Annex 1: Glossary of Terms

Agency • bureaucratic arm of the government, such as an Irrigation Department, Forestry Service etc. CBNRM • community-based natural resource management, in which the government plays a relatively minor role Collective action • " action taken by a group (either directly or on its behalf through an organization) in pursuit of members' perceived shared interests " (Marshall 1998) Co-management • " partnership arrangements in which government, the community of local resource users, external agents (non-governmental organizations, academic and research institutions), and other resource stakeholders share the responsibility and authority for decision making over the management of a natural resource; it covers various partnership arrangements and degrees of power sharing and integration of local (informal, traditional, customary) and centralized government management systems " (Pomeroy in this volume) • refers to programs that seek to increase users' direct involvement in resource management in conjunction with a continuing role for the state at some level (Vedeld 1996; Hesseling 1996) Decentralization • transfer of both decision-making authority and payment responsibility to lower levels of government • " systematic and rational dispersal of power, authority and responsibility from the central government to lower or local level institutions " (Pomeroy in this volume)