Participatory rural appraisal for natural resources management : a manual of techniques

This manual, the product of a December 1997 training workshop held in Washington, D.C., for public sector and NGO personnel participating in USAID"s Development of Environmental Management Organizations (DEMO) project in Jamaica, presents an overview of PRA methods and their use in the DEMO project. The manual consists of two distinct but interrelated parts. In Part I, section one provides an introduction to the principles of PRA, the Jamaican context and experience of the methodology, and a brief history of the emergence of PRA as a necessary tool for meeting community-based development objectives. The second section demonstrates practical PRA methods used to guide field practitioners in eliciting information from communities on natural resources and as a planning tool for adopting sound environmental practices. The following section examines the lessons learned from the training course. Part II shifts focus to the institutionalization of PRA within Jamaica"s Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA). It examines opportunities to use PRA to expand and strengthen Jamaica"s system of protected areas by cementing partnerships within and between communities, NRCA, and donors. An analysis of the ramifications of the study for donors concludes this section. (Author abstract, modified)