Learning to learn: research into adaptive and collaborative management of community forests

This paper highlights the conceptual, substantive and methodological aspects of participatory action research (PAR) involved in the adaptive collaborative management (ACM) of community forests of some selected forest user groups (FUGs) in the hills of Nepal. The three main concepts of ACM identified as the core of research include: collaboration among stakeholders, conscious social learning, and application of learning feedback to management. Ten specific elements have been recently innovated around the three broad areas of ACM, and the research team uses them as a basis to assess and facilitate action research at the local level. The author indicates that all the four partner FUGs have shown significantly greater progress towards improving collaboration, conscious social learning and application of feedback than during the time before the PAR. Future activities of research are expected to enable FUGs to achieve goals, and at the same time enable researchers to draw broad lessons as regardsto the conditions, processes and outcomes of ACM, along with potential strategies and tools to facilitate the process.