We once assumed that “Placing more wildlands and waters under the management authority of government agencies will allow us to avoid the tragedy of the commons.”
We must now admit that “Co-management with local communities can level the playing field. Why? Top-down command-and-control management of resources and landscapes by bureaucracies can often disenfranchise or bankrupt local communities’ capacities as long-term stakeholders.Tragically, it has resulted in push back from local communities, and even armed conflict or clandestine destruction of resources conservationists had hoped to protect.”
-Brother Coyote