Submitted to International Development Research Center
Grant Number: 102430 Amount of Grant: $ 349,590CAD Period covered by this report: March 16 2005 – May 15, 2009
Promotion of Sustainable Rural Development by Scaling up CBNRM Approach in Guizhou Province
Final Technical Report
Integrated Rural Development Center
Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences
May 13, 2009
Summary
This project aims to scale up and institutionalize the Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) approach into government spheres and among local communities for sound natural resource management and sustainable rural development in Guizhou Province. Based on the experience of Phase I of CBNRM up scaling, this phase continues taking vertical and horizontal scaling up strategy to integrate CBNRM principals into government policies and interventions in natural resource management and poverty alleviation, and to institutionalize CBNRM at community level and in Kaizuo Township of Changshun County, Guizhou Province. In other words, “Horizontally,” the project focuses on community-to-community interactions to build a strong social base (e.g., farmer-to-farmer extension). “Vertically,” it aims to promote government-community cooperation and multi-stakeholder partnership development to facilitate practice and promotion of community-based natural resource management.
The horizontal scaling up through the implementation of small grant projects provided an opportunity for the township government to take the leading role in expanding CBNRM practice to more communities in Kaizuo, by which the local government officials had a better understanding of CBNRM approach and their capacities were greatly enhanced. Most of the township officials had been involved in the small grant implementation. Their performance in CBNRM practice was evaluated and rewarded by the township government. Moreover, beside the small grants, the other government projects such as poverty alleviation, construction and management irrigation system or tap drinking water system, forest conservation etc, which implemented in Kaizuo, follow CBNRM principles. For the project team, gradual withdraw from main project implementer to facilitator through role orientation or adjustment give more space and opportunity for the local government to practice CBNRM approach. Several years’ experience has showed that it is very successful strategic choice for the team and also for the CBNRM scaling up.
Developing and enhancing local organization (CBO) and community-based institution (CBI) was an important strategy to institutionalize CBNRM at local level. Local communities were empowered to manage natural resources on which their livelihoods heavily depend through collective actions. Years experience shows that CBO and CBI are critical precondition for effective collective action. But these local organizations and institutions are challenged by both internal and external factors. Therefore, partnership building among farmers within community and between local communities and other stakeholders from outside (i.e. business people and government agencies) for supporting local institutions has been becoming a new focus of the scaling up process. Platforms for interaction among stakeholders at different levels have been developed that has promoted communication and understanding in natural resource use and management.
Social analysis and gender analysis (SA/GA) as a new perspective was introduced into CBNRM action research. SA/GA provided an analytical framework to analyze social and gender issues in natural resource management. It also helped the team to critically reflect why same institutional innovation had various performances and how different factors affected effectiveness of the local institutions.
The vertical scaling up was focused on integrating CBNRM elements into government poverty reduction police. We closely cooperated with the Poverty Alleviation Office of
2 Changshun County (CPRO) to practice CBNRM all over the county through Participatory poverty alleviation program (called zhengcuntuijin)1. Efforts have also made to integrate CBNRM elements into New Countryside Construction of Socialism2 in the other counties. Other vertical scaling up activities undertaken include providing policy recommendations and convictive evidence to adopt CBNRM approach for the government through a joint action research and case studies of successful CBNRM practices, providing mass media successful stories for reporting, inviting high-rank government officials to visit project sites, and opening participatory rural development course in Economics and Finance College of Guizhou Province, to scaling up CBNRM in the education system.
Great efforts have made to build capacity of local communities and township and county governments for CBNRM practice and scaling up. Trainings, cross-farm visits, workshops, joint action research etc have been carried out. The farmers and government officials that involved in the project have come to understand CBNRM and begun to adopt CBNRM principles in natural resource management, rural poverty alleviation, new countryside construction and also their daily work.
I Objective The overall goal of the project was to scale up and institutionalize the Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) approach into government spheres and among local communities for sound natural resource management and sustainable rural development in Guizhou Province. The specific objectives were: (1) to expand effective and gender-sensitive CBNRM practice in Guizhou and beyond; (2) to strengthen local inputs in the policy making process; (3) to enhance stakeholders’ capacities to scale up CBNRM; (4) to bridge gaps and strengthen partnerships in natural resource management among key stakeholders, namely, government, local community and research institute; (5) to promote the use and adaptation of CBNRM training materials by universities, NGOs, and other research organizations across China.
II Methodology Basically the strategy for scaling up combined “vertical and horizontal” approaches, which were adopted in Phase I. The vertical scaling up referred to integrating CBNRM into government system/program/activities and promoting effective CBNRM practice through advocacy, joint action research with provincial and county line ministries, networking and providing trainings and consultancy. While, the horizontal scaling up referred to involving more people in larger area to practice CBNRM and benefit from it through farmer-to-farmer extension and promotion of CBNRM institutionalization within township government and
1Zhengcuntuijin is a new poverty reduction strategy, that is to, address all issues and solve the problems (transportation, communication, income generation, irrigation etc) of a poor village that faces through integration of all kind of resources such as financial, personnel/human resources and policy incentives available to help the village get rid of poverty. . 2 “New Countryside Construction of Socialism” is a political champion to improve sustainable livelihood and to reconstruct harmonious rural communities. It emphases five aspects: quick and great productivity development, better livelihood, better civilization, neat and beautiful countryside, and democratic management.
3 project involved line agencies. These two-direction scaling up processes interrelated and supported each other. Figure 1 presents the original strategy framework.
VERTICAL APPROACH
Scaling up within government system L To cooperate with the poverty alleviation office of Changshun County to integrate CBNRM elements into government policy/ programs/projects To joint advocate CBNRM with local governments to higher level governments for policy change and mechanism development for effective policy implementation To provide trainings and consultations to government at all levels
Methods: Joint action research with government agencies Networking Advocacy Training and consultancy
HORIZONTAL APPROACH Scaling out through grassroots and area expansion
To enhance community building and local institution development for CBNRM promotion in Kaizuo To facilitate farmer and farmer-led technology extension and CBNRM promotion To facilitate local government to practice CBNRM approach through small grant projects Area expansion by local governments and county government to more communities
Methods: Farmer and farmer-led extension Village networking Institutionalization within local government and involved line agencies
Figure 1: Strategy for CBNRM scaling-up
But this strategy framework put more emphasis on the role of the local government and local communities in the practice of CBNRM scaling up, without clearly defined role of the project team as facilitator. This in practice resulted in the conflict of the roles among the stakeholders. In the light of this situation, we redefined the strategy of CBNRM scaling up (See Figure 2).
New strategy continued taking vertical and horizontal scaling up strategy. The major difference was that the new strategy further defined the relationship among the three main stakeholders, namely, the local government, the local community and the project team, especially the role of the team as facilitator in CBNRM scaling up process. PM&E and social analysis and gender analysis (SA/GA) as a new perspective was integrated into the CBNRM scaling up to strengthen the capacity building and partnership building of three main stakeholders. Also SA/GA was introduced to identify social and gender issues and to address those issues in natural resource management in rural Guizhou.
4 1、 Governmental poverty 1、 Community level:
A reduction system: extension of CBNRM introduction of B within and beyond Kaizuo Vertical Horizontal Scaling up CBNRM in their through farmer to farmer; projects scaling up Government Community 2、 Networking of community system 2、 Kaizuo Township: level /farmers, researchers and continuing implement institutions of practicing small grant projects to CBNRM. institutionalizing CBNRM
C 1、 Facilitating and Facilitation of promoting of scaling up scaling up processes; Research team PM&E level 2、 Undertaking joint action research; and 3、 Building capacity
SA/GA
Figure2. Strategy for CBNRM scaling up in Guizhou
III Activities
Facilitating Kaizuo Township to implement and manage the small grant projects
The small grant projects aimed to provide opportunity for the township government to take the leading role in expanding CBNRM practice to more communities in Kaizuo. It was hoped that the township officials thereby would come to understand CBNRM better and that their capacity would be enhanced through CBNRM implementation. It was hoped also to achieve a smooth role shift from the project team as lead actor to the township government, and to promote the creation of an effective partnership among the project team, township officials and farmers. The CBNRM project team and Kaizuo Township government organized more villages especially the village that had not been involved in CBNRM project before to apply small grant for better utilization and management of their natural resources and for community capacity building. Totally 21 small grant projects have been implemented and completed, and 300,000 yuan of small grant was granted.
5 Box 1 Small grant projects implemented:
1. Dabuyang village “Animal Bank” project: the “Animal Bank” project has been implementing successfully in Dabuyang village since 2002, revolving the use of 8000yuan of project fund for pig raising among 16 groups (each group comprises 4 households ). Because of lower economic return of raising pig in recent years, Dabuyang village applied for an additional fund of 12,000yuan for raising cattle in the same way. So far, the Animal Bank keeps running well. 2. Chaoshan village “Animal Bank” project: 12,000yuan was granted to Chaoshan village for rearing livestock or poultry. The fund was used in the way same as in Dabuyang among 13 groups (each group comprises 5 households). 3. Huabian village “Animal Bank” project: 15,000yuan was granted to Huabian village for rearing livestock or poultry. The fund was used in the way same as in Dabuyang among 12 groups (each group comprises 5 households). 4. Maiwa village garlic planting: 30,000yuan was granted to the first 32 households for garlic planting. 5. Tangjipu village development fund: 15,000yuan was granted to Tangjupu village for rearing livestock or poultry. The fund was used in the way same as in Dabuyang among 15 groups (each group comprises 4 households). 6. Xinzhaiyuan village development fund: The Xinzhaiyuan village development fund has been implementing since 2003. 5,700 yuan was granted to Xinzhaiyuan village for rearing livestock or poultry by revolving use. Unfortunately, the development fund was failed since Xinzhaiyuan village is a migration village from three natural villages. Poor community ownership led to failure of the village development fund. Through community building by the project team and many times discussion among villagers, villagers revised the management system and re-elected management group for the village development fund. Villagers returned the money they borrowed to the new management group for revolving use. Because of higher input for stock raising, Xinzhaiyuan village applied additional 12,000yuan for the village development fund. 7. Xiaobuyang village drinking water system project: on the basis of 8,010yuan of fund self-financed by the village, the small grant project supported Xiaobuyang village 10,669yuan for building drinking water system. 8. Yemaojing village water pond for cattle: 4,000yuan was granted to Yemaojing village to build the water pond for cattle without requirement of self financing, considering that Yemaojing is a very small and poor village in Kaizuo Township. 9. Chaoshan village road construction: in order to further improve the road condition inside the village, Chaoshan village applied for and received 15,000yuan from the small grant project. For this, the households raised 8,000yuan by themselves. In addition, Chaoshan village received support of 60t of cement from several line ministries. 10. Cross community water management between Chaobai village and Wengjin village: Under support of the small grant project, Chaobai village constructed their drinking water system in 2002. Wengjin villager is 1 kilometer far away from Chaobai village. And there was no drinking water source in around Wengjin village. Under the facilitation of township officials and project team, the two villages agreed to share the Chaobai drinking water system, Wengjin village should pay for the use of the Chaobai drinking water system and participate in management activities. 20,000 yuan was granted to the two villages to improve drinking water system. 11. Road construction in Tuanpo village: under support of the small grant project (21,000yuan), a sandy road with 1,200m in length and 5m in width was constructed in
6 12. Small bridge building in Hulu village: 5,000 yuan was granted to Hulu village to rebuild the bridge. 13. Water pump station repairing and management: Many water pump stations were constructed in Kaizuo township during integrated agricultural development project in 1990s. Because of lack of participation of local communities in construction and management of those water pump stations, many water pump stations can not work well. Under support of the small grant project (40,000 Yuan), the villagers repaired 5 water pump stations, and made management system by the local community to sustainable management and use of the repaired water pump stations. 14. Hezi village road construction: a cement road with 450m in length and 5m in width was constructed under the financial support of some local line ministries (48,000yuan), self financing of 23,000yuan and the small grant project (20,000yuan). The total fund was 91,000yuan. 15. Mushroom cultivation in Maiwa village: in cooperation with Agricultural Bureau of Changshun County, the township organized the local households to tentatively cultivate mushroom in Maiwa village. The small grant project mainly provided the financial support (5,000 yuan) for technical training and cross visit. 16. High quality fruit tree planting: in cooperation with Fruit and Vegetable Office of the Agricultural Bureau of Changshun County, 20 hectares of Hongfushi apple trees were planted in Hezi, Xinyao and Maiwa villages. The office provided technical support and 80% of fund needed for purchasing apple tree seedlings. The households who planted apple trees invested 20% of fund for apple tree seedling. 17. Jitian village drinking water system project: in cooperation with the Hydrology Bureau of Changshun County, the Kaizuo Township government implemented drinking water system project in Jitian village. The Bureau provided technical design and project and planning and 30,000yuan of fund, the local households themselves raised 10,000yuan of the project fund. 18. Rongcun village water pond for cattle: 7,000yuan was granted to Rongcun village to build the water pond for cattle without requirement of self financing, considering that Rongcun village is a very poor village in Kaizuo Township. 19. Zongzhai village drinking water system project: on the basis of 12,000 yuan of fund self-financed by the village, the small grant project supported Zhongzhai village 11,000 yuan for building drinking water system. Since most young villagers went out for work, the management group for the drinking water system contracted the project to 6 Zongzhai villagers. While the other villagers especially the old and the women also participated in the construction of drinking water system. 20. Tuanpo village drinking water system project: on the basis of 5,000 yuan of fund self-financed by the village, the small grant project supported Tuanpo village 13,000 yuan for building drinking water system. 21. Village road construction: the small grant provided the village 20,000yuan and farmers self-financed 20,000yuan. Farmers organized themselves for construction work. They also developed rules to maintain the road.
Kaizuo township government made a systematic regulation to integrate CBNRM into their daily work. A vice township leader was assigned to take charge of CBNRM project, and the other township officials were required to facilitate CBNRM project and to integrate CBNRM
7 elements into government projects, such as drinking water system project in Jitian village and mushroom cultivation project. The role of decision-maker of township government was changed as facilitator of natural resource management. Township government empowered farmers and provided technical, financial, material and marketing supports for farmers. For example, the township government abandoned top-down and large-scale approach of decision-making and integrated CBNRM elements into government’s mushroom cultivation project. Government required officials to assess farmer’s need and capacity to cultivate mushroom, and to help farmers to make planning. Finally, around 300 households in 21 natural villages planned to cultivate about 56 hectares of mushroom. Township government facilitated bank to provide small grant without interest for the poor farmers. Technicians from Agricultural Bureau and a company were invited to provide technical trainings for farmers. Since most of agricultural activities are done by women, female farmers were invited to attend technical trainings. And also, township government assisted farmers to sign a mushroom purchase contract with a company. CBNRM elements in the mushroom cultivation project mobilized farmers for better management of their farmlands.
Through small grants, Kaizuo township officials had chance to implement CBNRM, and hence, their capacity has been enhanced. They became to know how to facilitate farmers to analyze problems, make plan, build management group and management system, and monitor and evaluate how the management systems work. Also, the township officials became more gender sensitive and paid more attention to fair benefit sharing in natural resource management. They gradually adopted bottom-up approach in decision-making, and believed that farmers had ability to manage their own natural resources. They changed their role as manager of natural resources to facilitator of natural resource management.
In order to provide technical support for small grants and share experience, Kaizuo township organized many times of trainings and farmer-to-farmer field visits.
Besides personal attitude change of township government officials, CBNRM approach has been institutionalized in Kaizuo. Even though, the township leaders have changed several batches, each of them was influenced by the way the small grant project was implemented. They gradually understood CBNRM and adopted this approach in their daily government works. They began to listen to the farmers, taking farmers in decision-making process (For example, who should get subside from the government, see Wang Xiaoli, 2009) and mediated in negotiations between farmers and business companies.
Box 2. Township government’s effort in solving the depute between local community and business company
Industrialization of agriculture is a major strategy to increase farmers’ income in Guizhou Province. For this purpose, Changshun county government drew a mushroom company from Guangxi province to Kaizuo township in 2005. The county government encouraged farmers to cultivate mushroom by providing loan for fertilizer and fungi-seeds, and the company gave technical guidance and bought back the mushroom for processing.
8 The processing plant was located near D village. The drainage from the plant passed along villagers’ paddy fields and their spring well. Some time later, the villagers smelled strange in their tap drinking water. When they recognized this was caused by the plant drainage, the village leader and villager representatives started to talk to the company. The villagers required the company to build a new drainage way that would not affect their fields and well or to move the plant from the village. However, the company refused the villagers’ request. The company excused that no evidence had showed the plant drainage was harmful to the human health and paddy field. Conflict between D village and the company increased. Heard that the villagers were angry. Led by the village leader, village representatives came to the township government.
When local governments face this kind of events, they normally stand on the side of company, because promoting industrialization is assessed as their achievement (see Sun Qiu’s PhD dissertation, 2007). But this time, Kaizuo government did not simply support company as usual. The officials firstly visited D village to see the drainage pass-way and to test the spring water. Then they invited the company people to D village. With facilitation of the township government, these three parts had two rounds of meetings. Finally agreement reached between the company and D village. A cement ditch for drainage was built. To build the ditch, the company invested fund for cement and other materials and the villagers provided labor. The township government also helped the company in organizing farmers to cultivate mushroom.
For farmers, they became aware their right and responsibility in natural resource management and community affairs. The organization of collective actions has been easier and more successful. The leadership for community self-organization has been built and capacity for cooperation and negotiation has been strengthened. The Dabuyang spring well case and the culture performance activities have illustrated these changes. These changes have finally been appreciated by the county government officials. Now, line agencies of Changshun County are very much willing to work with Kaizuo farmers in different projects. One of county officials said: we would spend much less time and energy to organize farmers for project implementation in Kaizuo. They could do this by themselves if they wanted this project. But during the scaling-up Phase I, the officials had thought the Kaizuo farmers were not easy to deal with, because the farmers always asked “why” before they took actions (see Final Technical Report, 2005 and Sun Qiu’s PhD dissertation, 2007).
Box 3. Culture performance organized by farmers
Collective action by farmers had become less and more difficult since employment of Household Contract Responsibility System (HCRS) after the era of commune in rural China. Arable lands were contracted to individual farmer household, and farmers worked on their own. Leadership for community organization was also weakened under HCRS, because very few people wanted to make effort for the common good of community.
However, CBNRM requests collective action. Community leadership building and promoting
9 of farmer organization had been the core of the CBNRM project in Guizhou. Encouraging farmers to organize themselves for culture performance was one of project activities to achieve this purpose. In March 2008, a big culture performance show was successfully organized by the Kaizuo farmers, with assistance from the township government and the project team. 33 villages out of the total 37 villages participated in the show and more than 1,500 farmers involved in the activities. Most of the villages prepared more than one performance.
Organization of this big performance show required strong community solidarity and capacity for collective action, i.e. capacity in mobilization, coordination and community leadership. To meet these conditions, CBNRM project had put great emphasis on community construction and capacity building. The success of the performance show showed the impact of the project.
Local institutional building for sustainable development
Local institutional building was an important aspect of the project. In order for the community-based institutions to play more active role, we facilitated the local communities to develop and strengthen the local institutions. The team also analyzed both internal and external factors that influence the local institutions and natural resource management, and to explore ways and means through which effective partnership among local community, government, and other stakeholders could be developed to support and strengthen the community-based institutions.
“Animal Bank” and “Village Development Fund” management
“Animal Bank” was one of the small grant projects，which was a kind of microfinance. It aimed to strengthen local institution through collective action in “Bank” management.
Crop production was a dominating income source of Kaizuo farmers. However, as prices of seed and fertilizer keep increasing, but rice price remains almost the same, farmer’ s income significantly decreased in recent years. And as market demand for animal meat are increasing, so animal husbandry is becoming an more important cash income source for the local farmers. To response farmers’ needs and interest, the small grant management committee decided to initiate a micro-credit project (locally called “Animal Bank” or “Village Development Fund”, depending on its use purpose) in several villages, to support productive activities of animal husbandry or other agricultural production. Moreover, “Animal Bank” was also a common property resource of a village. The principles of well managing the bank were the same with managing their forest, grassland and water resources, i.e. effective institution, collective action, community leadership for fairly benefit and responsibility sharing and sustainable management. Therefore, the “Animal Bank” was served as a means to strength communities’ capacity to manage their common resources.
8 villages implemented the “Animal Bank” projects. The bank provided necessary startup
10 fund for farmers to develop animal husbandry (except goat). Farmers could use this fund to buy piglet, feedstuff, or build/repair sty. Participatory monitoring and evaluation was carried out. The result showed that “Animal Bank” helped collective action in these communities, and local institutions were strengthened. SAGA approach was also used to analyze the performance of Animal Bank and the issues in local institutional building in four villages: Dabuyang, Niuanyun, Jichang, and Xinzaiyuan. The analysis showed that some villages developed an effective self-managing institution for the sustainable management of their “Animal Bank”, whereas some other villages did not follow the previously defined agreement to implement and manage the “Animal Bank”. And more seriously, some “Animal Bank” or village development fund did not function at all. Why did the same institution arrangement have different performances in different villages? The SAGA research attempted to address the issues: (1) why did the same institutional innovation - Animal Bank in the four villages - perform differently? (2) What did affect their performance? (3) What were the implications for CBNRM scaling-up?
With SAGA perspective, we conducted in-depth case study in the four villages and participatory evaluation workshop to find answers to above questions. We found out that the context factors such as traditional culture, social structure, local politics and community identity etc play very important role in affecting performance of Animal Bank. The township government is also very crucial in shaping Animal Bank. Women are marginalized in decision making for Animal Bank management. Gender awareness was weak in rural communities. Except Dabuyang village, the women in Jichang, Niuanyun and Xinzaiyuan did not play action role in Animal Bank management, due to lacking of capacity and necessary socio-cultural space in the communities. To improve the performance of the Animal Bank, Our team and Kaizuo Township government had organized several meetings respectively in Jichang, Niuanyun and Xinzaiyuan villages to discuss the problems and possible solutions. Now farmers in Niuanyuan and Xinzaiyuan had reached agreement to return the money and revise the fund management regulations.
Based on the experience learnt in the four villages, more Animal Bank or Village Development Fund (VDF) had been set in another four villages, which are Chaoshan, Huabian, Tangjipu and Maiwa. Villagers elected their VDF management group and made detailed VDF management system (See Box 4). So far, VDFs in Chaoshan, Huanbian and Tangjipu villages functioned well, but the VDF in Maiwa was not very successful because of lacking necessary technology in vegetable cultivation. The results showed that community organization and management system could work well in the four villagers. Villagers in the successful VDF villages usually undertook development activities that depended on low technology, such as pig and cattle raising. But the failure of development activities depended on advanced technology could influence sustainable management of VDF. Also, natural disaster and market risk could block sustainable management of VDF. For sustainable management of VDF, external technology support was needed. Government should input advisable capital to VDF when natural disaster happen, and help villagers to face market risk.
During this project period, we and the township government provided more capital, technical
11 support and market advice to VDF. It ensured sustainable management of VDFs. For example, Maiwa villagers applied for more VDF to cultivate mushroom, in order to continue VDF management. Kaizuo township government signed an order form with a company for villagers, and provided technical supports for villagers. Villagers earned more cash income, and repay their VDF. It ensured sustainable VDF management.
Box 4 Village Development Fund (VDF) Management Regulation in Chaoshan Village
Chaoshan village development fund is donated by IDRC. It provides small grant for villagers especially for the poor. VDF is managed by Chaoshan villagers and is supervised by Kaizuo township government. To ensure sustainable management of VDF, all villagers discussed and agreed to the following management system: 1. VDF belongs to all villagers, all villagers have right to use, manage and supervise VDF. 2. VDF management group, comprised of seven villagers, take charge of VDF management. And supervision group, comprised of three villagers, take charge of supervision to the VDF management group. 3. Five households form into a group to use VDF, and the five households should help each other. If one household could not repay VDF, the other four should repay the VDF. 4. The loan period of VDF is one year. Borrower should pay additional 6% of VDF to the VDF management group as community commonweal fund and management fare of VDF. 5. Under the condition of reliable development project, each household can loan 1000 yuan. 6. The poor villagers have priority to use VDF. 7. If villagers can not repay VDF timely, VDF management group can callback VDF and cancel their loan qualification. 8. VDF management should publicize account quarterly.
9. VDF is supervised by Kaizuo township government. Chaoshan Villagers 2006-8-26
Grassland management Stock raising has becomeqiu_sun one of the most important income sources for farmers. There are rich natural rangelands in Kaizuo Township. Farmers raise more and more cattle or goats on grassland for higher cash income. It leads to rangeland degradation. To address the issue, we facilitated Dabuyang and other villages to build management system for sustainable use of grassland.
12
Community-based grassland management research was started in Dabuyang village first. There were 64 households in Dabuyang village. There was more than 200 hectares of grassland. Grassland degradation was one of serious problem that villagers faced. In order to address the issue, we facilitated villagers to discuss how to manage their grassland.
Villagers elected grassland management group and made grassland management system. A female villager was elected as the leader of the grassland management group. She organized villagers to discuss grassland management system. Villagers were reformed into groups to take care of cattle by turns according their cattle amount. So, only 4 villagers can take care of all cattle in the village everyday. The other villagers can save more labors to undertake the other agricultural activities. The four villagers who take care of cattle will take responsible of all problems. For example, if a herd of cattle was stolen, the four villagers should pay the owner. Every year, grassland management group would adjust the schedule to graze cattle according to the number of cattle that each household have. To slow down the pace of grassland degradation, the grassland management group facilitated villagers to divide their grassland into 7 areas. Villagers grazed cattle just in one area ever week. Then grasslands had more time to recover. Since goat destroys grassland seriously, goat raising was prohibited in Dabuyang village. These measures ensure sustainable grassland management.
Grassland management in Dabuyang has been working well. Kaizuo township government and the project team organized the other villages to visit Dabuyang village and to learn experience for sustainable grassland management. And more villages in Kaizuo have developed similar grassland management system.
Water management
Owning to global climate change and rapid deforestation, water scarcity for both domestic use and irrigation was becoming a serious problem in rural China in the last 10 years. Government invested more and more to improve drinking water system and irrigation system for rural people. But both drinking water systems and irrigation systems could not maintain properly and function effectively, because of absence of community management.
In order for sustainable management of water resource, Kaizuo township government and the project team supported the local communities to build local institutions, through the approach of community-based water resource management. The following steps showed how community participates in water management:
1. Identifying the problems in water use and management: village meetings were held to discuss what the problem the villagers faced in water use, and did they want to solve the problems. If at least 70% villagers had agreed to improve their water resource management, then the team facilitated the villages went to planning step. 2. Planning: the team helped the township government to facilitate the villagers to discuss
13 3. Money raising: besides outside capital and material support, villagers should raise money by themselves according to their economic condition. Usually, community should raise at least 30% money needed. This was one of measures to increases villager’s sense of ownership responsibility in water use and management. 4. Taking action: under the support of technician, villagers participated in implementation of water resource management. So, villagers would learn how to construct small scale drinking water system or irrigation system, then, they would know how to solve the problem happens in the future by themselves. Also their own knowledge would greatly contribute to construction and maintenance of the water system through their participation. 5. Establishing local management institution: villagers would elect a water manager or a group of people (normally 2-3 people) to take charge of management of drinking water system or irrigation system. Villagers should pay for use and management of the water. For example, one villager was elected to manage the drinking water system in Zongzhai village. He took charge to collect water fee, to repair drinking water facilities. Villagers should pay 1 yuan per ton of water. The water fee was used to pay electricity, to repair drinking water facilities, and to pay the water manager.
All villages in Kaizuo township had constructed or improved their drinking water system or irrigation system, following CBNRM principles. All villages that had tap water systems and small scale irrigation systems had developed management institution. These locally built institutions were very effective that ensure well management of water resource. Now Changshun County requires all the villages in the county to apply Kaizuo CBNRM model in water management.
Forest management
Forest degradation was a serious environmental problem in Kaizuo Township. In order to recover ecological environment, Forestry Bureau of Changshun County had implemented reforestation project since 1995. But local communities were excluded from the reforestation project. Natural forest was burned by workers employed by Forest Bureau of Changshun County, and then only pine trees were planted in natural forest. Almost all natural forests and wastelands were replanted by pine trees. Local communities lost the natural grassland for stock raising and the non-timber products. Therefore, the local farmers had no incentive to take care of the pine trees. It led to failed forest management.
In order to solve the problem, we have carried out community-based forest resource management (CBFM) research in Kaizuo since 1998. The following section describes the process of CBFM.
14 1. Community mobilization – this activity involved raising the awareness about CBFM and the activities expected from the project. The representatives from various groups, including women were formally organized. This became the starting point by which needs of the community was discussed focusing on the sustainable management of forest resources. All activities were coursed through the organization and were articulated during meetings.
2. Participatory survey of forest resources – the project team and the township officials who had technical and social knowledge facilitated in the analysis of community’s forest resources and problems. The other members of the village were encouraged to share their experiences in forest resources availability, policies, their traditions and customs on forest resources management. Women were encouraged to participate more in the process since they depended more on forest resources more than men. Through participatory survey of forest resources, we found that the Buyi tribal minority worship the forest. According to villagers, the degradation of forest resources was a result of the government’s poor planning, reaction to marketing pressures, and vague property rights.
3. Participatory planning of forest resources – the community decided to adopt the participatory planning approach in forest management and in decision making. The approach allowed the villagers to identify their respective roles and responsibilities. It also helped the township government and the communities to clarify the property right of forest. In planning process, multiple functions of forest resources for grazing, firewood, ecological protection, cash income were likewise considered holistically.
4. Development of management system – A Forest Resources Management Committee (FRMC) was created and the management regulations were set up based on the local customs and traditions. The management regulation identified the objectives and responsibilities of management organization, responsibilities and rights of villagers, and benefit sharing mechanism (See Box 5).
5. Implementation of CBFM plan – guided by the CBFM plan, the farmers planted the different trees they needed and in the way that agreed by both farmers and the government (not clear the mountains and not so dense). The government provided fund, seedlings and techniques. The process promoted farmers active participation and sense of ownership on forest resources.
6. Community capacity building – the project placed high value for continuously building the capacity of the community especially the FRMC members through trainings, workshop, exposure trips, and technical advice in implementation of CBFM.
Box 5. Forestry Management Regulation of Chaoshan Village
For the benefit of the present and the future generations, all villagers should take responsibilities and obligations to protect and manage our forest resources like the arable
15 land. Therefore, the following regulations should be obeyed: 1. Forest resources belong to the collective, villagers who have usufruct. There are three management forms: the collective management, contract management of each household, contract management of several households. 1) “Ancestral worship” forest and preserved forest in the watershed of drinking water are managed by the collective, all property belong to the collectives. Trees with 1m or beyond in diameter can be cut only when the collective need it necessarily for the public welfare. 2) Natural forest with dense woody trees and reforested forest are distributed fairly to each household for management through contract. The contracted forest of each household can be inherited by their future generation. The household has the responsibilities to manage forest and the rights to manage the forest products. A certificate should be issued by township forest management station when villagers want to fell the trees in their contracted forest. 10% revenues from contracted forest should be paid to the collective to undertake commonweal. 3) Natural forest with sparse trees, forest with shrubs, and wastelands suitable for reforestation can be contracted to some households or enterprises by bidding. The contract term is 50 years. The contractor should pay the collective 15% revenues from those contracted forest when they harvest. 4) For large-scale development and efficient management, approved by the community, the household can subcontract their contracted forest. The community will guarantee the legal rights and interests of both subcontractor and former contractor.
2. To strengthen the protection and management of forest resources, rewards and punishments system was formed. 1) Felling tree and collecting firewood from the collective forest and household contracted forest is forbidden. Whoever fall a tree will be fined 10 to 100 Yuan depending on the diameter; whoever collect firewood will be fined 10 Yuan for each bundle of firewood. 2) Some activities such as grazing, pruning, and burning for ash are forbidden in the collective and contracted forest. Whoever disobeys this rule will be fined 10 Yuan once. 3) (3) Reclamation in the forest is forbidden. Whoever disobeys this rule will be fined 50 Yuan and must reforest immediately.
Through community-based forest management, local communities were empowered in government reforestation projects. They participated in the whole process of project implementation, including problem analysis, planning, taking action, management, monitoring and evaluation. Villager’s diverse needs from forest were also considered by the government foresters. Management organization and institution ensured sustainable forest management. Around 400 hectares of trees forest were planted and around 200 hectares of orchard were constructed in Kaizuo.
16 In order to scale up community-based forest management, the project team and Kaizuo township government advocated CBFM to Forest Bureau of Changshun County. Finally, Forest Bureau of Changshun County began to adopt approach in the other townships of Changshun County. Platform for effective communication between community and township government
In previous phases, farmers had been mobilized to involve in participatory project planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation. Their needs and interests had been concerned in CBNRM practice. They became more confident and became more involved in public affairs that affect their lives. Farmers’ capacity had been strengthened on one hand, but on the other hand, venues for expression and adjustments in government procedures and priorities had not correspondingly established. It was important to open venues for dialogue between township government and villagers to minimize conflicts that may come about because of the villagers’ changing perspectives. Therefore to increase government’s responsiveness and accountability to farmers was an important work of this phase. One of the main efforts was to establish platforms for effective communication between villages and township government for joint learning.
Owing to attitude change and capacity building of township officials toward to CBNRM, we continued to let township government to facilitate small grant projects. It created a good platform for effective communication between villages and township government.
1. Participatory need assessment: Township government leader assigned township officials to assist villagers to analyze what they want/can do for better natural resource management. And then township officials would introduce CBNRM elements, and facilitated villagers to make natural resource management plan. Both indigenous knowledge of local villagers and scientific knowledge of township officials/technicians were integrated into planning process.
2. Natural resource management planning: The township government would facilitate a serial of workshops to discuss with villagers about natural resource management plan. So the township officials and villagers could understand each other’s concerns, accommodate differences and negotiate agreement. This joint planning process promoted their trust and partnership.
3. PME activities: The township government officials facilitated villagers to monitor and evaluate their natural resource management activities. They analyzed what they achieved toward CBNRM and what lessons or experiences were learned. And then, the township government organized village to village cross visits to learn each other for better CBNRM.
4. Participatory planning of township government work: The township government would consult villager’s ideas for government work planning. Bottom-up decision-making
17
Participatory monitoring and evaluation
Three levels of PME were carried out for systematic learning: small grant project level, township level and project team level.
At small grant project level, each small grant project was required to have process monitoring (to monitor how decisions are made, how farmers are organized to implement the small project, how difficulties are addressed and etc) and final evaluation (to evaluate whether the project meet the objectives, to generate experiences and lessons). Regular PME of small grant was necessary to adjust small grant toward CBNRM and to ensure sustainable natural resource management. The project team and township government carried out PME for the small grants. We found out that VDFs in Dabuyang and Huabian villages worked well, while Chaoshan VDF worked worse because the leader of management group did not undertake his responsibilities. The township government officials assisted villagers to solve the problem. It ensured sustainable development of VDF in Chaoshan village. We also found out that drinking water system did not work in Zhongzhai village because of poor quality of facilities bought by a township official. The township government punished the township government official and helped villagers to improve the facilities of drinking water system. Villagers reconstructed trust to the township government and promised to manage the drinking water system by themselves.
At township level, monitoring and evaluation on small grant management and how CBNRM principles were adopted in their daily work were also carried out. Indicators for monitoring and evaluation were discussed by the project team and Kaizuo township government. Regular reflection (once every two month) was organized.
At the project team level, regular reflection meetings on planning, team work, learning, and project progress were held. The regular refection meetings helped the project team to adjust project activities and research activities toward to the project objectives.
Cooperating with Poverty Alleviation Office of Changshun County
Formulating and reaching cooperation agreement with the Poverty Alleviation Office of Changshun County and two townships:
18 According to the adjusted research plan, the vertical scaling up of CBNRM approach was focused on the cooperation with the Poverty Alleviation Office of Changshun County (PAOCC). As the office was coordinating and implementing zhengcuntuijin poverty reduction projects in the poor village3 of the County. It was required that all these kind of projects should be implemented in the participatory way and sometimes be called directly participatory zhengcuntuijin poverty reduction project. And to some extent these kinds of projects provide a good basis for the team to cooperate with the Office and the related Townships. Though, it still spent us so much time to formulate and come to the cooperation agreement (See Box 6). Of course it was really a process of joint learning, understanding and negotiating one another and mutual benefiting.
Box 6 Cooperation Agreement (Extract)
Through full and serious discussion, the Poverty Alleviation Office of Changshun County， Townships of Gaiyao and Kaizuo and the team decide to cooperate in the implementation of the zhengcuntuijin poverty reduction projects in an effort to scale up CBNRM approach…… for achieving a successful cooperation and expected objective, the following agreement is reached: 1. All of us should adopt participatory method and apply it consciously in poverty reduction activities; 2. All of us should be committed to scale up the participatory method; 3. the Office arrange project fund of 200,000 (RMB) for each of two selected poor villages in 2007 and assign related persons to be responsible for coordination and management of the project implementation; 4. the Township is responsible for the organization and implementation of project according to the requirement and procedures of participatory method; 5. the team is responsible for the provision of technical guidance and support including training in participatory method during the project implementation, and of financial support for some necessary cross visits; 6. …… 7. ……
Selecting of poor villages
According to the research plan and the cooperation agreement, two poor villages were selected as pilot villages of the cooperation with the Poverty Alleviation Office of Changshun County and two Townships. These two villages were Daping Village of Gaiyao Township and Dongkou Village of Kaizuo Township. The selection of the two villages was mainly based on the following consideration: (1) Daping village was only poor village I in Gaiyao Township and Dongkou village was only poor village (the poor village II) in Kaizuo Township; (2) and thus the leaders of both Townships had higher commitment to address the poverty problem of two villages; (3) the two Township leaders showed more interest in the cooperation and using
3 Poor village is generally classified into three types in term of per capital income, namely poor village I, poor village II and poor village III, of which poor village I is the poorest village with per capital income of less than 650yuan (RMB) , the poor village II is the poorer village with per capital income of less than 850yuan (RMB). There are a total of 5,486 poor villages designated as the poor village I in Guizhou Province. The zhengcuntuijin poverty reduction project is generally implementing in the first two kinds of poor villages.
19 of participatory method than other visited Townships; (4) Gaiyao and Kaizuo were neighbor township, it was thus relatively convenient for farmers’ cross visits and our technical guidance and support. Participatory Poverty Alleviation training for Kaizuo township and Gaiyao township officials
In order to change government official’s attitude, to improve their capacity for better participatory poverty alleviation, we organized two workshops for Gaiyao township officials and Kaizuo township officials in Oct. and Dec. 2006, respectively. More than 60 township officials and village leaders attended the training. We introduced participatory poverty alleviation and how to integrated CBNRM elements into participatory poverty alleviation. Through training, the township officials and village leaders understood concepts, principles, tools and process of participatory poverty alleviation.
Participatory poverty alleviation planning
The entry point of the cooperation with the Office and two Townships was the participatory poverty reduction planning in Daping village and Dongkou village, which gave us a good opportunity to learn and use participatory method together. We facilitated Gaiyao township and Kaizuo township officials to carry out participatory poverty alleviation planning together with local villagers in Oct. and Dec. 2006, respectively.
Based on the participatory poverty reduction planning in Daping village and Dongkou village, stakeholders formulated Participatory zhengcuntuijin Poverty Reduction Plan (PzPRP). The plan covered baseline information of the villages, cause to poverty, goals of participatory poverty reduction, poverty reduction activities identified by all stakeholders, budget, participatory monitoring and evaluation framework. Through SWOT analysis, the following activities were involved into PzPRP: roads construction, irrigation facilities construction, drinking water systems construction, biogas system construction, development of animal husbandry, field trips to successful CBNRM project site, construction of ecological orchard, community development fund, community capacity building, and planting of hybrid corn and potato.
Approving of Participatory zhengcuntuijin Poverty Reduction Plans
Poverty Alleviation Office of Changshun County submitted the PzPRPs to Poverty Alleviation Office of Prefecture of Southern Guizhou (PAOPSG) in Feb. 2008. PAOPSG approved the PzPRP of Daping village and granted RMB 250,000 Yuan to implement road construction, ecological orchard construction, planting of hybrid corn and potato. PzPRP of Dongkou village would be implemented in late 2008.
Visiting Kaizuo Township to learn about CBNRM
In order to integrate CBNRM into poverty alleviation project, we organized 4 officials of Gaiyao Township and 28 villagers of Daping village to learn CBNRM in Kaizuo Township. A
20 vice governor of Kaizuo Township introduced concepts, principles, processes and effects of CBNRM. Chaoshan villagers shared their experience to implement CBNRM. Through visit to Kaizuo Township, officials of Gaiyao township and villagers of Daping village became to understand CBNRM.
Visiting Baiyi Township to learn about eco-agriculture
For better and effective management of natural resources, we organized officials and villager’s representatives of Gaiyao Township and Kaizuo Township to visit Baiyi Township to learn about eco-agriculture. Through visit, officials and villagers understood concepts, principles, and models of eco-agriculture well. So villagers can integrate eco-agriculture into their poverty reduction activities.
Implementing of Participatory zhengcuntuijin Poverty Reduction
For better empowerment to villager, we organized 27 Daping villager’s representatives to discuss implementation approach of PzPRP, financial management, monitoring and evaluation framework. We motivated villagers to participate in implementation of PzPRP actively.
Unlike traditional project management, Gaiyao Township government and PAOCC allowed villagers to implement and management their road construction by themselves. In other words, villagers were empowered to bid for road construction. Because most of young villagers migrated to city for working, villagers decided to bid for road construction by contractors that are composed of villagers. Villager’s contractors submitted their bid to Gaiyao Township government and PAOCC. Because the PAOCC and Gaiyao Township required villager’s contractors to finish road construction in a short time and wanted to detain 30% of budget for road construction as deposit, the villager’s contractors had to recall their bid. Finally, Gaiyao Township Government had to contract road construction to an outside company contractor. Daping villagers had rights to monitor and evaluate road construction and to manage road by them. Finally, a sandy road with 5 meters in width and 2 kilometers in length was constructed well, and managed by local villagers themselves.
We were invited by Gaiyao Township government to facilitate villagers of Daping village to develop management systems for ecological orchard construction. We also provided technical support for villagers to select sites for ecological orchard and to manage orchard. For fruit tree planting, the Poverty Alleviation Office provides fund, the Agricultural Bureau provides technical supports, and Gaiyao township facilitated farmers to discuss the issues like: who involves in tree planting, where to plant trees, how to share benefit among farmers, and how to manage the orchards. 10 hectares of orchard were constructed in Daping village.
Through cooperation with PAOCC, we facilitated Kaizuo township and Gaiyao township officials to understand concepts, principles, tools, process of participatory poverty alleviation and to know how to integrate CBNRM elements into participatory poverty alleviation. As director of PAOCC said that participatory poverty alleviation empowered local communities
21 and ensured sustainable poverty alleviation. Participatory poverty alleviation and CBNRM elements were adopted by Poverty Alleviation Office of Changshun County and scaled up in Changshun County. Cooperation with other county governments in Guizhou
In order to advocate CBNRM in large scale, we cooperated with Wangmo County, Baiyi Township of Guiyang City and Qianxi County of Bijie Prefecture to integrate CBNRM principles in their Poverty Reduction Project, Bio-agriculture Project and New Countryside Construction Project.
In Wangmo County, villagers were empowered to sustainable livelihood development and poverty reduction. Xintun Township government of Wangmo County had integrated CBNRM into their poverty reduction projects.
In Baiyi Township of Guiyang City, villagers were empowered to participate in eco-agricultural activities and research. They participated in organic agricultural products planting, ecological pest and disease control, intercropping of multiple crops, ecological chicken raising in orchard etc. Villagers were organized by an interest group of eco-agriculture. They planed eco-agricultural activities based on their actual needs for healthy livelihood. They elected management group of the interest group of eco-agriculture and made management system by themselves. Women were empowered to participate in community affair management. Villager’s indigenous knowledge to control pests and diseases were explored and innovated to control pests and diseases ecologically. CBNRM elements were systematically integrated into eco-agriculture project. It ensured sustainable eco-agricultural development in Baiyi Township. Baiyi Township government had planed to construct a sustainable ecological township through community-based eco-agricultural development.
In Bijie prefecture, villagers were empowered to construct their new hometown. The local government and researchers integrated CBNRM into new countryside construction. Bottom-up approach of new countryside construction encouraged active participation of local community.
Advocate CBNRM through mass medium and other means Advocacy activates were carried out to scale up CBNRM. Some showed great impact on influencing higher rank of government.
1. Guizhou Daily was invited to Kaizuo in October 2007. An article about Kaizuo CBNRM action research was reported in Guizhou Daily. 2. We proposed a bill to the congress of Chagshun on promoting CBNRM in poverty alleviation and New Rural Reconstruction during the 14th Congress of Changshun County. Even though this bill could not pass, this bill was treated as one of the key suggestions in Changshun. To adopt participatory approach for poverty alleviation has been officially
22 3. The project team leader was invited to attend as a nonvoting delegate the 15th Congress of Changshun County held in March, 2007. The leader and part of the representatives from Kaizuo Township discussed and submitted a bill of scaling up CBNRM approach in poverty alleviation and new countryside construction to the congress of Changshun County. This bill was not carried by the congress, but it was treated and listed as one of the key suggestions in the congress. 4. As a strategy of scaling CBNRM approach in Guizhou, IDRC submitted a proposal for promoting CBNRM approach in new countryside building in Bijie Prefecture of Guizhou in 2007. This project has been approved by Department of Science and Technology of Guizhou and started to implement in Bijie Prefecture in cooperation with Scientific and Technological Bureau of Bijie Prefecture. With the help of DOST of Guizhou, IRDC’s proposal for promoting CBNRM approach in New Countryside Construction of Socialism in Bijie was also approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China in 2008. 5. GAAS leaders invited one vice party secretary of Guizhou Province to visit Kaizuo project site. This high level official was one of influential figure in Guizhou regarding agriculture development and rural development. 6. One of IRDC team member presented Kaizuo CBNRM practice in the National Poverty Alleviation Workshop in Shanghai in 2005. 7. Advocating CBNRM by folk songs composed by Kaizuo villagers: In order to advocate CBNRM, the team and township government officials organized Kaizuo villagers to compose folk songs about CBNRM. Villagers integrated CBNRM elements into their folk songs. Finally, more than 100 folk songs were composed. 64 good folk songs were selected for a vocal concert. More than one hundred villagers performed their folk songs and hundreds of villagers attended the concert. 8. Providing Participatory Development course for undergraduate in Guizhou Colleague of Finance and Economics from 2005-2008. 9. Participating in CBNRM course development in COHD-CAU. The project team members have help in the CBNRM course of COHD/CAU, sharing with students the project experiences on action research on CBNRM scaling up practice and facilitating the field study.
Continuing to support the “Participatory Rural Development” column in Guizhou Agricultural Sciences
In the last three years, 32 articles were published in the “Participatory Rural Development” column in Guizhou Agricultural Sciences. After Forestry and Society4 was terminated in 2005, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences is now the only academic periodical in China with participatory rural development column. Among the 32 articles, 7 were written by the project team. These articles were widely cited by the other researchers. Box 7 lists the published
4 Forestry and Society, sponsored by Scientific Information Institute of Chinese Academy of Forestry and funded by the Ford Foundation, was a bimonthly periodical mainly publishing the articles related to social forestry, participatory natural resource management and participatory rural development, etc. Forestry and Society was terminated in 2005.
23 articles in the column.
Box 7 Published article list:
1. Wang Yanguo, Lu Min, Studying on the Motivation from Participation Stakeholders Perspective During Participatory Technology Innovation Process, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 2, 2005. 2. Wu Quanxin, Basa Adult Rite: Gender Implication and Resource Control Expectations, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 3, 2005. 3. Li Zhinan, Reflection on the Application of Participatory Approach in Agricultural Research, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4, 2005. 4. Fan Junliang, et al, Exploiting Participatory Technology Promoting Farmers Development, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 5, 2005. 5. Shen Dingfang, Li Zhinan, The Practice and Innovation on Participatory Technology Development(PTD)——Sustainable agriculture project in Mengsong,Xishuangbanna, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 1, 2006. 6. Ronnie VERNOOY ＊ , et al, Research of Community-based Natural Resource Management: Theory and Practice, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 2, 2006. 7. Tang Huabing et al, Study on Participatory Development of Hedge Planting Technique on the Slope Land in Guizhou, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 3, 2006. 8. Nie Fei, Orientation of "Community Forestry" in Forestry Industrial Development in Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 3, 2006. 9. Zhou Pidong, et al＊, Cultural Reflections on Modern Agricultural Technology and Its Extension——Based on case study of the traditional rice-fish farming(RFF) of Dong people in Guizhou Province, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4, 2006. 10. Zhao Huiyan, et al, A New Way of Poverty Alleviation by the Participation Sci- technology Spread in Rural-Analysis about villager income changing in Sunjiazui in Shanxi Province, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4, 2006. 11. Sun Qiu, et al＊, Institutionalizing Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Approach:Insights from Scaling up CBNRM Approach in Kaizuo Township of Changshun County,Guizhou Province, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 5, 2006. 12. Yin Dixin, et al, Practice and Review of the Participatory Alley Cropping Technology Development on Sloping Land Management, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 5, 2006. 13. Lai Li, et al, Forest Land Ownership and Sustainable Management of Community Forest Resources, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 6, 2006. 14. Yang Chen, Training Process and Results of Backbone Teachers for the Participation Rural Environment Education in Qiannan Prefecture, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume S1, 2006. 15. Sun Qiu, et al＊, Participatory Rural Development: An Effective Approach to Promoting New Rural Guizhou Building——Insights from a participatory rural development project in Kaizuo Township,Changshun County, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 1, 2007. 16. Wang Hua, Application of the Participatory Approach in Comprehensive Control Planning in Karst Rock Desertification Areas, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 1,
24 17. Shen Shicai, et al, Discussion on the Institutionlization of Participatory Livestock Technological Development, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 2, 2007. 18. Han Wei, The Index System of Forest Sustainable Management and Administration and Its Application, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 3, 2007. 19. Xia Yuan, Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation of Water Supply in Mountainous Communities——Taking the Sino-Australia Chongqing Comprehensive Poverty Alleviation Project (CCPAP) as an Example, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4, 2007. 20. Li Yurong, et al, Participatory Evaluation for the Hedgerows in Soil Conservation Project Areas in Guizhou Province, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 5, 2007. 21. Long Jian, et al, The Game Between Resource Protection and Development Livelihood in Karst Mountainous Areas, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 5, 2007. 22. Lai Li, Sup port Poverty and Social Gender Equality——Inspiration and thinking from the programme of "Support poverty in the community on the basis of children" in Rongjiang county, Guizhou. Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 1 2008. 23. Xiang Hua, et al＊, Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation of the Drinking Water System Project for Human and Livestock in Wangmo County. Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 2 2008. 24. Sun Qiu, et al＊, Issues in Natural Resource Management under Household Contract Responsibility System in China, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 2 2008. 25. Sun Qiu et al＊, Feminization of Agriculture and Its Impact on Women Development and Agricultural Production. Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 3 2008. 26. Sun Qiu, et al＊, Stakeholder Analysis In Natural Resources Management. Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4 2008. 27. Li Qiang, et al, Analysis on Gender Sensitivity in Agricultural Technology Extension and Tits Relevant Strategy: Based on the results of Huaxi village, Mei County, Shanxi Province investigated by NGO. Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4 2008. 28. Xiang Hua, et al＊, Discussion on the Management Model of Community Development Fund in Litao Village. Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4 2008. 29. Wei Changlian, et al, Analysis on Factor Affecting Economic Profit of Planting Jasmine, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 5 2008. 30. Ding Ying, et al, Application of Participatory Technology Development in Mulching Cultivation of Garlic, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 5 2008. 31. Shi Xiaohu, The Effect of Urban Development on Life Condition of Land-loss Farmers Around Xinxiang City, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 6 2008. 32. Hu Yong＊, Discussion on Resolving Ways in Disputes of Land Resources in Rural Regions, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 6 2008. 33. Tian Hong and Zou Jun, The Relationship between Crops’ Arragement and Control of Rocky Deserfication in Mountainous Areas, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 1 2009. 34. Yang Guangyuan etc, Participatory Technology Development on Protection of Native Chicken Breed Resources, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 2 2009.
25 35. Wang Xiaoli and Liu Younggong＊, Participation and Empowerment in Building Rural Subsistence Security System: Taking K Township of Guizhou Province as the case, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 3 2009. 36. Huang Yanlan and Liu Yonggong, Using Participatory Assessment System to Promote Social Efficiency of ‘Work for Food’ Program, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4 2009 ＊Articles related to the CBNRM project
Capacity building
Training was critical in the scaling up process. Training on specific capacities/skills to implement CBNRM (PRA, Gender, IK, PME etc.) was emphasized in this phase. The project provided trainings to township officials and farmers in order to achieve broader scaling up processes and to maximize other venues for building their capacity on CBNRM. The small grants were also used as important venues for mentoring on participatory methods and CBNRM. Box 8 presents the capacity building activities.
Box 8 Capacity building activities undertaken
1. Technical training on fertilization management, pruning, disease prevention and pest control of fruit tree (4 times, 848 villagers trained); 2. Study tour and visits to production bases of mushroom cultivation and red cherry planting (6 times, more than 300 villagers); 3. Study tour to Yinzhai village of Guiding County (demonstration village of new countryside construction) ( 1times, 40 persons, most of them are township staff and village leaders, as it is part of the township staff training) 4. Capacity building training for Xinzhaiyuan and xiaozhai villages ( 2 times, 50 villagers attended) 5. Participatory poverty reduction planning training for Dongkou village of Kaizuo Township and Daping village of Gaiyao Township (50 persons attended, including township government staff, village cadre and villager representatives) 6. Small grant project management training for village group leaders, village leaders, the members of the leading group of small grant project management and township government officials (1 time, 50 persons) 7. Training on participatory development: theory, methods and tool (for township government official and staff only, and the training also include the management of the small grant projects (what is the small grant project, why, who and how to implement it: the purpose, the process, the principles, and etc.)) 8. Cross farm visits and experience sharing workshops among villages implementing village development fund projects funded by the small grant projects. 9. Trainings have been provided for the government officials and farmers of Giayao township and Kaizuo township on participatory village development planning, farming technology, and social issues and social analysis in natural resource management, gender issues in natural resource management
26 10. Joint action research with township government, line agencies and farmers in poverty reduction and small grant projects 11. Study tour to Baiyi township of Guiyang city to learn participatory technology development in Bio-agriculture. 12. Technical training on vegetable planting, livestock raising, (2 times, 60 villagers trained); 13. Study tour and visits to eco-agricultural bases in Wudang District of Guiyang City (1 times, 30 villagers); 14. Capacity building training for new township officials on CBNRM ( 1 times, 5 officials attended) 15. Small grant project management training for village group leaders, village leaders, the members of the leading group of small grant project management and township officials (1 times, 35 persons) 16. Cross farm visits and experience sharing workshops among villages implementing village development fund projects funded by the small grant projects.
IV. Research conducted
Integrating SA/GA into CBNRM scaling up practice (also see Chapter 8 of Sun Qiu’s PhD dissertation)
Under the coordination and guidance of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP) of Chinese Academy of Sciences, our team initiated a new collective learning process of integrating SA/GA into CBNRM up scaling in Guizhou. SA/GA provided a new perspective with focus on how social and gender issues affect the performance of CBOs and local institution for sustainable, equitable and effective rural common resource management. Workshops were provided by CCAP to understand what SA/GA is about, what its values are and how to integrate SA/GA in CBNRM. Several rounds of discussions and sharing were organized by the team to have better and common understanding of SA/GA among stakeholders. Based on the understanding, an action research plan was made.
The study took “animal bank” in four villages of Kaizuo Township as case to analyze the factors that affect effectiveness of management institution for rural common property management, from SA/GA perspective.
Animal husbandry has become an important income source for the farmers in recent years, but many farmers in Kaizuo have limited access to loans to buy piglets. In response to farmers’ needs, the township government decided to initiate a micro-loan project (locally called the Animal Bank) in the township since 2003. In the Animal Bank Management Guideline that jointed developed by the team, township government and farmers, it was stated that the micro-loan grant - Animal Bank - was to be commonly owned and collectively managed by the farmers in the village. The farmers needed to organize themselves to define the operational regulations that would ensure all people in the village had equal access to the loan, and to regularly monitor and evaluate the management of the loan regarding fairness in
27 benefit and cost sharing, and effectiveness in money rotation, interest collection and enforcement of the regulations. The township government had responsibility to supervise the use and management of the Animal Bank grant, to provide necessary technical support (vet services, for instance), and to assist the village in problem solving.
Four villages that first initiated Animal Bank were selected for the purpose of comparison study. Table 1 gives the basic information.
Table 1: Information on the 4 villages and the Animal Bank Village Total Ethnic Start date of Amount of Start date of Number of number of status the Animal grant for involvement households households Bank the Animal in the benefited Bank CBNRM (RMB) project I 64 Buyi Feb. 2003 8,000 1995 64 II 82 Han March 2004 9,000 1998 24 III 72 Han Nov. 2003 16,200 2001 54 IV 32 Han Jan. 2004 5,700 2001 19
One-day workshop was conducted in Kaizuo Township in July 2006. Four researchers, four township officials and 20 farmers attended the workshop. Five representatives from each village which had “Animal Bank” project were invited. They were management committee members, man farmers and women farmers. The purposes of the workshop were: (1) to share experience of “Animal Bank” management, lessons learnt and constraints they faced; (2) to analyze what caused the constraints/difficulties; (3) to discuss the possible solutions to the constraints/difficulties. The researchers and township officials facilitated the workshop. Presentation of farmer representatives, group discussion, and plenary reporting were the tools used in the workshop. The workshop reflected that the Animal Bank in different village had varied institutional performance: persistence of the management committee, the continuous operation of the agreed rules, and incidence of complaints by farmers. The research questions that arise are: why has the same institutional innovation -. Animal Bank in the four villages - performed differently? What affected their performance?
On the basis of collective learning of SA/GA and preliminary assessment of the performance of four “Animal Bank” projects from the workshop, some research questions were identified to guide further fieldwork (Box 9)
Box 9 Guide questions for fieldwork Who are included and who excluded in the “Animal bank” Why? What are the activities organized by the “Animal bank”? Who participate in those activities? How and why? Are there differences in role and responsibility between men and women? Why? What are the impacts of the differences? Who are the leaders in the “Animal bank”? How do they become the leaders?
28 What are the responsibilities and accountability of the leaders and the members respectively? And for whom? How are the decisions made in the “Animal bank”? Who made the decisions, for what, when and why? How are disagreement negotiated in the “Animal bank”? Are the members happy with the results of the negotiation? why? How do the members share cost and benefit? Why? How do the different groups of people perceive equity and effectiveness of “Animal bank”?
After the workshop, the team members conducted in-depth case studies on the “Animal Bank” projects together with the Township staff and farmers to understand how internal factors of history, social structure and cultural tradition affect the “Animal Bank” management, and how external interventions play a role in it.
The study showed that the Animal Bank in Village I can be considered successful. The management committee is stable and works effectively. It is organizing the sharing of experience, study tours, meetings; giving loans and collecting money back on time. The rules and regulations are strictly followed, no rule violation incident has happened. The farmers are satisfied because they all reasonably benefit from the Animal Bank. The Animal Bank failed in Village II and Village IV, partly succeeded in Village III. The concerns here are what accounts for the success or failure of the Animal Bank and what can be improved?
Village I is a village comprising one ethnic minority (Buyi). The ethnic villages in Guizhou like Village I have a stronger group identity than the Han villages [19]. The Buyi villagers have a close relationship to each other: they graze animals collectively, celebrate their traditional festivals together, and practise religious rituals in a group. The indigenous knowledge of “Hexinhui” has been adopted in the Animal Bank management; this meant that the Animal Bank’s operation followed a familiar practice and could be followed easily by the farmers. In contrast, Village IV is a newly created village; the farmers came from different places, so they have little sense of belonging to their village. It is notable how the social-cultural context shapes the “replication” of the Animal Bank. In villages like Village IV, organizing collective action requires more effort to build consensus among farmers, promote the active involvement of different groups of farmers and to strengthen capacity and local institutions. The Animal Bank in Village III village promoted little interaction between farmers. It did not achieve the objective of being a vehicle to drive learning for collective action, community development and local institutional building. There was little participation by the farmers in Animal Bank management. The loan just served as a subsidy for biogas project, and added value to the village leader’s role. The Animal Bank experience in Village II village shaped by the township government rather than by the farmers.
The study pointed out that despite the important role the community-based institutions play in sustainable resource management, they face vulnerability, and are challenged by both internal and external conditions and forces. The local institutions that govern common property resources are embedded in the socio-cultural and political context in which they are playing their roles. In order for the local institutions to play a more active role in rural China for sound resource management, it is important to analyze how the internal and external/contextual factors and their interfaces influence these local
29 institutions, and to explore ways and means through which effective partnership among local community, government, and other stakeholders could be developed to support and strengthen them.
Environmental Performance Analysis of Community-based Forest Management in Kaizuo (also see Ou Guowu’s Master thesis)
In order to understand whether Community-based Forest Management (CBFM) can promote sustainable forest resources management, we assessed the environmental performances (physical, biological, and socio-economic) of Jitian Village without Community-based Forest Management (CBFM) and Chaoshan Village with CBFM in Kaizuo township. Environmental performance analysis systematically considered physical, biological, and socio-economic performances. Physical performances mainly considered soil pH, soil moisture content and soil nutrients; biological performance mainly considered plant species biodiversity; and socio-economic performances mainly considered income, population and employment, community organizations and management regulations, public participation in village affairs, traditions and customs related to forest resources, and social issues.
Three soil samples were collected randomly in each of the following: natural forest, orchard, 4 year-old pine forest and 7 year-old pine forest both in Jitian and Chaoshan Villages. A total of 21 soil samples were collected. The Guizhou Institute of Soil Science analyzed the 21 soil samples including soil pH, total N, total P2O5, total K2O, available N, available P2O5, available K2O, and organic matter, and soil moisture content etc.
By employing the quadrat method, plant species biodiversity data in Jitian and Chaoshan Villages were collected in three randomly chosen quadrats measuring 10m × 10m in the natural forest, 4 year-old pine forest and 7 year-old pine forest, respectively. The species richness and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index were calculated.
S = N/A, Where: S= species richness index, N= total number of species, A= sampling area.
s DI = - log pipi , Where: DI =Shannon-Wiener diversity index i1 Pi = proportion of the individual in the species of the total sample S = the number of species
Data about socio-economic environmental performance were collected by using participatory rural appraisal methods (key informants interview, semi-structured interview) and questionnaire. Of the 64 households in Chaoshan Village, a total of 20 respondents, 8 of which were women, were randomly selected and interviewed. Of the 67 households in Jitian Village, 20 respondents, including 9 women, were randomly selected and interviewed. The investigation covered income, population and employment, community organizations and management regulations, public participation in village affairs, traditions and customs related
30 to forest resources, and social issues.
Study on changes in vegetation over 11 years in two villages (also see Chapter 7 of Sun Qiu’s dissertation) At the beginning of CBNRM project in 1995, the GAAS team invited a group of researchers from Guizhou Botanical Garden to conduct a general survey on vegetation in Dabuyang and Xiaozhai. The survey covered plant species, dominant plants, abundance, density and coverage of plant communities. But crops and weeds in arable lands were not in the scope of the survey. The survey shows that the vegetations in the two villages are secondary vegetation, with very rare primary vegetation. There were 254 plant species, belonging to 98 families and 192 genera. According to the Dominant Species Nomenclature principle, the researchers identified five types of plant communities for Dabuyang and four types for Xiaozhai (Zhang, et al., 1995). In order to assess whether the CBNRM action research over 11 years before 1995 to 2006 had an effect on the vegetation another survey on vegetation status was conducted in July 2006. For comparison reason, The GAAS team invited the same group of researchers to conduct the survey, and the researchers used the same investigation methods in the same two villages. The results of the ecological survey show that the vegetations in both Dabuyang and Xiaozhai villages have generally changed towards progressive succession over the 11 years from 1995 to 2006. However, the vegetations that suffered from fires have shown a regressive succession for both Dabuyang and Xiaozhai village. Those areas are normally the places farmers graze their animals. Farmers burn grasslands or sometime forests for potassium ashes and better and more fern sprouts for market. Burning grasslands or forests become a serious issue in Kaizuo, and even in Changshun County. This issue is impossible to be addressed by any single village. Even though Dabuyang had made a new rule of forbidding burn their grasslands, the rule can possibly had effects on Dabuyang villagers, but could not prevent the fires that start from the surrounding villages. Therefore, controlling grassland and forest fires requires cooperation of all the villages in Kaizuo. This kind of cross-community collective action in natural resource management needs effective facilitation and coordination. Township government can play active role in this regard.
Evaluating CBNRM outcomes using the sustainable livelihoods approach
(also see Chapter 7 of Sun Qiu’s dissertation)
The ultimate goal of practicing CBNRM was to achieve household livelihood improvement under the condition of sustainable use of natural resources. There have been more than ten years’ experiences in practicing CBNRM in Kaizuo Township since 1995. We conducted the household livelihood survey to understand the impacts resulted from the CBNRM practice and CBNRM scaling up in Kaizuo Township. This study, through comparative study and applying household livelihood framework, aimed to understand the status of rural common pool resource management and the change of rural household livelihood resulting from ten years’ CBNRM practice in Kaizuo Township. The comparative study combined qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis. Eight villages were selected on purpose from 37 villages
31 in Kaizuo Township, based on different time-span of being involved in the CBNRM action research (1995, 1998 and 2001) and not involved (control), and success or failure in the CBNRM practice. At the same time, 25 households were randomly selected from each of the eight villages. A total of 200 households were selected for interviewing. Before the formal household interview, a group of indicators that could be used to best describe each of the five capital assets were identified based on literature review and the experience of working in the project site over a long time and at the same time the identified indicators were pre-test with farmers and readjusted (See Table 2).
Table 2 Indicators for five livelihood-related capitals
Capital Indicator Natural capital Farming lands (both paddy and upland): area and fertility Forest: timber and non-timber products Grassland: area and quality Water source: quantity and accessibility Social capital Trust, mutual help, network, collective activities Human capital Health, education level and technical skills of family member, labors in the family Financial capital Savings, loan/credit, accumulated grain and livestock for selling Physical capital Roads, house, irrigation and drinking water system, production tools, cooking energy, communication, market
Eight villages were purposefully selected from 37 villages in Kaizuo Township, based on two criteria: (1) Different time-span of involvement in the CBNRM project: since 1995, 1998, 2001; and no involvement (as a control group); (2) Success or failure in CBNRM practice:
Table 3 Selection of the 8 villages
Time involved in the With successful With Failure of Selection CBNRM project NRM NRM
1995-2006 Dabuyang Xiaozhai The results of annual performance assessment 1998-2006 Chaoshan Guntang
2001-2006 Chaobai Kaizuopu The results of small grant project implementation
Never involved Jichang Kaizuochang The results of group (Control) discussion
The primary results of the household livelihood capital analysis showed that there have been positive changes of the household livelihood capitals especially the natural and physical
32 capitals as a result of implementing CBNRM in Kaizuo Township (Table 4). The analysis of the data suggests that the CBNRM initiative of the GAAS team has overall had a positive impact on local people’s livelihood in the project site. The two successful villages Dabuyang and Chaoshan, which have been involved in the CBNRM since project phase I and II, show significant increases in all five capitals. Compared with the control villages, the two successful villages Dabuyang and Chaoshan have a better performance in all five capitals; while the “successful” village Chaobai do not necessarily perform better than the control villages in all the capitals (see Table 4). This finding indicates that good CBNRM practice needs longer time and more efforts than just a small grant project, like the GAAS team did in Chaobai village. The statistic figures in Table 4 also demonstrate that the villages with unsuccessful CBNRM interventions even performed worse than the control villages, especially in social capital. This indicates that poor CBNRM practice can easily have a negative impact on local people’s livelihood. Xiaozhai village is one of the examples. It is necessary to mention that the successful villages show significant improvements in social capital, reflected in increased collective activities and trust among villagers. Our interpretation is that the CBNRM efforts have not only contributed to livelihood improvement in a material and economic sense. The analysis also revealed that the efforts to improve natural resources, social coherence and human potential need much more input and longer time than the efforts to improve financial status and physical conditions. At the same time, our findings suggest that increases in financial and physical capitals do not necessarily lead to increases in natural, social and human capitals. The different CBNRM performance of different villages indicates that the CBNRM approach cannot be simply duplicated in varying local contexts. It should be flexible in practice to adapt to the changes in socio-cultural, economic and political variables.
Table 4. Summary of five capitals of eight communities in Kaizuo Township between 1995 and 2006 Village Year Natural Social Human Financial Physical Dabuyang 1995 5.65 6.45 6.35 3.73 4.03 2006 7.33 7.82 6.99 5.76 7.05 Difference 1.68 1.37 0.64 2.03 3.02 T-value 7.60 (a) 6.19 (a) 2.30 (b) 7.07 (a) 10.89 (a)
Xiaozhai 1995 4.31 5.30 5.68 2.72 3.70 2006 4.46 5.25 5.74 3.43 4.95 Difference 0.15 -0.05 0.06 0.71 1.25 T-value 0.73 -0.26 0.56 4.18 (a) 5.45 (a)
Chaoshan 1995 5.31 5.95 5.81 3.67 3.75 2006 6.46 7.21 6.90 5.74 7.62 Difference 1.15 1.26 1.09 2.07 3.87 T-value 4.77 (a) 6.43 (a) 3.67 (a) 7.60 (a) 11.58 (a)
Guntang 1995 6.45 5.57 5.64 3.41 4.53
33 2006 6.59 5.82 5.88 4.21 6.57 Difference 0.14 0.25 0.24 0.80 2.04 T-value 0.77 0.86 1.34 3.34 (a) 9.25 (a)
Chaobai 1995 5.09 5.14 5.73 2.45 4.02 2006 4.64 6.02 6.24 3.31 6.05 Difference -0.45 0.88 0.51 0.86 2.03 T-value -2.23 (b) 4.16 (a) 2.40 (b) 4.23 (a) 8.16 (a)
Kaizuopu 1995 4.90 4.54 5.39 2.58 4.19 2006 4.96 5.24 6.25 3.69 6.05 Difference 0.06 0.70 0.86 1.11 1.86 T-value 0.49 4.92 (a) 3.77 (a) 4.36 (a) 9.03 (a)
Jitian 1995 4.91 5.47 5.33 2.12 3.83 2006 4.88 6.21 5.54 2.92 5.11 Difference -0.03 0.74 0.21 0.80 1.28 T-value -0.23 2.76 (b) 1.18 4.74 (a) 8.05 (a)
Kaizuochang 1995 5.48 5.09 5.92 2.47 4.55 2006 4.66 5.14 6.33 3.72 5.70 Difference -0.82 0.05 0.41 1.25 1.15) T-value -3.73 (a) 0.31 2.29 (b) 6.05 (a) 7.93 (a) Note: T values marked by letters are significant at the following levels: a = p< 0.01, b = p<0.05
Study on the effects of the CBNRM action research on local institution building for natural resource management (also see Chapter 7 of Sun Qiu’s dissertation) A comparative study was carried out in eight villages of Kaizuo and ten villages of Malu township to understand what differences in institutional arrangements exist for the management of forest, water and grassland between the villages with and without CBNRM interventions. Malu is another township of Changshun county, with similar social, culture and economic condition as neighboring Kaizuo. The 10 natural villages were randomly selected from a total of 52 natural villages of Malu Township. Group discussion was the key method to generate data on how forest, grassland, and water systems (both irrigation and drinking water system) were managed. Before the field visit, general information about the villages was gathered from the Malu township government, and a list of guiding questions (see Box 10) was developed to facilitate the group discussion.
34 Box 10 Guiding questions for group discussion 1. Where do you graze animals? How large is the gazing area of your village? 2. Are there rules regarding grazing animals on grassland? What are they? Who made them and how? 3. Do you think the grassland have enough grass for animals? If not, what do you do? 4. Are there disagreements or conflicts on grassland use between villagers or between your village and other villages? What are they? How are they addressed? 5. How large is forest area of your village? 6. What products do you harvest from forests (both timber and non-timber products)? 7. How are the forests managed in your village? Why? Who decided? 8. Are there disagreements or conflicts on forest management between villagers or between your village and other villages? What are they? How are they addressed? 9. Where do you get drinking water and irrigation water? 10. Who built the water facilities? When? 11. How is the water distributed? How are the facilities maintained and managed? Why? Who decided? 12. Are there disagreements or conflicts on water management between villagers or between your village and other villages? What are they? How are they addressed?
The findings showed (also see Table 5) that, generally, the eight villages in Kaizuo have developed more community management institutions for natural resources than the ten villages in Malu. For forests, among the eight villages selected from Kaizuo, only one village did not have a community institution to manage the forest. Among the ten villages selected from Malu, three villages did not have community institutions to manage their forests. And two of these three villages (V6 and V8) did not have any management arrangement. The forests in these two villages were in fact open access resources. V4 and V5 only had management institutions for their holy forests, but the rest of the forests were open access resources. The open access forests did not have valuable trees in the forests. As one farmer remarked in our group discussion: “We hardly even find suitable wood for making a farming tool. We can not gather enough firewood. I can not afford to buy coal or use electricity for cooking and heating the rooms, so my family uses corn straw as fuel”. These forestlands became the places of grazing animals or wastelands (huangshan). The holy forests in most of the villages in both Kaizuo and Malu were well protected by the villagers. The holy forests had cultural meanings for the local villagers. The rules and regulations for holy forest management were strictly followed by the villagers and punishments for rule violation are severe. The community institutions were very effective to manage and protect the holy forests. For grassland, only one village (Dabuyang) had a management arrangement, the rest of the villages had no management at all. The grazing areas in Guizhou are traditionally open access resources. The open access did not cause grassland degradation in the old days because of the low animal population. Animal husbandry was not an important income source for farmers.
35 Farmers grazed cattle and buffaloes mostly for ploughing purpose and to collect manure. In addition, the grasslands in Guizhou are in the mountains or hills, given their low economic value, for considerable time they were considered as “wasteland.” However, the idea of adding economic value to these “wastelands” as a means to increase farmers’ income had brought about several wasteland development initiatives, such as an afforestation or reforestation program, an animal husbandry development program, and a land terrace and improvement program. The competing claims over the grasslands by the different development initiatives have changed the traditional way of grassland use. This change has in turn shaped people’s relations to the grasslands and the relationships among people. Conflicts arose among different users or stakeholders when they practise their stake-holding for control over the grasslands. The grasslands have dramatically degraded in recent years. This is a new issue for grassland that has not been recognized, let alone addressed in rural Guizhou. For the drinking water system, two villages from Kaizuo had no management arrangement. Six out of the ten villages from Malu had no management arrangement. For the irrigation system, among eight villages in Kaizuo, one had no irrigation system, but relies on rain for fields; two villages used government managed irrigation systems, and the remaining five of the villages rely on village-based irrigation systems. Only one of these five villages did not have community institutions to mange its irrigation system. Among the ten villages in Malu, one relies on a government managed irrigation system; the other nine villages rely on village-based irrigation systems. But only three of the nine villages had community institutions to manage the irrigation water. Lack of community institutions to govern water use and management for irrigation systems often caused conflicts between water users and also lead to damage of the water or irrigation systems.
Table 5 Summary of management institutions for forest, grassland and water resources in Kaizuo and Malu township
Forest Grassland Drinking Water Irrigation
Villages in Kaizuo
Dabuyang √, + √ √ √
Xiaozhai √, + × × No irrigation
Chaoshan √ × √ √
Guntang √, + × × √
Chaobai √, + × √ ×
Kaizuopu √, + × Government managed Government managed
Jitian √ × √ √
Kaizuochang + × √ Government managed
Villages in Malu
36 V1 + × × ×
V2 √, + × √ ×
V3 √, + × √ √
V4 √, × × √ √
V5 √, × × √ ×
V6 × × × × V7 √ × × Government managed V8 × × × ×
V9 √ × × ×
V10 √ × × √ Notes: √: With community management institution, which regulates people’s behaviour in resource use and management ×: Without management institution +: HCRS
V Outcomes and impacts
Local livelihoods improvement achieved
The facts presented above showed that farmers’ livelihood had significantly improve in the project area. As the result of up-scaling effort, the township government and county government have coming to adopt CBNRM approach in their projects/programs and their daily work --- CBNRM has been commonly practiced in drinking water and small-scale irrigation system management in Changshun County. Some principles of CBNRM such as clear define of community right and involving farmers in reforestation planning process have been applied in many townships of Changshun County. The bottom-up approach of CBNRM empowered local communities to participate in natural resource management. Their diverse needs from the resources have been considered, such as safe drinking water, firewood, pasture, non-wood forest product, and timber. And better and more effective management of resources greatly benefit farmers’ well being.
Environmental conditions (physical, biological, and socio-economic) improved
Following CBNRM principles, Kaizuo township villagers reforested more than 500 hectares of forest since 2005. The environmental impact analysis revealed that CBNRM had better positive environmental performances than the top-down and large-scale reforestation. The study also showed that the forests that were purely planted pine trees had adverse environmental performance, including soil acidification, decreasing soil nutrients and soil moisture, biodiversity degradation, decreasing community income, and poor community governance etc.
37 Local community-based institution for sustainable natural resource management and rural development built and improved
It is widely recognized and understood that sustainable natural resource management and rural development at the community level require an active participation of local community which may lead to collective action. The community-based institution can stimulate and promote local effective collective action in the development practice. A community-based institution mainly refers to the local self-management and self-development institution that built upon local culture, custom and local traditional community organizations, and based on local needs. Since the start of the project, the team has been paying efforts to build community based institutions including community based organizations. Different community based institutions have been established for every village that involves in the implementation of the project especially the small grant projects. Though some of these institutions do not function well in some villages, the people and the local government have recognized that it is very important to build the community based institution for achieving a sustainable natural resource management and rural development. The community based institution building should take into account the local social, cultural, historical and economical factors.
Platform for communication and negotiation established for the practicing and scaling up of CBNRM approach
An effective CBNRM practice requires not only active participation of the local communities but also an effective and real cooperation of the community, the local government and outsider (the team in this case). For the local communities, the precondition of cooperation is that they have opportunities to express their interests and needs and to negotiate with other partners especially the government. At the same time, the local government should be more responsive and accountable. In order for realization of effective cooperation between three main stakeholders in Kaizuo Township, the project conducted the following activities: (1) PM&E of the small grant projects and regular evaluation workshop or meeting that allow the local people to share and exchange experiences and express their opinions; (2) participatory project planning that allow to speak out their needs and (3) the proposal presentation for applying for the small grant project that allow to argue and negotiate with the local government. Through these activities, a platform for communication and negotiation has been gradually established which promotes the practice of CBNRM approach and the CBNRM scaling up at the community level.
Local capacity to practise and scale up CBNRM approach enhanced
Capacity building has been identified as an effective way to implement the CBNRM project and the team has been making much effort to conduct the capacity building activities for the local communities and local government staff. The implementation of the small grant projects and the joint action research proved to be the effective approach to build their capacities as these activities provided them opportunities to practise through learning by doing. Now some of local government officials and staff can fallow the principles of CBNRM approach to implement and mange the projects independently. The local communities now are very familiar with the principles and procedures of applying for and implementing the small grant projects. To some extent, it is the local community that promotes the local government to adopt the CBNMRM approach.
Key outputs of publications, theses, books
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Master theses and PhD dissertations by the team members and the COHD PhD students
1. MSc. theses: Ou Guowu, Environmental Performance Analysis of Community-Based Forest Management in Guizhou Province, China. Wei Xiaoping, Environmental Impact Analysis of Community-Based Bio-gas Project in Guizhou Province, China.
2. Ph.D thesis: Sun Qiu, Rebuilding Common Property Management——A Case Study of Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Rural Guizhou, China. Yuan Juanwen, …… Lu Jingfang (COHD student), For Developing Agriculture? ——A Case Study on Farmer’s Livelihood Supported by Agricultural Ecosystem in a Rural Village of South-West China. Mao Miankui (COHD student), Rights and Systems in Participatory Development Intervention——A Case Study on Kaizuo Township, Guizhou Province, China. Wang Xiaoli (COHD student), Approach and Feasibility of New Collective Action in Agricultural Water Resource Management.
Articles published 1. Ronnie VERNOOY, et al, Research of Community-based Natural Resource Management: Theory and Practice, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 2, 2006. 2. Zhou Pidong, et al, Cultural Reflections on Modern Agricultural Technology and Its Extension——Based on case study of the traditional rice-fish farming(RFF) of Dong people in Guizhou Province, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4, 2006. 3. Sun Qiu, et al, Institutionalizing Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Approach:Insights from Scaling up CBNRM Approach in Kaizuo Township of Changshun County,Guizhou Province, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 5, 2006. 4. Sun Qiu, et al, Participatory Rural Development: An Effective Approach to Promoting New Rural Guizhou Building——Insights from a participatory rural development project in Kaizuo Township,Changshun County, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 1, 2007. 5. Xiang Hua, et al, Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation of the Drinking Water System Project for Human and Livestock in Wangmo County. Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 2 2008. 6. Sun Qiu, et al, Issues in Natural Resource Management under Household Contract Responsibility System in China, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 2 2008. 7. Sun Qiu et al, Feminization of Agriculture and Its Impact on Women Development and Agricultural Production. Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 3 2008. 8. Sun Qiu, et al, Stakeholder Analysis In Natural Resources Management. Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4 2008. 9. Xiang Hua, et al, Discussion on the Management Model of Community Development Fund in Litao Village. Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4 2008. 10. Hu Yong, Discussion on Resolving Ways in Disputes of Land Resources in Rural Regions, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 6 2008. 11. Wang Xiaoli and Liu Younggong, Participation and Empowerment in Building Rural Subsistence Security System: Taking K Township of Guizhou Province as the case, Guizhou Agricultural Sciences, Volume 3 2009.
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Books 1. Sun Qiu, Rebuilding Common Property Management--A Case Study of Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Rural Guizhou, China. Guizhou Science and Technology Press, 2009 (In Chinese, on the process of publication) 2. Action Research on Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) in Rural Guizhou. Guizhou Science and Technology Press, 2009 (In Chinese) 3. Folk Songs on CBNRM and Participatory Rural Development by Kaizuo Farmers, 2008
VI Conclusion
Through hard efforts for more than three years, CBNRM approach has been gradually adopted by government programs and spread in rural communities in Guizhou Province. Besides Kaizuo Township of Changshun County, Wudang District, Wangmo, Qianxi, Meitang and other counties in Guizhou Province practiced CBNRM in sustainable livelihood development, eco-agriculture, poverty alleviation, and new countryside construction Projects. Local communities were empowered to manage their own natural resources, participating in the whole process of government programs from problem analysis, decision-making, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation, as well as benefit sharing. The development of community-based organization (CBO) and community-based institution (CBI), together with capacity building, have promoted and strengthened local collective action effectively in natural resource management and community development. The research team facilitated the building of community institutions in a participatory manner in numbers of villages. The work included arrangements for collective grazing and grassland management, village forest management regulations and enforcement mechanisms, management systems for drinking and irrigation water resources, and the Animal Bank. These institutions profoundly improved natural resource management Therefore, to develop CBO and CBI has therefore been identified as an effective means to scale up CBNRM. However, we have discovered that multi-scale, multi-sector institutional development is not a one-time process of design and start-up activity, instead the need for sustained investment in an evolving learning process, responding to changes and pressures both within and from outside the communities concerned, such as user group size; government policies, measures taken by government organizations to implement policies, the administration practices of local government, interventions by research institutes and market forces etc. The effects of community institutions are influenced or conditioned by these internal and external factors. The interplay of the internal and external forces leads to the actual outcomes for natural resources and their management. Both internal and external factors are embedded in a certain socio-economic and political context and they are shaped and reshaped by particular socio-economic and political parameters. The statistical analysis indicates that the community institutions in different villages have delivered different performances when assessed in terms of livelihood assets although they were supported under the same CBNRM interventions. The case of the .Animal Bank is an example.
The practice showed that CBNRM promoted sustainable livelihood development and effective and gender-sensitive natural resource management. The studies have shown that the
40 targeted villages’ livelihood assets such as natural capital, social capital, human capital, financial capital and physical capital of sustainable livelihood for communities with CBNRM were improved significantly comparing to the villages without CBNRM. Therefore CBNRM has positive environmental and economic performances. The community's diverse needs from natural resources such as firewood, pasture, non-wood forest products, timber, irrigation water and drinking water systems were considered reasonably in CBNRM practice.
Owing to attitude change and capacity building toward to CBNRM, a good platform for effective communication between local communities and township government was established. Local communities participated in need assessment, natural resource management planning, PME activities, and planning of township government work. Local inputs was strengthen in the policy making process.
Through small grant implementation, trainings and field trips, stakeholder’s capacities to scale up CBNRM was enhanced. The project team has made much effort to conduct the capacity building activities for the local communities and local government staff. The implementation of the small grant projects and the joint action research proved to be the effective approach to build their capacities as these activities provided them opportunities to practise through learning by doing. Local communities used folk songs to introduce CBNRM principles.
In this phase, Kaizuo township government was the key facilitator of small grants. They had more opportunities to facilitate local communities to manage natural resources guiding by CBNRM principles and procedures. The gaps were bridged and the effective partnership was built between township government and local communities. It ensured sustainable CBNRM in local communities, even if the project team draws out.
The project team provided participatory development course for undergraduate in Guizhou Colleague of Finance and Economics from 2005-2008. CBNRM principles, procedures, case study, experience and lessons were introduced to more than 150 undergraduates. CBNRM was also shared and advocated to some NGOs and other research organizations across China. It would help promotion of CBNRM in China.
But wider adoption of CBNRM in China would require more than simply a change in approach to managing natural resources. It would require decentralization of government and an opening up of space for the participation of local users in decision making, so as to have locally accountable representation and a wider sharing of power in decision-making. These conditions are not easy to create or sustain, even in so-called democratic societies. Scaling up CBNRM in China would involve managing transitions in the balance of power, policy change, institutional development for bureaucratic reorientation, and incentives and mechanisms of local accountability for good governance. These changes and improvements could not happen overnight: they would need consistent and innovative commitment.
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