For co-management of conservation areas to be effective, detailed information on local people's use of natural resources is essential. One method to obtain some of that information, a household record keeping study, is given. It is simple to implement and analyse, and provides useful, quantitative data on resource use and income levels. The method and present data derived from three studies of Melayu and Iban communities in and around the Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, are described.

Although irrigation projects often provide water for more than crop irrigation, water allocation and management decisions often do not account for nonirrigation uses of water. Failure to account for the multiple uses of irrigation water may result in inefficient and inequitable water allocation decisions. Decision-makers often lack information on the relative economic contributions of water in irrigation and nonirrigation uses. This report addresses this problem.

The "Ruhuna Basins" defined for this case study encompass three of the main rivers that flow through ancient Ruhuna, including the longest and most important river in the region, Walawe. The Ruhuna basins are important in the broader Sri Lankan context, the basin being the location of a major hydropower plant, irrigation schemes that make a significant contribution to national food production, and important nature reserves.