Accounting for the ecological dimension in participatory research and development: lessons learned from Indonesia and Madagascar

At the interface of environmental and social issues, not enough is known about the links between <br />policies, regionally important biophysical factors, local natural resource management sustainability, <br />and livelihoods. This paper builds upon a comparison of three cases (Tanimbar, Indonesia; Beforona, Madagascar; and Mahakam Delta, Indonesian Borneo) that show inverse gradients of knowledge and perceptions of the environment and human pressure on natural resources. <br /><br />For each case study, socio-cultural and anthropological aspects of society and indigenous knowledge of the environment, the distribution of natural resources, classification, and management are documented in parallel with biophysical studies. <br /><br />The authors assert that the results confirm that the ecological dimension remains weakly addressed and difficult to integrate into development actions when dealing with tropical forested landscape management in developing countries. It is argued that this is due to three main issues: disdain for traditional ecological knowledge and practices antagonism between economy and ecology mismatch between traditional and modern governance systems It is asserted that participatory development shows potential to enhance the fit among ecological, socio-cultural, and economic systems through two dimensions: the generation and sharing of information to understand trends and the generation of new coordination practices that allow stakeholders to voice environmental concerns. <br />Future research in natural resource management must emphasise better integration at the interface of ecology and governance. To this end, three challenges are identified: the design of operational tools to reconcile ecology with social and economic concerns the creation of governance systems to institutionalise collaborative and integrated resource management the design of enabler organisations close to local communities