In the light of the growing trend towards devolving natural resource management to local communities this paper argues that there is need for care to be taken in defining the community.
The need to think beyond residential proximity as the criteria for community is examined, especially with regards to non-equilibrium natural resources, where spatial and temporal distribution of the resource varies and transhumance strategies are commonly adopted. A case study of wild mushroom harvesting in the Pacific North West of the USA illustrates the importance of not overlooking the role played by external stakeholders whose livlihoods can be significantly affected by decisions regarding the use of the natural resource in question.
Finally, the authors offer suggestions on how an environment conducive to sustainable and profitable harvesting of non-equilibrium natural resources can be encouraged at different levels.
This article examines the role NGO's should play in the participative process, baring in mind the typically short term and localised nature of their operations.
The case of the Intermediate Development Group (ITDG) in Chivi is examined, whereby from the very beginning the project sought to link farming communities with their service organisations, such as government research stations, training institutions and also with farmers in other districts, rather than implement an operational project in the conventional sense. This approach was found to enable farmers to continue to access these sources of information after the life of the project without the need for external support.
Based on the experiences of two projects in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe, this paper describes the rationale for moving away from conventional agricultural extension towards participatory innovation development and extension. Case studies or pilot projects played a key role in the strategy adopted to institutionalise the approach into the government structure which was revealed to be a complex process requiring a long term commitment of at least 5-10 years.
This paper is based on the case study of an upland catchment in Thailand currently undergoing government land reform.
The use of soft systems methodology to identify and facilitate collaborative property arrangements between the various stakeholders is described. The collaborative actions developed as a result of the participatory process are outlined and include, the collective local management of a water supply.