ANAFAE and Colabora: Lessons from experiences with collaborative networks for sustainable agriculture and natural resource management

Although rural communities in Honduras are poor, matters are not entirely hopeless. A handful of projects have made impressive contributions to rural development, and those efforts represent a modicum of hope. Rarely, however, have Honduran grass-roots organizations participated in the sort of collective efforts that development practitioners believe key to sustainable change. This study compares two networks that emerged from development research partnerships in Honduras and represents new opportunities for interaction and contributions to further research and practice. The Honduran Association for the Promotion of Ecological Agriculture (ANAFAE) concentrates on issues associated with sustainable agriculture, and the National Network on Collaborative Natural Resource Management (Colabora) seeks to strengthen community ability to manage common resources.