Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...

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40 • Ravi Prabhu, Cynthia McDougall and Robert Fisher Phase 3. Material or instrumental action: achieving material gains We come now to the final phase of the cyclical process. Here, plans are converted into action with the aim of achieving material results in resource management, such as healthy forest systems, sufficiently abundant forest products and income from forests. Although some material or instrumental action takes place in phases 1 and 2, in phase 3 such action dominates (Figure 2-5) 8 . Instead of processes, phase 3 involves three concepts or conditions that help bound the space for material change: • the level of complexity of the context; • the enabling environment of the group; and • the capacity of the group. Levels of complexity Enabling environment (policy, governance, etc.) Ph. 3 space = 'Material gains' Capacity: capability and available resources of local actors Material action predominates reversible Empowerment through self-organization Norms, rules and institutions Empowerment through material gains reversible Phase 2: Strategic Action Empowerment through meaning or purpose reversible Phase 1: Communicative Action Strategic action predominates Communicative action predominates Figure 2-5. Phase 3: material action
Chapter 2: Adaptive Collaborative Management: A Conceptual Model • 41 Before we explore each of these three conditions, observe that in the centre of the model is the emergence of new or revised norms, rules and institutions (in the sense of Giddens 1984) as manifestations of changes to social assets. Norms, rules and institutions are critical components of the framework, containing the bulk of the wisdom and to a lesser extent the knowledge that is generated at each phase. They form the axle on which the framework rotates, for as Sen (1999: 142) notes, ‘Individuals live and operate in a world of institutions. Our opportunities and prospects depend crucially on what institutions exist and how they operate’. Agreeing with Giddens (1984), we see these institutions as shaping and being shaped by the groups concerned in each of the phases. Complexity. Does all decision making require an adaptive collaborative management approach? If a problem can be characterised accurately as noncomplex—for example, if linkages within the system are linear and respond without delay to external influences—then a command-andcontrol or mechanistic style of management is likely sufficient to yield expected management results. However, as Scott (1998) has pointed out, there is a great temptation for people (and we include resource managers and policy makers here) to treat complex systems as noncomplex and impose simple models and linear solutions—much like the proverbial man with a hammer, to whom everything starts to look like a nail. If the man with a hammer is at the apex of an organisation that fits the machine metaphor, as described above, the consequences may be dire. The complex nature of a system must be recognised and addressed with an appropriately dynamic model if positive outcomes are to be achieved in the long term. Forest systems—and the human-forest interface—are unquestionably complex. Forest ecosystems are highly diverse ecologically, and interactions between species, as well as the ontology of many individual species, is poorly understood. Forest contexts are also complex socially—in ethnicity, gender, age, economic difference, worldview and interests in forests and forest products. Forest systems in most developing countries operate under overlapping and sometimes conflicting traditional systems, residual colonial influences and modernising postcolonial structures. In some cases, there are also powerful outside international interests, mainly but not exclusively economic or conservationist. And the interactions between the social and natural systems are numerous and diverse, with demands for a multitude of forest products and services. Thus complexity—and dynamism—is the normal condition for forests. The need for an adaptive and collaborative management approach is therefore apparent. Complexity,
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Chapter 4: Improving Forest Quality
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Chapter 5: Muddling Towards Coopera
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Chapter 6: Facilitating Change from
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Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusio
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CIFOR is a leading international fo
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