Realization of participation and spatiality in participatory forest management – a policy–practice analysis from Zanzibar, Tanzania

Abstract

The efforts in sustainable natural resource management have given rise to decentralization of forest governance in the developing world with hopes for better solutions and effective implementation. In this paper, we examine how spatially sensitive participation is realized from policy to practice in the process of establishing participatory forest management in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Our policyÀpractice analysis shows that the policies in Zanzibar strongly support decentralization and local level participation has in practice been realized. However, the policy does not emphasize participatory process design nor address the possibilities of using spatial information and technologies to ensure wider participation. Thus, the practices fall short in innovativeness of using site-sensitive information with available technologies. Reflecting the Zanzibari Community Forest Management Agreements (CoFMA) context with examples of participatory use of spatial information and technologies in other parts of the world, we discuss ways to improve the Zanzibari CoFMA process towards increased participation, communication, local sense of ownership and more sustainable land management decisions, and argue for the future implementation of CoFMA as a spatially sensitive participatory process.

Place-based landscape services and potential of participatory spatial planning in multifunctional rural landscapes in Southern highlands, Tanzania

“…(open response)]. These questions were chosen based on the established criteria related to the effective participation and participatory spatial planning (McCall and Minang 2005;McCall and Dunn 2012;Eilola et al 2014). Only three themes were included in order to keep the interview effort concise for the workshop participants.…”

“…Participatory processes are globally promoted to support democracy and decentralised environmental and natural resource management (Beierle 2002;Reed 2008) with claimed normative, substantive and instrumental benefits (Blackstock et al 2007). Bringing in spatial information and technologies to capture stakeholders' place-based knowledge and values in participatory decision-making processes is being increasingly adopted through PGIS/PPGIS approaches (Bourgoin et al 2012;Eilola et al 2014). To date, however, there have been few studies exploring the potential benefits that PGIS/PPGIS approaches could bring to ecosystem/landscape service management and land stewardship for the participating communities and stakeholders (Brown and Fagerholm 2015).…”

Forest users’ level of participation in a participatory forest management program in southwestern Ethiopia

“…In top-down forest management, decisions are made at the central-state level with users excluded from the decision-making process and regulations are imposed in an exercise of top-down authority (Mbatu 2009;Chhetri et al 2013), in contrast with bottom-up management (Mbatu 2009). Accordingly, many developing countries have revised their forest policies, and institutionalized participatory forest management (PFM) approaches in their policy directives (Eilola et al 2015). For instance, many African and South Asian countries have integrated local communities' participation in the management of natural resources through a PFM approach (Schreckenberg et al 2006).…”

“…Some have explained the notion of participation with the concept of influence (Jumbe and Angelsen 2007). Others have argued that participation means empowering local communities (Eilola et al 2015). According to FAO (2012), participation is a process in which stakeholders influence policy formulation, investment choices, share control over development initiatives and management decisions, and establish the necessary sense of ownership among local communities.…”

Spatial Knowledge: A Potential to Enhance Public Participation?

“…The question is now how to codify and make spatial data available. Nowadays, the production and use of spatial data have shifted from only an expert-driven process to a process where organizations or citizens worldwide can get involved [23,63]. For instance, the universal use of spatial data applications, such as Google Maps and Open Street Map, allows people to become an active contributor to spatial data [57,64,65].…”