Overcoming inequities in access to natural resources : experiences from Asia

This Working Paper reviews the literature on the equity implications of different arrangements of natural resource management. The focus is on gender, ethnic and economic differences in access to natural resources in Asia, where two-thirds of the world’s poor live. First, the importance of common pool resources for the poor, women and minority groups is set out along with the implications of reduced or lost access to these resources. Next, the dynamics of state ownership, private ownership, customary management regimes and co-management or community-based management arrangements are reviewed regarding their impact on different lines of inequality. The review then examines how community-based natural resource management regimes can be made more inclusive and equitable through effective participatory processes and interventions that shift bargaining power in favour of marginalized groups. Management regimes based on careful participatory social analysis, and planning processes that are skilfully facilitated, long-term and participatory, can make heard the voices of poor people, minorities and women and include them in community decision-making.