Understanding interdependencies: stakeholder identification and negotiation for collective natural resource management

Many natural resource management (NRM) problems transcend farm boundaries. Particularly in hilly regions where land tends to be fragmented among numerous users, managing these biophysical interdependencies to solve transboundary NRM problems implies the coordination of the management decisions of diverse resource users among whom complex social interdependencies are likely to exist. This paper argues that joint learning about the social and biophysical interdependencies existing among users and between the resources they manage is a valuable and often essential element in efforts to improve NRM. Based on action research carried out in the Colombian Andes, the paper presents a process—the stakeholder identification and negotiation process—which facilitates such joint learning using a combination of individual interviews, group meetings and joint problem analysis.