A Case Study about Organizational Structures for Community-Based Natural Resources Management in Southern Africa
Abstract: Throughout Southern Africa there has been a move to decentralize natural resource management (NRM). Decentralization has taken many forms, resulting in different organizational structures for NRM. Fourteen case studies from eight countries can be classed into four types, depending on the key organizations for NRM: (1) districtlevel organizations; (2) village organizations supported by sectoral departments (e.g. Village Forest Committees); (3) organizations or authorities outside the state hierarchy (e.g. traditional authority, residents’ associations), and (4) corporate organizations at the village level (e.g. Trusts, conservancies, property associations). Attitudes towards district-level schemes amongst local people are generally negative. The greater the authority village organizations receive the more likely they are to succeed. In the cases with corporate organizations, local residents have received user or proprietary rights over resources. Such cases reflect the best chances of community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) being successful.
Introduction: In recent years, coinciding with the mainstreaming of participatory approaches in development theory and practice, there has been a policy shift to advocate that local resource users play a more active role in the management of natural resources. There has been considerable progress in decentralizing authority over forests from the state to local communities in Asia, and there are now numerous examples within Africa. Within the wildlife sector there has been considerable activity in the last decade, especially in southern Africa, where almost all countries have programs to allow communities to manage and benefit from wildlife. In Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, and Namibia, a wildlife management focus has provided the major initiative for CBNRM. In South Africa, land restitution has been the major driving force for more equitable and participatory forms of natural resource management. Keep reading…
