Introduction: Analytical Issues in Participatory Natural Resource Management

Abstract

The participatory perspective has informed a number of policy initiatives in natural resource management in the developing world, particularly over the past two decades. There is a growing recognition that top-down projects have limited potential for transforming existing patterns of social interaction and resource use, because they do not relate adequately to local priorities. The received wisdom suggests that participatory natural resource management projects work because traditional knowledge of the resource and existing social structures can be utilised to develop more effective strategies for resource use. As a result, participation is accepted as an integral part of the ‘new paradigm’ of development which is being promoted by multilateral and bilateral donors in their interactions with governments in the developing world. Many developing country governments are not averse to adopting these approaches, although there is considerable variation in the extent of their commitment to policies that may be seen to challenge their control over resources and territories previously in the public domain. Donors are frequently in a good position to promote new ideas, helped by the leverage available by making project sanctions conditional upon such changes. However, there is substantial scope for the dilution of what may be seen as a potentially radical agenda through the everyday processes of implementation that characterise state action in the developing world. Perhaps these implementation ‘failures’ can be seen as the new ‘weapons of the weak’ employed by developing country governments, as well as other field-level agents, in response to what could be seen as a current, possibly fleeting, preoccupation with participation.