Creating stakeholder ownership of biodiversity planning: lessons from India (PLA 53)

This article is based on the findings of a year-long study of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) planning process in India. It draws on almost 200 interviews and was published as An Activist Approach to Biodiversity Planning: a handbook of participatory tools used to prepare India’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (Apte, 2005)1. The main objective of the handbook is to describe and analyse some of the tools that went into eliciting participation in the NBSAP process. It is written for practical use. The tools described can be adapted for participatory biodiversity planning in other contexts. The study was conducted in four Indian states: Sikkim, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Guest-editor: Sonja Vermeulen. This special issue of PLA comes from the Power Tools initiative which aimed to develop, test and circulate existing and new tools to bridge key gaps in policy processes and content. These policy tools – tips, tactics and approaches – provide practical help to people working to improve the policies and institutions that govern access to and use of natural resources.

Participatory Learning and Action (PLA, formerly PLA Notes) is the world's leading series on participatory learning and action approaches and methods. PLA publishes articles on participation aimed at practitioners, researchers, academics and activists. All articles are peer-reviewed by an international editorial board. See: www.planotes.org

Keywords: policy, natural resource management (NRM), community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), Power Tools.

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