How do research projects influence the design of local policies for environmental and natural resource management?

This paper documents and analyzes interactions between environmental and natural resource (ENR) management research and local goverance. It draws from the experiences of the Philippine-based Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP) to address the following questions: How do research projects influence ENR policy and design? What are the institutional arrangements necessary to sustain interactions between research and governance? The authors offer important methodological insights as well as lessons for practical efforts to link research and policy. These include(1)the conduct of participatory and collaborative research,(2)emphasis to process-related activities,(3)institutional innovations at the community level,(4)developing a plan for the dissemination and utilization of research results, and(5)sensitivity of the research project's design to the political context of the host country.