Decision-Making

Using Community-generated Data to Inform Decision-making

One of the core tenets of CBNRM is adaptive management, whereby information is collected that indicates the current state of a system and this is fed back into actions that improve management systems. Adaptive management is applied to each of the three pillars of CBNRM: natural resources, governance and livelihoods.

Although the adaptive management processed has been established in some of our countries, other countries have no standardised mechanism that allows communities to collect their own data to guide their management actions. CLN plans to fill these gaps by creating and implementing a standardised community-based monitoring and information system for each country where we work.

Unlike data collection and analysis led by external researchers who visit our communities, this system will be owned and led by community-based organisations. This means that they can create their own targets, decide what kind of data they wish to collect, and use the resulting information to improve their management actions in ways that will achieve their collectively defined goals.