ABSTRACT
In 2007, we planned to facilitate negotiations and support agreements between communities and governments relating to selected policy processes that would include attention to both local people’s lives and environments. We hoped to have strengthened the abilities of communities within each landscape and their subgroups to deal effectively with powerful external actors (such as government, 1 industry and conservation officers) and with their own elites. Land-use planning was the policy terrain in which we worked in Laos, Indonesia and Tanzania; forest management and conservation were the issues in Cameroon and Madagascar. We expected that our facilitation could enhance social learning and collective action processes for empowerment at both community and district levels. Although we have made some strides in this endeavour, with rates differing from site to site, we have faced a series of problems and surprises, ranging from administrative difficulties in launching activities to relationships among partners, to totally unexpected events like political instability in Madagascar, gold mining in Laos and rivalries linked to the location of park headquarters in Cameroon. Our experience has demonstrated clearly that more time, resources and a long-term focus on the adaptive capacity at all levels are needed, as is follow-up, in terms of action and research, on these early findings.
