria and indicators, as they are relatively transparent, understandable and offer an input to participatory decision-making.