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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20 • Ravi Prabhu, Cynthia McDougall and Robert Fisher<br />
the diverse <strong>in</strong>terpretations <strong>of</strong> experience, knowledge and learn<strong>in</strong>g. (Social<br />
learn<strong>in</strong>g is further explored <strong>in</strong> the subsequent sections <strong>of</strong> this chapter).<br />
In sum, <strong>in</strong> ACM, gather<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>formation and negotiat<strong>in</strong>g outcomes take<br />
place as part <strong>of</strong> a s<strong>in</strong>gle <strong>in</strong>tegrated and <strong>collaborative</strong> learn<strong>in</strong>g process.<br />
Learn<strong>in</strong>g is not, after all, just about collect<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>formation, but about<br />
decid<strong>in</strong>g what it means. Where the <strong>in</strong>formation means different th<strong>in</strong>gs to<br />
different people, the attribution <strong>of</strong> mean<strong>in</strong>g works best if it is discussed and<br />
negotiated <strong>in</strong>teractively.<br />
Jo<strong>in</strong>t or collective action<br />
By def<strong>in</strong>ition, adaptive <strong>collaborative</strong> <strong>management</strong> <strong>in</strong>volves action that<br />
is agreed upon and supported by multiple actors. The need for jo<strong>in</strong>t or<br />
collective action reflects the complex nature <strong>of</strong> <strong>forests</strong>, people’s overlapp<strong>in</strong>g<br />
<strong>in</strong>terests, rights and responsibilities, and the result<strong>in</strong>g potential for tensions<br />
between local, meso and national levels <strong>of</strong> governance as well as between<br />
private, government and civil society <strong>in</strong>stitutions. Even with<strong>in</strong> one local<br />
area, the ‘common property’ nature <strong>of</strong> <strong>community</strong> <strong>forests</strong> (whether legally<br />
designed <strong>community</strong> <strong>forests</strong> or not) demands that if actions are to be<br />
acceptable to most forest actors, they will need to be jo<strong>in</strong>tly agreed, if not<br />
jo<strong>in</strong>tly carried out.<br />
One foundational aspect <strong>of</strong> jo<strong>in</strong>t or collective action (and the whole<br />
governance and <strong>management</strong> process) is the need to assemble the ‘right’<br />
actors. This is challeng<strong>in</strong>g, not <strong>in</strong> the least because the def<strong>in</strong>ition <strong>of</strong> those<br />
actors is subjective as well as time, context and issue dependent.<br />
Wollenberg et al. (2001) identify problems associated with collective<br />
action (‘collective agreements’), <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the fact that transaction costs<br />
<strong>in</strong> achiev<strong>in</strong>g them may <strong>in</strong> some cases outweigh their immediate ga<strong>in</strong>s.<br />
Furthermore, they po<strong>in</strong>t out that the more powerful members <strong>in</strong> a group<br />
tend to take over and control such agreements. They note that it ‘takes<br />
more time, human energy, and material resources to identify all the<br />
relevant forest <strong>in</strong>terest groups, develop platforms on which their <strong>in</strong>terests<br />
can be accommodated effectively, and coord<strong>in</strong>ate <strong>in</strong>terests <strong>in</strong> a way that<br />
respects the legitimacy and autonomy <strong>of</strong> each <strong>of</strong> them than it does to<br />
simply manage <strong>forests</strong> as though they were the sole responsibility <strong>of</strong> the<br />
government’ (Wollenberg et al. 2001).