1. Sustainability indicators of CBNRM
By: Dr. Yasir Yousif Abdalla

2. A few recent studies have taken the identification of sustainability indicators a step further towards empowering communities, by incorporating them into indicator-based management tools to assess land degradation. However, community involvement in their development and testing has been limited and therefore empowerment has been negligible.

3. CBNRM credits the local people with having a greater understanding of, as well as vested interest in, their local environment hence they are seen as more able to effectively manage natural resources through local or traditional practices .

4. Existing Sustainability Indicator Frameworks
A number of frameworks have been developed to classify sustainability indicators with much emphasis on how to involve local communities fully without the opposite neglect of scientific knowledge. The most widely used frameworks employed by development agencies are the Framework for the Evaluation of Sustainable Land Management (FESLM) (Smyth and Dumanski, 1995) used by the World Bank,

5. Methodological framework for participatory indicator analysis

6. The CBNRM approach combines rural development and natural resource conservation .CBNRM is based on the recognition that local people must have power to decide over their natural resources in order to encourage sustainable development.

7. CBNRM aims at alleviating rural poverty and advance conservation by strengthening rural economies and empowering communities to manage resources for their long term social, economic and ecological benefits.

8. Adoption of CBNRM programmes
The adoption of CBNRM programmes is based on the premise that local populations have a greater interest in the sustainable use of natural resources around them more than centralized or distant government or private management institutions .

9. In East and Southern Africa, Community
Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) has been adopted as an approach that aims at achieving rural economic development and natural resource management

10. CBNRM assumes that once rural communities participate in natural resource utilization and derive economic benefits, this will cultivate the spirit of ownership and will ultimately lead them to use natural resources found around them sustainably .

11. Thank you