PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988-2001 15 The respective merits of RRA and conventional methods for longer-term research

Document begins: PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988­2001 15 The respective merits of RRA and conventional methods for longer-term research Kathrin Schreckenberg Introduction and Mouftaou Fagbemy (a rural sociologist)2. Working with them greatly helped the use of RRA methods. Using such methods alone In 1992/93 I spent a year in Benin, West proved much less productive, as it is nearly Africa, conducting fieldwork for my PhD impossible to facilitate the methods, keep note thesis Forests, Fields and Markets: A Study of of the process and discussion, and still ask Indigenous Tree Products in the Woody probing questions. This is particularly true Savannas of the Bassila Region, Benin1. This when the research is carried out with large article discusses experiences gained during this groups of farmers. It was only when working fieldwork. A variety of methods were used to with individual informants that I felt able to investigate the availability and use of use the RRA methods successfully on my own. indigenous non-timber tree products. These However, even then I would have preferred to included conventional research methods such have one or two more researchers (from as ecological transects to measure tree density, different disciplines) to help in the fortnightly phenological observations of ...