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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32 • Ravi Prabhu, Cynthia McDougall and Robert Fisher<br />
How connectivity, communities <strong>of</strong> practice and their abilities to learn shape<br />
adaptive <strong>collaborative</strong> <strong>management</strong> is represented <strong>in</strong> Figure 2-3. Dur<strong>in</strong>g<br />
this phase, visions are turned <strong>in</strong>to plans that can be turned <strong>in</strong>to action. A<br />
considerable amount <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>stitution build<strong>in</strong>g takes place, and the norms,<br />
rules and technical guidel<strong>in</strong>es for <strong>management</strong> are articulated or ref<strong>in</strong>ed.<br />
Communities <strong>of</strong> practice. Wenger (1998) describes a <strong>community</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />
practice as characterised by three features: mutual engagement <strong>of</strong> its<br />
members, a jo<strong>in</strong>t enterprise, and a shared repertoire <strong>of</strong> rout<strong>in</strong>es, tacit rules<br />
<strong>of</strong> conduct and knowledge over time. Thus it has self-organis<strong>in</strong>g and selfgenerat<strong>in</strong>g<br />
webs <strong>of</strong> communications, a shared purpose and mean<strong>in</strong>g, and a<br />
shared culture that results <strong>in</strong> the coord<strong>in</strong>ation <strong>of</strong> behaviour and creation <strong>of</strong><br />
shared knowledge. In communities <strong>of</strong> practice we can recognise the ‘liv<strong>in</strong>g<br />
elements’ <strong>of</strong> natural resource user groups.<br />
Relatedly, De Geus (1997) studied 27 long-lived corporations and identified<br />
common characteristics 5 . He concluded that resilient long-lived companies<br />
are much like liv<strong>in</strong>g entities, with two ma<strong>in</strong> sets <strong>of</strong> characteristics. One is a<br />
strong sense <strong>of</strong> <strong>community</strong> and collective identity around a set <strong>of</strong> common<br />
values—<strong>in</strong> other words, a resilient organisation is a <strong>community</strong> <strong>in</strong> which all<br />
members know that they will be supported <strong>in</strong> their endeavours to achieve<br />
their own goals. The other set is openness to the outside world, a tolerance<br />
for the entry <strong>of</strong> new <strong>in</strong>dividuals and ideas and consequently a manifest<br />
ability to learn and to adapt to new circumstances. Accord<strong>in</strong>g to Capra<br />
(2002) the aliveness <strong>of</strong> an organisation—its flexibility, creative potential<br />
and learn<strong>in</strong>g capability—resides <strong>in</strong> networks or ‘<strong>in</strong>formal communities<br />
<strong>of</strong> practice’. The formal parts <strong>of</strong> organisations depend on their <strong>in</strong>formal<br />
networks for their aliveness. (We elaborate further on networks <strong>in</strong> the<br />
follow<strong>in</strong>g subsection).<br />
In an ACM approach, one process goal is thus to identify and/or catalyse<br />
the emergence <strong>of</strong> such liv<strong>in</strong>g elements <strong>of</strong> communities <strong>of</strong> practice <strong>in</strong> the<br />
group because these elements form the critical nuclei <strong>of</strong> all action. In fact,<br />
we suggest that the aliveness <strong>of</strong> local forest <strong>management</strong> <strong>in</strong>stitutions—or<br />
other organisations—is very much dependent on the degree to which the<br />
group embodies the features <strong>of</strong> communities <strong>of</strong> practice. Work<strong>in</strong>g with—or<br />
with<strong>in</strong>—a <strong>community</strong> <strong>of</strong> practice is not always straightforward, s<strong>in</strong>ce their<br />
<strong>in</strong>formal and dynamic nature <strong>of</strong>ten makes them challeng<strong>in</strong>g to understand.<br />
However, ignor<strong>in</strong>g or work<strong>in</strong>g aga<strong>in</strong>st such communities <strong>of</strong> practice would<br />
limit the susta<strong>in</strong>ability <strong>of</strong> forest <strong>management</strong>, if not potentially jeopardise<br />
it altogether.