Browsing by Author "Adams, William M."

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  • Back to the barriers? Changing narratives in biodiversity conservation
    Hutton, Jon; Adams, William M.; Murombedzi, James C. (Oslo, Norway: NUPI, 2005)
    The dominant approach to conservation in the 20th century was the establishment of protected areas from which people were excluded. However, in the 1980s, decentralized, community-based approaches to biodiversity conservation and natural resource management began to spread rapidly, especially in southern Africa. From the early 1990s, there have been a growing divide between proponents of community-based approaches to conservation (particularly community-based natural resource management, CBNRM) and those advocating a return to more traditional preservationist approaches to biodiversity conservation. Here we examine the growth of the community narrative and the subsequent revival of what we call the 'back to the barriers' movement. We discuss the importance of various actors and sets of policy ideas to this revival in Africa. Changes in narratives have had profound impacts upon conservation and natural resource management, livelihood strategies and political processes. We suggest that policy debate needs to become less formulate if outcomes are to be positive.
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    Managing tragedies: Understanding conflict over common pool resources
    Adams, William M.; Brockington, Dan; Dyson, Jane; Vira, Bhaskar (2003)
    Conflicts over the management of common pool resources are not simply material. They also depend on the perceptions of the protagonists. Policy to improve management often assumes that problems are self-evident, but in fact careful and transparent consideration of the way different stakeholders understand management problems is essential to effective dialogue.
  • Working the Sahel: Environment and Society in Northern Nigeria
    Mortimore, Michael; Adams, William M. (London, England, UK: Routledge, 1999)
    The thesis of the book is that, based on the evidence presented (gathered over a period from 1992-97), the 'Sahelian crisis' of degradation can be contained, and that in doing so, the resources of rural communities themselves will play a much larger part than is usually assumed. Pre-eminent among these resources is the labour provided by a growing population which, in drawing on a wealth of indigenous technical experience and the best of introduced practices, can create, through an incremental and 'indigenous' intensification of agriculture, more sustainable production systems. Gradualist rather than transformational expectations should therefore underpin the policies of governments and donors, policies which need to be founded both on improved understanding of the diversity and the dynamics of primary production systems, and on a recognition of the need for unimpeded economic integration between the Sahel and West Africa as a whole. Ten chapters examine: introduction; diversity, flexibility and adaptability; four communities, four systems; negotiating the rain; working nature; making the land work harder; when farmers are not farming; women, children and the house; understanding inequality; and managing the managers. Case studies are presented from four villages in north-east Nigeria (Tumbau, Dagaceri, Kaska, and Futchmiram). (CAB Abstract)