Mikkel Funder

Local Participation in Natural Resource Monitoring: a Characterization of Approaches

The monitoring of trends in the status of species or habitats is routine in developed countries, where it is funded by the state or large nongovernmental organizations and often involves large numbers of skilled amateur volunteers. Far less monitoring of natural resources takes place in developing countries, where state agencies have small budgets, there are fewer skilled professionals or amateurs, and socioeconomic conditions prevent development of a culture of volunteerism. The resulting lack of knowledge about trends in species and habitats presents a serious challenge for detecting, understanding, and reversing declines in natural resource values. International environmental agreements require signatories undertake systematic monitoring of their natural resources, but no system exists to guide the development and expansion of monitoring schemes. To help develop such a protocol, we suggest a typology of monitoring categories, defined by their degree of local participation, ranging from no local involvement with monitoring undertaken by professional researchers to an entirely local effort with monitoring undertaken by local people. We assessed the strengths and weaknesses of each monitoring category and the potential of each to be sustainable in developed or developing countries. Locally based monitoring is particularly relevant in developing countries, where it can lead to rapid decisions to solve the key threats affecting natural resources, can empower local communities to better manage their resources, and can refine sustainable-use strategies to improve local livelihoods. Nevertheless, we recognize that the accuracy and precision of the monitoring undertaken by local communities in different situations needs further study and field protocols need to be further developed to get the best from the unrealized potential of this approach. A challenge to conservation biologists is to identify and establish the monitoring system most relevant to a particular situation and to develop methods to integrate outputs from across the spectrum of monitoring schemes to produce wider indices of natural resources that capture the strengths of each.

Getting ready for REDD+ in Tanzania: a case study of progress and challenges

The proposed mechanism for Reducing Emis- sions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) offers significant potential for conserving forests to reduce negative impacts of climate change. Tanzania is one of nine pilot countries for the United Nations REDD Pro- gramme, receives significant funding from the Norwegian, Finnish and German governments and is a participant in the World Banks Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. In combination, these interventions aim to mitigate green- house gas emissions, provide an income to rural commu- nities and conserve biodiversity. The establishment of the UN-REDD Programme in Tanzania illustrates real-world challenges in a developing country. These include currently inadequate baseline forestry data sets (needed to calculate reference emission levels), inadequate government capacity and insufficient experience of implementing REDD+-type measures at operational levels. Additionally, for REDD+ to succeed, current users of forest resources must adopt new practices, including the equitable sharing of benefits that accrue from REDD+ implementation. These challenges are being addressed by combined donor support to im- plement a national forest inventory, remote sensing of forest cover, enhanced capacity for measuring, reporting and verification, and pilot projects to test REDD+ imple- mentation linked to the existing Participatory Forest Man- agement Programme. Our conclusion is that even in a country with considerable donor support, progressive forest policies, laws and regulations, an extensive network of managed forests and increasingly developed locally-based forest management approaches, implementing REDD+ pre- sents many challenges. These are being met by coordinated, genuine partnerships between government, non-government and community-based agencies.

The Social Shaping of Participatory Spaces: Evidence from Community Development in Southern Thailand

Abstract Critical analysis of participatory community development has claimed that such approaches serve as a vehicle for social control and co-option by external actors. Drawing on a case study from Southern Thailand, this article argues that we need to take a less deterministic perspective, and pay more attention to the ways in which community members themselves manipulate or subvert participatory processes. The article shows how this may result in hybrid participatory practices and institutions that contain elements of both local and external interests, and which play a key role in defining the way power is constituted in local participatory spaces.

The Politics of Climate Change Adaptation in Development: Authority, Resource Control and State Intervention in Rural Zambia

Abstract In this article, we call for more attention to the national and local politics of climate change in developing countries, and contribute to this through a study of climate change adaptation interventions in Zambia. We show how such interventions form part of central state efforts to extend authority and control over natural resources, and how competing institutional actors such as local governments and chiefs seek to counter this. The article thereby shows how climate change adaptation is emerging as a new arena for deep-seated political and institutional struggles over issues such as authority, land control and devolution in development.

Collaboration between meso-level institutions and communities to facilitate climate change adaptation in Ghana

There is a growing recognition of the role of meso-level institutions that operate between the central state and communities in facilitating climate change adaptation at local and district levels. This article explores how collaborative approaches to planned adaptation by an external agent in Ghana can create linkages between meso-level institutions and communities, and examines how the actors involved have received the approach. The study is based on fieldwork in the Northern and Upper East regions of Ghana. The programme examined has been designed to reflect the need of each community instead of general adaptation strategies. Findings from the study suggest that the communities involved have achieved positive outcomes from the approach. Capacity building and advocacy training have made the involved communities more proactive, which has increased the collaboration between the communities and local governance. Climate change adaptation has now become one of the key priorities on the political agenda of the local district assemblies. However, lack of funding hinders the achievements to be expanded to the rest of the district. More funding, therefore, needs to be directed at meso-level institutions to increase adaptation.