scholarly journals Decentralization for Increased Sustainability in Natural Resource Management? Two Cautionary Cases from Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6885
Author(s):  
James Natia Adam ◽  
Timothy Adams ◽  
Jean-David Gerber ◽  
Tobias Haller
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Natural Resource Management ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Central Administration ◽  
African Countries

In Sub-Saharan African countries, governments are increasingly devolving natural resource management from central administration to the local government level as a trend toward subsidiarity. In parallel, efforts to implement formalization processes have resulted in a puzzling institutional arena, wherein mixed actors are struggling to influence the paths of institutional change and the associated distribution of land and land-related resources. Relying on political ecology and new institutionalism in social anthropology, we investigate how the decentralization of formalization of rights in artisanal and small-scale gold mining can lead to paradoxical outcomes, often negatively impacting social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Two comparative case studies are performed in Ghana. Our results show that the negative effects of formalization efforts for resource end users are to be understood in the broad context of actors’ repositioning strategies following the selective implementation of decentralization. The authors conclude that increasing the power of the central government and line ministries to control local resources can influence the disenfranchisement of local people’s participation and control of natural resources, resulting in a relentless environmental crisis.

scholarly journals KAJIAN KEBIJAKAN SUMBERDAYA ALAM BERBASIS PADA EKOLOGI POLITIK

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Agus Lukman
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Natural Resource Management ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
Policy Theory ◽  
Ecological Problems ◽  
Resource Policy ◽  
Multi Level

Abstract: The study of natural resource management policy is concentrated more on the implementation and evaluation of natural resource policies, whereas failure and lack of optimal public policies are mostly caused by public policy formulations that are not systematic, partial and have not touched the substance of the matter. SDA policy theory explains that ecological problems cannot be solved partially but with a multi-level approach by examining actors who play a role in the preparation of policy regulations so that the problems of natural resource management can no longer be analyzed with a technical approach but are more appropriate to use a political aspect approach.Keywords: Resource Policy, Political ecology, Polital aspect. Abstrak: Kajian kebijakan pengelolaan sumberdaya alam (SDA) lebih banyak dikonsentrasikan pada implementasi dan evaluasi kebijakan SDA padahal gagal dan kurang optimalnya kebijakan public lebih banyak disebabkan karena formulasi kebijakan public yang tidak sistematis, parsial dan belum menyentuh pada substansi persoalan. Teori kebijakan SDA menjelaskan bahwa persoalan ekologi tidak bisa diselesaikan secara parsial tetapi dengan pendekatan multi aras dengan mengkaji aktor-aktor yang berperan dalam penyusunan regulasi kebijakan sehingga persoalan pengelolaan SDA tidak bisa lagi dianalisis dengan pendekatan teknis tetapi lebih tepat menggunakan pendekatan political aspect.Kata kunci: Kebijakan SDA, Ekologi Politik, Aspek Politik.

The conceptual evolution and practice of community-based natural resource management in southern Africa: past, present and future

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRIAN CHILD ◽  
GRENVILLE BARNES
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Natural Resource Management ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Resource Governance

SUMMARYThis paper reviews the concept and practice of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) as it has evolved in southern Africa, with a particular focus on Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and, to a lesser extent, Zambia. It recognizes that, like democracy, CBNRM is both an imperfect process and a conceptual goal. The governance of economic processes, property rights and local political organization lie at the heart of CBNRM. The first challenge is to replace fiscal centralization, fees and bureaucracy (and the subsidization of alternative land uses) that have historically undervalued wild resources, so that CBNRM's comparative economic advantage is reflected in landholder and community incentives. Second, devolving property rights to communities shifts resource governance, responsibility and benefit appropriately to the local level. This necessitates accountable, transparent and equitable micro-governance, which in turn is linked to effective meso-level support and monitoring and cross-scale linkages between central government and local communities. This paper outlines the evolution of current models of CBNRM in the region and suggests core strategies for the next generation of CBNRM.

From “Project” to “Context”: Community Based Natural Resource Management in Botswana

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry A. Swatuk
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Natural Resource Management ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Wildlife Conservation ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Community Based

Community based natural resource management (CBNRM) programs presently proliferate across the Global South. In Southern Africa, CBNRM overwhelmingly focuses on wildlife conservation in areas adjacent to national parks and game reserves. The objects of these development activities are remote communities that exhibit the highest levels of poverty in the region, the consequences of which are sometimes resource degradation. CBNRM seeks to empower and enrich the lives of these communities through the active co-management of their natural resource base. Almost without exception, however, CBNRM projects have had disappointing results. Common explanations lay blame at the feet of local people who are seen to lack capacity and will, among other things. This paper contests this explanation by subjecting the particular case of Botswana to a deeper, critical political ecology analysis. Drawing on insights from Homer-Dixon regarding resource capture and ecological marginalization, and from Acharya regarding the localization of global norms, the paper argues that CBNRM is better understood as a discursive site wherein diverse actors bring unequal power/knowledge to bear in the pursuit of particular interests. In Botswana this manifests at a local level as an on-going struggle over access to land and related resources. However, given that CBNRM is supported by a wide array of international actors, forming perhaps the thin edge of a wider wedge in support of democratization, good governance and biodiversity preservation, locally empowered actors are forced to adapt their interests to the strictures of emergent structures of global governance. The outcome is a complex interplay of activities whereby CBNRM is realized but not in a form anticipated by its primary supporters.

scholarly journals Rethinking natural resource management in Thailand

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mogens Buch-Hansen ◽  
Peter Oksen ◽  
Sidthinat Prabudhanitisarn
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Natural Resource Management ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Sustainable Utilisation

Environmental science is shaped by the socio-political context in which it is produced. Environmental problems and explanations are context specific, and this article contributes to a critical political ecology by illustrating the changing relationship between conceptualisation of environmental problems and explanations of them, and the socio-political context in contemporary Thailand. During the 'development epoch' from the 1950s, both natural and social sciences became compartmentalised and the epistemology of environmental science became dominated by the demands of a growth economy and utilitarian values. The resulting impasse of conventional knowledge of natural resource management coincided with a socio-political and bureaucratic reform process pushed by various democratic movements. Together with a request for decentralisation and devolution of state power, these movements are also fighting for sustainable utilisation of natural resources, and sustainable agricultural practices. A precondition, however, for sustainable utilisation of natural resources is a change in conceptualisation and knowledge creation for resource management. The Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management (SLUSE) collaboration offers alternative ways of creating knowledge for sustainable utilisation of natural resources, that aim to support the present socio-political reform process in Thailand.Key Words: Thailand, natural resource management, transdisciplinarity

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