“The case demonstrates the potential of such an open-ended process of action research to enable collective action and improve natural resource governance, even amidst ongoing resource conflict. Outcomes include shifts in fishery access rights and resource management authority, notably the release of a large, commercial fishing concession to access by local communities, and the resolution of a boundary dispute involving community fishery organizations in neighboring provinces.”
Collaborating for resilience: conflict, collective action, and transformation on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake
JOURNAL ARTICLE | 2014
We report on outcomes and lessons learned from a 15-month initiative in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake. Employing the appreciation-influence-control (AIC) model of participatory stakeholder engagement, the initiative built shared understanding of the sources of vulnerability in fisheries livelihoods and catalyzed collective action to support resilience in this valuable and productive social-ecological system. The AIC approach, we argue, provides an effective route to enable collective action in ways that strengthen dialogue and collaboration across scales, fostering the conditions for local-level transformations that can contribute to improvement in governance. We conclude with a discussion of the broader implications for resilience practice.