Assessing participatory practices in community-based natural resource management: experiences in community engagement from southern Africa

Widening community participation in preparing for climate-related disasters in Japan

This paper discusses community participation drawing on ongoing disaster recovery and preparedness projects (RPP) in the communities affected by the Heavy Rain Event of 2018 in western Japan. Participatory approaches have become a mainstream methodology for community-based disaster risk reduction (DRR) as advocated in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. The majority of participation research addresses either 'success' factors for participation or the types of participation. The paper proposes a notion of 'widening participation' in addressing the challenge of attracting people to participate in preparedness initiatives. Originally widening participation was a higher education policy in the UK aiming to broaden the demographic composition of the student base. Even the RPP that are publicly recognised as 'good practices' struggle to recruit more people for the projects. Borrowing the notion of widening participation, the paper identifies how each project encourages non-participants to get involved in the project activities. The paper applies the EAST framework (Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely) widely utilised in the policy making of widening participation and further public services. Rather than providing the public with information and guidance, 'easy', 'attractive', 'social' and 'timely' behavioural approaches tend to enable participation. Examining these four principles in the four cases of RPP, the paper suggests that the EAST framework is feasible in strengthening the strategies for widening participation in preparedness action. The paper, however, recognises a need to address the difference between top-down public policies and bottom-up community projects in the application of the framework.

Steps Toward Engagement Integrity: Learning From Participatory Visual Methods in Marginalized South African Communities

Community engagement and involvement have been increasingly recognized as an ethical and valuable component of health science research over the past two decades. Progress has been accompanied by emerging standards that emphasize participation, two-way communication, inclusion, empowerment, and ownership. Although these are important and noble benchmarks, they can represent a challenge for research conducted in marginalized contexts. This community case study reports on the methods, outcomes, constraints and learning from an NGO-led community engagement project called Bucket Loads of Health, implemented in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The independent project team used multiple participatory visual methods to foster two-way communication between members of two disenfranchised communities, Enkanini and Delft, and a group of water microbiologists at Stellenbosch University who were conducting research in Enkanini. The project was carried out during the 2018 Western Cape water crisis, under the growing threat of “Day Zero”. The resulting visual outputs illustrated the negative impacts of water shortage on health and wellbeing in these community settings and showcased scientific endeavors seeking to address them. Engagement included knowledge exchange combining body maps, role play performances and films created by the community members, with hand maps, posters and presentations produced by the scientists. Whereas these engagement tools enabled reciprocal listening between all groups, their ability to respond to the issues raised was hindered by constraints in resources and capacity beyond their control. An additional core objective of the project was to bring the impacts of water shortage in participating communities, and the work of the research team, to the attention of local government. The case study demonstrates the challenges that politically ambitious community engagement faces in being acknowledged by government representatives. We further the argument that research institutions and funders need to match professed commitments to engagement with training and resources to support researchers and community members in responding to the needs and aspirations surfaced through engagement processes. We introduce the concept of engagement integrity to capture the gap between recommended standards of community engagement and what is realistically achievable in projects that are constrained by funding, time, and political interest.

A framework for conceptualizing leadership in conservation

Conservation challenges occur in complex social-ecological systems that require scientists and practitioners to recognize and embrace that humans are active agents within these systems. This interdependence of the social and ecological components of systems necessitates effective leadership to address and solve conservation problems successfully. Although conservation practitioners increasingly recognize leadership as critical to achieve conservation goals, clarity about the term leadership remains elusive in terms of specific strategies and behaviours. Our objective in this review of conservation leadership scholarship was to build on prior literature to conceptualize and define the behavioural leadership strategies that lead to successful conservation outcomes. Following an initial review of more than 1,200 peer-reviewed publications, we conducted a systematic review of 59 articles utilizing an inductive analysis approach and identified a set of five leadership domains that contribute to positive conservation outcomes: (1) stakeholder engagement, (2) trust, (3) vision, (4) individual champion, and (5) excellence in internal attributes. Each domain is defined by 2–4 behaviours that we consider leadership practices. To sustain meaningful progress toward global conservation of biodiversity, conservation scientists and practitioners must embrace and invest in leadership as an integral component of solving our collective conservation challenges.

It Starts with a Conversation: The Importance of Values as Building Blocks of Engagement Strategies in Community-Centered Public Health Research

This study examined the life-motivating values of residents in underserved minority communities to inform the development of community engagement strategies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the main research questions: (1) what were the values of research participants, and (2) what did they consider important in their lives? The participants included twenty-seven ethnically diverse individuals living in low-income neighborhoods in New York City (NYC). Thematic analysis was performed to identify common themes and patterns related to the values that participants considered important in their lives. Three broad themes were identified: (1) benevolence; (2) universalism, and (3) self-direction. Benevolence implies a sense of belonging as the central meaning in life; community engagement strategies focused on this value emphasize concern for the welfare of loved ones. Community engagement strategies focused on universalism emphasize social justice and concern for the environment and the world. Finally, community engagement strategies focused on self-direction seek to satisfy participants' needs for control, autonomy, and mastery. This study introduces the Value-Based Framework for Community-Centered Research. It illustrates how value exploration is central to a community-centered approach to public health research and can be an important first step for designing studies that are better aligned with community needs and contexts. Such an approach can also help to co-create a "research identity" with community members and integrate their values into a project's purpose, thereby increasing community ownership and engagement in the study.

Household-Level Determinants of Participation in Forest Support Programmes in the Miombo Landscapes, Zambia

The need to protect forest resources from unsustainable, yet rational, human actions has attracted global attention. This is because smallholder dependence on forests can degrade forest resources and cause deforestation. While efforts to understand forest programmes and motivations to protect forests have increased in recent decades, there remains a limited understanding of household factors affecting participation in forest support programmes, especially in the context of high-pressure areas, such as the Miombo woodlands. This study was conducted in the North-Western, Copperbelt and Eastern Province of Zambia. In each province, we selected landscapes consisting of protected and non-protected forest areas. We administered structured interviews to 1123 households and used logistic regression to estimate determinants of participation. We found that better education, landholding size, increased share of forest income, cash crops and non-farm income, and access to forests and markets have a negative impact on participation in forest support programmes. Being located in landscapes with protected areas was positively associated with participation. We suggest that, in order to increase participation, forest programmes should focus on households with low levels of education, limited livelihood opportunities, and poor access to markets. Besides, programmes should provide incentives, including support for farm inputs and at the same time encourage reforestation and agroforestry methods.

Smallholder perceptions of land restoration activities: rewetting tropical peatland oil palm areas in Sumatra, Indonesia

The Indonesian government committed to restoring over 2 million ha of degraded peatland by the end of 2020, mainly to reduce peat fires and greenhouse gas emissions. Although it is unlikely the government will meet this target, restoration projects are still underway. One restoration strategy involves blocking peatland drainage canals, but the consequences of this for smallholder farmers whose livelihoods are dependent on agriculture are unclear. This paper investigates perceived impacts of canal blocks on smallholder farmers and identifies factors that affect their willingness to accept canal blocks on their land. We use data from 181 household questionnaires collected in 2018 across three villages in Jambi province, Sumatra. We found that the majority of respondents would accept canal blocks on their farms, perceiving that the blocks would have no impact on yields or farm access, and would decrease fire risk. Respondents who would not accept blocks on their farms were more likely to use canals to access their farms and perceive that canal blocks would decrease yields. The majority of farmers unwilling to accept canal blocks did not change their mind when provided with an option of a block that would allow boat travel. Our results improve understanding of why some smallholders may be unwilling to engage with peatland restoration. Further research is needed to understand the impact of canal blocks on smallholders' yields. Engaging with stakeholders from the outset to understand farmers' concerns, and perceptions is key if the government is to succeed in meeting its peatland restoration target and to ensure that the costs and benefits of restoration are evenly shared between local stakeholders and other actors.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10113-020-01737-z.

Exploring the Potential and Contribution of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves for Landscape Governance and Management in Africa

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Biosphere Reserves strive for a harmonious interaction between humans and nature. As landscapes provide suitable units to mutually address matters of conservation and sustainable development, this study aims to explore the potential and realized contribution of biosphere reserves for landscape governance and management. We emphasize the role of stakeholder participation and cooperation as an overarching condition for integrated landscape approaches. The regional focus is on Africa, where multiple drivers of global and local change currently significantly impact the landscape. The study’s results are based on a literature review, which is complemented by four case studies from the biosphere reserves in Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, and Benin/Togo. Findings show that in biosphere reserves, stakeholder engagement is crucial to gain community acceptance, foster intersectoral cooperation, and provide management with more legitimacy. To strengthen stakeholders’ capacities to mutually achieve conservation and development outcomes, international partnerships and research and education efforts proved to be successful. The flexible biosphere reserve approach to governance, which allows for integration with other land-management approaches, offers a suitable governance model for a landscape. Moreover, the biosphere reserve zonation concept can provide orientation to manage the “multifunctionality” of a landscape and address the associated trade-offs between different stakeholders’ aspirations.

Delivering Climate-Development Co-Benefits through Multi-Stakeholder Forestry Projects in Madagascar: Opportunities and Challenges

This paper explores multi-stakeholder perspectives on the extent to which forestry projects that pursue ecological restoration and rehabilitation in Madagascar engage with local communities and can co-deliver climate-development benefits. Drawing on mixed methods (policy analysis, semi-structured interviews, participatory site visits and focus groups) in two different forestry contexts, we show that by strengthening access to capital availability, projects can enhance local adaptive capacity and mitigation and deliver local development. We show that active consideration of ecological conservation and action plans early in project design and implementation can co-develop and support monitoring and reporting systems, needed to progress towards integrated climate-compatible development approaches. Climate mitigation benefits remain poorly quantified due to limited interest in, and low capacity to generate, carbon revenues. Monitoring alone does not ensure carbon benefits will materialize, and this research stresses that institutional considerations and strengthened engagement and cooperation between practitioners and communities are key in achieving both climate mitigation and community development impacts. Multiple benefits can be fostered by aligning objectives of multiple landscape actors (i.e., community needs and project developers) and by systematically linking project deliverables, outputs, outcomes and impacts over time, grounded in a theory of change focused on ensuring community buy-in and planning for delivery of tangible benefits.

Managing multifunctional landscapes: Local insights from a Pacific Island Country context

Across Pacific Island Countries, projects and policies are incorporating objectives related to managing landscape multifunctionality to sustain flows of multiple, valued ecosystem services. Strategies to manage natural resources are often not effective, or do not have intended outcomes, if they do not account for local contexts and the varied needs and constraints of stakeholders who rely upon natural resources for their livelihoods. Through fieldwork in Ba, Fiji, local insights were generated concerning the institutional, geographic, and socio-economic factors which determine and challenge i) different stakeholders' ability to access landscape resources, and ii) stakeholders' capacities to benefit from ecosystem services. The following insights were generated from this research which are important for guiding management of landscape multifunctionality. In Ba, hierarchical governance systems present barriers to effective management of landscape multifunctionality, and projects or policies with aims to manage landscapes should establish context appropriate multi-scale governance. Such governance systems should facilitate communication and interaction between different stakeholders, build upon community knowledge, and support communities as key actors in landscape management. Consideration of the spatial footprint of landscape resources, stakeholders' different physical and financial capacities, and the institutional structures that mediate access to resources should be central to landscape management and planning. Various climatic stressors affect flows of ecosystem services from the Ba landscape and people's capacity to access landscape resources; therefore, it is important that management of landscapes also builds resilience to climate stressors.

A cross-national comparison of the efficacy of community-based and national governance approaches on the protection of the African elephant

This study uses a longitudinal cross-national carcass database to analyze the relative effectiveness of community-based and national governance approaches at conserving elephant populations. Controlling for variables previously identified as impacting poaching levels, an increase in land area under either community or national governance is found to be correlated with an increased likelihood of illegal elephant deaths, with community-based governance being associated with an increase roughly twice that of national governance. This finding suggests that community-based governance may be less effective than national governance at protecting commercially valuable wildlife such as elephants, but neither approach has been able to demonstrate sustained success. Consequently, rather than declaring either conservation approach as clearly preferable, policymakers should instead focus on ensuring that selected conservation approaches are tailored to site-specific natural, institutional, and socio-economic characteristics.

To what extent do potential conservation donors value community-aspects of conservation projects in low income countries?

There is a major gap in funding required for conservation, especially in low income countries. Given the significant contribution of taxpayers in industrialized countries to funding conservation overseas, and donations from membership organisation, understanding the preferences of ordinary people in a high income country for different attributes of conservation projects is valuable for future marketing of conservation. We conducted a discrete choice experiment with visitors to a UK zoo, while simultaneously conducting a revealed preference study through a real donation campaign on the same sample. Respondents showed the highest willingness to pay for projects that have local community involvement in management (95% confidence interval £9.82 to £15.83), and for improvement in threatened species populations (£2.97 - £13.87). Both of these were significantly larger than the willingness to pay for projects involving provision of alternative livelihoods, or improving the condition of conservation sites. Results of the simultaneous donation campaign showed that respondents were very willing to donate the suggested £1 or above donation (88% made a donation, n = 1798); there was no effect of which of the two campaigns they were exposed to (threatened species management or community involvement in management). The small number of people who did not make a donation had a higher stated willingness to pay within the choice experiment, which may suggest hypothetical bias. Conservationists increasingly argue that conservation should include local communities in management (for both pragmatic and moral reasons). It is heartening that potential conservation donors seem to agree.

Beyond payments for ecosystem services: considerations of trust, livelihoods and tenure security in community-based conservation projects

In the search for successful community-based conservation models there has been a substantial focus on payment for ecosystem services. Such payments are measurable inputs that are often associated with conservation success. A closer look suggests a more complex, historically and culturally contingent picture. We argue that a focus on payment for ecosystem services as a defining factor for success in community conservation risks overlooking other, more significant processes. In particular, we argue for the importance of (1) tenure and livelihood security and (2) relations of trust, communication and respect. We draw on case studies from East Africa, but the findings are relevant for global community-based conservation endeavours.

Water matters: An assessment of opinion on water management and community engagement in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom

Internationally, water management is moving from the traditional top-down approach to more integrated initiatives focussing on community-led action. With inadequacies in previous engagement initiatives undertaken through the first cycle of River Basin Management Planning for the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), the Republic of Ireland has only recently embraced this bottom-up approach. The attempted introduction of national charging for domestic water use in 2015 has resulted in significant public disquiet and protest movements against the national government. In April 2015 we undertook a survey of current opinion on water management and community engagement initiatives in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. A total of 520 survey responses identified that although freshwater bodies are important in peoples' lives, respondents were typically unaware of global initiatives such as Integrated Water Resources Management and Integrated Catchment Management. Overall, 81% of respondents did not feel included in decisions about their water environment despite an overwhelming 95% believing that local communities should have a say in how the water environment is managed. However, only 35.1% of respondents stated that they would be willing to attend local water management engagement initiatives. Rather than supporting individual gain, respondents identified social gains for the local community as avenues for increasing local involvement in water initiatives. In the Republic of Ireland, a water engagement initiative that implements the national framework local delivery model should be developed and implemented. This would 1) contribute to the second round of WFD River Basin Management Planning; 2) facilitate stronger connections between local communities and their water environment; and 3) foster bottom-up initiatives that empower communities regarding local water management issues.

Challenges to polycentric governance of an international development project tackling land degradation in Swaziland

To effectively address the drivers and impacts of land degradation requires polycentric governance systems that facilitate international development projects (IDPs). This paper analyses an IDP aiming to reduce land degradation in Swaziland. A longitudinal-style qualitative approach draws on repeat household surveys, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. We aim to identify the changes that have taken place since the departure of the IDP funders, and the subsequent dynamics between stakeholders. We: (1) chart the evolution of the institutional structures and processes of the IDP; and (2) assess community perceptions of IDP outcomes. Lack of meaningful participation at various stages of the PMC caused the project to lose momentum following the departure of the funders. We discuss these findings in relation to a polycentric approach, and identify how multi-stakeholder IDP can be facilitated as part of wider polycentric governance approaches to inform policies to combat land degradation within Swaziland and more widely.