Recent writings have claimed that fisheries management can be improved through joint regulation by government bodies and resource users, and through partial devolution of management authority from government to fishers’ organizations. The Philippines appears to provide an optimal institutional setting for the emergence of fisheries co-management. The government has enacted legislation to assist fishers’ organizations in taking on a larger management role and there has been a proliferation of fishers’ organizations interested in taking on increased responsibility for resource management. The case of San Miguel Bay shows a situation in which two parallel modes of co-management have emerged. The formal mode draws largely on government initiative and is pluralistic. The informal mode draws on the initiative of fishers’ organizations and civillian action, and is oriented to the interests of small-scale fishers. Effective long-term co-management requires above all addressing gear conflict and the marginalization of small-scale fishers, and integrating the efforts of the two modes.
Tag: Collaboration
Benefits of forests in Cameroon: global structure, issues involving access and decision-making hiccoughs
Among many other stakes, the economic stake derived from the exploitation of tropical forest resources is a burning issue. This is evidenced by insecurity in intergenerational access to forest resources and financial benefits relating to the latter, on the one hand, and by a deep iniquity at the intra-generational level, on the other hand. The following paper highlights, as a moral, social and policy dilemma, how stakeholders and generations, ‘self-interested’, mark out access to forest resources and to financial benefits relating to the latter. Through intensive participatory research, quantitative data collection, participant observation, future scenarios and some International Forestry Research’s social science methods and interactive games (SSM & IG) based on the evaluation of the sustainability of forest management systems, field research conducted in the forest zone of Cameroon on access to forest resources has generated two central results. Firstly, future generations will be confronted—in a dramatic way—to quantitative and qualitative scarcity of forest resources, following their over exploitation by present generations. Secondly, as concerns the intra-generational access benefits generated by commercial exploitation of forests and the assessment of the circulation of forestry fees, there is much inequity, in as much as those benefits are more profitable to a ‘forestry elite’—‘a self-interested block’—than to local communities, who strongly claim to have historical rights over these forests. As a contribution of social science to public knowledge and to policy development, this article is nourishing ‘rational choice’ and ‘rational egoism’ theory and is targeting decision-making processes in the ever first attempt of forest management decentralization and ‘legal’ benefits sharing in Central Africa (the second largest forest of the World). The article recommends the shortening of the distance between decision-making and beneficiaries, downwardly accountability, ‘bottom-up’ mechanisms of public dialogue in forest management and a collaborative infrastructure in the circulation and the distribution of forest benefits.
Building collaboration through action research: the case of Ottotomo Forest Reserve in Cameroon
The Ottotomo Forest Reserve in the Central Province of Cameroon is one of the protected areas in the country where several management strategies have been tested with varying degrees of success (e.g., the Tropical Shelterwood System (TSS) silvicultural technique was piloted in this forest more than 30 years ago). From 1994 with the enactment of the new forestry legislation in Cameroon, the management strategy shifted considerably, moving away from the classical ‘fences and fines’ to a collaborative approach whereby the aspirations of the local communities are taken into consideration. This paper attempts to provide an account of a collaborative management efforts facilitated by CIFOR in the reserve. Using a series of Participatory Action Research (PAR) tools, this paper identifies specific management problems, attempts to analyse those problems and establishes collaborative arrangements for future management inputs into the reserve. The paper ends with a series of lessons learned from this exercise.
Action research as a strategy for collaborative management in Ottotomo
Sustainability performance of community forest enterprises (CFES) in Cameroon: Pathways to viable business models
Community forestry has evolved from devolved forest management to the valorisation of forest resources for community development. Community forest enterprises (CFEs) now apply business approaches to enhance economic, social, and environmental outcomes. However, limited research has evaluated CFE performance in tropical countries across these dimensions. This paper proposes a contextualized multi-dimensional framework to evaluate CFEs’ performance and applies it to nine CFEs in Cameroon. Data were collected from income and expenditure statements, forest land-use transects, satellite image analysis, and focus group discussions. The study evaluates the performance of Community Forest Enterprises (CFEs) in Cameroon using a multi-dimensional framework. The majority (66.67 %) are intermediate performers, with scores between 2.5 and 3. However, they score poorly on the economic dimension, making them intermediate but skewed performers with better scores on social and environmental dimensions. Only 11.11 % CFE is classified as an effective performer, with scores of three or above on all dimensions. The study found that CFEs face significant challenges in effectively allocating resources to trade in forest products and generating profits, resulting in poor economic performance. However, they perform better in investing in social projects, employing community members, and reducing illegal logging and agricultural expansion. Financial and technical support, policy coordination, and institutional collaboration are needed to improve performance.
Assessing CREMAs’ Capacity to Govern Landscape Resources in the Western Wildlife Corridor of Northern Ghana
Ghana initiated community resource management areas (CREMAs) as a community-based natural management approach to give local communities the right and power to manage natural resources within their territorial boundaries. The expectation is that communities and their environment would prosper through more equitable landscape governance and sustainable use of natural resources. However, the challenges to achieving full functionality of CREMA and expected results, particularly in the Western Wildlife Corridor in northern Ghana, raise questions about the governance actors’ capacity. Therefore, this study aims to assess the capacity of actors to take ownership of and lead the governance processes implied by the CREMA approach. Based on focus group discussions and individual interviews, we found that the capacities of the CREMA governance bodies are weak to implement the CREMA approach effectively. The lack of knowledge and technical skills to support multi-actor processes, the weak collaboration between actors, and the lack of sustainable financial inflows and livelihood support are key challenges to be addressed for better CREMA performance. Despite these constraints, local actors’ enthusiasm and willingness to engage more actively in the governance of their landscape constitute an opportunity for an improved implementation of the CREMA approach. We suggest that initiatives to strengthen the technical and financial capacities of governance bodies and raise awareness among the local population are necessary to improve the functioning and performance of CREMAs. In addition, actions to improve the livelihoods of local communities will enhance the mobilization and engagement of social groups in the implementation of the CREMA concept.
Enhancing adaptiveness and collaboration in community forestry in Nepal: reflections from participatory action research
From understanding to action: building on anthropological approaches to influence policymaking
Restoration Education: Building a Pan-African curriculum on landscape restoration
The Restoration Education program aims to integrate landscape restoration into academic and vocational education systems in Africa. The initiative builds on the international momentum created by the launch of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030): it led to increased investments and a greater number of restoration projects across Africa and, in so doing, brought to the fore the need for adequately trained professionals. Unlike forest management, landscape restoration has yet to be fully integrated into higher-education curricula across Africa. To build a new generation of landscape restoration professionals, CIFOR-ICRAF teamed up with African universities. With the support of CIFOR-ICRAF’s Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) and the International Union of Forestry Research Organisations (IUFRO, we launched a Call to Action to develop an inter- and transdisciplinary restoration curriculum integrating knowledge from the biophysical and social sciences.
Restoration Education: A Call to Collective Action
A diversity of practitioners, youth, policymakers, educators, capacity developers and others from across Africa and beyond gathered on 3 June 2021 to call for immediate action to restore Africa’s landscapes. These individuals were brought together in a session titled “Enhancing Restoration Capacities in African Drylands: A Decade for Action,” organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF). This session was part of the larger GLF Africa 2021 digital conference. Participants, seeing the urgent need to restore Africa’s landscapes, concluded that such a massive restoration effort demands the mobilization of existing capacities from across the continent. Educational institutions – from schools to colleges and universities – have a significant role to play. In addition, there are many training opportunities for professionals.