Apart from the issue of fairness, there is also considerable evidence that giving people secure rights to their land and natural resources, helps to ensure that land is properly maintained and resources are responsibly exploited. Ruth Meinzen-Dick, a researcher on land and water rights, explains the link.
Assessing the performance of management is central to natural resource management, in terms of improving the efficiency of interventions in an adaptive-learning cycle. This is not simple, given that such systems generally have multiple scales of interaction and response; high frequency of non-linearity, uncertainty, and time lags; multiple stakeholders with contrasting objectives; and a high degree of context specificity. The importance of bounding the problem and preparing a conceptual model of the system is highlighted.
The desire for research to be policy relevant has caused many social science studies to have “engineering” dimensions. With respect to the engineering of property rights, economic approaches indicate that we require knowledge regarding the makeup of current property rights structures, how changes to current structures affect the use and management of natural resources, and how property rights have evolved.
This study examines the preliminary impacts of Indonesia's decentralization process on the administration and management of forest resources in Ketapang District, West Kalimantan. The case study is based on field work carried out in mid-2000, using a rapid appraisal methodology. The report covers the impacts of decentralization in three areas, in particular: customary adat communities, oil palm and rubber plantations, and conservation issues related to Gunung Palang National Park.
Kotawaringin Timur district lies within the Dayak heartland of Central Borneo, Indonesia. Prior to the late 1960s, most of the district was covered in dense tropical forest. However, these forests have been increasingly exploited since the 1970s when former-president Soeharto granted large timber concessions to logging companies in the area. Although Kotawaringin Timur’s forests still supply 49 percent of Central Kalimantan’s log production and half of its sawn timber and moulding, its forest resources are close to being exhausted.
The study provides a comparative analysis of the devolution and empowerment process in 14 case studies drawn from eight countries in southern Africa. Each case study examined the extent to which policy and legislation devolves significant control over decision making and benefit flows to communities; the legitimacy and power of different community institutions and their relationship with other stakeholders such as local authority structures, NGOs, donor agencies, and the private sector; and lastly the relationship and divisions between different actors and groupings in the community.
Bulungan regency is the northern part of the province of East Kalimantan, Indonesia. In the course of the last decade, Kalimantan's or Borneo's hinterland has been the target of unprecedented non-timber forest products (NTFP) collecting activity. More intensive NTFP use has contributed to unsustainable extractive practices and environmental damage and to deep social and political disruption. This book examines northern East Kalimantan's trade networks. The historical scope extends from about 1880 to present and primarily focus on Long Pujungan and Malinau districts.
Catherine Gatundu describing how the Forest Action Network is helping communities in Kenya to stand up for their rights to clean, safe water.
Femba John of Babungo village in Cameroon explaining to Martha Chindong how a dispute over access has left the villagers with no clean water source.
