Communities that participate in the planning and management of resource development activities also invest in outcomes, understand and embrace new systems and technologies, and take responsibility for resource maintenance. At DAI, we help communities organize for improved resource management because we believe they constitute the foundation for change. With expertise in forestry, water resources, coastal resources, and agriculture, we empower communities to formulate resource management plans based on enterprise development and other profitable alternatives to resource extraction and depletion. After all, resource management plans will fail unless they improve the welfare of communities, and enterprise development strategies will not succeed if the natural resources base is depleted.
Communities see that progress toward the goals in their management plans improves their livelihoods.
Community forest management agreements , awarded to people's organizations that work in tandem with local forest products industries, are expected to bring 550,000 hectares of logged-over a nd virgin forest under community management by 1999. By enhancing the ecological, social, economic, and financial benefits from wildlife and wildlife habitats that accrue to people living in or near protected areas, the program encourages better stewardship of wildlife . The enterprise development plans generated community investment in agroenterprises such as rice mills and input shops, and established contract growing schemes for the production and export of horticultural crops. Communities participated in establishing plantations and replanting forests, increasing the availability of forest products and forage. The communities sustained improvement of farming systems, in part through intensive management of tree crops .