Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...

78 • Cynthia McDougall, Hemant Ojha, Raj Kumar Pandey, Mani Ram Banjade and Bishnu Hari Pandit
Finally, another significant trend in social capital involved the relationship
of the CFUGs with external stakeholders, such as neighboring forest user
groups, village development committees, range posts and bilateral projects.
Communication and interaction increased, as did the number of cross-
CFUG visits, contributions to CFUG initiatives, and joint trainings. Very
importantly, the research teams noted that the increased linkages with
external stakeholders were accompanied by an attitudinal shift of CFUG
members, from passive dependence on and reaction to external stakeholders,
to proactive expression of the CFUGs’ self-determined interests, rights and
needs.
Human capital: building and spreading skills and confidence
All researchers noted that CFUG members’ knowledge and understanding
of their community forest’s condition, rules and regulations increased,
especially through engagement in the self-monitoring processes. Skills
for participatory planning and decision making based on self-monitoring
also increased, including skills for analyzing equity in the committees of
both Kaski sites. Although still in progress, these were significant changes.
Other related areas of skill and knowledge acquisition were facilitation and
participatory process skills, leadership, and technical forest management for
timber and nontimber forest products. Engagement with other CFUGs and
meso-level stakeholders in networks, through cross-site visits, appeared to
spark new ideas for management and income generation activities.
Finally, one very important area of change was the increase in confidence,
capacity and in some cases freedom for women and other marginalised users
to engage in CFUG decision-making and challenge existing structures. Box
3-5 illustrates how one low-caste woman gained enough confidence to use
the ACM-based ‘equity assessment process’ as leverage to gain fair access
to a livelihood opportunity.