Living on the Margins of Life

The meaning and scope of the concept of Community-Based Property Rights (CBPR) has become a dominant feature of conservation and development policy discourse over the last decade. The debate has largely been shaped by the growing trends where governments have continued to appropriate traditional lands for conservation and development activities that have resulted into large scale dislocation and widespread disenfranchisement of sections of our society. However, the need to rethink the meaning and the application of Community-Based Property Rights has been given momentum by the need to carefully articulate and effectively implement social and economic protection programmes both as a means of promoting sustainable management of natural resources and eradication of poverty. Consequently, the apparent mixing of the concept of CBPR with associated concepts such as Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) or Collaborative Forestry Management (CFM) and Community Conservation has presented major diffi culties in implementing CBPR regimes at the national level.