Local Communities and Natural Products: A Manual for Organizing Natural Resource Management Groups for Resource Management Planning, Enterprise Development and Integration into Value Chains

Key points in document

• This manual is intended to guide project planners through the process of integrating enterprises related to the production of goods from natural products into community-based natural resource management plans.
• The document provides a multi-faceted approach to enterprise development that utilizes methods such as community organizing, natural resource management planning, enterprise planning, and value chain integration.
• The document describes examples of community-based natural resource management projects in Nepal carried out by the Asia Network for Sustainable Agriculture and Bioresources (ANSAB).
• The manual provides guidance on planning for enterprises and their products, market development and planning, financial planning, policy and regulatory considerations, and the development of a business plan. ANSAB considers these steps key components for the creation of an enabling environment.

Information relevant to Learning Questions:

Are enabling conditions in place to support a sustainable enterprise?

• Stakeholder alignment
• Market demand
• Ownership
• Government requirements, policies for enterprises, business alliances
• Financial management capacity, technical capacity
• Equipment
• Policies for and enforcement of resource use

Does the enterprise lead to benefits to stakeholders?

• Increased income for participants
• Non-cash benefits

Do the benefits lead to positive changes in attitudes and behavior?

• Not addressed

Does a change in stakeholders’ behaviors lead to a reduction to threats to biodiversity (or restoration)?

• Residential and commercial development
• Agriculture and aquaculture
• Biological resource use
• Natural system modifications

Does a reduction in threats (or restoration) lead to conservation?

• Forest ecosystems
• Species