| Natural Resource Management |
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Natural resources do not manage themselves except in uninhabited areas. As soon as mankind becomes involved, the natural order of things becomes disturbed. Whether the outcome of the disturbance is beneficial, benign or detrimental depends upon a combination of policy options and the factors influencing their selection.
The individual actions of farmers rarely follow a unified course unless it is the one dictated by their predecessors and established through the traditions of their society. Their combined actions, which constitute the management of natural resources of their localities are directly related to the seasons, conditioned by the fiscal and social policies of the prevailing administration. Attempts to “improve” such forms of management, particularly in marginal areas, in order to modernise for its own sake, are usually unsuccessful although useful elements may stick as the farmers graft them on to their own systems, thus enabling the systems to evolve in a naturally sustaining manner.
Go to the <watershed management page> to find out how a "unit" approach can work in marginal areas.
In recent years, however, dramatic changes have occurred in peasant societies that have left many traditional resource-based economies unable to cope with the new circumstances. These dramatic shifts tend to be the results of relatively few events or activities viz: conflict, land redistribution, rapid liberalisation/centralisation of economies and natural disasters/extreme events.
Societies affected by such changes can benefit from carefully planned, participatory forms of assistance. It is in such vulnerable situations that AA International Ltd specialists, working with the affected communities in the design and implementation of new systems of natural resource management, can assist. |
Agricultural and Rural Situation Assessing
Capacity Establishment and Development
Agricultural Programme and Project Design
Programme and Project Support.
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