Programme Rationale
During the first few years of the implementation of CANARI’s strategic plan, between 1996 and 1997, the Institute focused on increasing the region’s understanding and acceptance of participatory approaches, and on cultivating a core group of constituents for the plan’s mission. Between 1998 and 2001, emphasis was placed on strengthening and building the capacity of institutions to implement participatory resource management, increasing the region’s understanding of the requirements for participatory approaches and contributing to policy and institutional reform in support of participatory resource management.

The current programming period follows an extensive review of the Institute’s strategic plan: a mid term review, concluded in March 2002. The review provided insights on the important achievements of CANARI’s programme which resulted in:

• An improved awareness of participatory approaches, mainly through the Institute’s training and technical assistance, amongst government technicians and civil society actors. This has helped inter alia to develop institutional frameworks, linkages and the transfer of skills and methods.
• An increased use and application of participatory and collaborative management arrangements in the region. A cadre of individuals and organisations now have a good understanding of the concepts and have been applying and promoting them.
• A significant accumulation of knowledge on participatory natural resource management in the region, which is seen as an important resource by practitioners in the region.
• An improved policy environment for participatory resource management (although this has not yet translated into the implementation of new policies)

The mid term review also revealed a number of caveats to these achievements, which pointed to the need for deepening understanding of the social, economic and environmental outcomes of participatory natural resource management to ensure that benefits are equitably distributed to all stakeholders. At the same time, there is a demand for evidence that participation is an effective means of managing natural resources. The 2002-2005 programme seeks to address these needs in three areas: (1) policy processes; (2) institutional arrangements; and (3) skills and methods for participatory natural resource management (see programme objectives below).

Goal
The goal of CANARI’s programme over the 2002-2005 period is therefore:
To improve the socio-economic and environmental benefits that flow from participatory natural resource management

Purpose
To foster the development and implementation of policies and approaches that generate equitable and sustainable benefits from participatory natural resource management.

Programme Objectives
CANARI’s objectives over the 2002-2005 programme period are

Policy processes:
To develop and promote policies that facilitate socio-economic and environmental benefits from participatory natural resource management.

Institutional requirements:
To increase understanding of the requirements for stakeholder participation in institutions that support effective natural resource management.

Skills and methods:
To increase the capacity of individuals and organisations to implement participatory natural resource management through advocacy and technical assistance activities.

Programme Structure and Approach
The starting point of CANARI’s programme is its research and analysis agenda. What is gained from the research and analysis is then fed into the advocacy agenda. It has been found that this structure provides good synergy between the two programme elements and a sound basis for its advocacy activities.

• Applied Research and Analysis, based on the needs of the Institute’s constituents and advocacy programme, will test policies, methods, and arrangements for participatory resource management. It will analyse experiences in participatory resource management, both within and outside the Caribbean, in order to understand its requirements and the conditions under which it is most useful, and to evaluate its effectiveness.
• Advocacy activities will disseminate the results of the research and analysis through documentation, training and technical support in order to create an understanding of, interest in, and demand for participatory approaches.

Implementing the Programme
In order to increase its impact, CANARI will need to make use of a wider range of resources and alliances. The Institute has been perceived as a multidisciplinary organisation and its staffing structure promotes linkages between each programme area. While this remains so, the Institute has realised that all the capacity required to deliver its programme does not reside solely within the organisation and it must broaden its implementation mechanism in order to meet its programme objectives.

Between December 2000 to March 2002, a restructuring of the Institute’s governance was undertaken A not-for-profit Partnership replaced the Board of Directors. In the new structure, the role of staff (Staff Partners) in developing the vision and programme of the Institute is recognised and non-staff (Elected Partners) are encouraged to play a greater role in programme development and delivery. This Partnership arrangement is seen as one mechanism for broadening the skills base of the organisation and opening up its outlook. Better links will also be fostered with other national and regional academic, development and training institutions in the region to enable programme implementation.

Sectoral Areas
All aspects of CANARI’s work are applicable to any natural resource management sector. However, the Institute’s Partners have specific experience in the following sectors: forestry; tourism; and coastal resources (including seaweed aquaculture); and protected areas.

Research and Analysis Approach
CANARI’s approach to research and analysis is based on experiential learning in participatory natural resource management. The Institute acts as facilitator in a number of these learning processes; in others it functions in the role of an observer. An important mechanism employed by CANARI to analyse and critique the findings of its work is through the convening of seminars and focus group meetings. These meetings often target specific sectors (e.g. tourism or forestry professionals) or seek to gather together a group of people with specific expertise or shared interest.

CANARI will seek to understand the requirements for socio-economic and environmental benefits from participatory natural resource management through research and analysis that is guided by the following questions:

Policy processes

• What policies and processes will improve benefits to resource users?
• What policies are needed to shape durable and effective institutions?
• How do participatory policy processes enhance natural resource management?
• What is the relationship between government policy and civil society interests?
• What are the policy requirements to enable the development of new technologies, approaches and processes that meet the needs of poor people?

Requirements for stakeholder participation in institutions

• What makes an institution effective?
• What are the key institutions that govern resource use and benefits and how can and should these institutions evolve to become more participatory and equitable?
• What are the processes and methods that can facilitate the evolution of institutions to more participatory and equitable arrangements?
• What shapes the culture of institutions?
• What natural resource management arrangements enable the effective participation of stakeholders?
• How can institutional analysis identify constraints to effective management?

Skills and methods

• How to design and effect change within institutions
• What skills and methods are needed to increase stakeholder benefits from participatory natural resource management?
• How can participatory techniques enhance the financial sustainability of organisations?
• What skills and methods can contribute to sustainable resource use?

Advocacy Approach
CANARI’s advocacy is based on the results of its research and analysis, but it is also informed by the perceptions and needs of its target audiences. Feedback is critical in defining and refining both the content and form of advocacy. Advocacy is most effective when the themes are specific and clearly defined. The chosen themes of CANARI’s advocacy programme come from areas where there is greatest experience and which allow for the extraction of relevant lessons, and where there are opportunities for further learning.

During the period 2002-2005, CANARI’s advocacy will focus on the following themes:

• Participatory resource monitoring
• Conflict management
• Participatory planning
• Protected area management
• Financial sustainability for institutions
• Technologies for sustainable resource use
• Gender analysis and natural resource management
• Government structures and arrangements for effective implementation

Two broad groups have been identified as the target audiences for advocacy during this programme period:

Resource management organisations, both government and civil society technicians, including those that have operationalised participatory approaches to resource management and those that have not – to increase and improve the use of participatory approaches, engage in participatory policy processes and effect change of institutions.

Opinion shapers, including policy and decision makers, academic institutions, the private sector and donors – to engage in participatory policy processes and implement new policies and institutional change.

Advocacy activities will include:

Sharing of information and documentation

• Publications – printed as well as available in pdf format from the CANARI website
• Policy paper series
• Audio materials
• Video programmes

Transfer of skills and methods

• National training programmes
• Regional workshops
• Guidelines publications
• Study tours

Technical support

• Technical assistance
• Small grants
• Library services

Programme Evaluation
The Institute takes a learning approach to evaluation, seeking to draw lessons from its work that can be applied to programme implementation and analysis. The Institute has made some progress in monitoring and evaluating outputs (the things it does) and processes (how they are done), and has recently developed and is testing methods to monitor and evaluate outcomes (the impacts of its work). Learning on monitoring and evaluation of its own programme will be documented and approaches and methods for monitoring and evaluation will be disseminated to CANARI’s partners as there is a clear demand for such approaches and methods.

At a workshop convened in August 2002, the following indicators of CANARI’s programme were developed.

1. Number of national natural resource management policies that address socio-economic and environmental benefits adopted.
2. Number of CANARI partners that advocate for participatory natural resource management policy reform processes.
3. Cases of natural resource management institutions that yield socio-economic benefits to resource users.
4. Number of protected areas that have adopted formal partnership arrangements that yield socio-economic and environmental benefits to stakeholders.
5. Number of women’s organisations participating in natural resource management arrangements that gain socio-economic and environmental benefits.
6. Number of natural resource management agencies with capacity to support resource user livelihoods.
7. Cases that have applied sustainable use technologies
8. Employment opportunities generated in tourism

The means of verification are:

• Policy documents
• Strategic plans
• Operational and work plans of government agencies and non-governmental organisations
• Case studies
• Statistics from CANARI partners