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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Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusions • 213<br />
significant scale or see measurable improvements <strong>in</strong> livelihood outcomes.<br />
Improvements <strong>in</strong> people’s capacities and social processes are much more<br />
evident.<br />
If we apply our ACM model to this analysis <strong>of</strong> similarities and differences,<br />
we should expect to f<strong>in</strong>d Nepal and the Philipp<strong>in</strong>es closer to material or<br />
<strong>in</strong>strumental action than Indonesia. The communities <strong>in</strong> the case study<br />
sites <strong>in</strong> Nepal and the Philipp<strong>in</strong>es would be more ‘empowered through<br />
self-organisation’ because they had already spent considerable time on<br />
‘communicative action’, clarify<strong>in</strong>g their vision <strong>of</strong> <strong>community</strong> forestry. In<br />
Indonesia, communicative action around <strong>community</strong> forestry (<strong>in</strong> the formal<br />
sense) was still <strong>in</strong> its early stages, and we might expect to see communities<br />
beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g to move towards some forms <strong>of</strong> strategic action as a result <strong>of</strong><br />
f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g their empowerment through a common mean<strong>in</strong>g and purpose.<br />
Did ACM lead to change?<br />
Let us beg<strong>in</strong> by ask<strong>in</strong>g how change might be discerned, given the relatively<br />
short duration <strong>of</strong> the projects. The clearest sign would be tangible<br />
evidence, especially at larger scales. This evidence would be that much<br />
more credible if the counterfactual could also be demonstrated, but such<br />
a basel<strong>in</strong>e would have demanded at the very least a huge and ethically<br />
questionable <strong>in</strong>vestment <strong>in</strong> passive observation <strong>of</strong> ‘control’ sites, if not a<br />
parallel universe. And <strong>in</strong> fact, early reviewers <strong>of</strong> the project recognised the<br />
difficulties and advised aga<strong>in</strong>st us<strong>in</strong>g a counterfactual. Thus, any evidence<br />
<strong>of</strong> change has to be based on a before-and-after comparison. This is <strong>in</strong>deed<br />
what all four case studies endeavoured to do. Problems <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>terpretation<br />
<strong>of</strong> changes and residual confirmation bias rema<strong>in</strong>, although the latter was<br />
held to a m<strong>in</strong>imum by focus<strong>in</strong>g as much as possible on actors’ statements<br />
rather than researchers’ <strong>in</strong>terpretation.<br />
Changes <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>stitutional capital<br />
In all sites, researchers noted some strengthen<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> the local forest<br />
<strong>management</strong> <strong>in</strong>stitutions. In fact, <strong>in</strong> Nepal, two <strong>of</strong> the four research<br />
sites—sites that had been considered <strong>in</strong>stitutionally average or below<br />
average <strong>in</strong> 1999—received district forest <strong>of</strong>fice prizes <strong>in</strong> a competition for<br />
<strong>in</strong>stitutional development dur<strong>in</strong>g the f<strong>in</strong>al research phase. Changes <strong>in</strong>cluded