Women are crucial actors in forest management, yet their involvement in decision making has not kept pace with reforms in broader political and economic systems. In the past 30 years, global approaches to forest management have tended towards greater inclusion and participation, shifting from state-centric management through co-management to devolving authority to communities. Yet increasing evidence suggests that women—who are amongst the poorest of the poor, and who depend on forest resources for subsistence, as safety nets and for income—continue to be marginalised in rule making processes and in the distribution of forest resource benefits. The need to...

The purpose of this manual is to provide practical guidance and examples of how to apply Adaptive Collaborative Management (ACM) methods in communities and how to teach those methods to others. ACM is a collective problem-solving and management approach. With ACM everybody can participate, contribute their knowledge and learn together how to solve important problems. ACM focuses on learning — from our mistakes and our successes. Specifically, ACM uses social learning, a process through which individuals work with others to observe, evaluate and decide upon actions together so that decisions about natural resource management can be more adaptive and collaborative....

This section provides you with a definition of ACM, a look at ACM and women’s participation, a description of how ACM has been applied in various contexts and a brief history of ACM. If you are new to ACM, it will provide you with a conceptual foundation, which will be necessary for understanding and facilitating ACM in the community. If you are already familiar with ACM, you may find useful perspectives here as well.

ACM is a conscious effort to learn and act collectively to systematically adapt to change and improve management outcomes.

Here is a breakdown of the elements...

In this section, we show you how to do ACM step by step. The most successful ACM plans involve specific short-term activities that can be completed successfully and evaluated as a group, while working toward a long-term goal. Indeed, you might think of ACM as a journey of many small steps (Colfer 2007).

ACM does not have to be complicated or costly. The activities may be simple — indeed, it’s an excellent idea to begin with something simple, to build up participants’ confidence. The most important investment is in the time to discuss, reflect and follow up, making the learning...

Paraphrasing. Paraphrasing helps participants follow the discussion and assists the note taker in accurately recording the important points. Use your own words to reflect what an individual speaker is saying and how that speaker is feeling by saying the following:

“If I understood well, what you mean is…”

“I think what you are saying is…”

Questioning. Ask questions to explore a comment or issue. Open-ended questions usually begin with “what”, “how”, “when” “where” and are posed in such a way so that speaker has to elaborate with more detail. Clarifying questions draw out the speaker’s point and often begin with...