Key Principles of Community-Based Natural Resource Management: A Synthesis and Interpretation of Identified Effective Approaches for Managing the Commons

Abstract

This article examines recent research on approaches to community-based environmental and natural resource management and reviews the commonalities and differences between these interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder initiatives. To identify the most effective characteristics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) I collected a multiplicity of perspectives from research teams and then grouped findings into a matrix of "Organizational Principles" and "Key Characteristics." This matrix was then given an initial vetting (or "field test") by applying numerous case studies that were previously submitted to the World Bank International Workshop on Community-Based Natural Resource Management. These practitioner case studies were then compared and contrasted with the findings of the research teams. It is hoped that the developed matrix may be useful to researchers, to further focus research to understand core characteristics of effective and sustainable CBNRM, to provide practitioners a framework for developing new CBNRM initiatives for managing the commons, and to provide a potential resource for academic institutions during their evaluation of their practitioner focused environmental management and leadership curriculum. KEY WORDS: Community-based natural resource management, Community-based environmental initiatives, The Commons, Social-ecological systems, Interdisciplinary Process, Environmental Curriculum An Emerging Model and the PromiseCommunity-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) is an emerging international model for natural resource management. During the past 20 years it has become an increasingly popular resource management approach that promises to address both social justice and environmental protection (Brosius 1998). It is an alternative model to centralized approaches of resource management that some have cited as achieving dismal outcomes after decades of intrusive systems of sanctions and top-down decrees (Agrawal 1999). These centrally planned natural resource management systems frequently had faulty designs, inefficiencies, and sometimes corruption (Agrawal 1999). Indigenous communities were sometimes viewed as the 1 James Gruber is a core faculty member

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