THE PARTICIPATORY PROCESS FOR
SUPPORTING COLLABORATIVE MANAGEMENT
OF NATURAL RESOURCES:

AN OVERVIEW

Prepared by

Andrew W. Ingles, Arne Musch

and Helle Qwist-Hoffmann

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS

Rome, 1999

Design: Cecilia Valli — Illustrations: Guida Joseph

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© FAO 1999

PREFACE

This document, The Participatory Process for Supporting Collaborative Management of Natural Resources: An Overview, is meant to provide the conceptual context for the 'The Participatory Package', a new set of materials on the participatory process that is currently being developed by the Community Forestry Unit of FAO. The Overview describes the extent and nature of participation in collaborative management of natural resources, and focuses on the processes and practical aspects of promoting and supporting collaborative management in ways that are acceptable to governments and resource users.

The promotion of collaborative management is based on the assumption that effective management is more likely to occur when local resource users have shared or exclusive rights to make decisions about and benefit from resource use. There is an increasing interest in strengthening or creating collaborative management systems as a strategy for promoting rural development and resource conservation through empowerment and partnerships.

As the issue of participation has evolved, it has become increasingly recognized that although a lot of attention is being paid to rural community analysis, often little attention is given to the application of the analysis results to planning and implementing initiatives. In addition, decentralization has increasingly led to efforts to turn over the responsibility and authority for natural resource management to rural communities. This has led to a re-evaluation of the role of natural resource management professionals, projects and other initiatives in helping this transition to occur. With this Overview, we hope to facilitate this transition by describing the participatory process, by listing and discussing numerous management issues associated with it, and by giving examples of how important active participation of all stakeholders is, from initial problem and situation analysis through to the end of an initiative.

The Participatory Package is currently in the development phase. The primary objective of The Participatory Package will be to effectively deliver useful advice and ideas to forestry government officials to integrate effective, broad-based participation into all aspects of their work.

Support and funding for The Participatory Process for Supporting Collaborative Management of Natural Resources: An Overview was provided by the Community Forestry Unit and the multidonor Forests, Trees and People Programme (FTPP), which works to increase social and economic equity and improve well-being, especially that of the poor, through the support of collaborative and sustainable management of trees, forests and other natural resources.

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