Natural Resource Governance in Asia: From Collective Action to Resilience Thinking identifies key leverage points where interventions can be made surrounding current and future impacts of ongoing environmental and sociopolitical challenges. The book utilizes case studies from Asia, a key demographic for natural resource management, that can be applied globally in understanding solutions and the current state of knowledge in natural resource dynamics. Users will find valuable sections on community forestry and socioecological systems, community irrigation, competing water demand, robustness issues, climate change, and natural resource dynamics and challenges. This interdisciplinary tome on the topic is invaluable to researchers and policymakers alike. - Combines collective action and resilience thinking to help readers understand complex issues and challenges in natural resource management - Presents methods and case studies to validate theory in practice - Includes up-to-date research applied to current issues to address both current and future risks and uncertainties

Much has been written about the wealth of nations, the history of unequal distribution and zones of affluence and deprivation within and between societies. This book explores why some Asian nations are more prosperous than others through an examination of how their interaction with and utilization of resources has changed over the centuries.

Redefining Diversity and Dynamics of Natural Resources Management in Southeast Asia, Volumes 1-4 brings together scientific research and policy issues across various topographical areas in Asia to provide a comprehensive overview of the issues facing the region. Upland Natural Resources and Social Ecological Systems in Northern Vietnam, Volume 2, provides chapters on natural resource management in northern Vietnam tied together by the concept that participatory local involvement is needed in all aspects of natural resource management. The volume examines planning for climate change, managing forestland, alleviating food shortages, living with biodiversity, and assessing the development projects and policies being implemented. Without the involvement of local communities, households, and ultimately individual people, the needed action will not be effectively taken. Upland Natural Resources and Social Ecological Systems in Northern Vietnam, Volume 2, goes beyond just Northern Vietnam to address the issue of transboundary natural resource management—an issue that Vietnam is dealing with in its relations with northern neighbor, China, and western neighbor, Laos—as well as the transboundary water governance between Pakistan and India in south Asia, with the hope that some of the lessons learned may one day be useful in the case of Vietnam and its neighbors. - Provides a multi-disciplinary case study into a complex environmental situation involving government institutions, planning, and practices, using northern Vietnam as the focus - Covers the issues of natural resource management and biodiversity in depth using international case studies - Provides examples of measuring the potential climate change impacts on food security in agricultural regions - Examines topics such as planning for climate change, managing forestland, alleviating food shortages, living with biodiversity, and assessing development projects and policies

Redefining Diversity and Dynamics of Natural Resources Management in Asia, Volumes 1-4 brings together scientific research and policy issues across various topographical area in Asia to provide a comprehensive overview of the issues facing the region. Sustainable Natural Resources Management in Dynamic Southeast Asia, Volume 1, pulls together regional experts in the field to look specifically at sustainability issues across the region, to see what has been implemented, what the impacts have been, and what other options are available. In the race to be a developed region, many Southeast Asian countries have foregone natural resources through haphazard use. As a result, the people are faced with numerous environmental challenges, particularly deforestation and forest degradation, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, reduction in soil quality, and decreases in the quantity of available water. Community-based forest management is the involvement of local communities in the protection, conservation and management of public forests to prevent degradation through sustainable practices while still responding to the basic social and economic needs of local populations. When the people who depend on forest resources for their livelihoods are jointly responsible for managing and protecting them, they tend to do so in a more sustainable manner by focusing on the long-term benefits rather than the immediate short-term gains. However, when tenure rights are weak, unclear, or insecure, or offer limited benefits, people are incited in extracting more immediate benefits, resulting in suboptimal forest management and the reduction of carbon stocks. - Features case studies that cover issues such as rising levels of deforestation, forest degradation, regional food security, ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss, conflicts over natural resource use, water management issues, and impacts on local communities - Includes contributions from local researchers who are dealing with these issues first hand, and on a daily basis - Includes a comparative review on REDD+ implementation in different communities - Focuses on sustainability issues across the region

- One of the few studies focusing on co-management of natural resources (as opposed to general environmental issues). - This approach to environmental management is rapidly becoming popular in Asia. Co-management, that is the sharing of responsibilities between governmental institutions and groups of resource users, is rapidly becoming popular in Asia. In many countries environmental management is reformulated from exclusive state control to various kinds of joint management in which local communities, indigenous peoples and non-governmental organizations share authority and benefits with governmental institutions. In this book case studies of experiments with co-management in a number of countries are combined with more reflective contributions pointing to underlying assumptions and problems in the actual implementation of co-management.

This book highlights the different ways of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) practices that conserve natural resources sustainably. Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), along with synonymous or closely related terms like indigenous knowledge and native science, originates in the literature on international development and adaptive management. Against the backdrop of unprecedented global degradation and reduction in ecosystem services with impacts on human well-being over the last 50 years, there is a growing interest in the role of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) practices and systems of local communities in ensuring the sustainable utilization and management of resources. In this context, this book comprehensively analyzes the important aspects of natural resources in Asia. This book covers a detailed study of the different aspects of natural resources. It is divided into three sections, which deal with varying dimensions of indigenous ecological knowledge of resource management in Asia. The first part reflects upon the concept of traditional ecological knowledge, the second part analyzes the systematic documentation of TEK practices, and the third part deals with policy for governance. This book critically describes and explains the indigenous knowledge about resource management. This book is the ideal text for undergraduate, postgraduate, and research scholars in India and abroad. This book is designed in such a manner that it covers all the aspects of natural resources. It also helps the administrator and policymakers use indigenous knowledge in resource management.

The economies located in East, South and Southeast Asia have witnessed an interesting growth-sustainability trade-off over the last decades. While growth considerations have paved ways for deepened ties with growing trade-investment waves and increasing population pressure necessitated exploitation of hitherto unutilized natural resources, focus on environmental sustainability has been a recent consideration. The growth impetus still playing a key role in these economies, it becomes imperative that the countries effectively address the key sustainability concerns, e.g. air and water pollution, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, climate change issues like CO2 emissions etc. But how prepared is the governance mechanism of these countries, covering not only the legislative and administrative framework but also involvement of the judiciary, presence of spirited civil society and active engagement of stakeholders in policy-framing dialogues, to rise up to these challenges? The book seeks an answer to this question through the environmental governance mechanism and natural resource conservation policies in three vibrant regions within Asia. A holistic development dimension of sustainable development path emerges, through discussion of policies adopted by developed (Japan, South Korea), upper-middle (China, Malaysia), developing (India, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand) and least developed countries (Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal).

Communities and Conservation offers a comprehensive treatment of community-based conservation efforts in South and Central Asia, covering global and regional overviews of key issues and presenting country profiles of community-based conservation.

This book is about the gender dimensions of natural resource exploitation and management, with a focus on Asia. It explores the uneasy negotiations between theory, policy and practice that are often evident within the realm of gender, environment and natural resource management, especially where gender is understood as a political, negotiated and contested element of social relationships. It offers a critical feminist perspective on gender relations and natural resource management in the context of contemporary policy concerns: decentralized governance, the elimination of poverty and themainstreaming of gender. Through a combination of strong conceptual argument and empirical material from a variety of political economic and ecological contexts (including Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam), the book examines gender-environment linkages within shifting configurations of resource access and control. The book will serve as a core resource for students of gender studies and natural resource management, and as supplementary reading for a wide range of disciplines including geography, environmental studies, sociology and development. It also provides a stimulating collection of ideas for professionals looking to incorporate gender issues within their practice in sustainable development. Published with IDRC.