1. Call for Papers
Africa Regional Meeting of the
International Association
for the Study of the Commons (IASC)
Policy Forum Themes:
Defragmenting African Natural Resources Management &
Responsive Forest Resources Governance
9-11 April 2013
Venue: Protea Hotel, Sea Point, Cape Town
Host: The Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape
Research has shown that success in dealing with problems facing Africa commons
management may lie in addressing fragmentation of the knowledge base and, hence,
management policy. Traditionally management has been carried out by government agencies
that focus on a particular sector, e.g. fisheries, agriculture or forestry, using knowledge from
scientists that specialize in that sector, and working with community groups to create and
enforce rules developed for that sector. With the advent of the ecosystem approach to
natural resource management, which is based in turn on a growing appreciation of the
interrelatedness of both the ecological and socio-economic dynamics of natural resources,
new cross-disciplinary scientific networks are needed that are able to identify specific areas
of sectoral interconnections, articulate and implement the required research, and translate the
results into advice for policy makers, development practitioners and resource users.
The objective of this Policy Forum is to bring such networks (formal or informal) together
with policy makers and other stakeholders to curve the way forward for effective, integrated
commons management:
Meeting Themes
Within the broad area of integrated management of multiple types of natural resource
complex commons we place our emphasis on the presentation of policy relevant research on
the commons that networks and individual African and other scholars are currently carrying
out. Therefore the following themes are meant to be suggestive rather than exclusive:
1

2. 1. Defragmenting African resources management
The overall broad objectives of resource management are to facilitate the protection of
biodiversity and promote poverty alleviation using exploited commons. Integral to achieving
these broad objectives is conflict resolution, because ecological degradation leads to
competition for the remaining resources. Therefore, effective, integrated commons
management addresses three related sets of problems simultaneously:
a) limiting access to resources to prevent overexploitation;
b) economic development that relieves poverty while respecting utilised resource
capacity limits, and
c) managing the conflicts that arise when access to resources is limited.
All three of these problems require integrated knowledge. The limits must be set through the
work of natural scientists, both poverty alleviation and the effective implementation of
management require the work of social scientists, and managing conflicts requires involving
stakeholders who know the locally appropriate solutions. Lately theoretical frameworks such
as ecosystem approach, adaptive management, systems approach, and integrated resources
management (e.g. integrated water resources management- IWRM) have been developed and
implemented.
This theme seeks case studies or theoretical analysis of solutions (or attempts) based on trans-
disciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity concepts adapted to deal with issues of fragmentation
and their attendant problems in management of the commons in Africa. For example some
Southern African countries are implementing the management oriented monitoring system
(MOMS) for wildlife and veld products monitoring within the context of community based
natural resources management (CBNRM) and in line with the concept of adaptive
management.
2. Institutional Choice and Recognition in African Forest Governance
Local democracy is local governance that is responsive and accountable to local people – by
being responsive it represents local needs, by being accountable to local people it can be
considered democratic. Agents intervening in the local arena, including governments, donors
and international institutions, choose local partners. These choices recognize certain forms of
local governance – certain institutions and authorities as well as supporting particular sets of
rules and regulations. In so doing they strengthen some forms of local governance and may
weaken others. Local democracy, representation, inclusion and participation are often studied
from the bottom up – exploring how local actors insert themselves into governing processes
through engagement and resistance. The Choice and Recognition theme focuses on two
aspects of the development of local democracy as it is shaped by higher-scale intervening
agents. First, this theme examines ‘choices’ focusing on why intervening agents privilege
certain kinds of local institutions and authorities. It examines the logic and procedures of the
intervening agencies. What do they understand local democracy to be? How do they
operationalize it? How do they translate democratic impulses into practice? Second, it
examines how these choices effect local democracy. How do the recognized institutions and
authorities support democratic processes in the local arena?
Sub-themes include:
• Institutional Choice I: Donor Understanding and Making of Democracy
2

3. • Institutional Choice II: Government Understanding and Making of Local Democracy
• Recognition I: The Cultivation of Sub-National Authority from Above through REDD
• Recognition II: Pluralisms and Representation in REDD intervention
• Recognition III: Participatory Processes and REDD -- Representation within
Stakeholder Approaches
• Recognition IV: Customary Authority and Local Democracy: Donor Roles in
Cultivating Chieftaincy
• Public Domain: Enclosures – REDD, Privatization and Democratic Spaces
• Local Democracy Effects of Global REDD Processes and Forest Commodification on
a Global Scale
3. Embracing and harnessing local indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in natural
resources management
Out of the action research tradition has emerged a very large literature on indigenous
knowledge systems in general (IKS) and local ecological knowledge (LEK) in particular,
concepts which are extremely important in integrated commons management. Wilson et al.
(2006) argue that LEK has a critical role to play in making management effective from the
perspective of both the content and timeliness of information and increased legitimacy and
cooperation. To make an effective contribution towards defragmentation of resource
management such knowledge systems should be revealed and integrated as part of
comprehensive studies involving ongoing interactions between resource users, scientists and
other stakeholders. This theme proposes papers that would document lessons and experiences
of IK and LEK in Africa and answer some of the following questions:
• What is the condition of and how robust are IK and LEK systems for resource
management?
• How is IK and LEK distributed and transferred across generations, age, gender and
economic groups in rural societies?
• Do social, cultural, spiritual, political, etc factors influence use and/or sharing of IK
and LEK among such social, economic and political groups?
• How are IK and LEK systems and attendant management skills and approaches
perceived by external agencies?
4. Effective knowledge translation for defragmenting natural resource
management in Africa
Knowledge translation has been described as the practice, science, and art of bridging the
know–do gap between knowledge accumulation and use (Ottoson 2009). It is therefore a
potential stakeholder interaction and integration platform. Effective communication of
research is integral to defragmenting natural resources management, successful knowledge
translation, and good research practice. Whilst so, concerns are growing regarding inadequate
knowledge translation from science research into practice and policy. The status quo
constrains the potential of scientific research to maximally contribute to socio-economic
development and environmental sustainability. It has been argued that while a substantial
body of research knowledge has been generated to inform policy and practice, there is little to
show in terms of application for policy and practice especially in Africa.
This theme calls on environmental communication and knowledge translation experts and
others working in the area within the African context to submit abstracts which share
3

4. experience or review theory to model appropriate knowledge translation models to
defragment African natural resources management.
5. The effect of fragmented management and the additional stressors such as
HIV/AIDS and climate change.
Extreme events such as droughts, hurricanes or floods increasingly affect people from low
income countries everywhere in the world. Africa is particularly affected as 70% of its
population rely on natural resources. HIV and AIDS and other endemic diseases present
other stressors on communities and households. A fragmented approach to resources
management therefore weakens the people’s capacity to adapt and cope with these stressors.
Women are likely to be particularly affected by a fragmented approach to resource
management and dealing with shocks from extreme events and endemic diseases since they
bear the burden of household sustenance and are often among the poorest of society.
Adaptation to these shocks and epidemics require integrated systems that bring innovation
but also look to indigenous adaption and coping strategies.
The panel invites researchers working in these and related issues (e.g. poverty and gender)
in the African contexts to submit abstracts for papers exploring these issues and how dealing
with them is affected by fragmented resources management systems and solutions required.
6. Implications of urbanisation and commercialisation for management of the
African commons.
The governance and management of the African commons is becoming increasingly complex
due to multiple pressures on commonage land and resources. Two such pressures are rapid
urbanisation and economic transformations of the commons. Urbanisation presents distinctive
new challenges with respect to the commons, such as more intensified urban-rural linkages in
terms of food production, land speculation, urban sprawl and other urban – periphery
political-economic relations. Moreover, commons usage are being taken to urban
environments, for example in urban agriculture. Economic challenges to commons
governance and management are, for example, pressures for commercialisation of land and
resources, rural unemployment and the search by rural youth for jobs in urban centres.
Amongst others, this leads to questions around privatisation and individualisation, with due
consequences for common property. This theme invites papers exploring the following
questions:
• How have African rural-urban relations changed over the last decades due to
urbanisation and what are the effects on the governance and management of the
commons?
• What types of urban commons are evolving and how are they governed?
• What type of general political-economic challenges and opportunities can be
identified with respect to the commons?
• What are the effects of increasing pressures for commercialisation of land and
resources and land speculation for access to and governance of rural commons?
• What is the effect of rural unemployment and the rural-urban labour migration for
rural and urban commons?
• How can the link between the globally dominant political ideology of
neoliberalism and African commons be conceptualised?
4

5. Practical Details
Submission of Abstracts deadline: 21st January, 2013 to lmagole@ori.ub.bw
& fmatose@gmail.com
Submission Guidelines:
Submitted abstracts should be in Word and use the following format:
1. Title
2. Authors and their affiliations
3. 200 maximum word abstract
4. Minimum 10 point Times New Roman font
4. Corresponding author contact information
Programme Committee:
Dr. Lapologang Magole, Chair, Okavango Research Institute, University of
Botswana
Private Bag 285, Maun
Botswana
Tel: (+267) 681 7227/7200
Fax: (+267) 686 1835
lmagole@ori.ub.bw
Dr. Frank Matose, Co-Chair, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Associate Professor Mafa Hara, University of the Western Cape, South
Africa (Chair of Organising Committee)
Dr. James Murombedzi, CODESRIA
Professor Jesse Ribot, University of Illinois
Associate Professor Doug Wilson, Aalborg University, Denmark
Dr. Linda Mhlanga, University of Zimbabwe
Professor Tobias Haller, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of
Berne, Switzerland
Associate Professor Bram Buscher, Institute for Social Studies, The
Netherlands
Dr. Peter Mvula, University of Malawi
5

6. Co-sponsorship:
• Defragmenting African Resource Management Project (DARMA) ACP
Science and Technology Programme, 9th European Development Fund
• Responsive Forest Governance Initiative (RFGI): A collaborative project
of CODESRIA, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne, and
IUCN, Funded by SIDA
• Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the
Western Cape
International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC)
Registration fee: Researchers: 200 USD
Students: 75 USD
Conference dinner: 30 USD
6