In the effective absence of reliable legal processes, sanctions or litigation, ATP has created its own carrots and sticks. ATP visits each site every three months. As communities prove they can achieve the goals of the program, they become eligible for additional trees, recognition in the form of donor visits, and marketing assistance for fruit farmers. The important difference between ATP and the formal approaches often followed by the international assistance institutions is ATP's emphasis on solutions that are rooted first in value systems, traditions or needs of the community, rather than in centrally formulated laws. Efforts like these are promising because they help build legitimacy for environmental requirements.
Legitimacy is part of the social contract that convinces people to trust enough to obey laws.
ATP also demonstrates how close the connection can be between environmental assistance and governance. Carrying out these decisions requires the close cooperation of a diverse set of groups, institutions and individuals. The work that takes place creating the conditions for working systems of environmental protection, in which each of the actors in the environmental regime understand the value of participation, is also an opportunity for building civil society. The desire for a cleaner environment can be a catalyst and a fitting vehicle for demonstrating how civil society works, and for building faith in the legitimacy of laws. But the questions raised in this essay about the importance of traditions, institutions and experience must be closely considered in the process of devising a workable strategy of assistance.