Rights, Resources & Rural Development

Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) refers to rural people managing and using natural resources to enhance their livelihoods. It is now widely recognized that much if the Earth's biodiversity is managed in this way, and that local communities can, and must, contribute to conserving biodiversity without sacrificing their access to natural resources. Observers and practitioners have focused on sustainable development as a means to overcome poverty in various parts of the globe.;Recently, however, the CBNRM concept has been criticized because many of these programmes have not yet had major positive impacts on improved rural livelihoods or conservation of biodiversity. This book identifies and analyses the flaws, which are often swept under the carpet by those directly involved in CBNRM initiatives, and proposes remedies for a variety of circumstances based on lessons learned in southern Africa during the 1990s.