Resources

This article is the third part of a Working Paper concerned with management of the Shivalik Hill system (which extends from Nepal to Pakistan at the base of the Himalayas). This article describes collaboration between the Government Forest Department and the Hill Resource Management Societies (HRMS). A case study is made of a Joint Management Agreement in Godam village. Five days of village meetings were conducted during which the Bhanjida households were identified as the main users of the forests for material to make bamboo baskets. The discussions took the form of conflict resolution between the Bhajidas and other members of the village. It was recognised that special attention needed to be paid to the participation of women in forest management. A second case study is given describing the forging of a Joint Management Agreement in Prempura where conflict existed between users of bhabbar and fodder grasses.

The bibliography was prepared for the guidance of participants in the Western Ghats Forestry Project which is being implemented by Karnataka forest department in India. It is intended to serve as an initial guide to some of the literature on social, economic, political and institutional aspects of participatory forest management. The material is organised in different sections: theoretical works and global comparisons; history; legal and policy issues; institutional change; research, appraisal, monitoring and evaluation; Karnataka; South Asian case studies; social forestry; gender issues and Western Ghats Forestry Project documents. The review covers a wide selection of forestry literature, although most are not concerned with participatory approaches or PRA.

This source book is organised into five sections: 1) background articles on issues of gender, environment, and natural resources, including discussion questions (see also Warren 1992(b) and Davis-Case 1992) 2) a set of cases from the field with a number of discussion questions 3) seven exercises related to the cases and background articles of use for training project teams (see Warren 1992(c)) 4) a brief glossary of relevant terms 5) a bibliography of published resources and easily accessible materials organised by region and topic area.

The Ugandan national parks service is setting a strategy of multiple use within its parks, with community participation in the management of forest areas. The aim is to allow harvesting of non- timber forest products in a sustainable manner. 7 'pilot' communities have been identified, and PRA is to used in these areas to undertake JFM. Community committees have been set up, although they consist mostly of local leaders. A number of historical and visual techniques attempted in order to promote small and large group discussions, and collaborative forest management agreements. Both the community and the national parks board appear to be happy with the progress so far.

This study investigated rural livelihood systems and the response of local communities to changing resource conditions in two communities in Machakos District, a semi-arid region in Kenya. A section on methodolgoy outlines the methods used during the research, which included PRA techniques as well as more conventional approaches. Among the PRA techniques used were spatial methods such as village transects or mapping, methods focused on time-related data such as time-lines or seasonal calendars, and those focusing on social data such as household interviews and group meetings to discuss village institutions. Several of the techniques were easily modified for gathering gender-differentiated data. It was found that there had been a significant and rapid change in the lives of people living in the region as the livelihood base shifted from cattle rearing to coffee growing. The changes have had particularly adverse impact on the lives of women, particularly poor women, in the area.

The Community Publishing Program began in 1986 in Zimbabwe with the aim of building up the "confidence, creativity, practical and analystical skills of development workers and local leaders through books and workshops." Books are produced "collectively and democratically" through a team travelling around Zimbabwe, listening to what people want in a book. Five main principles guiding community publishing are listed and examples given of books that were produced using these participatory methods. The article ends with "Lessons from the Experience", giving more detail of the methods used to encourage people to participate and view books as a "process not a product".

Activitists for Social Alternatives, an Indian NGO, began to use PRA in order to reach the poorest villagers. This report describes their experiences since 1990, under the specific areas where PRA workshops were conducted: tank rehabilitation, watershed development, herbal medicine, women's issues, health and income generation (non agro based). The "process" section of the annexures describes in detail the PRA methods used and findings (including diagrams and pictures): village modelling, trend change, seasonality and linkage activities were used to explore women's perspectives on health and social issues. The Gender PRA training workshop was attended by women from 22 villages - sharing their personal problems "developed a strong bond and solidarity which later led to the formation of a women's coordination committee". They took up issues like "eve teasing, child marriage, dowry, wage and deserted women" and "feeling the need for educating the public about the problems of women, planned for an International Women's Day celebration this year".