Table 2.

Diagnostic questions for building community-based conservation

Questions related to the project area: Commons basics

• Is the exclusion (or the control of access of potential users) difficult in the project area?

• Do the users have institutions (rules in use) to deal with the subtractability problem in the project area?

Questions related to principles of sustainable commons (21, 41)

• Are there clear boundaries that define the resource to eliminate open-access conditions?

• Are there clear context-appropriate rules and the recognition that no one set of rules will be suitable for all areas?

• Are there collective-choice arrangements through which participants gain a stake in and participate in the creation of the rules and governance structures?

• Is there monitoring of resource use by appropriators to address issues of subtractability and status of resource?

• Are there graduated sanctions for appropriators who violate agreed-upon rules?

• Are there platforms for low-cost effective conflict-resolution mechanisms to address conflicts among appropriators or between users and officials?

• Is there political space for appropriators to devise their own institutions?

Questions related to institutional linkages (22, 35)

• Are there nested institutions to provide a hierarchy of governance structures?

• What horizontal linkages (across the same level of organization) and vertical linkages (across levels of organization) exist in the study area?

• Are there boundary organizations involved in the project that can play bridging roles across levels of organization?

Questions related to strengthening community-based conservation (12)

• Does the project allow for pluralism by recognizing a diversity of perspectives?

• Does the project foster the building of mutual trust among the parties?

• Does the project accommodate local, traditional, or indigenous knowledge?

• Does the project recognize a mix of methodological approaches and tools that allow for broad stakeholder participation and deliberation?

• Are there platforms for deliberation?

• Does the project use a diversity of modes of communication for deliberation?

• Does the project foster the development of different skills among stakeholders, particularly for those stakeholders who usually have been excluded or marginalized?

• Does the project undertake capacity building and development of skills for strengthening horizontal and vertical linkages?

• Does the project report back to the community and other parties on its findings?

• Has the project invested enough time and resources in capacity building, trust building, and mutual learning?