Community-Driven Development and Natural Resource Management IFAD Workshop on Community-Driven Development Casa San Bernardo, Rome : 4-5 June, 2004

Background Experience in Community-Based Natural Resource Management Philippines – coastal fisheries management Vanuatu and Fiji – fisheries and coral reef management Bangladesh - floodplain fisheries management Indonesia – floodplain fisheries management India – research on poverty in coastal areas

Conditions for “successful” community-based natural resource management “Homogeneous” communities – common objectives, recognised common interests, social cohesion Benefits exceed costs Clearly defined boundaries to resources to be managed Limited uses and users Decentralised decision-making “Simple” administrative structures “Friendly” – or at least neutral - power structures An “enabling” environment - institutional, political, social, cultural and economic

The “Enabling” Environment Devolution of power – choice, including choice about natural resource priorities Legal rights to natural resources Devolution of resources (money) Institutionalisation / mainstreaming of participatory approaches – willingness to “hand over the stick” Flexibility – time frames, funding mechanisms Long-term engagement Leadership -“champions” to lead the process

Issues Natural resource management is rarely a priority of the poor Is there any such thing as a “neutral” or “friendly” power structure The minute we intervene, power structures change Structures/institutions invite “elite capture” – they are instruments of power The poor are “attracted” to make use of diverse natural resource “niches” with poorly defined use-rights Better definition invites control – control attracts those able to exert it

Issues The importance of knowing: what do we mean by “poor” ? (if the focus is poverty alleviation) understanding who different actors are – there is no substitute for detailed stakeholder analysis down to the micro-level understanding what the incentives of different actors are – what benefits will be generated and for whom?

Questions Who sets the natural resource management “agenda” How well do we know what a “community” really is? If the “community” drives development, what, or who, drives the community? Although experience indicates “best practice” in CBNRM, it is consistently ignored – why? (disbursement and activity-based monitoring & evaluation, messy, too slow) Do “organisations” and “institutions” benefit the poor or increase their exclusion?