6.25 Social impact assessment (SIA)
See option 2.4.5, Volume 1
25a. SIA highlights need for a comprehensive solution
Ethiopia
The city of Addis Ababa requires large amounts of fuelwood to satisfy its energy needs. The World Bank and the Africa Development Fund, among others, are funding large tree-planting projects to address the shortage of wood. In doing so, they have directly and indirectly affected the lives of the population located in the project areas. Farmers were relocated and a significant number of women and their families, who depended on carrying fuelwood to the city, were left without any alternative plans for their livelihood. Women and children backloading branch-wood into town supply about one-third of the city's requirements. In spite of the extremely arduous work, they have very low incomes and belong to the most disadvantaged section of society. For want of alternative livelihoods, the women contribute to the depletion of the peri-urban forests of Addis Ababa. Guarding and harassment have been ineffective in dissuading the women from pursuing their illegal activity.
As part of trying to find a solution that would protect the forests while addressing the needs of the women, a social impact assessment of the fuelwood supply system to Addis Ababa was undertaken by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in collaboration with the National Urban Planning Institute. The study was undertaken using action research methodologies (i.e., the women themselves participated in the gathering and analysis of the information) in addition to social science research methodology. Primary and secondary data were collected using structured and non-structured questionnaires, observations, person-to-person interactions, formal and informal interviews, role-play skits, group discussions, puzzle assembling, archive research, photo and tape recordings. The questionnaires for collecting data on time budget and household expenditure were completed by the women participants and/or their children. To do this the women were trained on how to keep records of their time-use and household expenditure. When the mothers were illiterate, their children helped to complete the records. Other questionnaires were filled out by the project staff. The resulting data was processed both manually and using the computer facilities of the National Urban Planning Institute.
The study covered four main stages: selecting research sites; selecting a sample of the fuelwood-gathering women to participate in the study; training local women to assist with gathering information and facilitating group discussions; and identifying, defining, and analyzing problems and mitigation methods. The group spent 12 months working through these steps with the bulk of the time being spent on the fourth stage.
The study results made clear that the women were conscious of the present overuse of the resource as well as the need for forest conservation but they continued to extract fuelwood as the only means they had to feed their families. Two-thirds of the women were found to depend entirely on fuelwood-carrying for their livelihood. Migration contributed substantially to filling the ranks of the fuelwood carriers — usually triggered by war, famine or just a search for a better life.
The SIA found that the majority of the women had previously supported themselves by doing handicrafts and small retail trading, so they did have skills on which to establish another source of income. Most had given up these activities because of a lack of raw material or high prices. This information helped in identifying strategies required to establish alternative income sources. A major outcome of the SIA was the evidence that providing alternative employment was not sufficient, that some lasting solution on the forestry side was also required. Unless the carriers were integrated into forestry management and harvesting in an orderly and legal fashion, forest degradation would continue because new carriers would take the place of those transferred to other jobs.
Mitigation measures proposed by the women fuelwood carriers all aimed at finding an alternative occupation. As a follow-up to the SIA, project staff assisted in examining the viability of the proposals, and in training and in obtaining equipment and acquiring land. They also undertook negotiations with the World Bank, the Africa Development Fund and others for accommodating employment for the women into the forest management and harvesting regimes.
From: Haile, 1995.
25b. PRA tools to assess social impacts
Nepal
For the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), a social impact assessment was undertaken in four districts into which the project intended to expand. Ten staff undertook the work using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques. Data was collected on socio-economic status, women's role in development, community development needs, and forestry and traditional agricultural practices. The data was then analyzed to assess the impacts — both positive and negative — that the project would likely have on the various groups and practices.
From: Lama and Lipp, 1994.
25c. The World Bank recognizes the value of social analysis
In 1994, to support the incorporation of systematic participation and social analysis (SA) into its operational work, the World Bank introduced SA guidelines, recruited technical specialists and created specialized systems and structures in each of its four regional technical departments. The Bank also undertook a review of the outcomes of SAs being undertaken as part of Bank-funded projects. The review found, among other things, that SAs were being used to establish participatory approaches and that their findings were incorporated into project design and used to help reach the poor and to support monitoring and evaluation. SAs were also found to build local capacity, with local institutions participating in information collection and analysis.
The review also found that SAs were not being done as soon as they could have been. Few were undertaken prior to the Initial Executive Project Summary (IEPS). Task managers reported that it was vital to have SA activities underway at the pre-IEPS stage in order to influence project design. Early results can help resolve conflict, identify needs for capacity-building, and illuminate social issues that need to be addressed in project preparation. It was also found that systematic dissemination of SA findings required more attention. Many task managers recognized that findings should be discussed with the people affected to ensure that conclusions and recommendations are appropriate. SA designers generally allotted too much time to data collection and too little time to analysis of findings and stakeholders discussions of the results and their implications. The importance of early planning of dissemination strategies was highlighted.
From: McPhail and Jacobs, 1995.
6.26 Open meetings among stakeholders
See option 2.4.6, Volume 1
26a. Government and communities plan together
Uganda
The Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (MGNP) in southwest Uganda, borders Rwanda and Zaire and covers about 33 square km. It is the home of the Mountain gorilla, one of the rarest mammal species still existing in the wild in Africa. In 1994 Uganda National Parks — the agency in charge — organized a series of workshops with the local people to draw up a management plan for the protected area. A prior meeting had identified the stakeholders and other key people who should be involved. They were invited to attend the workshops, which lasted four days. The participants included representatives of government departments, local government politicians, management and staff of the National Park, and research staff from the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation and Institute of Ecology.
26b. Regional workshop of stakeholders sets the pace for coastal zone plan
Tanzania
In 1994, the Tanga regional authority requested assistance from IUCN's East Africa Office to establish an integrated coastal zone management plan. As part of the process, a region-wide workshop was held to decide on the priority issues that needed to be dealt with in the plan. There were over 100 participants including villagers (about 50 per cent), elected district councillors, business and other non-government people and government officers. Villagers were selected to attend during small workshops held in villages prior to the regional workshop. These village meetings also provided feedback to a socio-economic baseline study and discussed how the villagers' points of view could best be represented at the regional workshop.
At the workshop, a long list of the issues identified through the participatory assessment exercises (see example 16h) was presented. This was facilitated by trained government staff. There was an all-women's group to ensure that they had an opportunity to put forward their views, as well as groups for different interests (e.g., fishermen, business people) different districts and mixed groups. The groups discussed and identified their top two priority issues. They looked at the causes of the problems and identified short- and long-term actions to deal with them. The findings of each group were then presented to the full workshop, debated and a common set of recommendations was drawn up.
Action plans were developed to ensure that all recommendations were followed, beginning with testing in pilot villages. The results of these trials will form the basis of the integrated management plan for the coastal zone.
From Shurcliff, et al., 1995.
26c. Stakeholders decide allocation of water
Pakistan
Irrigation officials and CBO organizers meet with farmers of different areas of the Rahuki irrigation project in Hyderabad every Friday. These different stakeholders discuss operational as well as strategic issues to manage the water resource equitably and judiciously among the farmers.
26d. It takes time to build bridges
Colombia
In the region of Sierra Nevada, in an area torn by strife for many years, a broad conservation and sustainable development strategy has been developed and implemented. For the project to succeed, the many stakeholder groups needed to overcome their hostility towards each other. This has been achieved through a long and careful process of building relationships among them. In fact, it has taken 18 years from the time when the ecological and archaeological value of the area was recognized (by the establishment of a national park), to the development of a set of community-based, coordinated action plans for each of the 13 sub-regions.
The stakeholders included three indigenous groups; various rural communities (campesinos) largely composed of migrants escaping from environmental degradation or warfare in their own regions; guerrilla and para-military groups and local authorities. The project began with a small project team working with one of the indigenous groups. After four years it was decided to expand the work to include the whole region. In 1984 a private foundation (the Fundación Pro-Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta) was established to fund and manage this work. Funding came largely from the private sector including petroleum companies. The second phase of the project began in 1985. Meetings were held with each of the different sectors in the three main cities of the region to explain what the foundation wanted to do.
A team that included several scientists was then put together to undertake a comprehensive information-gathering exercise. The team prepared documentation on various aspects of the area including its history, infrastructure, institutions and ecology. Over the next two years the project team visited all the villages in the region to share this information with them. The information (much of it previously unknown to the local people) proved to be an extremely useful tool in starting to establish links between the various stakeholders.
With these tentative links, the project team decided to embark on a series of three-day meetings among the stakeholders to identify priorities for action. Three meetings were held, all in the town of Santa Marta. Leaders from each of the communities within the region attended. After these meetings (where the stakeholders spent the day together, ate and shared the accommodation facilities), a consensus was reached on issues for which the people wanted training. These were: sustainable development and environment; cultural identity; fundamental rights; conflict resolution; participatory planning, and leadership.
The desired training was then organized; it took place in a workshop setting. There were three workshops in all and each lasted for four days. Two topics were covered in each. High-level officials attended along with guerrilla leaders.
Finally, one more meeting was held to bring together all the participants and diagnose the needs of their own communities. From this an action plan was developed based on the priorities and diagnoses of each settlement in the region. The plan identifies areas of tasks and responsibility, the laws relevant to these tasks and the training requirements for each of them.
Through this process of meetings, workshops, training courses and development of an action plan, stakeholders who for many years had existed in a state of hostility towards each other realized that they had many things in common and that many of the problems in their communities were shared by others in the region.
6.27 Special events and ideas fairs
See option 2.4.7, Volume 1
27a. Conservation days celebrated with competitions and special projects
Nepal
The Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) organizes and encourages the celebration of special days such as World Environment Day, Earth Day, World Tourism Day, Women's Day, and ACAP's Annual Conservation Day in order to create conservation awareness and to encourage participation in the project. The Conservation and Development Committees, Mother's groups and Lodge Management Committees play a significant role in mobilizing the local people in environmental activities to draw attention to these special days. Clean-up campaigns, tree plantings, exhibitions and sports events are organized. Cultural programmes, such as song competitions and traditional dress shows, also take place. School participation includes art and essay competitions. Quiz contests on environmental issues are organized. On these occasions local people are awarded prizes for their contribution to conservation efforts.
27b. Annual celebration of community efforts
Madagascar
Every year ORIMPAKA (a local NGO), organizes a fair on the occasion of the end of the reforestation campaign in Andramasina, in order to encourage, motivate and reward the efforts of the participating villages. Local artists are invited to perform to give life to the event.
At the end of the annual reafforestation period, the Village Reafforesta-tion Committee and the ORIMPAKA team evaluate everyone's efforts and attribute scores to three activities: preparing nurseries, preparing the reafforestation plots and planting seeds. Summing up the individual points, the village points are calculated. The results of the evaluation are displayed during the fair and are officially announced at the end of an encouragement speech. Afterwards, prizes are distributed. Every prize-winning villager receives a tool, such as a spade or a shovel. The best village receives a support fund that will be used to implement a micro-project proposed by the villagers themselves.
27c. Special event used to demonstrate participatory techniques
After four years of community planning and enterprise development assisted by WWF, the communities of Michi village in Marovo Lagoon decided to demonstrate their achievements to the world in a Conservation Open Day held in August 1995. This open day was also intended to interest neighbouring communities and decision-makers in starting their own participatory planning for conservation.
During the open day, the people of Michi gave practical demonstrations of such techniques as community timelines, stakeholder analysis, monitoring of bêche-de-mer harvest and land mapping. Various community activity groups — such as those who manage the guest house, the theatre group and the youth guiding team — illustrated their activities to the visitors. Demonstrations of the actual activities and methods were given rather than explained in lectures.
Those attending the event included people from neighbouring communities, provincial and national politicians, government officers, and NGO representatives. The open day resulted in a clear change in political support for conservation activities as well as much more interest in replicating the work of Michi village.
27d. Agricultural prizes demonstrate success
In the mountain area of Cajamarca, an integrated environmental project involving conservation of soil resources, agriculture and the promotion of biodiversity is being managed by a number of institutions. The project is being undertaken in extremely challenging conditions involving very poor communities and small land-holdings on difficult terrain. People work communally, forming small work groups which move from one family plot to another (a process called minga). The project is based around the promotion of environmentally sound agricultural practices and improved management of watersheds.
To maintain morale and promote sound environmental practices, the project organizes fairs in conjunction with existing celebrations. At these fairs, prizes are given to the best products grown by using environmentally sound techniques. Very often, these products represent wonderful achievements for the maintenance of local biodiversity in food crops. They require, for instance, great skill in crop maintenance and selection and in associated soil preservation, appropriate irrigation and biological pest control. The winning producers explain to their fellow farmers the techniques used to achieve the quality of the product. The prizes given are agricultural implements. In this way, the environmentally successful farmers are rewarded in two ways — through the social prestige of being acknowledged as a leading farmer, and through practical goods, which they can use to improve their family's and their community's standard of living. The agricultural implements are highly treasured in these poor farming communities.
27e. Awards foster national unity in conservation
The National Landcare Australia Awards are held at Parliament House in Canberra every other year. They usually highlight the achievements of groups, individuals, schools, businesses, researchers, media and local government in the presence of the Governor General and the Prime Minister. These privately sponsored awards provide national recognition for outstanding efforts, and an opportunity for the winners from each state to get together with like-minded people from other states, extending the conservation network and fostering the feeling of belonging to a national movement which goes well beyond parochial concerns.
Abridged from Campbell and Siepen, 1994.
6.28 Visits to successful conservation/development Initiatives
28a. Campesino a Campesino project
The Campesino a Campesino project began in Nicaragua as a local initiative to provide alternative access to technical assistance for a country faced with an economic embargo. The project started in the rural communities of Santa Lucia and has since spread to the rest of Nicaragua and parts of Central America. The project is entirely run by farmers (campesinos), and provides a mechanism for exchanging technical and personal experiences among agriculturalists. For instance, the use of green mulching techniques as a means to retain soil fertility has been made possible at a large scale through simple visits to successful farmers by others interested in experimenting with agricultural improvements. The entire process has been run without any input from government agencies or agricultural extension officers and its success lies precisely in its ability to promote changes in land management and soil and forest conservation, through a purely horizontal exchange of experience. Campesino a Campesino has succeeded where official agricultural programmes have failed.
28b. Inspiration brings quick action
Study tours can be expensive because of transport requirements but the review of the Forest, Trees and People project (FTP) found them to be the most efficient extension tool FTP had at its disposal. Visits to other farmers within the district sometimes produced immediate results. The Sigino village leaders studied bylaws in Mamire, and developed such laws further. Some Mamire farmers went to Sigino to study home tree nurseries and started their own the next day. Sigino farmers went to Dareda and learned more about stall feeding from one farmer in one day than they possibly could have learned as participants in any
training programme. The project found that study tours strengthen confidence in local solutions developed by the community. It was also important that the project extension recognized local efforts and acknowledged that the academic 'experts' cannot possibly replace the farmers' practical knowledge, hard-won through trial and error.
Abridged from: Johansson and Westman, 1992.
28c. Two models provide inspiration for new ventures
The Annapurna Conservation Area Project includes a Conservation Education and Extension Programme (CEEP). CEEP has organized a variety of study tours both inside and outside the ACAP for local leaders and representatives of various local groups. Two areas have been the focus of the study tours: Ghandruk village, where the project has been functioning for seven years; and Royal Chitwan National Park.
In the winter of 1993-94, several members of Conservation Development Committees (CDCs) from three villages visited ACAP's headquarters in Ghandruk to learn more about integrating conservation and development activities and to see how the local people managed their natural resources and implement environmentally sound small-scale activities. The villages spoke with Ghandruk CDC members and with women's groups and others, and observed how they go about formulating and practising their conservation roles and responsibilities.
Similarly, CDC members and local and religious leaders from Ghandruk and other areas visited the national park to compare its protected management system with their own. They had meetings with park officials, officials from the Conservation and Research Training Centre, and people living around the periphery of the park. In addition several study tours for women's groups involved in the project were undertaken, both inside and outside the project area.
28d. Learning about process and business ventures
In 1994 seven beekeepers and the chairmen of the three Forest Societies in the pilot parishes around Bwindi National Park were invited by park project staff to visit a similar project in western Uganda. After the four-day visit, the group leaders reported that they had found the experience well worthwhile. In particular, they realized they were not the only people meeting the costs of conservation in national parks; and that collaborative management is being practised elsewhere with a great promise of success. Consequently they felt determined to put more effort into their own project. They also learned that improvements to beekeeping and honey production and better storage for plant medicines were essential if honey and medicine production were to be viable economic undertakings.
The Conkouati reserve, in Congo, has faced a considerable number of difficulties since its inception. On the one hand the support of the government for the initiative was never clear, nor free of red tape, personal jealousies and conflicts, and bureaucratic requirements. In addition, from the beginning the local people appeared at best uninterested, and at worst hostile to all attempts to set up a conservation project in their environment. The IUCN-assisted initiative supporting the establishment of the reserve had to look for all sorts of ingenious ideas to unblock the situation. A very successful one was the appointment of a person from a local ethnic group as programme director. This enormously improved the relationship with local communities. Another success was the organized visit of four community members to CAMPFIRE initiatives in Zimbabwe. The visits took place in 1994 and were highly appreciated. The programme staff of Conkouati stress that the visits need to be followed by local meetings in which the 'travellers' report on their experience and discuss the lessons learned with the community at large.
6.29 Building upon local knowledge and skills in resource management
29a.Sanctuary officials need convincing India
In the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Sanctuary in the south Indian state of Karnataka, local NGOs and agencies are examining local resource uses and knowledge, and their impact on biodiversity. The use of non-timber forest products by the Soliga — a resident indigenous population — is being studied and these people are being encouraged to continue sustainable practices and modify unsustainable ones. They are being organized into cooperatives to help market their products, and are being given training in various income-generating activities.
The agencies working in the area are acutely conscious of the need to ensure that all resource uses which are continued, or started anew, are in harmony with the conservation objectives of the sanctuary. Officials managing the sanctuary are not yet convinced, however, of the need to integrate a collaboration with the local indigenous people into their management strategy.
29b. Agricultural training builds upon traditional customs
The working rules of the Conservation and Development Committees (CDCs) of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) are prepared by committee members together with local stakeholders and facilitated by the ACAP staff. In preparing the rules, the traditional norms and values of the area are reviewed and incorporated as appropriate.
Various training programmes to build upon traditional knowledge of resource management are also provided to the members of the CDCs. The goal of the programmes is to revive traditional capabilities and integrate them with new technologies for managing resources. Agriculture demonstration farms are established at different project sites to motivate people about sustainable agricultural development. "Vegetable demonstration plots" are a major attraction for local people. The project encourages organic farming, which is simply an improvement on the traditional system. The people are encouraged through demonstrations, for instance about composting from livestock manure. Even traditional pesticides extracted from local herbs are being tried out in the area with the help of the local experts. The use of successful pesticides is encouraged. The local people are using many revived traditional practices and are very proud of them.
29c. To learn you must be able to communicate<BR>
Tanzania
A review of the Forest, Trees and People project in Babati District found that the local people had a wealth of knowledge about the local trees and that the hunters, beekeepers, shifting cultivators and pasturalists all had different perspectives on nature and local vegetation. The shifting cultivators knew much about the interactions of trees and crops and about tree regeneration. Pasturalists knew about fodder plants and poisonous plants. The residents of the area used hundreds of wild plants for food and medicine. The local knowledge was used to some extent for the regeneration and propagation of indigenous trees; the design of agro-forestry systems using indigenous trees; the establishment of community forest reserves and a study of forest products that could be commercialized. Unfortunately, the review also found that the local knowledge was less accessible than that it might have been. Many of the foresters could not talk to local people about the trees, since they didn't know the traditional names for the trees and the villagers didn't know the scientific ones. The review noted that a participatory approach to development must always seek a foundation in the indigenous culture and, for this to be successful in forestry projects, lists of botanical names should be translated into the local languages.
Abridged from: Johansson and Westman, 1992.
29d.Value of traditional knowledge recognized in fees
The Northern River Basins Study, funded by government through its Environment Canada department, recognizes that the role of native peoples and the respect for their way of life and spiritual needs are critical to achieving the sustainable management objectives for the northern basins. In other words, conventional scientists need to integrate traditional knowledge in their approach to conservation. To do so without diminishing the independent value of different knowledge systems has been a challenging task.
In the case of the Northern River Basins, the partnership with indigenous peoples was made possible, in part, by paying stipends and fees for service. Indeed, the consultative process for traditional knowledge is now based on a fee-for-service practice, just as for work by other consultants.
From: Environment Canada, 1995.
29e. Campesinos and biologists collaborate to save the rainforests
Costa Rica has the highest rate of deforestation in Central America and one of the highest in the world. This is a sad state of affairs for Costa Rica's wildlife and an impending disaster for many of the country's campesinos, the peasant farmers who are trying to make a living in or beside forested land. An organization called Asociación ANAI was founded in 1973 by Bill McLarney, an American biologist, with the specific goal of helping the campesinos to save the tropical forest in Talamanca. ANAI supports small concrete activities and projects. Initially the projects were heavily subsidized, then ANAI switched to giving loans at favourable terms.
ANAI supported a variety of educational ventures, including running educational farms where campesinos can observe and discuss the management of a variety of crops. In 1987, it helped establish a regional association, APTA, to coordinate the buying, processing and marketing of agricultural and forestry produce. ANAI also set up a programme to train 'barefoot agronomists', most of whom are Indians living and working in Indian communities, to act as an unofficial agricultural extension service.
Abridged from Pye-Smith et al., 1994.
6.30 Participatory planning exercises to integrate local needs
30a. Local involvement in planning merges livelihood and conservation
Masoka is a ward of about 150 households that developed a successful wildlife management programme under the CAMPFIRE initiative. The ward recently developed a land-use plan that greatly improved land use and revenues from wildlife management. Land-use planning in Zimbabwe is normally undertaken by a department of the Ministry of Agriculture, without any local participation. Although such plans have been prepared for most wards in the country, they have proved difficult and, in some cases, impossible to implement because of local opposition. With the help of the Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS) of the University of Zimbabwe, the WWF Multi-Species Animal Production Systems Research Unit (Zimbabwe), the Guruve District Council and a local safari operator, Masoka ward developed its own land-use and wildlife management plan. The plan centres around erecting an electric game fence around households and existing and future arable land, setting aside land for livestock grazing and wildlife, and developing measures for the maintenance of the fence.
The fence was erected with donor funds and members of the ward were trained in its maintenance. Since the fence was set up, destruction of crops and livestock by wildlife has been greatly reduced. This has significantly increased local agricultural production and, moreover, reduced the number of valuable wild animals killed to protect crops. Instead, a limited number of animals can be killed by tourist hunters and the revenues for each trophy go to the local ward. This substantially improves the ward's revenues. In addition, the fence created employment for local people to maintain and repair it. Without the participation of local people in planning land use and the siting of the fence, it is doubtful that the plan would have achieved similar successes.
30b. Planning covers resource use and management systems
Participatory appraisal exercises have been promoted by Uganda National Park (UNP) and Development Through Conservation staff at the village level in three pilot parishes adjacent to the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. PRA tools were used to enable the local community members and project staff to arrive at "needs-driven" community activities rather than top-down project interventions. In the first parish the exercise took a period of nine months; each of the others took six months. The exercise was conducted in the form of three-day workshops which covered the following tasks:
The Tree Nursery Groups of Mutoko are a good example of what cooperation and joint planning among the farmer community, local NGOs and government staff can achieve. The Mutoko Agricultural Development Project (ADP) aims to address the serious deforestation and ecological degradation of Mutoko Communal Land, a former homeland. The project includes a strong participatory planning element which has two key aspects. First, rather than trying to 'sell' a new technology to local farmers and policy-makers, farmers and institutions are contacted (and at times even contracted) from the very beginning to sit down, discuss problems and suggest technologies that could be adopted to solve them. The project has showed that this ensures the full support and commitment of the participants. Also, rather than experimenting from scratch with new technologies, the staff, farmers and extension officers can identify interesting innovations which have been tested by farmers and NGOs in other parts of Zimbabwe.
In 1988 ADP facilitated better cooperation between peasant farmers and the Zimbabwean Forestry Commission with the aim of addressing the serious deforestation in Mutoko. A group of 50 farmer representatives and agricultural and forest extension staff were taken on a 'look and learn' visit to the Shurugwi Rural Reforestation Project, where trees are raised by the local villagers. The idea was taken back to Mutoko, where nine of the 30 farmer representatives found groups in their village who were prepared to establish tree nurseries. By June 1990, the nine nursery groups had produced and planted over 38,000 trees. Only 7,000 of these were planted in group woodlots; the rest were shared among the members. The tree sharing provides an economic incentive and is ecologically interesting. Plantings in the villages have become a linking element in the landscape and an important part of the farming system, where they serve multiple functions: erosion control, animal fodder, windbreaks and soil improvement. Participatory planning is continued throughout the implementation phase with farmer representatives, district forest officers and agricultural extension staff who meet regularly to plan new activities and agree on the practical organization of the nurseries and planting operations.
Abridged from: Madondo, 1991.
30d. Farmers and park managers find mutual benefits in changing farm practices
The most serious concern for the future of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is deterioration in water quality caused by increases in suspended sediments, nitrogen and phosphorus emanating from the mainland. Park management's objective has been to limit land-based sources of pollution to levels which do not cause significant changes in the reef's ecosystem. The most important strategy in achieving this objective has been involving farmer organizations in cooperative research projects which address this question, and working with them to develop methods of reducing the loss of soil and nutrients from farmland. The commonality of interest of the farmers who wish to reduce expenditure on fertilizer and reduce soil erosion and of the people and organizations who wish to protect the quality of the reef's waters has been deliberately identified and used as a means of achieving cooperation. The park authority has found that if cooperation is achieved in carrying out research into a problem, then that cooperation is likely to extend into defining and applying ways of taking care of it.
The research has shown that most of the increase in nutrients comes from grazing land. However, the highest contribution per unit area of farmland comes from sugar cane farming. The levels of erosion and nutrient loss from sugar cropping can be substantially reduced by changes in farming practice. These changes have been voluntarily adopted by most sugar farmers on irrigated land on Queensland's coast.
From: Kelleher, 1995.
30e. Pre-appraisal dialogues key to success
The Kalam Integrated Development Project (KIDP) is an area development project working with the villagers of Swar Kohistan in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. KIDP began in 1981 as a forestry project which then extended its activities to agriculture and village development. The Village Development component of the project is working with the rural population to strengthen collective local initiatives and organizational structures. A central element of the work is support for villagers to plan their own communal activities. KIDP staff members form an interdisciplinary team, which, together with the local people, assesses the needs, constraints and opportunities of different groups within each community and encourages the villagers to prepare a viable Village Action Plan.
Through this process, the project team has found that the main factor determining the success of the planning meetings is the pre-appraisal dialogue. This enables the villagers to be informed well in advance about the principles and objectives of the exercise. These dialogues are used to explain that the planning meeting is only the first step in a longer and systematic process of village planning and development. The project team has also learned that these pre-appraisal dialogues need to specifically involve female villagers (sometimes in separate sessions), because village men usually neither inform their female relatives about the purpose of the planning meeting nor involve them in deciding whether or not to take part in the exercise.
Another important lesson which the team gained from their village experience is that no matter how the participatory planning exercise is carried out, the presence of outsiders working with villagers and discussing their needs and priorities will create expectations for outside assistance on the part of the community. By conducting frank, in-depth, pre-appraisal dialogues and involving villagers as team members, they found that these expectations can be kept to a reasonable level.
Abridged from: Thompson et al., 1994.
Solomon Islands
Peru
Australia
See option 2.4.8, Volume 1
Nicaragua
Tanzania
Nepal
Uganda
See option 2.4.9, Volume 1
Nepal
Canada
Costa Rica
See option 2.4.10, Volume 1
Zimbabwe
Uganda
30c. Synergy produces impressive results
Zimbabwe
Australia
Pakistan
| <<< BACK | CONTENTS | NEXT >>> |