Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...

76 • Cynthia McDougall, Hemant Ojha, Raj Kumar Pandey, Mani Ram Banjade and Bishnu Hari Pandit
however, marginalised people suggested that they were largely satisfied with
the increases in time costs because they associated these commitments with
benefits from community forestry.
Social capital: participation, power relations and external linkages
Local users indicated that they viewed social capital as one of the most
important areas of change, especially with regard to enhanced participation
in—and influence on—decision making. The representation of women and
marginalised ethnic groups on committees increased to varying degrees in
all sites. Participation in decision making in committees and assemblies also
increased significantly, although the increase was less for women and the
poorest groups than for other users. Overall, the relationships amongst users
increased, with an increase in the perception of trust between users and
committees. Together, these changes signify that locally perceived power
imbalances were challenged and power in decision-making was dispersed to
some extent. Concomitantly, nonexecutive committee members were more
engaged and gained more control of the CFUG through their involvement
in tole-level decision making and their leadership of ‘action groups’.
Interestingly, shifts in attitudes and power relations in the CFUGs were
sometimes associated with a temporary increase in explicit conflict and, for
more powerful members, some potential social threat (e.g., loss of power,
potential expulsion from an executive committee). Measured in the short
term, this could be considered a cost, but overall, members of the CFUGs
indicated that the exposure of latent tensions was positive. For example,
the increased challenges and demands from women and marginalised
members created stress for existing committees but was largely resolved
as more inclusive processes emerged; in other cases, members held
executive committee members accountable for the misuse of funds, thus
laying the foundation for new committee members and new standards of
accountability.
The exact forces in the ACM approach that enabled users to address
inequality and power differences are intangible, multiple and intertwined,
and thus difficult to pinpoint independently and prove causally.
Nevertheless, examination of the experiences in all four sites suggests that
the transformation of attitudes that enabled people to address underlying
tensions was related to both ‘pushing’ from marginalised users and ‘pulling’
from incentives for elite users to relinquish some of their power. Both forces