Access to Power or Genuine Empowerment? An Analysis of Three Community Forest Groups in Nepal
Access to Power or Genuine Empowerment? An Analysis of Three Community Forest Groups in Nepal
复制标题
获得权力还是真正的赋权？
DOI：
--
复制
发表时间：
2004
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
S. Mccool
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
P. Lachapelle;P. D. Smith;S. Mccool
在尼泊尔引入社区林业，是通过个人直接参与决策和利益分享，在森林资源管理方面实行权力下放和民主改革的一种尝试。对社区森林成果的详细分析，特别是对自治进程和权力行使的理解，仍然是一个严重的差距。我们采用有目的的抽样方法，在尼泊尔中山的三个社区确定了代表不同利益的38名森林使用者，并进行了深入访谈，重点是对他们在森林管理中行使权力能力的看法。在这种情况下，权力被定义为制定规则、作出决定、执行合规和裁决争端的能力。我们的结果发现，自卑、脆弱和缺乏透明度是阻止森林使用者行使权力的因素。我们的结论是，虽然社区林业提供了实行自治的巨大潜力，但个人基于种姓和性别等复杂的非正式体制安排的行为必须在这种正式的政策举措中得到考虑。仅通过强制程序影响权力的机会不能充分解释或影响社区林业的潜力。相反，我们注意到，真正的赋权与涉及行使权力所必需的技能和信心的能力有关。
The introduction of community forestry in Nepal represents an attempt to decentralize control and instill democratic reform in the management of forest resources through the direct involvement of individuals in decision making and benefit sharing. Detailed analyses of community forest outcomes, specifically an understanding of the process of selfgovernance and the exercise of power, remains a critical gap. Using a purposive sampling methodology, we identified 38 forest users representing a diversity of interests in three communities of the middle hills of Nepal and conducted in-depth interviews focusing on perceptions of an ability to exercise power in forest management. Power in this context is defined as the ability to create rules, make decisions, enforce compliance and adjudicate disputes. Our results identify inferiority, vulnerability, and a lack of transparency as factors that keep forest users from exercising power. We conclude that while community forestry offers tremendous potential to practice self-governance, the behavior of individuals based on complex informal institutional arrangements, such as caste and gender, must be accounted for in such formalized policy initiatives. Opportunities to influence power through mandated processes alone fail to fully explain or affect the potential for community forestry. Instead, we note that genuine empowerment is related to capacities involving the skills and confidence necessary to exercise power.