Negotiating Participatory action Research in an Ecuadorian Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Program

Abstract

Increasing support for sustainable development has stimulated institutional change for international programming. In the late 1980s, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in response to a Congressional request, created the new Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP). That initiative focused on the research needs of sustainable agriculture and natural resource management (SANREM). Because of the broad range of the CRSP, the National Research Council was asked to design an integrated research approach, help define research priorities, and suggest management arrangements that would enable sharing knowledge with other AID development activities. The recommended research approach was interdisciplinary, intersectoral, participatory, and systems-based. It was also expected to link socioeconomic and ecological systems (National Research Council, Toward Sustainability: A plan for Collaborative Research on Agriculture and Natural Resource Management. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1991).

Resilience and adaptations of rural communities and agricultural land use in the tropical Andes: Coping with environmental and socio-economic changes

“…Furthermore, any conservation or development initiatives must be based on the cultural heritage, and the needs and priorities of local populations. In the light of neo-liberal market orientation and growing global impacts, the voices of the rural populations should be heard and their own livelihoods secured in a sustainable fashion (FLORA et al, 1997;GIBBS, 2005;GREGORY, 2000). It is therefore with considerable hesitation that this overview of Andean rural environments, their potentials and problems has been formulated in a rather generalizing fashion.…”