Content area
Full text
The beliefs and practices of indigenous groups are increasingly recognized as being of value for resource management. But engagement in comanagement has proved problematic for indigenous communities. The authors argue that this results from different interpretations of what is meant by comanagement. Three interpretations are proffered, presenting different perspectives on the state-community duality: cooperative management, collaboration in management, and management by community. Referring to a New Zealand study of the potential for joint management of freshwater resources, the authors argue collaboration between state and indigenous people (and mutual engagement of their knowledges) promises to maximize indigenous input into resource management decision making. Negotiation of such collaborative arrangements is made difficult however by the need for the state to (a) differentiate between traditional resource management knowledge and nonindigenous community-based knowledge and (b) incorporate the latter within a state perspective on resource management while specifically identifying and engaging with the former.
Keywords: indigenous groups; resource management: cooperative management: collaborative management; community-based management
INTRODUCTION
The need to live in balance with available resources has been understood and accepted for generations by indigenous communities (Anderson, 1996). Until recently however, such communities have been largely removed from resource sustainability debate and practice through a combination of prejudice, marginalization. and conflicting knowledge systems. Indigenous communities have witnessed the destruction of valued environments, processes that have alienated them from the resource bases on which their cultures and identities are constructed. Disputes over ownership, access to management decision making, and the utilization of natural resources have been resulting sources of long-standing grievance.
In the past two decades however, concerns about the nature and scale of resource use have been reflected in growing pessimism about the lagging ability to solve environmental problems (Berkes, Colding, & Folke, 2003). It has been concluded that the knowledge of all groups within society needs to inform resource management practice if sustainability is to be realized (Kendrick, 2003), and the need to develop more effective local-level practices is emphasized (Sillitoe & Bicker, 2004). More specifically, there has been recognition of the values, beliefs, and practices of indigenous communities (Berkes, 1999) and of the importance of the participation of such communities in resource management and conservation (Kendrick, 2003; Ross & Pickering, 2002). What remains uncertain however is exactly how...