Poverty Dimensions of Public Governance and Forest Management ...

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! The roles of the chiefs in natural resource management, specifically their claims to ultimate
ownership of land, as the allodial authority, and their rights to establish customary bye-laws
independently of the District Assemblies;
! Chiefs are also being increasingly empowered by the central government to enact
environmental bye-laws (for example, to control bushfires), and to punish transgressors;
! The fact that the District Chief Executives are appointed by central government and seen as
representing the development policy interests of the government to the District rather than as
the spokesperson for dominant interests within the district. The DCEs are accountable to the
central government rather than to the district electorate over environmental policy matters
(among others). Presently, reforms are being considered which will make the DCE an elected
representative;
As a result of all these factors, it is difficult within the prevailing structures of district
administration for Assembly members or Unit Committees to question environmental policy or to
seek to adapt it to the needs of their constituencies. Environmental policy tends to be conveyed to
the districts as a set of prescriptions which Assembly Members and Unit Committees are require
to implement.
There are few avenues through which Assembly Members and Unit Committees can get access to
dispassionate information on the environment. Most information is disseminated to the districts in
a prescriptive form. There are no provisions for Assembly Members and Unit Committees to set
up consultative community fora with their constituents, to examine environmental problems and
devise suitable solutions (for example, concerning bushfires).
Given these constraints, the options open to Assembly Members and Unit Committees are
extremely limited. Effectively, there are only three. They can either:
! Act as spokespersons for government environmental policy, advocating the relentless
implementation of bye-laws (at the risk of unpopularity and future electoral failure);
OR:
! Ignore environmental policy or implement it only half-heartedly;
OR:
! Take advantage of the considerable confusion (as well as the conflicting responsibilities of
different authorities and lack of accountability to community organisations) to engage in rentseeking
behaviour for personal benefit.
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