Focus AreasTrust Funds and CentresCross-Cutting Areas and InitiativesSearch |
Local Level Land & Integrated Resource ManagementThis category covers essentially projects for integrated land and natural resource management. These projects based on the principles of land use planning, were planned and developed closely with the resource-users and aimed at ensuring integration of interventions on different levels. A good number of these projects started out addressing sectoral problems and then evolved towards integrated solutions. They are based on associating as much as possible the target population in each stage of project development. This " iterative" approach places emphasis on the dialogue between the various stakeholders throughout the process and on measuring and monitoring progress. The approach avoids a rigid project framework. The project evolution is rather based on a relatively long preparatory phase up to two years. During this phase various surveys and studies, particularly socio-economic ones, are undertaken to identify the existing problems and to propose technically feasible options and solutions. These options are negotiated with local populations, which select, modify and agree on the most promising solution and take themselves the decisions on the detailed implementation strategy. The process allows to develop a close relationship with village structures or community organizations, where they exist, or helps to establish them where they do not exist. A key lesson is the overriding importance of the programming and implementation process itself and the transfer of the initiative from the "project agent" to the local resource user. This empowers the population to take active part in testing new concepts and systems, and in identifying and searching for solutions to problems in natural resource management. Local institutions stand out as the essential foundation for scaling up impacts of successfully tested methods and techniques. Upgrading basic skills (literacy and numeracy) in local communities emerges as a prime condition for local institutions to assume their new responsibilities, as does the promotion of legal and regulatory frameworks permitting their genuine local and regional participation. The limitation of the developed approach seems to be the fact that it has proven difficult to apply it beyond a micro-zone or a grouping of small localities. This situation can partially be explained by the mismatch between this approach and the institutional environment, which is often little or not conducive for long-term and self-sustaining development. The replicability of the approach is limited among others by institutional constraints, such as the centralized character of administrative structures and of decision-making, the lack of regulations and codes defining the access to natural resources, the dominant role of the administration, the limited material capacities of the rural populations, lack or inadequate credit systems, and the embryonic character of civil society. he following project summeries illustrate UNSO's experience with the "gestion de terroir" approach:
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Land Management Topics
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