Abstract
Convinced that participatory resource management is the way forward in the conservation of natural resources, despite the increasing criticism of participatory approaches, the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) initiated a multi-country adaptive collaborative management (ACM) research programme. The programme aimed to test the approach and check whether it did indeed result in improvements in both resource conditions and human well-being. Multi-disciplinary teams were set up to spearhead the implementation of the ACM approach in collaboration with local stakeholders in eleven countries (including Zimbabwe) where the research was initiated. Adaptive collaborative management is an approach that is based on action research and learning, and aims to develop people’s capacity to adapt to the ever-changing State Forest in Zimbabwe. The chapter shows that doing collaborative research with local stakeholders is easier said than done and several challenges are faced at different levels: within the multi-disciplinary research team itself and between the research team and the local stakeholders. The chapter also shows that, though it is difficult to conduct, collaborative research can indeed result in positive improvements in both the resource status and human well-being. However, these changes will not be sustained if such initiatives fail to explicitly address issues of power and politics as well as put in place clear rules for the management of resources and the means of enforcing them.
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Notes
- 1.
The FC is the state body specifically mandated to provide advice on, and control, management and exploitation of forest resources. The FC has regulatory roles as well as extension roles.
- 2.
Political ecology describes empirical research-based explorations to explain linkages in the condition and changes in social and environmental systems with explicit consideration of relations of power. The research is directed at finding causes, rather than describing symptoms of problems. Political ecological research reveals winners, losers, hidden costs and differential power that produce social and environmental outcomes (Robbins, 1994).
- 3.
The New Institutionalists argue that credible commitment combined with mutual monitoring, under the protection of certain institutional arrangements, can motivate individuals to become more engaged in the realisation of shared goals and visions (Ostrom, 1990). Under this approach, individual decision-making is not only influenced by individual preferences and the optimisation of behaviour (as argued by many economists) but by institutional (i.e. group) preferences as well (Bates, 1995; Ostrom 1990).
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Acknowledgements
This research was conducted as part of the Centre for International Forestry Research’s (CIFOR) Adaptive collaborative management project in Zimbabwe. It was also part of the first author’s PhD studies at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. The research was funded by: Rockefeller Foundation; the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and its funding agencies (DFID, EU, and IUFRO).
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Mutimukuru-Maravanyika, T., Almekinders, C. (2011). Learning from learning: the experiences with implementing adaptive collaborative forest management in Zimbabwe. In: van Paassen, A., van den Berg, J., Steingröver, E., Werkman, R., Pedroli, B. (eds) Knowledge in action. Mansholt Publication Series, vol 11. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-724-0_8
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