Introduction: Insights and Direction: Communication and Natural Resource Management: Experience/Theory

Discussions and debates about what these changes to the communication environment mean range around a few key insights. For our purposes – examining what experience and theory have to show us about the use of communication in natural resource management (NRM) – the most telling points are:

1. There is a complex history of unequal power relationships and economic marginalisation in which community level development processes are embedded and from which lessons can be drawn and better approaches to communication built.

2. Preferred methods and approaches to communication in NRM, have moved from «expert» outside advice provided for «recipient» communities, to the sharing of knowledge in a process of mutual exchange, where the community determines its own development priorities.

3. Local communities do not exist in isolation from wider contexts of social, political, economic and environmental forces, and these need to be taken into account.

4. Most NRM initiatives require communication strategies for both internal and external processes.

5. New communication technologies have increased the possibilities for marginalised communities to access information, and to have their voices heard from local to global levels.

6. The obstacles to this access remain and should not be underestimated, as they are caused by language, gender, poverty, geography, discrimination, and a variety of other forms of marginalisation and disempowerment.

7. There are many experiments in the use of communication and NRM, but these are as recent as the new technology or method employed, and can only show us partial glimpses of what is possible and what is sustainable.

8. For every positive indication of how ICTs may create opportunities for those involved in communication for social development, there are negative aspects that must be kept in mind such as the digital divide, the concentration of ownership over the means of communication, and who controls the content and utilisation of communication tools and approaches.

In spite of these potential pitfalls, many people, communities and organisations around the world, have begun to experiment with a variety of approaches to communication and NRM that make use of inclusive methods and technologies (some new and some traditional).

It is easy to feel we are at a point where there are more questions than answers, and more uncertainty than clear direction. However, there are opportunities and possibilities being created by people wherever they are engaged and lessons being learned in the process of engagement. If the paths we should follow are not clearly marked the general direction has been mapped and to paraphrase the words of Spanish poet Antonio Machado «Traveller! there are no paths, paths are made by walking» (Cantares XXIX). We hope that you will find the following «experiences» useful as tools to explore other contexts and theoretical perspectives while gaining insight into your own communication practise.