Countering elite capture in natural resource co-management

Sustainable management of natural resources is critical for reversing biodiversity loss and addressing climate change. Many initiatives adopted around the globe since the 1980s have involved local communities in collaborative or community-based natural resource management. The central idea of co-management is sharing power, right and responsibility between government and resource users. In fisheries, the aim of co-management is to improve resource sustainability and the well-being of fisherfolk communities. However, in many countries of the Global South, co-management of fisheries, watersheds, forest, water resources, and land etc struggles with damaging elite capture by powerful interests. Fundamentally, the introduction of co-management in the context of fisheries does not occur within a power and institutional vacuum. A range of socially-embedded, informal institutions that already exist can affect the management and governance of fisheries. These include longstanding patron-client relationships, where powerful members within a community provide fisherfolk community with multiple social, financial and resource access-related support under local rules and obligations in exchange for labour services and political services to their patron. Using qualitative methods, my doctoral research investigated how the pre-existing socially and culturally-embedded institutions within fisherfolk communities in Bangladesh interact with and influence fisheries co-management.

One area that the research did not focus on is mitigation of elite capture of resources. This fellowship will focus on disseminating my research findings to initiate conversations around how best to control and counter elite capture of natural resource co-management. I will organize an international hybrid workshop on "Power and co-management of natural resources" involving academics and practitioners working on natural resource management in different contexts with the aim of developing a special issue proposal. This workshop and subsequent special issue will create an opportunity to review the literature on elite capture, exchange perspectives on different contexts, propose and develop new approaches around mitigation, and encourage new lines of research and collaborations on this issue.

I will also produce two policy briefs; first policy brief is on recommendations for operational guidelines of community-based organisations regarding the meaningful inclusion of women and resource users. This policy brief will be based on my PhD research, but will involve key stakeholders and policymakers and use their feedback to triangulate my findings. The second policy brief will be based on the hybrid workshop proposed above and will provide recommendations for mitigating elite capture. I will run a policy workshop in Bangladesh involving policymakers, practitioners, CBOs and politicians with the aim on impacting the formulation of policy around natural resource co-management. The policy briefs will also be shared with the "Too Big To Ignore Network" (TBTI), a global research network which will offer scope to share the example of Bangladesh and share lessons for uptake in other countries. This carefully planned programme will allow the fellow to disseminate the research findings to wider audiences, expand network with policymakers and other co-management stakeholders in contexts beyond Bangladesh, engage with academics and policymakers, and assist in influencing the co- management policy in Bangladesh and maximising the impact of the research.