A conservation and development friendly approach pioneered in
Southern Africa provides vital lessons that can help communities
worldwide adapt to climate change, according to a report by
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
Muyeye Chambwera and colleagues studied examples of community-
based natural resource management (CBNRM), a name for systems
developed over the past three decades to enable communities to
control and benefit from wildlife, forests, water and other
resources. They found that CBNRM methods could inform strategies
for communities to become more resilient to challenges such as
prolonged droughts, floods, extreme temperatures and rainfall
pattern changes. “CBNRM has enabled communities to take charge
of their own development,” said Chambwera in the report. CBNRM
is based on an incentive-driven notion that assumes that
communities will manage their own natural resources better and
in ways that also result in poverty reduction, if they are in
control of those resources a