Involving local communities in ways that assure their support is essential to the long-term success of watershed management programmes. This session focused on means of achieving local community support and includes two papers on this subject. Although not included in these Proceedings, this summary contains comments on "A forester's guide for community involvement in upland conservation" that was discussed by James H. French and Romeo H. Gecolea. This is an extensive and useful document in and of itself.
Botero discussed the use of incentives to obtain voluntary participation and effective response of local people by appealing to their individual or collective interests. Incentives are particularly needed when current land use practices conflict with conservation objectives. A grassroots approach was stressed whereby programmes must fully recognize that small upland farmers are operating at subsistence levels and do not have the time nor capital to implement conservation and rehabilitation measures without help. Governmental mechanisms are needed to take resources from the "rich" downstream areas [often the major beneficiaries of watershed management projects] and transfer them in the form of incentives to upland communities. Botero discussed different types of incentives to assist upland farmers to obtain their participation. Stability of land tenure and the appropriate marketing of farmers' products are prerequisites to achieving successful incentive programmes. He also stressed that incentives should not be viewed as governmental gifts and that incentive programmes must not develop a permanent dependency relationship between the farmers and the government.
Arnold provided an excellent review of community forestry experience in terms of contributions or impacts on integrated watershed management. Programmes need to recognize the importance of forests and trees to rural people. Community development should enable people to grow more trees to secure fuelwood, food, fodder, construction lumber and other products. The benefits and costs of forestry projects differ according to the point of view, i.e., individual farmers, communities or a national forest service. Likewise, these different points of view lead to different patterns of tree cover development. For example, community forests may be clusters of trees near villages and may not necessarily be located in critical areas where they would best provide watershed benefits. Arnold stressed that even in such instances, community forests have watershed value because they relieve the pressures on surrounding forests by providing an alternative supply of forest products. Therefore, community forests can be considered integral parts of watershed management programmes.
Arnold also pointed out the importance of community forests in providing multiple use benefits which may not be realized by the planting of individual trees by farmers. Programmes which stress fast growing trees should not be so narrowly focused that they ignore the many important functions that trees and forests play in the life of rural people. All dimensions of forest resource needs, e.g., fodder, fruits, nuts, oils and gums, etc., should be considered in terms of multiple benefits. Projects and programmes should keep all these dimensions in mind when formulating objectives and strategies to achieve them.
French and Gecolea discussed their "Guide" as a potentially useful tool for extension activities. They discussed the unique aspects of performing extension work in watershed management, particularly the difficulty of getting upland farmers and foresters to become concerned about impacts on downstream communities. The perspective of local communities is limited to their environment and they are not often interested in helping downstream communities. The authors and other participants discussed the need for such "extension guidelines" and other handbooks which help field foresters better achieve local support and participation. Such documents can be useful for general education, for example illustrating the biophysical linkages within a watershed and the interdependency of flows of water, goods and services within a watershed. Different types of incentives and approaches should be outlined to help get local people "to do what we want for least cost." Incentives should be only considered as temporary measures.
The authors indicated that handbooks and manuals must be developed which are appealing to local people. Such documents should indicate who to approach for technical help or financial assistance. Case studies are needed to analyze different approaches for achieving effective extension work. Handbooks and guidelines can then be refined and developed to help achieve participation and support of local people.
French, J. H. and R. H. Gecolea. 1985. A forester's guide for community involvement in upland conservation. (Draft) UNDP/DTCP, Bangkok, Thailand.
