Walia Special Edition on the Bale Mountains (2011) - Zoologische ...

2004) or conservation and livelihood target.
In this paper joint natural resource management (JNRM) is used as a broad term to describe
systems in which communities (resource user groups) and a state agency (Bale Mountains National
Park Authority, in this case), work together; to define rights of resource users, and ways of sharing
management responsibilities. JNRM is thus a community - Government partnership that aims to
achieve a set of mutually compatible conservation and livelihood targets.
There are a number of steps and procedures that need to be followed during the development
and establishment of JNRM systems, at any specific site. These steps have their own sequential phases
or stages. They include preparing for the partnership phase, negotiation phase and implementation
phase, or the investigation, negotiation, and implementation stages (Borrini-Feyerabend et al. 2004;
FARM-Africa–SOS Sahel 2006).
During the preparation for the partnership or investigation phase, baseline social and
ecological data are gathered with local communities using participatory learning and action (PLA)
tools. Thus, natural resource management based communication is initiated between the community
and Park authority. The purpose of the communication is to understand resource users (stakeholders)
and uses (livelihoods) and government conservation targets and priorities. This mutual understanding
is the basic foundation on which to build JNRM.
The negotiation phase is the period when key issues are discussed and agreed. Rules and
regulations are formulated and documented, and natural resource management plans agreed and
signed. During the negotiation phase the details of JNRM become both concrete and tangible. All
parties in the negotiation have to find an agreement that answers different questions for each one of
the strategic objectives of sustainable natural resource management, while striving to achieve the
conservation and livelihood targets that underpin the purpose of the partnership.
The implementation phase is the time when the agreed natural resource management plans
are put into practice and management responsibility is exercised by each stakeholder. A critical
part of implementation is learning from the experience of implementation through monitoring.
Adjustment of natural resource management plans based on the information from monitoring data
enables the JNRM system to strengthen over time through joint learning – by – doing and adaptive
management. It is this learning from participatory monitoring that will help in the future the joint
decision of either to continue with regulated resource use or find alternative solutions.
The adoption of JNRM systems in the Bale Mountains National Park is clearly a step
forwards from the prevailing situation of management dysfunction and conflict. In particular, it is
an alternative to some current arguments for de jure exclusion of communities from the Park, whilst
ignoring the de facto reality of communities living in and using the Park.
However, JNRM should not be seen as a panacea for all the complex and interlinked
problems and challenges faced in Park / People management: it does not provide a quick fix for
sustainable natural resource management complexities, but rather provides a way of moving forward
in dealing with those complexities. JNRM is also not guaranteed to work in all circumstances. If
poorly implemented it is obviously more likely to fail. The chances of establishing success will be
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