It is now widely accepted that local communities are more likely than central governments or the commercial private sector to pay attention to the long-term consequences of resource use, precisely because they depend upon the sustainable harvesting of the resource for their livelihoods. As the case studies in this book illustrate, local communities are able to organize themselves to allocate property rights and to regulate individual resource use, but they often run up against constraints imposed from the outside that limit their effectiveness. In today's interconnected world, actions by one group of people or institutions may also generate environmental problems and social conflict far off-site. Neither governments nor local communities can solve these clashes alone. Central governments who are genuinely concerned about the sustainable use of their country's natural resources must, at a minimum, involve local communities in their management. This means taking local communities into confidence and having confidence in them. It means engaging with their ideas, experiences, values, and capabilities and working with them, not on their behalf, to achieve resource-conservation objectives and community benefits. It means being prepared to adjust national policies so that they can accommodate local interests, needs, and norms that are compatible with the long-term preservation of national ecosystems and their biological diversity. Outsiders, including governments, have a burden of proof when proceeding contrary to local interests in the use of natural resources. In May 1998, an international workshop on community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) was jointly organized by the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank (now the World Bank Institute), Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Ford Foundation, and other agencies. Held in Washington, DC, the workshop was attended by 200 policymakers, practitioners, and researchers from about 60 countries who were involved in some aspect of CBNRM in developing and transition economies. The international workshop explored various dimensions of this community-based approach to natural resource use in plenary sessions, case study sessions, and working groups. It focused on four aspects of institutionalising CBNRM: - Organizing effective community-based groups, at both the local level and scaling up to the regional level; - Working out effective operational linkages between the public sector, the private sector, and community-based groups to manage resources in a mutually beneficial and sustainable way; - Examining alternative approaches to managing conflict in the use of natural resources at all levels—local, national, and regional; and - Codifying the above three aspects in a legal and institutional framework that fosters the emergence of community-based institutions to manage natural resources locally. Contents: Introduction. Conflict and collaboration in natural resource management—Daniel Buckles and Gerett Rusnak Chapter 1. Conflict management: A heterocultural perspective—Jacques M. Chevalier and Daniel Buckles Part 1. Forestry Chapter 2. Nam Ngum, Lao PDR: Community-based natural resource management and conflicts over watershed resources—Philip Hirsch, Khamla Phanvilay, and Kaneungnit Tubtim Chapter 3. The Nusa Tenggara uplands, Indonesia: Multiple-site lessons in conflict management—Larry Fisher, Ilya Moeliono, and Stefan Wodicka Chapter 4. Jabalpur District, Madhya Pradesh, India: Minimizing conflict in joint forest management—Shashi Kant and Roshan Cooke Chapter 5. Stakeholder analysis and conflict management—Ricardo Ramírez Part 2. Coastal Areas Chapter 6. Cahuita, Limón, Costa Rica: From conflict to collaboration—Viviane Weitzner and Marvin Fonseca Borrás Chapter 7. Bolinao, northern Philippines: Participatory planning for coastal development—Liana Talaue-McManus, Alexis C. Yambao, Severino G. Salmo III, and Porfirio M. Aliño Chapter 8. The Galapagos Islands: Conflict management in conservation and sustainable resource management—Paola Oviedo Chapter 9. Peace and conflict impact assessment—Kenneth D. Bush and Robert J. Opp Part 3. Land Use Chapter 10. The Nuba Mountains of Sudan: Resource access, violent conflict, and identity—Mohamed Suliman Chapter 11. Copán, Honduras: Collaboration for identity, equity, and sustainability—Jacqueline Chenier, Stephen Sherwood, and Tahnee Robertson Chapter 12. The Laguna Merin Basin of Uruguay: From protecting the natural heritage to managing sustainable development—Carlos Pérez Arrarte and Guillermo Scarlato Chapter 13. Matagalpa, Nicaragua: New paths for participatory management in the Calico River watershed—Ronnie Vernooy and Jacqueline A. Ashby Chapter 14. Policy implications of natural resource conflict management—Stephen R. Tyler
