Participatory Methods in Community-based Coastal Resource Management - Volume 1 - Introductory Papers (IIRR, 1998): Coastal communities living with complexity and crisis in search for control: (introduction...)

Participatory Methods in Community-based Coastal Resource Management - Volume 1 - Introductory Papers (IIRR, 1998)

(introduction...)

Funding partners

Collaborating organizations

Members of the management team and steering committee

Acknowledgement

Introduction

(introduction...)

The first booklet

The second booklet

The third booklet

A distillation of practical field experiences

How this sourcebook was produced

(introduction...)

Workshop objectives

Workshop process

Coastal communities living with complexity and crisis in search for control

(introduction...)

Coastal communities

Complexity

Crisis

Who owns this sea?

Coastal resource management

Community-based coastal resource management

(introduction...)

Principles of CBCRM

Components of CBCRM

The CBCRM cycle

References

Community organizing and development process

Definition

Purpose

The community organizer

Time frame

Commonly-used approach

Participation and participatory methods

What is participation?

Why participation?

Degrees of participation

Obstacles to participation

Participatory methods and other research methods

References

General guidelines for using participatory tools

(introduction...)

Guidelines for facilitating groups

While working with a community...

Glossary

Workshop participants

Workshop staff

(introduction...)

Coastal communities are people living on the thin strip of land or on the water along the fluctuating line where the sea meets the land. Trying to otherwise define either this group of people or delimiting the resources upon which they depend is an elusive task.

Figure

The coastal zone may be defined "ecologically" as the land area influenced by the sea; politically by some arbitrary distance inland from high tide level; or socially as the area occupied by people dependent on the sea for livelihood. For any means except setting an arbitrary distance, the exact extent of the coastal zone defies rigorous definition due to the interconnectedness of ecosystems and human activities in this productive strip between land and sea.

In this chapter, aspects of the nature of the overall coastal system, including people and their coastal environment, will be discussed. It is dangerous to generalize but some aspects seem to be common enough to warrant comment. Understanding the nature of the complex system can help the outsider better work with people who are part of the system and may not themselves consciously think about the overall system. This should help the outsider contextualize work with coastal communities and "probe beneath the surface."

Common assumption: "Coastal resources" are living and non-living things found below the surface of the sea.

Reality: Livelihoods of coastal communities also depend on "terrestrial" resources for food or income.

Since terrestrial resources are essential for coastal communities and they affect the health of, or the use of, marine resources, they are considered by some to be "coastal resources" along with the living and non-living resources in the sea.