Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...

12 • Robert Fisher, Ravi Prabhu and Cynthia McDougall
Structure of the Book
This chapter has provided a brief introduction to the project, its rationale
and its overall shape. Chapter 2 explores in more detail the concepts
underlying the ACM Asia project, focusing particularly on adaptive
collaborative management, social learning and action learning. It describes
the intellectual origins of these concepts.
Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6 focus on the studies in the three countries. Two
chapters deal with separate studies in Indonesia, cases of very different
origins and thrusts. One of these studies (Jambi and Pasir, Chapter 4)
followed the same approach as in Nepal and the Philippines; the other
(Malinau, in East Kalimantan, Chapter 5), of older origin, was cast within
the same research paradigm but with an evolving research framework.
Each case study shows why ACM was seen as having potential value in
the country context, describes the history of the project in that country
and recounts how the project operated to foster change and how improved
(more adaptive and collaborative) decision making led to better outcomes.
The chapters consider challenges, outcomes and lessons from the country
case studies and explore thematic issues of relevance to the broader
application of adaptive collaborative management.
Chapter 7 presents the conclusions of the book. It looks at the case studies in
terms of the answers they provide to the three project research questions—
what conditions favour the adoption and success of ACM, what strategies
and arrangements can sustain management and governance based in social
learning and collaboration, and how does ACM affect the social, economic
and ecological conditions of people and forests in community forestry
systems. It also pays particular attention to the extent to which ACM has
led to changes in learning process and the extent to which it has been
institutionalised: What has changed, and will the changes persist?
Endnotes
1 Checkland has developed ‘soft systems methodology’ (SSM) as a method
for developing shared objectives among actors with differing objectives. This book
proposes ACM as an alternative method for doing the same thing.
2 In Asia the research was supported initially by the Asian Development
Bank, under RETA 5812, and CIFOR, and later by the Department for International
Development (DFID) and the International Development Research Centre. In Africa