Natural Resource Governance

Wednesday 15.08.07

Kelly Aboubacrine , President of the Local Union of the livestock and meat value chains Associations and Cooperatives of Kadiolo - Mali, introduced the 120 participants of the first seminar day in the world of livestock management. He spoke of his experience as farmer and local political leader. Please click here (WMV, 5'468 KB) to listen to Mr. Kelly’s description of how conflicts over land use by livestock herders and farmers were resolved.

Water governance in India, an input from Rupa Mukerji , Delegate of Intercooperation India on behalf of her whole team, highlighted the need for legal reforms over the use and access to water as part of watershed management. Specifically, the concept of water as a private rather than a public good needs to be questioned, and water rights separated from land rights. Solutions have been found at local level, e.g. in a village in the State of Andhra Pradesh, where the farmers have decided to stop drilling more bore-wells and have reached agreement on the judicious use of the water from existing ones.

Elena Kulikova , Forest Program Director of WWF Russia, spoke about forest governance in transition countries. She noted that in Russia, the expectation in the decentralisation process is that the local population and administrative bodies will be accountable, and will take on a variety of new tasks. However, they have not been prepared for this, in a process that has been too rushed. Burning issues are privatisation, participatory approaches, sustainability of forest management and the new role of the state. Assistance is especially required for institutional reforms on forest policy and capacity building amongst the local population.

In Switzerland (as in many other countries), natural resource governance is strongly influenced by tradition. Otto Sieber , Executive Director of Pro Natura – Friends of the Earth Switzerland, explained how, through a long process of decision-making involving all interest groups, local people are involved in the creation of a new national park. Despite offers of a financial package for a new park, the practical difficulties of getting all parties to agree are such than no new park has been created since 1914. From a nature heritage conservation point of view, this emphasises the need for complementarities between a national strategy and a bottom-up approach.

In three separate group sessions of the afternoon on forestry, pastures, and water, short case studies were presented from a variety of countries, followed by discussions. These were then summarised in the final plenary session by a reporter from each group.

Experiences from Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Nepal in forest governance : The major efforts that have been made in collaborative forest management; capacity building and institutional reforms have brought positive results in term of access and management of the resources by local population. However, strong external factors such as changes in government, illegal trading, and the interests of commercial companies can jeopardise these results.

Experiences from Latin America in water governance : Good results have been achieved in conflict management at regional level, through processes involving major stakeholders from all levels, taking into account scientific evidence. Payment for Environmental Services has proved to be a successful mechanism for the use and protection of watersheds at local level – with potential for wider application.

Experiences from the Sahel in pasture governance : A deep understanding of the livelihood, culture and mindset of the local communities is required to understand the pattern of conflicts. Pastoral schemes are an effective tool to define the land use rights for stakeholders and activities. A major success factor has been the involvement of the community leaders, to seek compromises and modify traditional customs that have led to conflicts.

In concluding the day, the plenary session sought to draw lessons from these experiences with regard to the needs and aspirations of the most poor and disadvantaged in society (often women), noting that particular efforts need to be made in this regard – not only in negotiation processes but also in wider capacity building and educational opportunities.