Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

150 • Eva Wollenberg, Ramses Iwan, Godwin Limberg, Moira Moeliono, Steve Rhee and Made Sudana We found that small but incrementally significant achievements often occurred because of fortuitous circumstances, such as a chance meeting with an influential person, a coincidence of interests among key actors, an unexpected event providing an opportunity for influence. These coincidences became as important to achieving our objectives as our purposeful activities. We learned to increase the possibility for these opportunities by becoming more aware of and monitoring changes in the following factors that were the key determinants of spontaneous cooperation in Malinau: • the ‘gatekeepers’ (the people with authority, influence and control) and the ‘movers and shakers’ (those who could short-cut the bureaucracy and get things done, such as the district leader, agency heads and village leaders); • the timing of routine and ad hoc gatherings and events; and • the interests that motivated different groups to participate in different events. In addition, we learned to work with this spontaneous cooperation in three ways. Being physically present and interactive. Just by being around we increased the opportunities for (1) informal meetings with gatekeepers, which tended to be more effective than structured formal meetings; (2) relationship building with a wide network of people, especially the support network of the gatekeepers (see below) to gain knowledge informally and build mutual trust; and (3) other people to come to us with information they thought we needed to know, including invitations to events, news of sudden schedule changes, their understanding of hidden motives or an alternative interpretation of an issue. Working informally with the support network of the gatekeepers. The gatekeepers themselves were often too busy to interact with us very much, but their support network—the people whom advised or influenced the gatekeepers—knew and organised schedules and had the latest inside information about decisions. Maintaining hyperflexibility in our schedule and resources. We learned to be ready to reschedule our own events and reallocate staff at the last minute to attend events, as well as routinely adjust our strategy. An important way in which maintained flexibility was to reduce our dependence on gatekeepers. Although this flexibility led to some significant gains, maintaining it was the most difficult, costly and frustrating aspect of facilitation. It required
Chapter 5: Muddling Towards Cooperation in Malinau • 151 contingency funds, and it meant accepting inefficiencies (hence the aptness of the muddling metaphor). Ultimately, there are limits to the risk and inefficiency that can be tolerated and we needed to regularly weigh those costs against possible gains. Institutionalisation of learning We have sought to identify other groups that might be able to assume leadership of the overall facilitation process we have initiated. Because most local organisations promote the political interests of specific ethnic groups, they were not appropriate. Outside groups have been unwilling to commit to working in the area intensively. One appropriate institution within government is the camat, or subdistrict leader, who handles conflicts and serves as a link among villages. We have worked only to a limited extent with subdistrict leaders because of their apparent lack of interest. For example, we have had long-term informal and social contact with the subdistrict leader in our area. He has participated in several community meetings to which we invited him but has maintained an aloofness and distance from the program. He also has been traveling extensively, like many district officials, and has therefore rarely been available for more intensive interaction with us or the communities, who have expressed their own complaints. He is not unique, however, in keeping his distance. When we hosted conflict management training for the five subdistrict leaders in Malinau, having confirmed dates around their schedules, only three showed up. It is likely we did not offer sufficient career or financial incentives to make their involvement worthwhile. We have had much more success with the Community Empowerment Service, which has shown great enthusiasm to work with us and even share costs. We have provided hands-on training to PMD staff in monitoring community conditions and tried to build relations between communities and the agency through more face-to-face contact. We have also coauthored several reports with them. The synergies in working with PMD have been high, probably because we shared similar aims. PMD has certainly gained skills in learning through monitoring but is less well poised to convene meetings among stakeholders. Within the local government, it also has little influence. At the community level, we are working with individuals representing different ethnic groups to organise the annual intercommunity meeting
Page 1:
Adaptive Collaborative Management o
Page 4 and 5:
Copyright © 2007 by Center for Int
Page 6 and 7:
iv • Contents Chapter 5. Muddling
Page 8 and 9:
vi • Foreword problem solving. Th
Page 10 and 11:
viii • About the Contributors God
Page 12 and 13:
Acknowledgements In early 1999, two
Page 15 and 16:
Chapter 1. Introduction: People, Fo
Page 17 and 18:
Chapter 1: Introduction: People, Fo
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Chapter 2: Adaptive Collaborative M
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Chapter 3: Adaptiveness and Collabo
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Chapter 4. Shaping Opportunities fo
Page 107 and 108:
Chapter 4: Improving Forest Quality
Page 109 and 110:
Chapter 4: Improving Forest Quality
Page 111 and 112: Chapter 4: Improving Forest Quality
Page 147 and 148: Chapter 5: Muddling Towards Coopera
Page 161: Chapter 5: Muddling Towards Coopera
Page 175 and 176: Chapter 6: Facilitating Change from
Page 213 and 214:
Chapter 6: Facilitating Change from
Page 215 and 216:
Page 217 and 218:
Page 219 and 220:
Page 221 and 222:
Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusio
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
Page 229 and 230:
Page 231 and 232:
Page 233 and 234:
Page 235 and 236:
Page 237 and 238:
Page 239 and 240:
Page 241 and 242:
CIFOR is a leading international fo
show all

Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?