Problem overview:
Awareness and visions: The Dry Zone project follows a conservation-based approach to rural development requiring the close integration of the agriculture, forestry and livestock sectors. The vulnerability of the environment and the intricate cause and effect relationships presume the need for balanced ecosystem development.
Integrating stakeholders: The Dry Zone Project emphasizes on involvement of communities in project management to increase their capabilities in self management in which results from the programme has shown that communities are becoming more involved in the design, implementation and monitoring of their own initiatives.
Background in summary:
Concept of the Dry Zone Project: The Dry Zone project follows a conservation-based approach to rural development requiring the close integration of the agriculture, forestry and livestock sectors. Within the Dry Zone conditions the lead technical areas for focus of development effort are water harvesting, soil conservation, small-scale irrigation, livestock and social forestry.
The project implementation strategy is guided by a number of key principles:
- Integration: Of sectors, techniques and actions as well as the incorporation of traditional experience.
- Consultation: Consultation within and between communities to enable them to take decisions, organise and manage their work while sorting out differences or conflicts between various elements.
- A planned spatial approach to development: In order to test new technologies and proceed stage by stage within a rational and agreed test area for experience to be gained before transference to other areas.
- Decentralisation: Decentralised decision-making and modalities of action are essential for project success.
- Flexibility: Flexibility refers to adapting technical assistance to the needs of the community and ensuring that unscheduled requests and initiatives can be financially and administratively addressed in time.
Stakeholders participation: The project focuses on mobilisation of communities through effective community participatory processes and development of human and technical capacities. As a result, they are becoming more involved in the design, implementation and monitoring of their own initiatives. Development of local capacities is being achieved through a broad range of training and community institution building activities.
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Good practice rating:
(1 for the best, 5 for the lowest score) |
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Sustainability
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Efficiency
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| 2 |
 Improvement in either the environment of economic condition with no harm to the other. |
2 |
Cost efficient. |
| 2 |
Sustainable over time (not one-off) |
Process |
| Adaptability |
1 |
Participation of the community |
| 2 |
Location adaptability (can the project be done in other places?) |
2 |
Participation of resource owners/users |
| 2 |
Socio-cultural adaptability. |
2 |
Partnerships between various actors (Governments, NGO, Academia, Private) |
| 2 |
Level of development adaptability. |
- |
Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments. |
| 2 |
Style of government adaptability. |
2 |
Ability to attract political interest/support |
| 2 |
Degree of decentralization adaptability. |
- |
Procedures for feedback and review. |
Comments on this example:
There is a strong line between poverty and natural resources degradation. This is very much critical in dry zone areas, where there are very serious limitations such as water, soil fertility, access to other resources, facilities etc. However, land in most cases are in abundance and most resettlement programmes are in these areas. The land ban is often due to deforestation, caused by encroachment. As this land belong to the state, the insecure land tenure leads to neglect of land. In most instances land is considered as a medium for regularization. There has never been a focus on land as a natural resource that needs to be managed.
The project implementation strategy principles are quite unique, and has all the components required for a sustainable programme. Emphasis has also being given towards poverty eradication. However, the expansion of area under cultivation may not be a justifiable option.
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Sustainability of the project:
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Awareness and visions: The project justification stems from the need to address several critical aspects of the poverty/environment degradation process in the Dry Zone. These are increasing land degradation, decreasing agricultural productivity, lack of a research base and proven technologies, increasing rates of deforestation, and limited income opportunities. The poverty/environmental degradation process originates from population increase, fragmentation of holdings and an increased demand for fuelwood and food. This trend combined with the fragile biophysical environment, shall soils, poor vegetative cover and irregularity and high intensity of rainfall, results in reduced soil fertility and deforestation. The cultivation of increasingly marginal, low fertility lands leads to a lowering of crop yields. A consequence of this cycle is that small farmers lose draft power and manure and face declining agricultural productivity, which often result in debt and loss of their farms. The extent of this deforestation process in the dry zone is high and this has aggravated the landlessness problem.
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Adaptability of the project to other situations:
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| Process of decision making and implementation: |
Integrating stakeholders: Lessons that can be learned from the example are, one, community participation is critical to ensure sustainability, and, two, projects of this nature that are people oriented require considerable time to implement.
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Documentation: |
Literature or other written project review references
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Source of Information: |
FAO
PO Box 101
Yangon
Myanmar
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Contacts: |
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Submitted by: |
ESCAP
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