ABSTRACT
The aim and focus of this volume has been on examining the ways that institutional arrangements for governing natural resources have been negotiated in different African states, across various scales of both society and time. The cases highlight the political dimensions of natural resource use and governance processes and how resource management outcomes are related to political and economic interests amongst particular groups or organizations. The motivation for assembling these cases has been a practical one: to use comparisons across cases to generate an improved understanding of how and why natural resource governance reform efforts play out the way that they do, and to contribute to the development of more effective strategies for influencing institutional changes which empower local people to secure their livelihoods, lands and environmental assets. This concluding chapter attempts to synthesize the key outcomes and patterns from across the cases in order to capture key lessons and contribute towards more effective reform efforts in the future.
