Co-management of natural resources: organising, negotiating and learning by doing

Is it possible to go beyond what the State declares to be the best way to manage natural resources? If yes, how? To these questions GTZ and the IUCN attempt to provide some answers with this publication – a practical manual for natural-resource managers interested in negotiating multi-party agreements and institutions, and in learning by doing. The publication offers guidelines, checklists, concepts, ideas and a range of methods and tools to facilitate a co-management process. What it does not offer, and it emphasises could not be offered, is a set of hard-and-fast co-management rules. For the IUCN, this publication constitutes an exemplary case of productive synergy between its Commissions and Secretariat. Indeed, the document is the result of a partnership between the Collaborative Management Working Group (CMWG) – a working group under the IUCN Commission of Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) – and the IUCN Regional Office for Central Africa (ROCA), which operates the Co-management Project for Nature Conservation in the Congo Basin with GTZ sponsorship. The experience gained in this partnership deserves careful examination from the IUCN as a whole, also because it directly responds to the mandate of the IUCN Resolution 1.42 of the First World Conservation Congress (Montreal, 1996). From the perspective of the German Development Cooperation, this publication perfectly fits its main policy tenets: achieving a balance between biodiversity conservation and development concerns. The publication emphasises the links between conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, on the one hand, and poverty reduction on the other. It also stresses the need to strengthen human and institutional capacities in GTZ’s partner countries whilst learning from their local experience. By making available co-management concepts, ideas, methods and tools, we hope to assist a variety of social actors striving to figure out «how best to manage natural resources». To all of them we wish good luck in the use of this volume, trusting it may lead to more sustainable and equitable approaches.