Year of publication 2011

While the concept of participation is increasingly being enshrined in policy and legislation in the Caribbean, the practice of systematically applying participatory tools and methods still lags behind. A key challenge is that most natural resource managers do not have the required capacity to effectively facilitate participatory processes to engage stakeholders. This toolkit is designed to bridge this gap and help formal and informal natural resource managers as well as other independent persons to build their skills, knowledge and experience to facilitate participatory processes that can effectively and equitably engage stakeholders in decision-making about how the resources should be managed. Facilitators of participatory processes may be from a government agency with formal legal responsibility for management of the resource, from an organisation (governmental or non-governmental) coordinating a programme or project addressing management of the natural resource, or from a community or group using the resource. Or they may be external independent facilitators brought in by stakeholders involved to provide neutral facilitation. Many of the tools in this document will also be useful to those involved in environmental advocacy, community-based adaptation to climate change, and other community development initiatives. The toolkit is designed primarily for those working in Caribbean small island developing states but many of the approaches are applicable to natural resource management in other countries and particularly other small island states.