Research publication - Forests, Trees and Agroforestry

This chapter focuses on the importance of providing training – training of local participants but also the external facilitators who will work with the community – in how to conduct adaptive collaborative management (ACM). It discusses the degree to which ACM approaches fundamentally differ from much of the training many fieldworkers have received for more conventional field research or extension, and it differs from villagers' more typical experience with outside “developers” or conservationists. The chapter deals with specific suggestions for enhancing ACM processes, including encouraging would-be practitioners to “jump into the ACM process and embrace an ethos of experimentation, trial-and-error and learning-by-doing.” Real understanding tends to come as practitioners implement the iterations of “the worm” and the learning that results.