ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the nature of community-operated projects at the national, regional, and community levels. The interaction of a bioenergy project with the national government can become quite complex, and community projects can share in the opportunities of and problems posed by extensive government media campaigns for fuelwood or biogas production. Since a community-managed scheme is usually a kind of joint venture between the government or a donor and a community, the usual discipline of the marketplace is significantly reduced because additional outside support can often compensate for local failures. Possible constraints on the success of the community-centered projects are numerous, and such issues as scale, land use, and legal problems must be examined by the planner and participating members of the community. Community-managed bioenergy projects inevitably cause extra problems compared to commercial projects or to projects utilizing individual farmers.