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Co-management
and the 2004 World Conservation Congress
The 3rd World Conservation Congress (WCC) in Bangkok
(November 15-25, 2004) was an important moment for the
Collaborative Management Working Group (CWMG) of CEESP,
and we have many reasons to celebrate:
The Working Group has been active for 8 years, throughout
which it steadily grew in size and engagement. The Group
held a special meeting on November 16th and the coherent
variety of work subjects and unfailing commitment of
our members energized everyone in sight. In particular,
the members celebrated the fact that the co-management
approach is now firmly included in international policy—most
notably in the Programme of Work for Protected Areas
of the Convention on Biological Diversity, but also
in the policy of the IUCN and its members and partners.
Some of the major publications developed with the collaboration
of hundreds of CMWG members were launched at the Bangkok
Congress, including:
CMWG members participated actively in the WCC Conservation
Forum, and were among the organizers and prime movers
of most initiatives related to conservation, equity
and human rights.
The Congress approved, by a large margin, all Motions
that were devised with the help and support of CMWG
members; these include—among others— the
Resolutions on Governance of Natural Resources, Food
Sovereignty, Community Conserved Areas, the Landscape/seascape
Approach, and two Resolutions on Indigenous Peoples
and Conservation.
The IUCN elections in Bangkok were also kind to our
members. They reconfirmed Taghi Farvar as Chair of CEESP
and brought Marija Zupancic Vicar and Claudio Carrera
Maretti into the Council. Many CMWG members supported
the election of Nik Loupokhine as Chair of WCPA and
Valli Moosa as President of the Union, and members are
convinced that the collaboration with them will prove
effective in the years to come.
Importantly, the Congress approved a new CEESP mandate
whereby the CMWG is to continue its work with a revised
and expanded role.
During the Conservation Forum, CMWG held a round table
discussion on issues of Governance of Natural Resources
within IUCN, which had implications for the future of
the CMWG. In the light of the mounting interest on such
issues as well as on equity in natural resource management
and human rights objectives versus conservation objectives
(both at the Congress and in the conservation community
in general), the roundtable explored the possibility
of CMWG enlarging its sphere of interest and transforming
itself into a Theme dedicated to issues of Governance,
Equity and Human Rights. As a matter of fact, much of
the work of CMWG in 2003 and 2004 has been already related
to governance of natural resources- with a specific
focus on community
conserved areas (CCAs) and co-managed protected areas
(CMPAs). Governance of natural resources was addressed
extensively in the Governance Stream of the World Parks
Congress ( Durban, September 2003). Please see the Final
report for the World Parks Congress - Workshop Stream
III: Governance of Protected Areas compiled by Diane
Pansky. Individual papers are available from Cecile
Thiery at IUCN headquarters (cet@hq.iucn.org).
See also the entire proceedings of the stream, now fully
available also by the care of Diane Pansky.
All
the participants in the roundtable agreed that expanding
our focus to include natural resource governance, equity,
and rights would be a logical evolution of our group.
Some, however, recommended that the technical specialist
group on co-management should not be allowed to disappear
as it can continue to provide an important role. For
instance, the contributions and dedication of CMWG members
has been critical to producing unique documents such
as Sharing
Power: Learning by Doing in Co-management of Natural
Resources throughout the World), and requests for
CM expertise are regularly received by the group. Could
a renewed group maintain its vocation towards CM and,
at the same time, open up new areas of concern? If so,
how? The roundtable in Bangkok considered these questions
also in the light of the fact that another CEESP (and
WCPA) group—
TILCEPA— is concerned with governance, equity
and rights, although only for the specific case of protected
areas.
CWMG Follow Up to The Roundtable Discussion at WCC 2004
After the Roundtable, CMWG members at large were invited
to express their views and preferences via e-mail about
whether CMWG should transform itself into Theme on Governance,
Equity and Rights (TGER) or whether it should remain
focused on co-management of natural resources within
a larger TGER entity. Suggestions on structural arrangements
and thematic focus for the future of our Working Group
were also requested.
About 40 replies were received, 23 of which included
a completed questionnaire. While this response rate
did not capture a large percentage of the CMWG total
membership, respondents varied terms of gender and geography
(7 women, 16 men; 13 countries of which about half were
from the South). An analysis of these answers revealed
that most CMWG members were interested in expanding
the subject matter of the group into Governance, Equity
and Rights, but that many members also wish to maintain
the debate and exchanges regarding the specific focus
on co-management.
Following CMWG member feedback, and in tune with the
new mandate of CEESP approved at Bangkok and by the
CEESP Executive Committee (May 11-12, 2005), the Co-management
Working Group has now officially evolved into a Theme
on Governance, Equity and Rights. This
web page on Co-management, however, remains at the disposal
of people who would like to discuss only co-management
related issues and post co-management related papers
and ideas. For instance some new papers have just been
uploaded below. Please visit them!
Current Status of CMWG and TGER Discussion Lists
The
CMWG discussion list has also officially changed into
a TGER discussion list. Members can send
in messages to CMWG@indaba.iucn.org,
or to the new name TGER@inadaba.iucn.org.
In both cases, all the messages will appear with the
subject matter starting with [TGER]. Senders,
however, may still wish to send messages relevant only
to co-management and identify that in the subject line.
For instance, they could simply have them begin by ”CM”:
and follow that with the appropriate title. In
the receiving mailboxes, the subject line will appear
as “[TGER] CM: title”. For messages
related to issues of governance at large, equity and
human rights you would not need to add anything in particular
to the title.
We hope the CMWG members will appreciate and enjoy the
broader area of focus and will become even more active
in the life of the group. Any suggestions or advice
on how this could be done will be very much appreciated.
Please send it to leili@cenesta.org
New papers and books on co-management
Collaborative Management approach for Marine Protected Areas at Bali Barat National Park (2MB)
Prospects
for co-management in Nsumbu National Park, Zambia—a
poster by CMWG member Matthew Fossey, Department of
Geography, Lancaster University
Tribals
and Tigers:Will the Forest Rights Bill Save Both?
By Ashish Kothari and Neema Pathak
CMWG involvement in the 7th Conference of Parties
of the Convention on Biological Diversity
CMWG organized a side event on governance of protected
areas at the Seventh Conference of Parties to the CBD
in Kuala Lumpur ( Malaysia) in February 2004 (COP 7),
and distributed governance-related pamphlets and literature.
CMWG members also participated in the technical meeting
that preceded the Conference of Parties to the Convention:
SBSTTA (Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and
Technological Advice).
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