and lastly, the individuals in them, have succeeded in stabilizing relationships, giving, receiving, 

and finally, giving in return" (Mauss 1950).  

When it comes to the  who  in community resources or protected areas management, the 

appropriate community is comprised of those who make decisions about resources or systems 

that need to be managed.  They are not all the individuals who are collectively considered a 

community due to their residence in a village.  They are those who deal with the issue at hand 

on a daily basis and share their experiences, difficulties and successes through co ordinating 

their activities to achieve management objectives.  

Thus, the  who  in participation is not defined totally by the term community, but rather by the 

term stakeholder.  Stakeholders are those individuals, communities, and corporate entities who 

have a direct interest in the issues.  Existing policy and legislation need to be modified to ensure 

a move away from "community participation" to "multi stakeholder participation"; from planning 

systems involving consultation to management involving participation. When the terms 

 community participation  and  natural resources management  are used, one must question 

what is envisaged, in terms of where control will be located for decision making and 

implementation. 

Without public control over decision making, public participation can only be consultation and 

nothing more. Movement towards decentralized decision making and community based 

management models raises the issue of focus and effectiveness.  Here there is much to be 

learned from the public policy interventions into sustainable resources management. A common 

trap for policymakers is when  "too much time is spent with easy, captive, young audiences 

instead of focusing on the individuals who are actively abusing the land" (Nowak 1992).  For 

protected area managers, the risk of this trap is constant consultation and community based 

participatory processes, while the question of  who is doing the damage and why  is not 

adequately addressed.  

Quite often, stakeholders can be obstinate, unfriendly, and abusive to the proponents of 

projects.  Their reluctance to participate in community meetings is understandable; community 

meetings often provide a social forum where inappropriate or illegal behaviors must be 

discussed.  This environment can alienate and discourage the very participants targeted for 

attendance. The establishment of a less threatening setting to gain access to targeted 

audiences is necessary to develop local skills and tools to change behavior.  Thus, managers 

and public policy makers need to impartially target those people with the greatest need for 

behavior change, and not merely focus on those who have been cooperative in the past and 

regularly attended public meetings.  An efficient community based management plan is one that 

is targeted at different resource users who have been identified as having undesirable impacts 

on a resource or a park.  There is no model, no blueprint, and no pilot project that can be 

applied universally to the range of issues that must be addressed in a site specific natural 

resources or park management plan.   

1.2.6  Changing Behaviors  

Indonesia is experiencing a rapid reduction of its natural resources base and of its biological 

diversity.  Effective protection of biological diversity will require behavioral change.  As the rate 

of change to the resources base increases so does the rate at which behavior modification 

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