Synopses & Reviews
Management of local resources has a greater chance of a sustainable outcome when there is partnership between local people and external agencies, and agendas relevant to their aspirations and circumstances. Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods analyses and extends this premise to show unequivocally that the process of research for improving natural resource management must incorporate participatory and user-focused approaches, leading to development based on the needs and knowledge of local resource users. Drawing on extensive and highly relevant case studies, this book presents innovative approaches for establishing and sustaining participation and collective decision-making, good practice for research, and challenges for future developments. It covers a wide range of natural resources - including forests and soils, and water and management units, such as watersheds and common property areas - and provides practical lessons from analysis and meta-analysis of cases from Asia, Africa and Latin America. It offers insights on how to make research participatory while maintaining rigour and high-quality biological science, different forms of participation, and ways to scale up and extend participatory approaches and successful initiatives. This book will be invaluable for those professionally involved in natural resource management for sustainable development and an essential resource for teachers and students of both the biophysical and social science aspects of natural resource management.
Synopsis
* Shows how management of local resources can be done best by the local community for the local community* Covers common property, protected areas, landscape, forests, watersheds, soil and water management* Presents successful new approaches to collective decision-making and the principles of good practiceDrawing on extensive and important case studies, this book presents innovative approaches for participation and collective decision-making in natural resource management, good practice for research, and challenges for future developments. It employs the practical lessons to show how to organize participatory research, the forms of participation and quality of the science involved, and how to scale up participatory approaches and successful initiatives in resource management.Those professionally involved, whether in the field, programme managers or policy-makers will find its analysis and conclusions invaluable. It will also be a very suitable text for students of both the biophysical and social science aspects of natural resource management.