Introduction: Communication and Natural Resource Management: Experience/Theory
This book has been written as a tool for people involved or interested in communication and natural resource management who seek a better understanding of how different theories and strategic change principles relate to actual practise. It is not, however, a book of theory nor is it an argument for one approach over another. Instead, it relates a variety of theories and change principles in simplified, almost schematic form, to a series of real initiatives in the field through interactive «experiences».
It asks that the reader become a participant in a process that requires reading and analysing each initiative using different theoretical lenses. Each «experience» is organised around a theme, a learning objective, a description of an actual natural resource management and communication initiative, and one or two theoretical lenses through which to analyse the initiative. As you work through each «experience», you will be asked questions about the theory and change principles and how they relate to the initiative. The idea is not to «discover» the right approach but rather to create an interactive space that enables you to reflect on what might work in your own context and also on how different contexts may require different approaches, principles and theoretical frameworks.
The reader will find no examples of «best practice» in this book nor will you find step-by-step examples of how to «do» natural resource management communication. While there are clearly examples of good practise and well planned initiatives in this and other places (1), this is a book about exploring the practical relation between theory and practise and about being open to different perspectives and approaches. Its format is designed for you to interact with directly. Spaces are there for you to write in, make margin notes on, and highlight elements that are relevant to you. It is also designed to be easy to photocopy so you can make multiple copies for yourself or others. We encourage you to use it in workshops as well as a tool for individual reflection. We hope you enjoy it and find it useful.
Between 1970 and 1999 the natural wealth of the earth's forests, freshwater ecosystems, oceans and coasts declined by 33 percent.(2) Today, 58 percent of the world's coral reefs and 34 percent of all fish species are at risk.(3) Within the next 25 years 48 countries accounting for 35 percent of the world's projected population will face water shortages.(4) Over the next 50 years the world's population is estimated to grow by 50 percent to 9.3 billion. Virtually all of this growth will be in today's developing countries. The 49 poorest countries will see their populations grow from 668 million to 1.86 billion people. (5)
This grim statistical list could go on and on. The world has not managed its natural resources well and the problem will almost certainly get worse before it gets better. Furthermore, though the poorest and most marginalised have the smallest «footprints» when it comes to using the world's resources, they are also those who are and will be effected first and worst. Therefore, while long term solutions to the world's major environmental and food security problems depend significantly on action from the wealthy and most industrialised countries (those with the largest «footprints»), day to day survival for the poor and marginalised will depend increasingly on the careful local management of natural resources in a context of increasing scarcity and demand. Add to this the impact of AIDS which has already killed an estimated 7 million agricultural workers and is predicted to kill another 16 million by 2020 (6) and it is clear that the coming years will present unprecedented challenges especially for the rural poor.
So, as journeys to find firewood get longer, maintaining the fertility of the soil gets harder, catches of fish get smaller, and the hands to do the work get fewer, the need to effectively manage natural resources has never been greater. Similarly, improving communication as a tool to facilitate the better management of limited resources has never been more critical. But, finding ways to sustainably and equitably steward and share these resources will require dialogue and compromise at global, national and local levels. Future benefits need to be weighed against immediate costs, and short-term interests against long term sustainability.
This exploration of experiences, theories and methods, will provide opportunities to reflect on the critical role that communication for development can play in supporting essential processes of dialogue. We hope that it offers some insight into how best to support the many actions that people are already taking, as they confront the challenges facing us all in a world of finite natural resources.
Let us begin by drawing out some key themes through the voices of a Zimbabwean war veteran, development worker and poet, and some leading thinkers in the areas of Natural Resource Management (NRM) and communication for social change. In Dusk of Dawn, a book of prose and poetry, Freedom Nyambaya writes:
A Career for Life
I am a retired soldier
not a retired revolutionary
I still walk around armed
with tools and ideas of how to grow more maize
There are still those of us
who consciously organise and create
Africa's man-made problems and make
our suffering a career for interested scholars(7)
From Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend, M. Taghi Farvar, Jean Claude Nguinguiri and Vincent Awa Ndangang, in the Co-management of Natural Resources: Organizing, Negotiating and Learning-by-Doing:
«In the past, many traditional societies formed relatively closed systems in which natural resources were managed through complex interplays of reciprocities and solidarities. Communal property was generally widespread, and constituted a crucial element in the cohesion and sustainability of traditional resource management systems. Local knowledge and skills, built through extended historical experience, were another cornerstone. Most importantly, local communities tended to create themselves around a body of natural resources that they could manage together...
The historical emergence of colonial powers and nation states, and their violent assumption of authority over most common lands and natural resources led to the demise of traditional resource management systems virtually everywhere. The monetisation of economic exchange weakened local systems of reciprocity and solidarity, as did the incorporation of local economies into increasingly global systems of reference. In addition, the rise in power of modern, expert-based, «scientific» practices induced severe losses in local knowledge and skills. This generalised breakdown of local NRM systems finally resulted in the disempowerment and «deresponsibilisation» of local communities...» (8)
And again from Freedom Nyamubaya:
Shanty town beauty
She stood at the door step
must have been five years or less
the begging eyes gazed from left to right
The kwashiokored tummy bulged out
of the torn dress
with marks that looked like the map of Africa
I realised it was not tattoo
but an accumulation of dust
run over by sweat
Pretty more than famous Cleopatra
everything equal
the girl would pass for Miss Africa
just another woman nature produced
but forgot to breast-feed (9)
These two voices, while coming from radically different backgrounds, present us with quite similar perspectives on the disempowerment of local communities, the importance of who «owns» development processes, and a sense of the mistrust and obstacles to communication that have been created by colonialism, modernisation and globalisation.
Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend et al. tell us of a series of external impositions on local communities through colonial or state rule, the discounting of local knowledge in favour of «scientific» knowledge, and in some cases the stripping away of local control in a process they call «deresponsibilisation». These forms of disempowerment stripped many local communities of the capacity and even the right to manage the resources that had previously been the foundation of their existence and identity.
At the same time, and not surprisingly, these disempowering processes have generated mistrust and resistance. Freedom's revolutionary commitment to the development of tools and ideas to «grow more maize» and refusal to be objectified by scholars or images of hunger and poverty, speaks to community frustration and anger, but more importantly, to community strength and determination to reclaim what has been taken away.
What they both say is that managing natural resources in the difficult times ahead will require a clear recognition of the mistakes and abuses of the past. The «local» has to have an influential, indeed powerful, seat at the NRM table, and previous patterns of exclusion should be seen as having often been disastrous, both for local communities and for the world as a whole.
Continued...
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