ABSTRACT
Much of the action taken by development practitioners to address local-level environmental problems in the Third World consists of projects such as tree-planting schemes, soil-bunding efforts or improved irrigation management strategies which seek to establish resource use at sustainable levels for selected target areas. In spite of occasional suggestions that broader-level national or international policies should be formulated with the aim of making natural resource management concerns an integral part of economic and social policy (e.g. Warford 1987), this type of approach remains dominant. It is therefore not surprising that the current discussion of environment and development issues often mentions ‘people’s participation’ as a prerequisite for successful ‘sustainable development’. Resource management projects, as currently implemented, depend heavily on broad-based cooperation and collaboration because they often rely on the combined actions of individuals which – whether such actions be planting trees or refraining from overfishing – by their nature cannot easily be coerced or enforced. The willingness of people to undertake the required activities – what is conventionally understood as their ‘participation’ – is therefore essential for the success of these projects. Participation in resource management in the Third World, however, should be understood as a much broader concept – it takes many forms, and is not limited to people’s contribution of time and labour to externally developed initiatives. 2 This chapter discusses ways in which a more thorough understanding of the range of activities which constitute people’s participation in local-level environmental activities – from the development of indigenous resource management systems to resistance to destructive external initiatives – can be used to form the basis of a more constructive approach to sustainable development.
