6.52 Extraordinary staff and stakeholder meetings
See option 3.4.10, Volume 1
52a. Conflict avoided in special meeting with stakeholders
The Philippines
The El Nido Marine Reserve in the Philippines is one of the protected areas assisted under the Debt-for-Nature Swap programme. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) determined that it would be necessary to expand the area of the former marine turtle sanctuary to include critical watersheds in order to ensure the long-term conservation of the reserve. A scientific study was conducted to determine where to relocate the reserve's boundaries. Regulations were developed to guide the management of the area, including lists of permitted and prohibited activities.
Project management staff launched several information campaigns and dialogues with the local community regarding the proposed expansions and related regulations. Unfortunately the local people responded negatively and, through the initiative of local government officials, developed a set of resolutions in opposition to the reserve plan. In fact, friction began to develop between the staff and local communities from the time the original marine reserve was gazetted. This could be attributed to the failure of the reserve staff to adequately inform the public at the initial stages about the reserve's objectives, activities and regulations. The decision to expand the reserve resulted in a further deterioration of relationships between the reserve management and local government officials and the public.
In an attempt to rectify the situation, the reserve management decided to consult with the local people and with top-level officials from government agencies. In this face-to-face meeting, management discussed the rationale for the proposed expansion and clarified issues on proposed rules and regulations. Local people were given the opportunity to express their views and reactions to the proposal. An NGO representative acted as a facilitator; this proved critical in reassuring the local communities about the fairness of the process. Following the consultation, the reserve management issued an administrative order setting out the revised rules which the local people had helped to develop.
Abridged from: Penafiel in Lewis, 1995.
52b. Exclusion of stakeholders rectified through special meeting
India
After the development of Haryana's Joint Forest Management system in 1989, several agreements made with single villages had to be modified to remove conflict generated by the unintended exclusion of other user groups. In 1991, for example, eight years after Lohgarh's Hill Resource Management Society entered into an agreement for joint management, leaders of an adjoining village protested their exclusion from the agreement. They claimed that their village had exclusive rights over one part of the area that had been included in the agreement with the Lohgarh community. A joint meeting of the two villages was called and the residents of Lohgarh accepted and confirmed the claim. Consequently, the JFM support team facilitated a renegotiation of the agreement by organizing a number of joint meetings of the two villages. Subsequent problems related to lease pricing were similarly resolved through an open and consultative process of discussion between the two villages.
From: Sarin, 1993.
6.53 Ongoing communication
programme
See option 3.4.11, Volume 1
53a. Our human yellow pages
Australia
The Community Landcare Facilitator employed by the local government in Kaniva, Victoria, has adopted a variety of innovative mechanisms to keep local farmers informed about activities associated with the initiative. With community support she conducts an ongoing communication programme including:
Abridged from: Campbell, 1994.
53b. Building public awareness
India
Corbett National Park is a critical forest and grassland habitat in northern India harbouring several endangered species. Various authorities have recently stepped up their communications and awareness programmes there. In the park itself, a well-stocked library, regular film shows and trained guides help to orient visitors. Park awareness programmes include elephant and jeep rides. A series of bird-watching camps are being organized with participants from distant cities as well as nearby towns and villages. A full-fledged bird research and awareness programme is being planned. A regular newsletter is produced, one of the few of its kind for protected areas in India; it is produced in both Hindi and English. Recently, several government and independent institutions have been involved in an exercise to determine research needs for the park. A workshop to discuss this was held in 1994.
53c. Board members and scientists maintain links with community
Canada
The Northern River Basins Study (NRBS) has been established to investigate the state of the rivers in northern Canada, the cumulative effect of development and to make recommendations on future resource management actions. A 25-member board representing all the stakeholder groups has been established to manage the overall operations. Through public meetings every six to eight weeks, the board listens to the concerns of the general public and communicates the results of investigations. Involving the scientists in community functions has gone a long way to improve people's trust of the decision-makers. The annual Science Forum, where scientists from the study are available to talk with the public, has been favourably received. The NRBS is also involved in trade fairs and educational institutions across the basins. It gives presentations in schools on current problems, the results of the studies and on what people can do to improve their environment.
From: Environment Canada, 1995.
6.54 Monitoring change in local communities
See option 3.4.12, Volume 1
54a. Monitoring change in local communities
Asia-Pacific
The Biodiversity Support Program's (BSP) Biodiversity Conservation Network (BCN) works with 20 projects across the Asia-Pacific Region to implement and evaluate enterprise-oriented approaches to community-based conservation. A major feature of each project is the fact that community members and project staff are responsible for monitoring the ecological, economic, and social impacts of the project activities. To this end, BSP/BCN has designed an adaptive management process that enables projects to first determine the key variables for monitoring by developing a conceptual model of the project. Teams next devise a management plan for project implementation and a monitoring plan for collecting data to assess indicators for each of these variables. The BSP/BCN approach has a number of advantages in that it:
6.55 Networking with local leaders and opinion-makers
See option 3.4.13, Volume 1
55a. Field stations provide staff to maintain links
Nepal
Conservation education and extension workers and village-level motivators are the main staff in the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) in Nepal, with responsibility for maintaining public relations with the local stakeholders. One of their major responsibilities is networking with local leaders to keep them informed of ACAP activities. They also mobilize the local people, increase their awareness of environmental and health issues and assist as facilitators in different conservation initiatives. All the ACAP field stations have at least one extension staff person and five or six village-level motivators.
55b. Stakeholder politics among the Karen
Thailand
The Wildlife Fund Thailand (WFT) project staff at Thung Yai Naresan Wildlife Sanctuary has devoted considerable attention to their role vis-a-vis powerful local government and non-government stakeholders. The Thung Yai project was designed to provide information requested by the Royal Forest Department (RFD) to justify its provisional decision allowing the Karen to remain in their ancestral lands in the forests of the area (see example 24c). The project's goal is to strengthen local peoples' ability to maintain their forests in partnership with the government. WFT hopes to reverse the present policy trend of moving local populations out of protected areas, and to provide a model of how local communities can participate in genuine long-term conservation activities. Project staff include several Thai nationals, American Peace Corps volunteers, and eight local Karen people.
The project includes participatory land-use planning and ecological research; historical and demographic research; efforts to improve cooperation between parties involved in reserve management activities; enhanced information exchange; and development of an appropriate Thai process for addressing the larger policy questions regarding the role of people living in the protected areas and buffer zones of Thailand. Reaching these objectives required the team to work closely with stakeholders who were suspicious of one another, as well as those who were simultaneously friend and enemy in different arenas of interest.
The project staff has invested several years in learning about and culti-vating a good working relationship with all stakeholders — including local, provincial and national RFD staff; the formal local government and the traditional (elder-based) local government; the local Karen Buddhist leaders; representatives of other government agencies actively working in the area (agriculture, tourism, energy, etc); interested professors at major universities and Southeast Asian regional training centres; and district and provincial government officials. To achieve this, they researched the political history of the area through informal discussions with the full range of stakeholders. They found that the Karen had been strong supporters of the monarchy (a positive element in government eyes) but had harboured communist students during the 1970s (resulting in positive organizing benefits, but raising questions about their loyalty to government). This historical information was used to choose politically viable options for working with communities.
In addition to maintaining good relations with stakeholders, the project was also careful to maintain an appropriate distance from the Karen Free State (a resistance movement across the border in Burma) while at the same time providing the Burmese Karen with information about the project's activities in Thung Yai and allowing them to participate in provincial seminar activities as observers. Likewise, WFT maintained an observer status with the powerful local lords who operate outside the law (including military officers involved in illegal logging business). They were also careful to maintain respectful relations with the border police, and to avoid confronting schoolteachers who introduced illegal cattle into the reserve. The team understood that direct confrontation with problematic stakeholders would not be productive, so they used political analysis to develop a strategy for working with all stakeholders in a positive way. They worked hard to maintain the neutral position necessary to deal with the full range of stakeholders. They were careful not to become allied with local factions in Karen villages and sub-district government, or with factions within the RFD.
After the following incident, WFT project staff were further reminded of the sensitivities of balancing stakeholders interests and of the importance of listening to political guidance from local villagers and local staff. A new member of the project staff wanted to develop a programme to support traditional Karen values and ecological wisdom. With the assistance of an outsider specialist consultant, he put together plans for a major meeting of Karen elders to initiate a new regional elders council organization. The Karen communities were very enthusiastic about this initiative, but the local Karen project staff and the outside consultant both cautioned the new staff person to be sure to keep the sub-district government informed about the meeting so that they would not feel threatened that an elders council (a traditional structure) might challenge their authority. The staff person disregarded the advice and did not inform sub-district government. As a consequence, when the elders meeting occurred without his knowledge, the sub-district head (also Karen) felt the project was actively seeking to undermine his authority. He threatened to have the project team thrown out of Thung Yai. WFT fired the staff person and was able to regain the sub-district government's confidence based on their past good relationship. But the cultural support initiative of the elders council was weakened by this unfortunate political mistake.
| <<< BACK | CONTENTS | NEXT >>> |