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Scaling Issues in Integrated Natural Resource Management: Conceptual
Considerations: 
By C.Lovell, A.Mandondo and P.B.Moriarty
Price:  [Z$60]

This paper reviews lessons from different approaches to integrated management
of land, water and forest resources being taken at different scales in various parts
of the world.  Two types of scaling issue are identified: ‘scale’ issues and
‘scaling-up’ issues. 

Integrated natural resource management (INRM) is complex and
consequently the scale at which it is undertaken can impinge on the utility and
generality of the results.  Case studies from communally-managed dryland of
Southern Africa highlight that temporal, biophysical and institutional scales can
each be critical.  Scaling-up (or going to scale), on the other hand, is primarily
about people and relationship building, and depends on planning and investment
at the outset.  Extension and dissemination are important, but scaling-up depends
on policy and institutional arrangements to meet a range of pre-conditions (lessons)
which come from previous studies of integrated catchment management, common
property resource management and devolution of control.  These lessons need to
be through at the program design phase.  The paper discusses the conditions
under which INRM is most likely to be successful, and the need to reconcile current
top-down and bottom-up approaches, both which are needed to achieve effective
delivery in a structured program beyond the scale of a few villages or isolated
success stories. 

Options for bridging this gap are identified and recommendations
are made for INRM research that might be undertaken.  The case is made for
action researchto learn-by-doing in applied INRM programs.  This can be at two
levels:to help develop the overall strategies(policy and institutional arrangements )
required to meet the pre-conditions for scaling-up; to study specific gaps in
knowledge and understanding in particular programs mindful of the importance
of scale and pre-conditions for scaling-up.  These suggestions are illustrated using
the example of groundwater management.

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