Engaging stakeholders in integrated natural resource management: approaches and guidelines from landcare

The world is becoming more integrated, and “integration” surfaces as the most important concept in modern society. It is a concept that emerges strongly in the field of natural resource management (NRM) because of the complexity of the systems involved. Although resour ce degradation is a physical process, its underlying causes are deeply rooted in complex socio-cultural, economic and political contex ts. Integrated approaches require greater involvement of different types of stak eholders, but the obstacles to successful stakeholder engagement remain, despite the growing recognition of its benefits to NRM. It is argued that stakeholder engagement is not inherently difficult—the difficu lties are externally imposed, by the way the rules of engagement are set. Government decentralization is a policy trend that is favourable for stakeholder engagement at the local level, providing ample scop e for integration, negotiati on and collaboration. This paper presents examples of approaches and gu idelines for stakeholder engagement in Landcare-- a community-based approach that employs innovative solutions to NRM challenges, fostering greater stakeholder engagement by linking farmers with the broader community and helping them influence NRM policy. Landcare focuses on empowering local people to willingly take action on local problems, and integrating actions to address broader issues. As an approach, Landcare has a wider applicability within differing or similar biophysical, socio-cultural and politi cal contexts, with some 17 countries or multilateral organizations in the Pacific, Africa, America, Europe, and South East Asia who are either independently implementing Landcare programmes, or receiving limited support to initiate them. The common elements to stakeholder engagment are e mphasis on the broad “relevance”of Landcare, linking it to wide-ranging sectoral interests, emphasis on “inclusiveness”, emphasis on home-grown methods or structures—less imposition of external ones, and use of step-wise approach—in size , scope, content and process. In summary, broad stakeholder engagement has been successf ul with Landcare, because it serves as a platform for all walks of life to fully express their land ethos in a concerted way. Landcare is thus a “proof of concept”, demonstrating successful stakeholder engagement in NRM

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