Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...
Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...
Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...
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122 • Trikurnianti Kusumanto<br />
not able to <strong>in</strong>fluence their context (Garben and Seligman 1980 cited <strong>in</strong><br />
Maarleveld and Dangbégnon 1999). It was ACM that provided the trigger<br />
for actors to learn <strong>in</strong> their complex environment. We nonetheless cannot<br />
say how best to facilitate learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> complex sett<strong>in</strong>gs and believe that a<br />
mix <strong>of</strong> both complex and structured learn<strong>in</strong>g should be deployed <strong>in</strong> such<br />
circumstances.<br />
A third strength: ACM addressed the prevail<strong>in</strong>g power differences<br />
among stakeholders and associated skewed decision mak<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> resource<br />
<strong>management</strong>. In Jambi, a handful <strong>of</strong> village elites, all men, dom<strong>in</strong>ated<br />
decision mak<strong>in</strong>g. In addition, power imbalances existed between women<br />
and men and between settlers and the orig<strong>in</strong>al <strong>in</strong>habitants. In Pasir, the<br />
government <strong>of</strong>ten dom<strong>in</strong>ated decision-mak<strong>in</strong>g proceed<strong>in</strong>gs, <strong>in</strong> turn<br />
<strong>in</strong>fluenc<strong>in</strong>g outcomes. Such power imbalances created their own feedback<br />
loops: <strong>in</strong> terms <strong>of</strong> rights and capacity, less powerful stakeholders were<br />
perceived to be less legitimate.<br />
Two particular features <strong>of</strong> ACM helped <strong>in</strong> deal<strong>in</strong>g with this challenge. First,<br />
by focus<strong>in</strong>g group learn<strong>in</strong>g on develop<strong>in</strong>g a sense <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>terdependence and<br />
positive appreciation for one another, ACM stimulated the recognition <strong>of</strong><br />
people’s legitimacy. Recurr<strong>in</strong>g throughout the learn<strong>in</strong>g were moments when<br />
the play<strong>in</strong>g field was to some extent level, and such moments supported<br />
the gradual recognition <strong>of</strong> others’ legitimacy. Another ACM feature that<br />
helped redress power imbalances was its emphasis on substance rather than<br />
relational issues. Multistakeholder sett<strong>in</strong>gs tended to focus on how actors<br />
related to one another, <strong>of</strong>ten lead<strong>in</strong>g to the position<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> different actors<br />
aga<strong>in</strong>st one another, <strong>in</strong>hibit<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>formation and communication flows and,<br />
hence, learn<strong>in</strong>g. By focus<strong>in</strong>g learn<strong>in</strong>g and deliberations on substantive<br />
matters, actors gradually learned to act and value differently.<br />
ACM also has its limitations. First, adaptive <strong>collaborative</strong> <strong>management</strong> was<br />
<strong>in</strong>advertently more attractive to those who were f<strong>in</strong>ancially well-<strong>of</strong>f and<br />
better organised. Because <strong>of</strong> its expense—<strong>in</strong> both time and opportunity<br />
costs for meet<strong>in</strong>gs—the poor and less organised actors were unable to divert<br />
their limited personal resources to learn<strong>in</strong>g activities. Participation meant<br />
forgone f<strong>in</strong>ancial opportunities, and because the poor were more likely<br />
to miss meet<strong>in</strong>gs, participation was consequently unequal. Furthermore,<br />
ACM required extra efforts <strong>of</strong> our team to br<strong>in</strong>g actors together, <strong>in</strong> turn<br />
rais<strong>in</strong>g the team’s transaction costs.