GALENG [Grassroots Advocacy, Livelihoods, Environment, Networking and Governance] strategy: an innovative approach to sustainable natural resources management

The author believed that when the author treat the physical environment as part of the community then sees the community as part of the landscape. Recognizing the independence of community well-being and strengthening the capacity of communities to have a voice in decisions about planning and design conservation initiatives affecting them. Grassroots communities have made enormous contributions to the maintenance of some of most fragile ecosystems. Through years of work experience, this author knows that conservative approaches designed with communities and indigenous people can help mitigate any negative social impacts while providing lasting incentives-benefits-for sustainable management of natural resources. Hence, this GALENG strategy. The GALENG strategy does not claim to be a new approach to the development .GALENG which stands for Grassroots Advocacy, Livelihoods, Environment, Networking and Governance comprises a set of principles, backed up with a set of tools; the plural approaches is used deliberately to indicate that there is no single way forward that might conflict with other development approaches. The evaluation of GALENG has been a self-conscious process with much arising from this author's number of exposure and experiences in developing comprehensive management plans towards an improved understanding and targeting of development problems. The GALENG strategy illustrates a learning loop that literates action planning and implementation with a feedback mechanism. This framework process reinforces local ownership, knowledge and priorities by participatory knowledge, gap identification, and where results are fed back into the community development process. GALENG as an approach provides a platform for diverse stakeholders, interests and views to be openly negotiated toward more socially-optimal solutions. It enables identification of opportunities missed due to poor communication among stakeholders, a prior structuring of development processes by outside actors, or lack of institutional collaboration and a synergy (i.e. policy and technology). Through GALENG approach erroneous assumptions and prejudices about reality were identified and impetus of creating opportunities for innovation and enabling participatory monitoring and adaptive management of change is ensured. Further, it opened up change processes beyond those envisioned by government agencies (often biased toward technical solutions), which tends to introduce governance and policy challenges and ensure their solution.