Challenges for participatory institutions: the case of village forest committees in Karnataka, South India
Martin, A.; Lemon, M.
Society and Natural Resources 14(7): 585-597
2001
ISSN/ISBN: 0894-1920 DOI: 10.1080/089419201750341880Document Number: 497130
This article finds that the recent enthusiasm for participatory resource management institutions must be tempered by an ongoing critique of the problems that frequently hinder successful practice. Two key obstacles to effective participation are considered. First, new institutional arrangements often reproduce the social relationships that marginalize certain groups of people in the first place. To this end, the role of gender is examined in some detail, as an example of the problems associated with participation and empowerment. Second, new participatory institutions are often embedded within wider legal and policy frameworks that make it difficult for them to develop the capacity for self-management. Through a study of joint forest planning and management in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, it is argued that local contexts require fuller understanding and that local agency can only be facilitated where policies and legal frameworks are more receptive to local negotiation.