October 2000
IUCN Eastern Africa Programme
Somali Natural Resources
Management Programme
Somali Natural Resource Management Programme
Community Based Participatory Natural
Resource and Land Management Planning
Lessons and Guidelines
developed from practice in Somaliland
Report Compiled by: Edmund Barrow, Amina Abdalla, Sofia Jebril Younis and Hassan Adnan Abdullahi
The Somali Natural Resources Management Programme is implemented by The World
Conservation Union's Eastern Africa Regional Office (IUCN-EARO) and financed under
the EC Rehabilitation Programme for Somalia
Project No. 6/SO - 82/95 + 6/SO - 83/04
Source: http://www.iucn.org/places/earo/pubs/drylands/SOMALILE.PDF
Guidelines for Community Natural Resource Management in Somaliland
1. Introduction
The development of community land use and natural resource management planning was a major activity of the Somali Natural Resource Management Programme (SNRMP) Phase II. Guidelines for this process were generated through pilot activities in four communities in Somaliland. A trial planning process was carried out in Phase I involving a relatively rapid process. Phase II focused on more detailed and in-depth participatory planning, over a longer period of time, addressing both social and natural resource issues, and requiring less time from the community on a daily basis.
The Project's experience indicated that a sound social understanding of the interactions that take place, within and outside a community, and the integration of issues relating to power, different stakeholder groups, external forces, are all important for long-term success. Failure to understand and address these issues may marginalise certain stakeholder groups, may favour the powerful and vocal, and may ignore customary management institutions and reciprocal arrangements with other groups.
SNRMP tried to schedule activities so that they were not too intensive, fitted in with villagers' time and labour commitments, allowed time for reflection on discussions and the process, and ultimately provided for increased local ownership of the process. The overall process piloted may take two to three months, involving four to six visits of one to two days each.
2. The Planning stages
Initial approaches need to be discussed with the village leadership. The project aims and process need to be introduced at the village level without unduly raising expectations. The main message is that the project will assist the villages to understand the issues, problems and opportunities concerning their natural resources and management.
It is essential to build trust with village communities, as there may be uncertainty or even suspicion of the agenda and objectives of external visitors. Without mutual trust and respect, it is unlikely that such land use planning will be truly participatory and based on real, not perceived needs. The starting point in building trust and understanding is to agree on the ground rules for the relationship between the community and the agency. These are called "Xeer" in Somali, and need to be understood from early in the process. Understanding the history of the community can provide useful insights into the current social and natural resource situations, enable people to discuss the influence of past events (droughts, vegetation changes etc.) on the present and explain the present situation. Developing village sketch maps may not yield great detail on natural resources but does provide an opportunity to build trust, rapport and consensus. Mapping activities also allow for a start to discussions on resource issues.
More detailed mapping of natural and other resources at the village level can follow, and is relatively non-intrusive. The villagers may be divided by gender for some mapping exercises. Men and women's maps may then be brought together, compared and reconciled. It will be useful to do transect walks, separately with men and women, to crosscheck portions of the map, and stimulate discussion.
Mapping the wider "landscape" indicates the importance of links with other communities, particularly for livestock grazing. Livestock can range over areas in excess of 100 square kilometres. This puts the village natural resource map in the context of the wider pastoralist system that helps to mitigate risk and enhance resilience. Since large-scale natural resource management depends on reciprocal rights with other villages, it is important to understand these rights of access to pasture and water.
Discussions about natural resources will raise a range of important social issues, often relating to power. Such critical issues can only be discussed when there is a good level of trust. Social issues should not be seen as separate from the land use and natural resource issues, but as being inter-related. Issues relating to different stakeholder groups, both within the community and "outside", need to be understood, as well as the nature and importance of their interests.
Decision-making, the village-level institutions concerned and their relationship with external institutions are important areas to understand. Historically, Somali natural resource and livestock management is male dominated, even though women may do much of the work. However, this conflicts with present day thinking on the roles of women and men. It is clear that development of equity in such systems will need to be part of larger changes in society, and will not happen immediately. In addition greater gender equity may involve a certain perceived loss of power by men.
Therefore addressing gender considerations requires the understanding of existing social norms, together with the need for improving equity between women and men. Having both male and female community mobilisation officers worked well for SNRMP.
In Somaliland society it is often difficult for men and women to participate in discussions on equal terms. The project therefore found it useful to separate men and women for various activities.
Analysing power relations and influence at a village level is a challenge, but made easier where there is a good level of trust and the community's confidence has been strengthened. It is crucial that an understanding of the power relations is made, to provide for a balanced and realistic plan. From the findings of the social analysis the facilitators need to make an initial analysis of the decision-making processes for review by the community.
A sound social analysis cannot be carried out rapidly if it is to have local ownership. If carried out sensitively, such analysis will increase the community's self awareness of social and technical issues and issues, and means to address them, and increase its confidence, and reduce dependence on external assistance. Rapid assessments will not gain the level of understanding on which longer term ownership and change processes depend.
Organising the material generated into a coherent plan will usually be the initial responsibility of the facilitators. The draft plan will need to be translated into Somali, cross-checked and endorsed by all the major stakeholder groups. Much data will have been gathered which needs to be compiled in a logical and understandable format. Maps need to be reviewed to check details in the light of subsequent discussions. Using the material gathered, "problem trees" can be developed.
These are useful tools for prioritising overall issues, together with more specific natural resource problems. Once the problem tree has been created, the development of the action plan is relatively straightforward. The project tried to assist the development of plans which are quite comprehensive, while ensuring that natural resource management components are an important sub-set of the overall plan.
While the emphasis of the village planning process is focused at the village level, it is important that other stakeholder groups be involved including government departments and NGOs. At the draft action plan stage approval should be sought, at least in principle, from appropriate district government bodies, to optimise chances of agreement at the formal approval stage.
The maps, charts and diagrams compiled during the participatory planning process should be retained by the village. A formal occasion can be arranged where community representatives present their plans to government departments and other agencies.
Such presentations enhance the people's own confidence in "selling" their plan for possible assistance. Implementing activities, such as tree planting and soil conservation, as part of this planning process has been crucial in this respect. It demonstrates that the plan is an important tool for village improvement and action. The plan should form a simple and robust basis for monitoring progress within the village. Plans produced should be seen as tools which require continuous refinement, change and updating as some problems are addressed and others become apparent.
Mapping and transect walks have formed the basis for discussions and have often facilitated better understanding of resource issues. The range of tools for social analysis has helped to better understand local dynamics. The fact that the process was longer, and involved multiple visits, meant that communities had more opportunity to reflect on and discuss the activities and discussions, as they took place. This promoted local ownership of the outputs.
3. Lessons Learnt
Local response to project activities (which combined participatory planning, implementation of activities, and putting pilot communities in touch with other agencies who may be able to support the implementation of plans) has been positive. Overall there has been participation by a wide range of stakeholder groups, although special measures were necessary to ensure a reasonable level of women's involvement.
The village land use plans, and the activities implemented as a result, are the quantifiable outputs. However, there are a number of less tangible outputs relating to local ownership of planning materials, an increased sense of responsibility for natural resources, greater confidence in documenting and analysing situations and the capacity to make explanatory presentations to outsiders. In some instances organising community meetings in itself was sufficient to mobilise interest and action on natural resource issues.
As with any externally initiated process local expectations were raised and time had to be given to revising them to a "realistic" level as far as SNRMP's capacity to support them was concerned. Activities were implemented based on identified and prioritised needs and the direct link between the planning process and the activity implementation was well appreciated.
The length of the process piloted by the project drew some criticism. However this has to be balanced with the need to achieve trust, particularly important with respect to social analysis and decision making. Ultimately there has to be a balance between cost-efficient implementation of the process and securing quality and local ownership.
It is a concern that some of the decisions may have been heavily influenced by leaders, elders and elites within the communities. In a patriarchal and clan elder dominated society, this is difficult to avoid. However, it is hoped that the value of a process which tries to involve all stakeholders will have been appreciated.
The work based in the four pilot communities has formed a sound basis for participatory local natural resource management planning in Somaliland. The planning process can be provided for at the appropriate administrative level, while allowing for the flexibility so necessary for dealing with the wide range of livestock movement patterns and reciprocal grazing rights. It is hoped that the next phase of the work will build on this success. The four village land use plans produced under SNRMP can be used as a basis for exchange and study visits with other communities. Hopefully they will later be linked to wider district and regional plans.
As environmental and natural resource issues are so fundamental in Somaliland, it is critical that other agencies become more involved with such issues. Some of the tools and processes, which SNRMP has used, could assist in streamlining the collection of important environmental information and in the implementation of activities. A repository for the experience of this and other projects needs to be identified, to make such information more widely available, and to avoid duplication of effort.
Gaining the equitable involvement of women in such a process presents a challenge. Some projects have special projects and activities for women, which may bring increased benefits to women, but may also increase the women's workload. The SNRMP project attempted to implement a process of enhanced gender equity. As a result women felt that they had been involved in collecting data through drawing of maps, natural resource listing, seasonal calendar and stakeholder analysis, and developing the action planning matrix.
However, overall, fewer women participated than men, which could be a result of cultural factors, or the precedence of other responsibilities. It is clear that timing is important if women's participation is sought. Women were not involved as much as would have been desirable in the implementation of plans, and there were few financial benefits to women. Women's interventions were not as well recognised as those of men. This is probably a reflection of male "power and decision making" and raises questions as to what extent a project should push the gender process.
The pilot villages expressed satisfaction with the implementation of activities as a result of the plan, though many said there should have been more activities. The level of activity could have been increased with a closer degree of collaboration between IUCN and other agencies working in the areas. Community contribution was generally beyond expectation. If possible the community contribution to an activity should be made first. It is important to have some implementation of activities early in the process - especially in reaction to early problem identification. This encourages further participation and makes the relationship with the agency more meaningful. The availability of implementation funds should be in proportion to the cost of the participatory planning process input.
In general the villages valued their plans as useful tools to present to agencies. It was decided that the plan content it should be all embracing in focus, with a more focused section on natural resources. In this way the plan becomes an overall community action plan, even if only certain aspects are selected for support. Village presentations of plans to external agencies were very successful. But it would be difficult to ensure a sustained level of attendance at, and interest in, such presentations over a period of time.
On the basis of the existing capacity of government, and the lessons learnt from this project's natural resource management planning process, decentralisation of rights and responsibilities to the lowest appropriate level would appear to be the best policy option. Government would have overall responsibility for the enabling policy framework and legislation, and retaining the control and regulation of last resort. Work with the four pilot communities has provided strong arguments for such a strategy.
This approach argues for a policy framework that building on village-based environmental and natural resource mechanisms, and one that has local ownership and responsibility as its foundation, rather than being imposed. Key components of any rural development and environmental policy development could include:
- The village landscape as the primary basis for the administrative and legally recognised physical planning unit;
- A land use and natural resource management planning process that builds on and develops the concepts and approach of this project;
- A recognition of the centrality of pastoralism and reciprocal access arrangements
- A process that builds on existing natural resource management systems thereby enhancing local ownership.
In the past natural resource management planning has been the domain of foresters, range ecologists, conservationists and other technicians. Technical input may be important, but if it is not based in a social context, any plan may fail for non-technical reasons. The experience of this project has clearly demonstrated the importance of the social perspectives in conservation.
1. Introduction to Process Used
The second phase of the Somaliland Natural Resource Management Programme (SNRMP) had village land use and natural resource management planning as one of its major components, combined with the implementation of some activities as a result of such planning. The process is a follow-up of phase I activities which involved trial village based planning, and two reports were produced:
1. Inglis, A.S. (1997). Innovative Participatory Methodologies for Environmental Interventions at the Community Level. Somali Natural Resources Management Programme. IUCN - The World Conservation Union, Eastern Africa Regional Office. 100 p.
2. Muthui, V. W. (1997). Local Level Natural Resources Monitoring and Evaluation Tools and Methods, Somali Natural Resources Management Programme. IUCN - The World Conservation Union, Eastern Africa Regional Office. 91p.
These two documents formed the starting point for the more detailed village based planning and implementation called for in phase 2. The Inglis (1997) report formed part of the project development process to test participatory methodologies in the Somaliland context. Muthui (1997) elaborated a monitoring and evaluation design to compliment the work of Inglis. Box 1 summarises the work carried out in phase 1.
BOX 1: SUMMARY OF VILLAGE BASED NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLANNING IN PHASE 1
1. Summary village level maps completed for a number of villages (Hayayabo, Aroqolab, Qallao, Iskushuban);
2. Phased process suggested based on the trial experience in 1997 (Inglis 1997) where phase 1 identifies local priority environmental interventions and changes; phase two goes into more detail concerning sectoral, topical, and spatial action planning; phase 3 addresses the more technical assessments and design; while phase 4 represents the actual implementation phase;
3. Phases 1 and 2 of process take between half and one day each;
4. The process, in summary form, compiled village resource maps; started to identify environmental and other problems together with changes the villages would like to see; gain some understanding of some of the village level institutional arrangements; and identify a prioritised range of activities to be implemented;
5. Start of PRA training for some staff who would work with this process, and was used to assist in the selection of the Community Mobilisation Officers for the project. This has since been followed up on by a more recent focused training exercise (Muthui 1998).
Four villages namely Qalloa, Saila Bari, Geed Deeble and Zeyla were targeted for detailed planning based on Phase I experience. The planning also took into account the fact that there were some funds available to allow for implementation of activities to alleviate or resolve problems identified as part of the land use planning, as well as using the plans to attract other investment. The four villages were from two regions but represented four land-use types. Table 1 provides the summary details for the villages.
A Participatory Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Training workshop facilitated by Muthui in October 19981 initiated the planning process in Phase II. The workshop provided training for the project's planning facilitators (Community Mobilisation Officers), staff of other EC funded agencies, as well as government staff.
1 Muthui, V.W (1998). Participatory Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Training Workshop Report. Somali Natural Resources Management Programme. IUCN-The World Conservation Union. 56p
The trial planning process of phase 1 was quite rapid and did not, as a result, fully capture the detail and sensitive issues, particularly those of a social nature, together with customary institutions, rules and regulations concerning natural resources - all of which are so important to sound natural resource management. Therefore Phase 2 focused on more detailed planning, spreading the effort over time, and therefore not taking so much daily community time. This allows for the more responsible building of rapport and trust with village people. Thus the approach for phase 2 built on the work of Inglis (1997) and Muthui (1997) but acknowledged that the planning process needed to focus on:
* Building trust;
* Reaching an understanding of important social issues that are vital for long term ownership;
* Making sure that women, and other marginalised groups are able to contribute in a meaningful
and respected manner;
* Taking into account the daily loads of village people, especially women, so that this process does
not impact too severely on their work loads;
* Recognising that, in a number of shorter periods, for instance half days, a lot of work can be
achieved, especially relating to natural resource mapping, transects etc.;
* Recognising that it is very difficult to obtain important social data in a short period. This depends
on trust built and requires longer periods of time;
* Allowing for certain actions and activities to be implemented as part of the planning process;
* Ensuring that there is less chance that the powerful, rich, and vocal will dominate the process;
* Ensuring that Community Mobilisation Officers better understand the village level stakeholder
and institutional interactions;
* Allowing for a greater understanding of the social interactions, especially of the marginalised and
less vocal; and
* Providing an opportunity to undertake actions and activities that have been discussed as part of
the planning process. The village will be able to realise that it is not all "talk"!
The Somaliland Natural Resource Management Programme is a two-year programme, ending in June 2000. Annex 1 summarises the stages of the village natural resource and land use planning process, while Box 2 summarises some of the major objectives of the natural resources management component, and in particular the 4 village land use plans. Some resources were allocated to initiate implementation of identified activities as part of the process. It was expected that other agencies will assist with the implementation of other activities, especially in their areas of expertise. Since the previous activities have been used to assist in the development of methodologies and for training, it is useful to analyse them in the context of actual implementation of village land use planning, together with the initiation of some activities.
Two aspects are critical to the achievement and ownership of a local level land use plan:
1. A local level understanding of the technical, biological and ecological issues pertaining to such land use planning. This is often easier to do, as it is the area with which technical staff will feel most comfortable. It can also be done more rapidly. On its own such technical planning is important, for example for Government staff. However, at a local level this is likely to be of less importance unless it is linked to activities at village level. The technical aspects of such land use plans address mainly the PLAN part of it.
2. A sound social understanding of the interactions that take place in space and time, whether they are local or distant interactions, and being able to integrate issues relating to power, different stakeholder groups, and external forces, are all essential to long term success. The social aspects of such land use plans address mainly the USE part of it, and are usually not given the attention and importance they need or deserve.
It is clear that the two areas are closely related. All too often, due to time constraints, emphasis is placed on technical land use planning - which looks at such issues as resource inventories and mapping, livestock movement patterns, location of key resources (water, grazing, trees) etc. As a result detailed maps may be produced and technically viable means of land use suggested and even agreed to. But if this is not done with sound social analysis the land use plan will be flawed; will potentially marginalise certain stakeholder groups; can favour the powerful and vocal; and can ignore customary management institutions and reciprocal arrangements with other groups etc. This is a fundamental fault of many so-called community action plans, which are often derived at one sitting (over a period of one week or so).
Much of this social analysis centres on TRUST. Trust is not something that can be developed quickly or measured. Trust has to be built up and developed. Again it is likely that one off planning exercises will not be based on sound trust, and it is likely that the vocal and powerful will dominate.
| BOX 2: BROAD OBJECTIVES OF THE VILLAGE BASED NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
PLANNING PROCESS
SNRMP worked with 4 villages over a period of two years to develop and test participatory land use
planning and provided an opportunity to |
A participatory land use planning process such as this cannot simply have the documented land use
plan as the output. It has to be interactive, and enable community and group reflection and action
during the process. For example as part of natural resource mapping, it might be identified that there
were important trees in place X, and that they have all been removed as was identified in Qalloa. The
community sees this as an issue and wants to redress it. Clearly this is important and can result in
immediate action. They could plant trees or they could foster natural regeneration of the important
trees - an activity that was started at Qalloa. The important issue is ownership of the idea or problem
to be addressed and the activities required to achieve that. External inputs may be required, but they
should build on local ownership.
This means that participatory land use planning is not a discrete exercise in itself but is integrated with
trust building and assists with addressing some of the issues, which are discussed at a community
level. Key to all this is the building up of a responsible rapport and trust between the villages and the
planning facilitators. Such trust is not simply built as a result of an hour long trust building exercise,
such as the time needed to agree on ground rules -"Xeer". It requires time and patience. It is only
when the villagers feel that the project staff are not a threat, but want to assist and work with them in a
responsible manner, that trust will start to be established and more detailed information, issues will be
shared and brought up. In pastoralist natural resource management it is often that detail which is
required to really make progress, and create ownership and responsibility.
The natural resource management planning described in this document is based on these values, and is designed to achieve the following:
* Understand local natural resource management from both sociological and ecological
perspectives;
* Build trust with the range of different stakeholders who have interests in those resources:
* Identify issues which need to be addressed either in the short term or long term;
* View the land use plan as part of this process, but against which some actions can be undertaken
and many more can be put in place.
* Initiate planning activities that are, initially, relatively non-intrusive, important and help to
establish rapport etc., but yield valuable and usable data;
* Use these initial activities to help build trust and explore issues and options, particularly with
relation to the problems and opportunities of natural resource management at the village level;
* Create means to implement activities aimed at resolving issues that communities come up with,
e.g. provide technical advice on how best to foster natural regeneration of important trees, but
ensure that the villagers own the process, and that they have primary responsibility for
implementation; and
* Achieve more detail with time, particularly with respect to the important social issues, local level
institutions etc. The people are less likely to discuss these early on such a process in a formal and
open manner.
The project has taken a phased approach, divided into six stages as summarised in Annex 1. These stages are described in chapters 2 to 6. Chapter 7 provides a summary of the main participatory tools that were used, further details of which are found in Annex 11. The activities carried out as a result, or related to the action plan by either the project or other agencies are summarised in chapter 8. While chapter 9 explores the lessons learnt from this process by both the villagers and agencies, including Government, NGOs, UN agencies as well as IUCN. A process of this nature together with the product has important policy implications, some of which are suggested in chapter 10. A concluding chapter attempts to summarise some of the key findings. All through the report practical examples have been taken from the four village land use plans, which have been produced in both Somali and English. TABLE 1: SUMMARY OF THE MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR VILLAGES: OMITTED 2. Introduction and Initial Assessment of Resources - Stage 1
2.1 Introductions
The project needs to be introduced at the village level in general terms as to what the aims are, but not to overly raise expectations, the type of process being suggested, the time duration etc. The primary objectives of the work needs to be explained and discussed, namely to assist the villages both to understand the issues, problems and opportunities concerning their natural resources and management and how this affects environmental conservation in the four villages. There is need to
- Get broad agreement on what are the important natural resources in the village in general terms;
- Get an initial introduction on what some of the main problems are concerning their natural
resources and environment;
- Possibly have some form of informal walk through some of the village lands (an informal
transect, not at this stage mapped) to let the villagers show the project staff around. This could be
divided by gender;
- As part of such a process discuss with the people on how we can all get a better understanding of
the natural resources in the village territory so as to assist villagers better identify problems and
solutions. This might lead to some initial identification of some problem and issue areas. While
such initial ideas will be documented, it is important that everyone gains a full understanding,
through mapping and discussion of the issues and problems; and
- Then ask the villagers when would be a suitable time to start the process in detail.
Tools to use at this stage can include:
- Direct observation concerning the village, its lands and natural resources, together with some
initial perspective of the people;
- Group meeting to gain some understanding of the village dynamics. This will normally be done as
part of a large village meeting ; and
- General walk around the village area to become acquainted with the area.
2.2. Building Trust - Agreeing on Ground Rules
One of the important aspects of this process is building trust with village communities. Many rural communities and villages are unsure about the agenda and objectives of external visitors or what their motives are. Therefore, with a sense of mutual trust and respect, it is unlikely that such land use planning will be truly participatory and based on real, not perceived needs. One tool to assist is this process of trust building is to mutually agree on the ground rules for people, both within and external to the village. These are called "Xeer" in Somali, and should be agreed to early on, for example after the initial introductions. The following are a selection of ground rules from the four pilot villages.
For the Village
- Data from the village will be used for the benefit of the village, so information must be valid and
true;
- Whoever is contacted by the team should be honest and unbiased;
- We should avoid anything that could create disputes and conflict and our co-operation should
depend on deliberate frankness and confidence;
- We will strengthen, as a community and provide full co-operation to IUCN project staff ;
- As a community, we promise that we would support whatever is required or requested from our
side;
- We as village women, will co-operate with the IUCN team working in the area;
- Activities carried out by Community Mobilisation Officers will be transparent to everybody;
- Community will be committed to any assistance by IUCN project to the village;
- The Community promises to ensure the security of the IUCN team during the duration of the
planning process;
For SNRMP
- Will assist the village about matters relevant to its mandate and will submit other issues to the
concerned agencies;
- Will co-operate with the community in the participatory planning process to develop a village
natural resource management plan;
- Will support the community in addressing identified priority problems related to natural resources
at local level;
- Will facilitate the sharing with other partners of those issues that are outside its mandate; and
- Promise to be honest and unbiased among the community.
Lessons learnt from this part of the process include the importance of:
- Transparent behaviour in working with communities - honesty, impartiality;
- Respect cultural norms of the community (men, women, elders' etc.);
- Respect community ideas and knowledge - do not ignore, but encourage;
- Respect timing;
- Commitment to carry out an activity should be respected and acted on, and expectations should
not be raised;
- Assisting with dispute resolution, to avoid future hindrances to process;
- Establishing ground rules (Xeer) with community on their working relationship with planning
facilitators;
- Regular and relatively short visits to obtain more useful information which does not disrupt
villagers timetable too much; and
- Ensuring community ownership of the information and feedback to the community. Original of
data should go to village, after it has been copied by the project.
Importance of responsible use of participatory tools entails:
- Respecting norms and cultures;
- Importance of both formal and informal contact and context;
- Being humble ("dabacsanaan" in Somali);
- Knowing people's names;
- Using a common language;
- Respecting all views;
- Respecting all different people - age, gender, social class etc.;
- Asking questions
-Understanding (observe, listen) local decision making for consistency etc, as a means of cross
checking.
2.3. General Village Sketch Mapping
While general village sketch maps may not yield great detail, they do provide a good opportunity to build trust with the village, and enable villagers gain confidence in mapping. In addition this provides a means to start discussions concerning the key village and natural resource issues as well as potential solutions for problems identified. If appropriate the villagers should be divided by gender, so that both men and women can map their own priorities. This can form the basis for discussion and agreement.
FIGURE 1: SKETCH MAP OF SAILA BARI
2.4. Historical Trend Line
Understanding the history of the village or an area can provide useful insights into the current social and natural resource situations. Such historical mapping enables people to discuss the influence of past events on the present and give context to present situations. Tables 2 and 3 provide two contrasting historical trend lines, which provide important background for any land use and natural resource management planning work, for example with respect to the frequency of droughts, when significant changes in the vegetation took place etc.
TABLE 2: ZEYLA HISTORICAL PROFILE
|
Year............. Event
B.D ........ Zeyla was believed to be a commercial town TABLE 3: SAILA BARI HISTORICAL PROFILE
Date.............. Event |
3. Understanding the Natural Resources and identifying Natural
Resource Management Activities - Stage 2
3.1. Village Resource Mapping
The timing will have been agreed in advance to ensure that as many people can attend as possible. The mapping exercise will map the natural and other resources at the village level, using the village territory as the limits. There may be resources outside which will be mapped at a later stage. Local level natural resource mapping is relatively non intrusive, and can be a forum for more discussion on problems and issues and how they could be resolved. It is useful to develop maps with separate groups of both men and women, so that they can both, separately map their priorities. This can form the basis for discussion and agreement. Such mapping should
- Build on existing maps done at a village level by looking at seasonal usage (wet/dry/drought); use
by different stakeholder groups (gender, farmers, pastoralists);
- Give people time to do the maps, let them discuss and agree to it all;
- Provide the basis, at each stage to discuss about the natural resources - which are most important?
Why? When? For whom? This leads into some ranking and prioritisation of the importance of the
most important natural resources;
- Based on this, identify problems, issues and opportunities and a discussion on how to resolve
them, can we do action now?; and
- At all stages provide for careful collection and monitoring of data collected, and that the data
collected is also fed-back (in Somali + English) to the village.
This exercise will yield valuable and useful data. Perhaps more importantly, it will start to build rapport, confidence, and trust with the people. When completed, bring the people together to try and produce a joint map. At this stage it will be useful to do a transect walk, maybe two - one for men and the other for women to cross check portions of the map, and stimulate discussion on natural resource and environmental issues.
The maps should be kept by the village, as their resource. It is important to ensure that they do keep them, as these maps will be key to the evolving land use plan and will be used again. Make sure that the project has copies of the maps. Such a mapping exercise results in the maps and their contents, agreement that the village will discuss this further, and "fine tune" if necessary on their own; that they might start some agreed to activities. Figures 2 and 3 demonstrate the more detailed village natural resource and land use maps.
3.3. Larger Landscape Mapping
Having done local level mapping, and carried out a transect walk with a number of knowledgeable local women and men, confidence with the project should be increasing. This enables the project to work on other issues, which may be more sensitive, such as wider resource access and understanding the relevant social issues.
Mapping the wider landscape will indicate how important it is for the community to have links, usually reciprocal, with other villages, particularly from the perspective of grazing for pastoralist livestock. The livestock may have to range over large areas of land, often in excess of 100km.. This puts the actual village natural resource map in the context of the much wider pastoralist land use management system, and helps in the mitigation of risk and enhancement of resilience. Such large scale natural resource management depends on reciprocal rights with other villagers where they may graze. This is often done through the clan elders. In carrying out such a mapping exercise a range of questions can be asked including:
- Do we use resources outside our villages? (yes/no);
- What are they? (types of resources - general-specific);
- Where are they? (location);
- When do we use them? (seasonality);
- Who uses them? (which groups of people from where); and
- How do we get access to use them? (negotiations and agreements).
FIGURE 2: GEED DEEBLE NATURAL RESOURCE MAP
FIGURE 3: QALLOA NATURAL RESOURCE MAP
If possible these issues should be mapped in general (with details noted in the report) on a large-scale map. The maps should be based on livestock migration routes and grazing patterns together with approximate timing. Such a map will be much larger scale and not so detailed. It is necessary to rank these resources in terms of their importance to the village. Figures 4 and 5 demonstrate the importance of carrying out such wider landscape analyses. They both clearly demonstrate that the Somali pastoralists need to have access to wider range areas to secure the viability of their livelihoods, than just the "village territory".
As in previous work it is important that the originals of the maps be left with the village, and the project should ensure that they have a copy for records. This will allow the village to further discuss the maps and questions in their own way, but will also form a basis to help them improve their land management in terms of resources, and the probable need to discuss the issues with others in other villages.
At the end of such an exercise it is important to re-discuss the problems and issues raised from the
previous meeting, and any actions taken to date, as there maybe other problems and issues which
people have identified in the interim. This forms a basis for discussing and seeking consensus on
further actions for implementation.
FIGURE 4: QALLOA LIVESTOCK GRAZING PATTERNS
- Qalloa Area: Ethiopian Plateau
- Wet Period: Water at: Lafo Ciise & Jigjkta.
- Grazing at: Qabri-
Bayah, Harta
Sheik, & Hakshin
Water and Grazing
at: Kalabaidh (20
Km.), Dilla, Wajale
(20 Km.) and M. Kad
(10Km.)
- Water and Grazing
at: Cadcad (20Km.),
Borame (33 Km.).
- Water at Aw Barre
(5Km.). Grazing at
Goroyo Awl
Coastal
Plains
FIGURE 5: SEASONAL PASTORALISTS (OUTSIDE USERS)
4. Understanding the Social and Institutional Issues - Stage 3
The community and wider land use and natural resource mapping, combined with the discussions they will have provoked, builds confidence with the community to carry out such planning work, and creates an increased level of trust with those facilitating the process. This should be relatively easy to do, yields good data, is not too time consuming, and allows some issues to be generated which can form the basis for action. However such discussions will raise a range of important social issues, and often those relating to power. Such issues can only really be discussed when there is increased trust.
This social part of the process should not be seen as a separate activity from the land use and natural resource work. For the purposes of this report they have been separated for clarity. In reality both the natural resource and social work go hand in hand, but with the focus shifting from the natural to social perspectives. A range of social issues need to be discussed, understood and agreed to, including:
- Issues relating to the different stakeholder groups, both internal within the community, and external, from other communities; how important/influential their stake is, and what their stake is.
This needs to be done at the pace set by the participants. Some issues may be discussed early in the process when trust has not been well established, and other issues will come up later as the level of trust increases;
- How decisions are made, especially relating to management, movement, ownership etc. Which village level institutions make these decisions and how they relate to external institutions for, reciprocal rights of livestock grazing, water access etc. and
- Identifying more issues, problems, e.g. power, internal village conflict, and hopefully a number of opportunities as part of such discussions.
Ultimately it will be these social issues which will be the key to long term success of a land use plan and how they are resolved.
4.1. Stakeholder Analyses
By this stage the project staff will have spent at least 3 visits with the site on a "formal" basis (introductory, village and larger landscape mapping) for a total of between 3 to 6 days. In addition, there may have been more informal visits at the request of community, to assist with activities being carried out. As a result confidence, rapport and trust should be significantly increased with the project which will allow the project to begin addressing the more delicate and difficult social issues.
In any village there will be a wide range of stakeholders, within and outside the community. The different stakeholders and their interests should be listed and discussed. This should be done by gender so that as complete a picture as possible is built up. The discussion on stakeholders will bring up issues relating to institutions, power and decision making structures in the village. It is necessary to make an analysis of each stakeholder group and individual, their interests and decision-making processes. (See Annex 2).
4.2. Institutional Analysis
Once stakeholders and stakeholder groups are being discussed it will be important to understand the roles of local institutions. This should include the rules and regulations, which enable such organisations to work and be respected. This will lead to the institutions (committees, customary grouping etc.) that exist in the community. They should be listed and their roles, rules and regulations discussed. From the perspective of natural resource management the most important should be prioritised, and understood in further detail.
It is also important to understand the institutions, which are external to the village, and how they might influence village land use. Annex 3 provides examples of institutional analysis for Zeyla.
4.3. Seasonal Activity Analysis
While stakeholders may have different interests in the natural resources, from the perspective of land
use planning it is important to understand the seasonality of use, which will give some idea of labour
demand and potential bottlenecks. In Somaliland this will be centred around the different seasons.
Questions, which need to be answered, include:
-
Which activities, and in particular those related to natural resources, happen at what times during
the year?
- Who does this work, and are some groups "over-worked"?
This will yield data important for looking at seasonal differences, when the greatest land use pressures
are found etc. Annex 4 provides some examples of such seasonal calendars, and Table 4 summarises
the seasonal activities in Qalloa by gender.
TABLE 4: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN SEASON ACTIVITIES FOR MEN AND WOMEN FOR QALLOA
Dry Season and Wet Season
Main activities for Men
-
Harvesting and threshing of crops
- Fetching water from distant water points
- Moving animals to Adad and Awbarre shallow
wells
- Further digging of shallow wells in distant water
places
- Seeking fodder for animals (buying)
- Grass roots excavation for animal fodder (in years
of drought)
- Soil preparation for growing
- Sowing early and late crops
- Grazing animals
- Weeding and harvesting early and late crops
- Distant water collection
- Protection of crops from pests (birds)
- Sale of milk and ghee
Main Activities for Women
- Collection of dry grass for house construction
- Fetching water from distant places
- Moving animals to distant places to care for them
in better grasslands
- Milking
- Cooking and child care
- Fuelwood collection
- Protecting weak animals from rains
- Collecting dry grass roots for animal food
- Fibre collection for rope making
- Protecting crops against birds
- Food preparation for men working in farms
- Milking animals and production of ghee
- Milk and ghee selling to the main towns (Borama)
- Cooking and child care
- Fuelwood collection
4.4. Importance of Gender
Gender is a crucial and sensitive issue to address, not least amongst pastoralists. Historically Somali pastoralist natural resource and livestock management is male-dominated in terms of control and decision making, even though the women may do much of the work, as is common in many pastoralist societies. However such male-dominated systems come into conflict with contemporary thinking on the roles of women and men. It is clear that equity in gender in such systems is part of a process of greater equity in society, and will not happen overnight. In addition greater gender equity will involve a certain perceived (and real) loss of power by men. Therefore addressing gender consideration requires an understanding of existing social norms, together with the need for improving equity between women and men. In Somaliland society it is often difficult for men and women to sit equally in a discussion. If they do, women will often participate very little. Thus the project has addressed gender issues by:
- Having two community mobilisation officer - one woman and one man. This has worked very
well for three of the four villages. Unfortunately the lady left the project before the completion of
the land use planning for the fourth village (Geed Deeble), where it was acknowledged that
women's participation was not as good as it should have been;
- Dividing men and women for the various planning activities into separate groups. This was done
after the initial introductory sessions. At the village level they were divided to carry out mapping,
seasonal and institutional analysis, problem identification and action planning; and
- Bringing together men and women, after the groups had completed their activities, to reach
consensus about areas of difference.
While this may have not been the ideal approach, and may not have been totally satisfactory from a gender perspective, it has helped to highlight the importance of both women and men and their respective roles in natural resources management. Hopefully it has also increased mutual respect, as well as starting to promote gender equity. The Qalloa Milk Group provides a good example of a local institution, composed of women, that has formed around an economic need. Table 5 and Figure 6 show the structure and the linkages of this group as well as demonstrating a degree of economic power. There is no other relation between the milk group members. Sometimes, especially during the rainy season, they have a revolving fund (Hagbad) to get more cash at one time to solve family problems.
TABLE 5: QALLOA MILK GROUP STRUCTURE
Direct Milk Producers (Dirro) and Milk Sellers Milk Brokers
- They are the direct milk producers and handle dairy milk
collection
- The daily milk collection is then given to one woman.
The next day it is someone else's turn
- The number of members in the group is based on
selection
- Those who can trust each other can be in one group
- Each group has their own ground rules
- The main objective of these groups is to save time and
increase the income from milk
- Their number can be between 10 and 20 women
- They collect milk from milk producers
- They pay cash immediately for the milk
at the collection site
- Their milk collection is based on milk
volume
- Those milk producers who had the same
amount of milk is grouped together
- In this group, the milk collectors take
milk to the market and benefit
- Their number can be between 1 and 3
4.5. Power Relations Analysis
Analysing the power relations and influences at community level is difficult, but easier where there is
greater trust built and the community's own confidence has been raised. However it is crucial that
some understanding of the power relations is made, as this will make for a more balanced and realistic
analysis. Based on the findings of the social analysis the facilitators make an initial analysis of the
decision-making processes, using the campfire analysis (Figure 7). This is then discussed with the
villagers to assess the validity of such an analysis. The example of Qalloa is illustrative of this
analysis (Box 3, and figure 7).
-
BOX 3:POWER AND DECISION MAKING IN QALLOA VILLAGE
-
In Qalloa village there are a large range of different internal and external stakeholders. Most of them have some
stake in the natural resources or other materials. The internal stakeholders include farmers, pastoralists, the
women's milk group etc. Some stakeholders are more influential than others, for example the urban based
external stakeholders and the committee of elders. Some of the stakeholders are resource users but are not
important decision makers, for instance poor people, seasonal pastoralists and the women's milk group. Some
are decision makers but not resource users, for instance government authorities, urban based sultans. The urban
based external stakeholders are stronger than the village community, in terms of decision making about a
number of important issues including contractual matters of the village.
-
All internal stakeholders and some of the external stakeholders use the natural resources of the village. However
it is the poor people who are completely dependent on their natural resources. Those stakeholders who are close
to the power base can benefit and live well, but those who are far from the power base may not benefit. Most of
the stakeholders in the natural resources have little power or influence on decision making, while there are a
number of small stakeholders who are very powerful and influential.
-
4.6. Summary of Social Analysis
-
While some of the social analysis described in this section is carried out as discrete activities, much of
it is part of a continuous process of consultation with the different stakeholder groups. In much village
land use and natural resource management planning emphasis tends to be laid on the more technical
aspects, for example mapping, transect walks, and understanding livestock movements. However the
decision-making processes determining such technical issues are usually socially driven, and relate to
the various social and power arrangements which each village or community displays. Thus the better
the understanding of the social issues within a community is, the more likely it is that the plans and
activities will be a truer reflection of community needs, and of their ownership of the process and
outcome.
-
A sound social analysis cannot be carried out rapidly if it is to have local ownership. Unfortunately if
such analysis is superficial, which is a weakness in many of the more rapid participatory assessment
methods, then the planning process may be seriously flawed. If carried out sensitively, such analysis
will increase the village's self awareness about their social and technical problems and issues as well
as the means to solve them, and increase their own self confidence to take more control of their lives,
and not be so dependent on external assistance.
-
Too often, with the more rapid assessments, while they may gain some reasonable understanding of
the technical issues, will not gain the level of understanding on which longer term ownership and
change processes depend, which come from developing community members' confidence to identify
and resolve their own problems.
FIGURE 7: CAMPFIRE ANALYSIS OF STAKE AND POWER RELATIONS FOR QALLOA VILLAGE
1). Size of Circle = relative importance of that groups stake in the natural resources.
2). Proximity to Campfire = Relative power in decision making.
3). Those close to the fire are warm and can see, so that they have the power and control
the fire and decisions, and make sure the others cannot see or stay warm. While those who are far
away are cold and cannot see and so cannot make any decisions.
The Power and Decision Making Arena
5. Drafting Community Natural Resource Management Plans - Stage 4
5.1. Introduction
At this stage project staff will have visited the village on a number of occasions over a period of one to three months, and some actions may have been undertaken as result. The data will not yet have the semblance of a plan, and it is important that the material be brought together in some form of planning document. Organising the material so that it starts to become a coherent plan will usually be the responsibility of the facilitators, ensuring that this is cross checked with the village so that it represents their views and perspectives, their analysis of the problems and opportunities and their agreed to actions. The draft plan will need to be endorsed by all the major stakeholder groups, before being finalised and translated.
5.2. Analysis of data and activities to date, drafting a Land Use Map
A lot of data will have been gathered which need to be brought together in a logical and understandable format for the action plan. The maps need to be reviewed to re-check the detail in the light of subsequent discussions and agreed to changes made. Problem trees should be developed based on the data gathered. This is a useful tool in trying to prioritise what the overall village problems, together with the more specific natural resource problems are. Proper discussion and analysis of the problem tree will make sure that all relevant social and technical data are integrated. Once the problem tree has been created, the development of the action plan is relatively straightforward.
While the focus of this project has been on land use and natural resource management planning, it has not been, nor should it be, possible to separate this from wider village problems relating to, for instance, education, health, access to credit etc. What the project has tried to do is to have as complete an overall plan as possible, but ensure that the land use and natural resource management components are an important sub set of the overall plan. This has allowed the project to say what it can and cannot do, and provided a means for ensuring that the plan does receive wider readership within potential funding agencies.
Figure 8, and Annex 5 provide some examples of problem trees which have been developed in the villages. Annexes 6-9 provide examples of the action plans developed by the villages as key parts of the overall plan. Some of the action plans integrate both the natural and non natural resource actions into one plan, while others have separated the two. Box 4 shows how the Qalloa problem tree was developed. Table 6 summarises the major environmental and natural resource problems for the four villages. A number of the problems are similar, in particular relating to deforestation and soil conservation.
BOX 4: ANALYSIS OF QALLOA VILLAGE CORE PROBLEMS
Core Problem 1: Deforestation is caused by:
1. Tree cutting as a result of trash lines; bush clearing for cultivation; fencing for protection, cultural reasons, wind break and for boundary marking; fuelwood and charcoal; to make tools utensils and equipment's; and house construction.
2. Less tree regeneration due to increased runoff as a result of uncontrolled livestock; gullies growing; less grass; and a lack of bund maintenance; Heavier browsing due to more animals; communal use of the Keyn forest in the wet season; less range land available; and attitude; Fewer mother trees due to the trees being used for house construction and for ploughs, hand tools etc.; and Wild animals.
Core Problem 2:Soil Erosion is caused by
1. Animal tracks leading to water points and as a result of heavy grazing
2. The removal of grass due to less range available; unsuitable harvesting of grass for fodder; not enough
fodder provided on farm; absence of control measures; and the late cutting of fodder.
3. Removal of trees in the catchment and slope areas
4. Lack of bund maintenance
5. Increase in the number of Balleys or earthen dams
Core Problem 3:Pest Damage is caused by
1. Use of untreated seed due to lack of money, and lack of skills
2. Decreased soil fertility due to the run off, and mono-cropping
3. lack of pesticides due to lack of money and lack of skills
4. Increase in pest reserves in uncleared crop residue; fallow farms and because of mono-cropping.
Core Problem 4:Decrease in business opportunities is caused by:
1. A lack of seed capital
2. Civil war resulting in the destruction of business properties and the market place
3. The Livestock ban which has decreased the people's income source to renew their business
FIGURE 8:CORE PROBLEM 1 FOR ZEYLA - DEFORESTATION
TABLE 6: SUMMARY OF THE CORE NATURAL RESOURCE PROBLEMS OF THE FOUR VILLAGES
Qalloa Saila Bari Zeyla Geed Deeble
1 Soil Erosion Soil Erosion Foreign boats Tree cutting
2 Deforestation Deforestation Roads Soil Erosion
3 Lack of Grazing Charcoal production Deforestation Exotic tree species (Prosopis)
4 Pest Damage Drinking water Lack of Forestry Centre
5 Sea Pollution Forest Reserve not clear
5.2. Linking Village Level Participatory Process with Official Processes
While it is vital that the emphasis of village planning is at the community level, it is also important
that other more remote stakeholder groups be involved. These may be government departments and
NGOs, particularly those who either work, or are likely to work in the area with the village. This can
be achieved through various means:
-
Inviting them to some of the meetings concerning the planning process;
- Presenting the plan to the such organisations;
- Having informal discussions; and
- Asking for their technical input into the process.
While the basic planning work should be the responsibility of the village, it is clearly important that
such plans have to exist within the context of local, district and national planning goals and
Building for temporary shelters Firewood
Tree cutting
Lack of water supply in the town Salty soil which make trees difficult to grow
Absence of tree planting activities by people and the Town Committee
Deforestation in Zeyla Town
At the draft action plan stage the plans should be approved, at least in principle, by appropriate government bodies. Likewise before the village finally approves their land use and action plan, the relevant government staff should have a chance to comment on it as well.
5.3. Other Issues
Consensus on all issues is rarely achievable. Part of such planning work involves trying to reach consensus on major issues. Where there are many different stakeholder groups at the village level, there is likely to be disagreement on certain issues. An understanding of the power and decision making structures will help ensure that minority, weak or "hidden" stakeholder views will not be ignored. Such negotiation is part of good facilitation. Gender is an obvious case in a strongly patriarchal society.
In some cases it may not be possible to reach agreement, this should be noted in the plan as it helps ensure that all stakeholder groups feel that their views and perspectives are taken with the seriousness required. This can be a particularly important with pastoralists which tend to be patriarchal and dominated by strong elders. It can be easy just to play "lip service" to gender issues, or have a token women as part of the process. That is not good enough and has in the past been one reason why women in pastoralist societies have been increasingly marginalised, and sidelined from decisionmaking processes. Yet, in the past they had very important roles to play, with well-defined mechanisms to influence and be part of decision making, much of which was often hidden from outsiders. Understanding how women can influence decision-making processes in pastoralist societies is important in this context.
5.5. Summary
This process will compile all information gathered into a structured form to create the village action plan, as part of the larger land use and natural resource management plan for the village. The facilitators may do the actual drafting of the report, however the contents should be determined and, in general agreed to by the village. The first report should be in Somali and late translated into English for the understanding of non-Somali stakeholders. It is vital that the correct meaning of Somali words are used in the English versions of the plans, Annex 10 provides list of important Somali natural resource terminology. Other institutions, such as the relevant government departments, should be involved in the planning process and in the approval of draft plans. As a result of the project four village and natural resource management plans have been compiled in both Somali and English.
6. Using the Plan - Action, Monitoring and Reviewing Progress, and Revision - Stages 5 and 6
6.1. Introduction
Village action plans should be continually evolving documents and the basis for action and revision. There should be both Somali and English versions made, and adequate copies of the plan should be made for village use. The raw planning materials - maps, charts, diagrams which were compiled as part of the participatory planning process should be retained by the village. If possible they should be laminated so they will last longer. The villagers can then use the materials to present to others, to review progress and as a basis to revise the plans. They can be used in a number of ways:
- A formal occasion should be arranged whereby the villagers present their plan to government departments and other agencies. Such presentations enhances the people's own confidence in "selling" their plan for possible funding. Box 5 illustrates how useful such a process can be.
While it is best for such a presentation to be made within the village , this is often not possible
due to the commitments of Government and Agency staff.
- The implementation of activities, such as tree planting, soil conservation and barkad construction
as part of the planning process has been crucial. It demonstrates that the plan is an important tool
for village improvement and action (Chapter 8 presents some preliminary analysis of the activities
undertaken by the project).
- The plan should form a simple and robust basis for monitoring progress within the village as to
how they are achieving the goals of the plan. Likewise external agencies can use it as one basis
for identifying activities which they might be able to fund and subsequently monitor progress
against.
- The plan should be seen as a tool, which requires continuous refinement, change and updating as
the situation changes, as some problems are solved and other problems become apparent. Some
mechanism needs to be put in place to ensure that such updating actually happens. This could be
done by an agency, which is working with the village, or could be the responsibility of
government.
BOX 5: ADVANTAGES OF PRESENTING THE VILLAGE PLANS TO AGENCIES
- It provides a point of interaction and getting to know one another for village members and agency staff;
- It promotes improved self confidence of being able to present to, and deal with agency staff;
- Agencies have been very positive about how the planning had been carried out. The villagers made a very
good presentations of their plan - using the plan ("book") and the flip chart papers (all now in Somali) as
the basis for discussion.;
- Agencies were impressed with the confidence the villagers had to explain their plan and their needs, and
liked how the village were organised to discuss and present their plan;
- Agencies see work complimenting their "agency" main work areas of work;
- Some villages established an office and stocked it with all the maps, papers and information's collected in
the planning process;
- The villages can show and explain the plan to any institutions who want information about the village;
- * The plan helped the village to think about the information contained in the plan, and made it easy for them
to contact and present their problems to international agencies; and
- The village can be used as an example for study tours and visits by other villages in the district so that they
can be exposed to what the "village" can do.
6.2. Monitoring and Evaluation, Revising and Updating the Plan
At this stage it is really too early to monitor the long term effectiveness of the use of the plan, the
implementation of activities, and revising and updating the plan. However some comment can be
made from feed-back from some of the activities which have been carried out:
- It seems clear that the villages are "proud" of their plan - it would appear that the sense of
ownership is strong;
- The people of Saila Bari were much more interested and concerned with the interventions as a
result of the project - in this case the road repairs and bunds. They were happy with being able to
have fairly immediate action as a result of the process. This helped promote motivation, self
confidence and the real interest to do things for themselves;
- The mapping work gave them an increased understanding of the problems concerning their
natural resources helped to clarify some of the major issues;
- Box 6 demonstrates some of the value of the Qalloa village land use plan. Qalloa was the first
village with which IUCN worked, and therefore implemented its activities earlier.
BOX 6: QALLOA PLAN - OWNERSHIP LINKED TO EFFECTIVENESS
- They are very happy with the plan - and have given it to others (Agencies) to help them understand that
problems and needs of the village. It helps make it easier for the agencies to understand the village needs;
and the village can relate different problems to different agency areas of funding;
- So far they have shown this to both UNDP and IFAD, and spent about one day discussing it with UNDP
who said they are likely to come and work there in 2000;
- Also pointed out that one neighbouring village - Bon - had come to Qalloa to ask the Qalloa elders to assist
them in doing a similar exercise of land use planning. As such the Qalloa people who were involved with
the village land use planning act as facilitators for other villagers to do the same;
- It was noted that the village had a long history of self help, and they were very happy with the process as far
as it went. But they felt that IUCN did not go far enough. They feel that they need particular support for the
Keyn forest area;
- They also felt that the tree planting demonstration was very important and should be built on and developed
further. The people have learnt a lot about how to plant trees and want to carry this on further;
- There are three small areas of trees, each with 55 trees (miraa and gob mainly) with a survival of about
45/55 - which is excellent at the very end of the dry season;
- IFAD funded the rehabilitation of a balley dam between the farm land and the Keyn forest;
- COOPI implemented mechanised soil bunding at Qalloa, which is linked to the land use plan that identifies
soil conservation as a key problem area. The bunds were well constructed, with stone lined spillways, and
stone lining on edge of bunds; and
- COOPI worked with IUCN on the building of the Barkad for the tree nursery in Qalloa. A local Qalloa
contractor got the tender for the construction, and as a result the Barkad is one the best constructed that
COOPI have funded. So much so that COOPI had an internal workshop to assess what can be learnt from
this. Apparently the contractor was very closely supervised by the village elders and so could not take any
short cuts etc.!!
These sorts of comments indicate a strong sense of commitment to their village plans. Initial informal
monitoring suggests that the interventions have been successful. It is too early to assess whether the
plans have yet been revised or updated as a result of changing circumstances. This is something that
will be built into some of the activities of a future phase of this project in Somaliland.
-
7. Summary of Participatory Tools Used in the Process
-
7.1. Tools to use at various stages
-
TABLE 6: SUMMARY OF PARTICIPATORY TOOLS USED FOR DIFFERENT STAGES
Activities Carried out Participatory Tools Used
Stage 1: Introduction and Initial Rapid Assessment
- Introductions to Village
- General Village Map - Men and Women's
- Familiarisation with Village area
- History of the area
- Initial discussion on main problems and issues
- Village meeting
- Map critical resources
- Listing of critical resources (Matrix)
- Historical Trend line
-* Brainstorming on problems and issues
mp>
Stage 2: Understanding Village Resources and identification of some problems
- Detailed Village Natural resource mapping - men and
women; verify with transect walks
- Map and discuss resource use outside village area
- Determine resources used external to the village
- Detailed Natural Resource Mapping
- Transect Walks
-* Mapping wider natural Resource use
Stage 3: Understanding Internal and External Stakeholders and Institutions
- Stakeholder analysis,
- Identify rights and responsibilities for various
resources
- Determine who makes decisions concerning resources
- Identify institutions assisting with natural resource
management
- Stakeholder and power (Campfire) analysis
- Institutional analysis
- Seasonal labour mapping by gender
-* Focused Group discussions
Stage 4: Develop Problem Tree and Draft Village Action Plan
- Revisit maps, matrix rankings etc. to ensure
agreement
- Problem tree analysis
- Agreement on practical and achievable actions
- Development of draft village plan
- Problem Tree
- Group and large meetings to discuss village plan
Stage 5: Plans Used for Activities, Attracting Funding etc.
- Translation of plan to Somali, and endorsement
- Initiate implementation of plan
- Agree on work plan, who will do what/when, what
resources are needed
- Lesson learning
- Endorsement by village
Stage 6: Revision of Plans, Monitoring of Progress (not carried out at the time of writing)
- Initial implementation of activities
- Fine tune, revise plan etc.
- Participatory monitoring and evaluation
- 'H' form (not discussed in this document)
A number of participatory tools have been used in this planning process. It is clear from comments and lessons learnt at the village and project levels that the proper field use of these tools has been an important component of the success of the work. Mapping and transect walks have formed the basis for discussions based on practical issues which have often helped the villagers better understand some of their own village based problems and issues. The range of tools for social analysis used have helped the village better understand their own village dynamics in the context of their natural resource management. The fact that the process was longer, and consists of multiple visits, rather than completing the work in one action planning exercise, meant that the village had a chance to reflect and discuss amongst themselves the different activities and discussions as they took place. This promoted local ownership of the process.
7.2. Effective Participatory Tools Used
Tools found to be most useful were:
1. For Natural Resource Assessment
- Transect walks: to identify problems, identify natural resources, verify discussions, generate
more detailed information;
- Mapping: to indicate boundaries of the area, map resources inside and outside village,
promote awareness, provide a basis for discussion;
- Ranking of resources: to show priorities of the community and differences.
2. Resource Use and Seasonality
- Group discussions: to determine natural resources, the physical structures of the village, and
location
- Random discussions: to verify data, cross check
- Livelihood analysis: to include diagrams, graphs and maps, written and group discussions,
observation
- Seasonal calendars: to determine seasonality and location of use (by gender)
- Stakeholder analysis: to identify and understand stakeholders and interests
3. For Decision Making, Power and Access
- Institutional analysis: to identify and understand clans and sub clans etc., decision makers,
location of power , role of different groups and government authorities.
Further details concerning the use of some of these participatory tools can be found in Annex 11.
8. Analysis of Activities carried out as a result of the Village Land Use Planning
Tables 7, 8 and 9 present a draft summary of the activities undertaken to date as a result of the village natural resource planning process, while those of Qalloa are presented in Box 6. For Zeyla and Geed Deeble the activities are still ongoing, while for Qalloa and Saila Bari, they have been implemented. The project has been able to allocate approximately US $6,000 for activities for each village. In some cases this has been complemented with funding from other agencies. In some cases, agencies have implemented other activities related to the action plan.
TABLE 7: ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED BY SAILA BARI VILLAGE
By The Project By Other Agencies
- Construction of road run off drains to ensure that
rainfall run off is taken away from the road area
and supplement water in flat area. Five roads have
been completed in the village area each about 12
Km long, with the community contributing about
30% of the work, and the project provided tools
and the remaining labour payment.
- Gullies in the roads were filled with Aloe, tree
branches and stones to act as check dams to
prevent further erosion - about 20 Km. of road
were treated.
- OXFAM running a revolving loan facility for
Barkad maintenance, and also income generating
credit for women.
- Save the Children Fund - USA support for the
building of a school classroom promised
TABLE 8: ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED BY ZEYLA VILLAGE
By The Project By Other Agencies
- Establishment of a tree nursery established in
Tokhoshi village with the project providing seeds
of "Dhamas" (Conocarpus lancifolius) and plastic
tubing. Thousands of seeds have been planted,
and some 100 wilding seedling were collected and
transplanted.
- Organisation of awareness raising workshops held
in Zeyla for pastoralist elders to promote
understanding of good tree management.
- COOPI implementing a fishery project and the
establishment of a water supply for Zeyla town
- IRC provides credit for women's income
generating activities.
- Negotiation initiated with PERSGA a regional
marine organisation on declaring Saardin Islands
a Marine Protected Area.
TABLE 9: ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED BY GEED DEEBLE VILLAGE
By The Project By Other Agencies
- Provision of tents to accommodate the forest
guards as well as boxes for keeping documents in.
- Technical assessment on soil erosion by a water
engineer and implementation of non mechanised
soil conservation.
- Proposal written to Canadian CIDA for
mechanised soil conservation activities (materials
only)
- Food for work requested from WFP to pay for
labour for the mechanised soil conservation
activity.
- Local Forest Guards (10) employed by the Water
Agency to guard the forest reserve area and
ensure no trees cut.
- WFP approved, food delivery started at
completion of this document.
- Funding approved by Canadian CIDA signing of
agreement by community pending.
9. Lessons Learnt - Village Based Natural Resource Management Planning as a Tool for Land Use Planning in Somaliland
9.1. General Comment on Land Use Planning Process
Generally the villagers have been very happy with this process which combined participatory planning together with the implementation of some activities and connected them to other agencies who might be able to assist with the implementation of some activities. Overall there has been good participation by a wide range of stakeholder groups. However a focused effort needed to be made to get good women's participation, especially in getting their views and ideas formally "heard" and used in the plans and activities.
In terms of project compliance the village land use plans and the activities implemented as a result are the quantifiable outputs. Possibly of more importance are a number of less tangible outputs relating to community ownership of the plans, their increased sense of responsibility for the natural resources and their increased confidence in being able to document and analyse their situation and being able to present this to others. This was commented on a number of occasions. In some instances bringing villagers together helped them share issues and solve problems they might not otherwise have had the opportunity to. Local level institutions and organisations have become better understood and recognised.
As with any donor-funded initiative, expectations were raised and SNRMP tried to keep them at an appropriate level. Activities, within the limits of the project resources and, where appropriate, the resources of collaborating agencies, have been implemented based on the identified and prioritised needs. It was appreciated that there was a direct link between the planning process and the activity implementation and there was minimum delay.
Some state that the process took too long, which is a valid issue. However this has to be balanced with the need to achieve trust with the villagers. With increased trust sensitive information is more likely to be tabled and discussed. This is particularly important with respect to social analysis and decision making. It is still a concern that many of the decisions might still have been ultimately made by leaders, elders and elites within the village. In patriarchal and clan elder dominated society, this is difficult to avoid. However it is hoped that they will have been influenced by the values of such a process which tries to involve all stakeholders.
As environmental and natural resource issues are so cross-cutting in Somaliland, it is critical that other agencies become more involved with such issues, either in collaboration between agencies, with government or on their own. Some of the tools and processes, which SNRMP has used, could assist in streamlining the collection of such important environmental information and in the implementation of activities. Other agencies may also be collecting similar sorts of information. There needs to be some form of repository so that such information is more widely available and to avoid duplication of effort.
9.2. Length of Process
Those involved in short term projects may say that it is not possible to invest time to have a long term process that is based on trust and commitment by both parties. The history of Participatory Rural Appraisal was originally housed in research, of a more extractive nature. Thus there was more emphasis on fast appraisals and some of these perspectives remain in many institutions. However it is increasingly being realised that in such rapid approaches much is missed out, the quality of the information may be superficial and it is unlikely that important sensitive information will be discussed.
While much valid and valuable physical and natural resource data may be gathered, the validity of the social data may be open to question in processes that are too rapid, and much detail may have been missed, as the example of the milk group in Qalloa showed (Figure 6) the group had not been identified in preliminary analyses.
Adopting a longer term process based on repeated visits that develops and builds trust is time consuming for both the villagers and facilitators. It is clear that there has to be a benefit for all parties gaining better quality information in terms of the project, having a locally-owned product with the implementation of activities for the villagers for example. The process in Qalloa village took longer than in other villages, since it was the first village, and so provided the basis for training the community mobilisation officers. Zeyla, because of its relative isolation, was completed during two intensive visits, but the quality of the information has not been as good or as encompassing, as the other villages.
Ultimately there has to be a compromise between the speed of the process and the quality and ownership of the data and the process. However any such balance has to take into account regular community activities. For example, work with pastoralists could not be carried out in the dry season, when they may be looking for water and grazing, nor in the wet season in Zeyla when the area is not accessible by land.
For a social-anthropological study the SNRMP process would be too short and rudimentary. In terms of some rural development planning the process is too long. However, if any proposed intervention is to succeed at such a village level, then it has to be "owned" at that level. The village and the people have to feel responsible for the intervention. It is clear from comment that the four villages feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for their plan, and for the resulting activities. How long it takes to build that sense of ownership and responsibility, as well as gather and analyse the data needed, would represent the desired length of such a process.
9.3. Lessons Learnt - Village Perspective
At various stages and in different forums, both formal and informal village representatives have been asked what lessons they have learned. In general they have been very positive. People have appreciated the fact that project staff spent time with them, and respected their views. They saw that the information being collected was being used in a constructive manner and it was not simply being extracted. In March 2000 a morning meeting was held for representatives from three of the four pilot villages - Qalloa, Saila Bari, and Geed Deeble, using a range of questions as a basis for inter village group discussion. This is documented as follows and has been complemented by other more informal comment:
- What lessons did you learn from village mapping?
For some this was the first time they had seen a map of their village or been involved in making such a map. Undertaking such a process brought the village together and helped them know each other better. It raised a lot of discussion as it helped people share their own experiences as well as increasing their understanding of problems and issues, particularly concerning natural resources. In summary the mapping work helped to clarify some of the major issues.
- What lessons did you learn from transect walks?
This gave community members a chance to walk and see their village area as well as be able to discuss first hand about issues. Such direct observation and discussion made possible by the transect walk helped villagers know about and discuss the existing situation. Interestingly, it also demonstrated to the villagers that the project was really interested to know about the village area, their natural resources and the problems faced. Where problems were seen and discussed, it helped act as a means to decide on forms of social control on, for example the cutting of trees since the elders and others who went on the walks observed and commented on such issues.
- What lessons did you learn from discussions on stakeholders, seasonal calendars, institutions etc.?
This promoted discussion and understanding of seasonal changes, rainy seasons and planning for the different seasons combined with the work loads for different stakeholder groups. Analysing the different stakeholders and their stakes increased peoples feeling of involvement in village issues, and to think more about problems, resources, solutions etc. In addition such meetings and discussions helped the people to see how easy it is to collect data and discuss the implications.
- How have you used the Plan?
While the development of the land use plans was an important output on its own, it is clear that the activities implemented combined with presenting the plan to other agencies, provided a much increased value. Village capacity and confidence was enhanced. Some villages established a small office and stocked it with all the maps, papers and information collected in the planning process.
The villages now have the materials and confidence to show and explain the plan to anyone who wants information about their village. Likewise the plan helped the villagers to think about the information contained in the plan, and made it easy for them to contact and present their problems to agencies. For example
- In Qalloa, the people made an office for the plan, with a person in charge. They presented the
plan to agencies and government ministries. They showed and explained the plan to both
UNDP and IFAD. They spent one day discussing it with UNDP who said they are likely to
come and work there in 2000; One other village came to Qalloa to ask for assistance in doing
a similar exercise for them; and
- In Saila Bari, the people assigned a community member to keep and look after the material in
an office. The plan was presented to agencies, and they gained promises of interest from SCFUSA
and African Education Trust.
- What do you think about the implementation activities?
Initially most villages were more interested in the activities that they project might bring. Some said that activity implementation should have been greater with more resource devoted to it. However they were all appreciative that the project was able to assist with the implementation of activities which it had agreed to, and within a reasonable period of time. Others said that the activities carried out in the village have been very useful and above expectations.
The implementation of such activities has motivated people to increase their contributions to intervention activities. The implementation of activities related to the plan has promoted motivation and self-confidence. In other cases the value of the plan has been in the presentation to outsiders and promoting interest in assistance to the community.
- What could be done to improve the planning process?
Participatory processes can be improved through acting more quickly on the priorities in the community action plans, and relating this to an increased level of implementation activities. An area which was not considered enough in this Phase is the organisation of more opportunities (workshops, study tours etc.) for interaction between local communities, to enable them to share and exchange ideas and experience. With four village land use plans currently completed, these pilot communities could be an important focus for working with other villages (and this has been built into the proposal for the next Phase).
- Any other general comment?
There was a range of more general comment concerning lessons learnt some of which included:
- The pilot villages of this process should double their efforts on using their land use plan, as
they are pioneers for other Somaliland villages;
- Public communication media should be used to demonstrate this process to other villages of
the country, apparently some mention of the Saila Bari plan was aired on Somaliland radio;
- Community representatives were very happy with the process as far as it went. But they felt
that IUCN did not go far enough, as we "cut the contact" so to speak;
- The process has encouraged the central committee to supervise more, and made the people
more self-responsible;
- Before they underwent this village land use planning the villagers said they were "blind" to
many of the issues and problems in the village areas; and
- It is important that the awareness about issues is raised, and this is translated into fairly
immediate actions with minimal external inputs.
9.4. Lessons Learnt - Agency, NGO and Government perspective
While it is recognised that this project only worked with four villages, it has formed a sound basis for participatory local based natural resource management planning for Somaliland that creates local responsibility. The planning process could be housed in some administrative structures, but needs to ensure for the flexibility so badly required for pastoralist settings through acknowledging the wide range of livestock movement patterns and reciprocal grazing rights. In this context it is hoped that the next phase of the project will build on the success of this one. The existing four village land use plans can be used as a basis for exchange and study visits with other villages. Eventually this can be linked to wider district and regional plans - which would broadly be the sum of the village plans for natural resource management. Some acknowledged the importance of real community participation in this respect.
Oxfam (in Saila Bari area) see a clear working complementarity between their main work areas of (water rehabilitation and income generation) with that of this village based natural resource management planning. This re-enforces the strong link needed between any form of water development (livestock or people) and environmental conservation. Some of the activities undertaken by Oxfam can be integrated with activities described here to emphasise the importance of environmental awareness and planning. Study tours and sharing will be an important component of this, as Oxfam works in 25 villages in the Galbeed region. This can form a basis for bringing villages together so that they can have more structured discussions about certain topics, e.g. water, trees, conservation etc.
Like Oxfam, UNDP in Awdal region were very positive about how planning had been carried out at Qalloa. The villagers made a very good one day presentation of their plan - using the plan ("book") and the flip chart papers (all now in Somali) as the basis for discussion. The UNDP team were very impressed with the confidence the villagers had to explain their plan and their needs, and how the village were organised to discuss and present their plan. They feel that the Qalloa example can be used as the basis for study tours and visits by other villages in the district so that they can be exposed to what Qalloa can do.
9.5. Were Gender Issues addressed properly?
In male-dominated traditional pastoral Somali gaining the responsible and equitable involvement of women in such a process is not easy, particularly given the central importance of natural resources and land use to the livelihoods of all Somali people, both women and men. Some projects, rather than try and create greater equity, have special projects and activities for women. While this may bring increased benefits to women, it may actually serve to increase women's workload. SNRMP is trying to bring in a process of enhanced gender equity.
Women at the village level felt that they had been involved in collecting data through drawing of maps, natural resource listing, seasonal calendar development and stakeholder analysis, and developing the action planning matrix. However it was acknowledged that, overall, fewer women participated in activities than men (women's participation is estimated at 30%). This could be due to other priorities, cultural factors, or prevention of attendance by spouses. It is clear that timing is important to take into account women's workload.
In terms of activity implementation, women were not involved as much as would have been desirable, and there were few financial benefits to women. Women's interventions were not as well recognised as those of men - as reflected in the priority action lists. This is probably a reflection of male "power and decision making" and how far a project should push the gender process. There were fewer women's priority issues, possibly because not as many women participated.
Sometimes SNRMP-funded activities did not specifically address women. For example Qalloa Milk Group is an important issue for women and high on women's actions, but it did not feature on the overall village plan. One suggested way out of this dilemma is to have two sets of priority issues - for men and for women and have interventions disaggregated by gender.
Questions should be raised about the participation process at the beginning of the contributions, so that people are all clear how both women and men will be able to participate responsible and that all contributions will be treated with the importance needed. This could be done at the development of the ground rules stage.
9.6. Implementation of Activities
Broadly the villages expressed appreciation with the implementation of activities as a result of the plan, though many said there should have been more. Community contribution has been very good and generally beyond expectations. It is important that the community implement their contribution first if possible (as in Qalloa), or as part of the implementation of activities (as in Saila Bari). The case of the Qalloa berkad, where contractors were monitored by the local community, and the work produced was of a higher than normal quality, is notable.
Where possible, local resource people should be used to assist, e.g. in the layout for the bunding in Qalloa. There can be some technical errors if "experts" from outside do not spend enough time explaining. Good discussion is important, even if time consuming, as this helps build community trust and ownership and responsibility.
It is important to have some implementation of activities early in the process in response to early problem identification. This was useful; in the case of Geed Deeble where the forest reserve boundary was quickly marked as a result of early meetings. The availability of implementation funds should be in proportion to the cost of the participatory planning process input. The issue of long-term sustainability will be important to follow up, possibly as part of the next phase, and agreement on sustainability needs to be part of the process.
9.7. Use of the Plans
In general the villages believed that their plans are useful tools for them, for their own implementation of natural resource management and for securing support from agencies. In terms of the plan content, it was agreed that it should be "all-embracing", though with a more focused section on natural resources. In this way the plan becomes an overall community action plan, even if a project only picks up on certain aspects.
The presentation of plans by community representatives was a successful and confidence building strategy. However, agency attendance was not as good as should be expected. This was unfortunate, and could demonstrate a lack of interest about such approaches. It may be useful in future to organise some advance discussion with agencies about the plan and determine their level of interest. After such presentations it is important that the villages (and the project ) try and follow up with the agencies. The development of small project profiles may assist to engage agency interest and support. In the cases of three of the SNRMP pilot villages project proposals were prepared for activities identified as priorities in their planning process.
10. Policy Implications
Overall natural resource management in Somaliland is the mandate of the Ministry of Rural Development and Environment. The Ministry has initiated the development of policies on several aspects of natural resource management. Further development and finalisation of these documents are greatly hindered by lack of resources. Where the policies have been developed into legislation enforcement is made difficult by the low awareness on the law and the lack of resources. For example the ministry has developed a natural resource law No. 4/98 that reinstated both British Colonial government and former Somali government declared forest, grazing, school, special biodiversity zones and wildlife reserves but these reserves continue to be unsustainably exploited.
The tree and forests resources of northern Somalia provide vital products and services for the people of the area in a predominantly arid area. These include fodder for livestock, building materials and medicinal products for both humans and livestock. They are also the principal source of energy for the population. Over 90% of household and small-scale businesses in Somaliland depend on wood-based energy. Charcoal is the fuel of choice for over 95% of the population in Hargeisa the capital of Somaliland.
The tenure situation in Somaliland is precarious with an astronomical increase in the number of individual enclosures in communal grazing areas and in former gazetted forestry reserves. The enclosures are mainly used for growing fodder for sale or for subsistence farming. The Somaliland administration has responded by burning down the enclosures and by putting a demarcation line between agricultural and rangelands. A rangeland management systems that secures the ability of vegetation to regenerate and provide fodder crops for the dry season is an area that existing government policies have touched on but are yet to implement.
Although the Ministry of Rural Development and Environment has drafted policy guidelines and is even present in all the six regions of the country it lacks resources to create awareness on the polices and to facilitate the enforcement of the policy.
Based on the existing capacity of the Ministry, combined with the lessons learnt from SNRMP's
village based land use and natural resource management planning process, responsible
decentralisation of rights and responsibilities to the lowest appropriate level would seem to be a viable
policy option. The government and the Ministry of Rural Development and Environment would have
overall responsibility of setting the enabling policy framework and legislation, and retaining the
control and regulation of last resort. Even from the four villages that this project has worked with,
there are strong arguments for such an approach in:
- The three village agreement on the management of the Keyn forest in the Qalloa area;
- The importance all four villages have indicated for environmental and natural resource concerns;
- The importance that the people of Geed Deeble have shown for the potential National Reserve in
their area;
- The desire from the people of Zeyla to create some form of marine reserve for Saad ed Din island;
and the
- The range of local rules and regulations concerning natural resources at the village and wider
levels.
These all support the argument for a policy framework that builds on community-based environmental
and natural resource mechanisms, and one that has local ownership and responsibility built in, rather
than being imposed in a "top down" manner.
Some of the key components of any rural development and environmental policy development may
include
- The village landscape as the primary basis for the administrative and legally recognised physical
planning unit;
- A land use and natural resource management planning process that builds and develops the
concepts and approaches developed in SNRMP which has created a strong sense of responsibility
and local ownership;
- A strong recognition of the centrality of pastoralism and the need for access to a much larger
range area than the village area. This is necessitated by the aridity of the environment, the need to
manage risk and maintain the resilience of the system. Such a system has historically been
maintained through a range of reciprocal clan based rights of access at different times; and
- A policy and legislative process that builds on and develops existing viable natural resource
management systems, and their accompanying rules and regulations, thereby enhancing local
ownership.
The village based land use and natural resource management planning process has made a start in this
area. This, combined with the existing work of the Ministry, and lessons from other projects and
agencies will assist in:
a) The identification of existing natural resource sector polices - their strengths and weakness, as a
basis for development and improvement;
B) The establishment of a policy environment that supports reduced pressures on tree resources and
encourages improved charcoal and other wood based production processes;
c) The opportunity to work with local people to understand their existing rules and regulations and
use this to inform policy development; and
d) The introduction and implementation of approved policies to local communities.
It has been suggested that one context for sound environmental and natural resource planning would be a strategic planning exercise for the environment, which could provide the basis for not only policy development, but for a sound recognition of the overriding importance of the environment for all sectors of Somaliland. This would then form the basis by which projects, agencies and Government departments would ensure that their activities and work has an "environmental" perspective. In the short term this could be complemented by ensuring that all new projects have at least one specific environmentally-linked output, against which implementers would have to report against. Currently this does not happen. As a result, environmental concerns, though publicly recognised as important, rarely receive the emphasis required in terms of implementation and compliance reporting.
11. Conclusions - ownership built from trust, understanding and self-confidence
In the past natural resource management planning has been the domain of foresters, range ecologists, conservationists and other technical disciplines. While the technical and scientific input is important, if it is not based in the social context, any such management plan may fail for many non technical reasons. The experience of SNRMP has clearly demonstrated the importance of the social perspectives in conservation.
However, if community-based natural resource management planning is carried out too hastily much sensitive and important information will be lacking. It will not have been seen, heard, used or acted upon. This project has argued for a planning process that is longer term, and builds trust and village confidence, which in turn creates local ownership.
This approach argues for a policy framework that builds on village-based environmental and natural resource mechanisms, and one that has local ownership and responsibility as its foundation, rather than being imposed. Key components of any rural development and environmental policy development for such pastoralist land use systems in Somaliland could include:
- The village landscape as the primary basis for the administrative and legally recognised physical
planning unit;
- A land use and natural resource management planning process that builds on and develops the
concepts and approach of this project;
- A recognition of the centrality of pastoralism and reciprocal access arrangements; and
- A process that builds on existing natural resource management systems thereby enhancing local
ownership.
Annex 1: Summary of Stages in Village natural Resource and Land Use Planning Process
Stage 1 - Introduction and Initial Assessment of Resources
Objectives Methods Outputs Comments
To introduce the process to the community
To collect views on the process from the community
To establish mutual understanding and realistic expectations
- Introductory village meeting: introduce
the idea and benefits of community land
use planning, the process of
development; establish realistic
expectations.
- Visit local authorities to have official
introductions and gain approval
- Need to have introductory 1-2 day
workshop - explain PRA process so that
people really understand what is going
on, and helps moderate expectations
- Second Village Meeting - more detailed
discussion about what will happen, about
expectations etc., setting of ground rules;
elect core steering group to assist project
team
- Understanding and acceptance of the project
and process by local community
"Ground rules" established and agreed to
- Community should start to see themselves
as driving, and being responsible for, the
process.
- They should understand the potential
benefits without having exaggerated
expectations.
- Flexibility of process important, will
depend on how "advanced" village is with
this sort of process
To make, with the
community, an initial
assessment of their natural
resources
- Initial Community Resource Mapping
to show resources used by community
and their location
- Separate maps for resources used by
gender (men and women maps)
- Transect walk to cross check map.
(Possibly photograph and GPS some of
critical resource areas, features.)
- Farm/home visits
- Historical focus group discussion
- Discussion on issues concerning the
resources, and possible solutions.
Identify next activities, responsibilities,
timing etc.
- Overlay community resource map
- Resource maps by gender, with some of the
differences reconciled
- Transect diagram (if appropriate)
- Initial understanding of the issues, problems
and how they could be resolved
- Some activities and follow-up identified
- Some identified activities initiated
- List of resources used and importance (by
gender)
- Critical resources ranked and prioritized
- Time line/history
- Livelihood calendar
- These should be general maps to promote
confidence and trust.
- Somali land use categories should be used.
- The maps should be photographed, scanned
or redrawn for the originals to be given
back to the community
- It may be possible to photograph some key
natural resource features (and use GPS to
establish position)
- This process might take three visits - one to
do the mapping; one to look at critical
resources and the next one to look at some
of the problems and issues
Community Review: Community steering group to initiate and organize - This step is important for the community to gain a degree of understanding and ownership of the process. Additional project staff visits may be requested to clarify issues
Stage 2 - Understanding Resources and Stakeholders, and identify some initial NRM problems and activities
Objectives Methods Outputs Comments
To review achievements of Stage 1
- Group meeting to summarize experience,
present outputs (maps, diagrams etc),
and identify next steps
- Summary of output to date presented and
discussed
- Activities for Stage 2 understood and agreed
Consensus reached on outputs so far and
commitment on way forward guaranteed
To understand resource use
issues beyond the immediate
community
- Larger landscape mapping - resources
used outside the community, their
location and when used. Access
arrangements.
- External stakeholder analysis
- Resource ranking
- Discussion to decide on next action,
responsibilities, timing etc
- Larger scale maps, time lines
- External to community analysis of critical
resources, livestock patterns, stakeholder
external to the community
- Identification of natural resource management
action to be initiated immediately and how
Sustainability of identified natural resource
action to be initiated need to be discussed even
for the most immediate actions. Community
contribution should be agreed on as early as
possible.
Stage 3 - Understanding Internal and External Stakeholders and Institutions Objectives Methods Outputs Comments
To understand
stakeholding in natural
resources
- Stakeholder analysis more detailed analysis of
stakeholders and their stakes in natural resources.
management and specifically identify the
following
I. decision-makers on resource access and use
II. access rights to certain areas and resources
III. inter- and intra-community institutional
arrangements for natural resource
management.
IV. seasonal and labour mapping
V. perception of wealth (e.g. % with private
barkads, with irrigation schemes, have iron
roofs etc.)
The following methods can be used:
a) Semi-structured interviews and focus group
discussion and
b) Problem analysis flow diagrams:
- Discussion -on problems and issues relating to
natural resources and their possible solutions
including decision on activities to be
- "Campfire" stakeholder/decision maker
diagram
- Agreement on range of resource user groups
- Agreement on decision making processes
- Understanding of local institutions for natural
resource management
- Agreement on actions to resolve and address
some of the issues
- Initial problem tree analyses
- At this stage it should be possible to assess
to what extent trust has been established.
Community Review: Community understanding of roles in natural resource management. Respect and understanding of different institutions that influence decision-making. Sometimes community does not meet, and may need follow up to ensure they do meet and discuss; check on outputs
Stage 4 - Developing Problem Tree, and Drafting Community NRM Plans
Objectives Methods Outputs Comments
To refine and provide
more detail on maps
- Review maps fine tune and determine changes; overlay
social responsibility, stakeholder and institutional
issues
- More detailed resource map(s) with
overlays
- The concept of overlays is dependent on
skills of the facilitators, resources available
and community experience with such
process.
To identify problems and opportunities
- SWOT analysis of the issues and problems which need
to be addressed together with the opportunities that exist
- Development of problem tree for natural resource issues
- Provide guidelines on how the community can develop
problem trees for non-natural resource issues
- Detailed social maps, use of local
institutions, customary rules and
regulations..
- SWOT on issues.
Detailed problem trees can be very time
consuming especially if the issues are many.
To identify appropriate
monitoring methods.
- Use H form to develop M&E indicators etc * M&E system agreed to with local
ownership but with external
understanding and agreement
- Locally agreed at community level (though
with project and external acceptance as
well);
To draft a community
land-use plan
- Initial draft plan compiled from all the material gathered
to date by the extension staff (facilitators).
- Translation of material to Somali and training of some
community members who can explain and discuss the
plan with the rest of the community without needing
outsiders to assist
- Prioritized land-use action plan to sort
out issues, create more opportunities
etc.
- Use material to date as basis for developing
and prioritizing on set of activities, who
will implement, when and what external
input they might need
Stages 5 and 6 - Using the Plan; Carrying Out Monitoring; Reviewing Plans
Objectives Methods Outputs Comments
To secure endorsement
of the plan
- Focus group meetings to incorporate changes
- Community meeting to endorse plans for presentation
to outsiders
- Community to present plans to local administration for
endorsement
- Formal endorsement process and
agreement by all on community land
use plan
- Possibly have workshops later on to check
on progress, maintain regular contact after
completion of plan to check on progress
and show that the work does not stop at the
completed plan;
To develop
implementation plans
- Detailed planning of community activities by steering
group
- Presentations to external agencies by steering group to
secure additional needed resources
- Review and lesson learning - fine tuning of plan over
time; regular reviews of plans to revise
- Technical feasibility of suggested
activities suggested including possible
environmental impact
- Plan reviews and revision
It is essential that the presentation of plans to
external agents should focus on those areas that
community do not have internal resources to
address hence avoid a shopping list presentation
scenario.
To implement
participatory
monitoring
- Use H form to track progress, changes taking place
* Information on change brought about by
the process
- This needs more work as it was not
extensively used during the SNRMP
process, except at start.
Annex 2 Omitted
Annex 3: Zeyla Institutional Analysis
Group Founded & Goals Management Achievements
Village social service Committee (7 members)
- Revived in 1994 by the district Mayor, to strengthen
and re-establish social services activity of the
district after civil war
- Manage voluntary village activities
- Manage revolving funds provided
by IRC to women
- They are the govt. and agency
contact persons
- A road to Tokhishi maintenance
- Road to Asha Ada maintenance
- Credit department from women
Horsed fishing cooperative
(64) members
before the civil war
- Established 1972 by the Somali govt. goals is to use
properly the sea resources and to unite their power
- Est. and effort after the civil war, they are not well
organize as there is no common interest between
them.
- To manage their production
capacity
- To seeks market lives for the cooperative
at
- Arrange fish trades to export fish
ex-shark meat
This co-operative achieved:-
- Landcruiser
- Large office in Zeyla
- 8 Cano (Diesel) provided by the Somali
govt. as credit.
Porters.
- Founded in for the goals of to loading, unloading
trucks that comes out from Djibouti to Somaliland.
- Also the same to boats that collect hides, skins &
livestock Yemen.
- To establish written rules between
them selves.
- Participate voluntary road
maintaining activity in Zeyla
- Loading and unloading trucks
- Helping falling heavy trucks by
collecting loading material, lift up the
truck
Masheeye Fishing Enter price 7 members
- This enterprise was founded in 1997 by Masheeya
and their goals an.
- To create jobs and encourage local people to eat
fish
- To upgrade nutrition status
- To establish, fish trading activities in Zeyla area.
- To create income
- To make use about their sea resource.
- Organizing activities
- Controlling
- Promotions, marketing
- Started initiation
- Appalling the fishery centre (ice
plants) is under process.
- Selection of skilled labour
- Since they had other cooling system to
protect the catch. They started to collect
(Sharks) dried meat and fins.
Annex 5: Qalloa Village Problem Tree Analysis - Deforestation
OMITTED
Annex 6: Qalloa Village Natural Resources Management and Land Use Plan Matrix
OMITTED
Annex 7: Saila Bari Village Natural Resources Management and Land Use Plan Matrix
OMITTED
Annex 8: Zeyla Village Natural Resources Management and Land Use Plan Matrix
OMITTED
Annex 9: Geed Deeble Village Natural Resources Management and Land Use Plan Matrix
OMITTED
Annex 10 Somaliland Natural Resource Terms, and Major Tree species
10.1: Somali Seasons
Somali Season Calendar Month Equivalent
Daalallo (dry, long distance to water) December, January
Kaliil (very dry, severe water and forage shortage, land preparation for farming)
February March
Diraac (wet season, farm planting) April, May
Xaga (little rain, livestock movements to grass areas) June, July
Karan (Wet, rain, a lot of milk) August, September
Deyr (harvesting time) October November
10.2: Somali Land Use Categories
Somali Category Brief Description
Ban Open grassland
Beero Cultivated lands
Boholloo Deep gullies
Bustan Irrigated garden, farmland
Buur Mountain range
Dhagax Isolated rocky hills (inselbergs)
Ijaar Fence, barrier
Jeex Small gullies (rills)
Keyn A general term for grazing or browse areas with trees or thick bush
Laago Gullies (general)
Seera Reserved land (needs clarification)
Waddo Aroor Livestock trails
Xoog Rocky hills (pasture and browse)
10.3: Botanical and Somali Names of Woody Species
Botanical Name.... Somali Name
Acacia albida Garabi
Acacia bussei Galool
Acacia circumarginata
Acacia edgeworthii Jerin
Acacia etbaica Sogsog
Acacia horrida Gumar jerrin
Acacia mellifera Billil, Bilcil
Acacia nilotica Tugaar, twer, bilil madow, maraa
Acacia nubica Gummar
Acacia reficiencs Khansa
Acacia senegal Cadaad, adad, hanan, jaleefan, Addaad
Acacia seyal Gummar, Waadhi, Folloy
Acacia tortilis Qora, abak, Qudhac
Acacia zanzabarica Fula
Albizzia anthelmintica Reydab
Balanites aegyptiaca Kidi, kullan, quud, badan
Balanites latifolia Kulan
Berchemia discolor Dheen
Boscia spp Daga yar, Dudwha
Boswellia frereana Yegaar
Boswellia bhoudjian Beeyo
Boscia coriacea Qadan
Cadaba farinosa Dhitaceb, caanu, mayay
Casuarina equistifolia (introduced) Shossey
Commiphora myrrha Diddin
Commiphora playfaira Gaulaw
Commiphora benadernsis Dhirin, malmal
Conocarpus lancofolius Dhamas
Cordeauxia edulis Ye'eb, Ye'ib
Dalbergia sp Dei dei
Delonix baccal Bokol
Delonix elata Lebi, Lebbi
Dobera glabra Garas
Ficus vesta Berdeh
Grewia retusa Mirra-ass
Grewia tenax Dhafaruur
Grewia villosa Gomboshaa
Ipomoea donaldsoni Berebooti
Juniperus excelsa/procera Dayib
Maerua somalensis Qalan-baruur
Parkinsonia scioana Godi
Prosopis chilensis Garanwaa
Salvadora persica Adei, aday
Suaeda fruticosa Hudhuun
Tamarindus indica Raqay, Xamar
Tamarix aphylla Dhuur
Terminalia orbicularis Bisak, bisik
Terminalia spinosa Hara
Zyziphus mauritiana Gobb
Zizyphus hamous Xamudh
Annex 11: Description of some important tools to use in the process. OMITTED