The first booklet

The first section of the sourcebook zooms in on the coastal zone, the principles and components of community-based coastal resource management, community organizing as an underlying and integrating component to CBCRM and an overview of participation. This section differs from the rest of the sourcebook because it is more of a "reader" with basic background information; a foundation for the rest of the sourcebook.

The paper on the coastal zone emphasizes the challenges of the terrestrial and marine interface including the following characteristics: the prevalence of open access conditions; predominance of common pool resources; the mobile nature of many of the resources; the unique influence of temporal (e.g., lunar) cycles; the frequently strong gender differentiation in productive roles; and the dual (i.e., terrestrial and marine) nature of coastal livelihoods.

The paper on community-based natural resource management presents the evolution, principles, stages and strategies of CBCRM. CBCRM is presented as a framework for coastal conservation and development in partnership with community based organizations, local governments, non- governmental organizations and others.

Community organizing (CO) is covered in the introduction because of its central role in integrating CBCRM activities. Participants recognized the diversity in CO approaches and the political and administrative obstacles in some countries. Nevertheless, the depth of experience and central role of CO in the Philippines (a recognized leader in CBCRM) supported its inclusion in the introduction.

Finally, the issue of participation itself is presented. The rationale for participation, the forms of participation, the obstacles to participation and the relationship between participatory approaches and non-participatory approaches are discussed. General guidelines for using participatory methods are also included.

The types of participatory methods presented in the sourcebook and the degree to which they promote participation varied greatly. The methods range from survey type questionnaires (less participatory) to locally designed wealth ranking tools (more participatory). A common sentiment was that the only "correct" level of participation is that which is acceptable to the local community members.