PARTICIPATORY ENVIRONMENTAL-MANAGEMENT - CONTRADICTION OF PROCESS, PROJECT AND BUREAUCRACY IN THE HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS

Using comparative Asian experience of organizational change, this arti cle analyses the experience of an Indian organization responsible for environmental management in the Himalayan foothills of Uttar Pradesh ( UP) in moving from a standard Indian public sector approach to rural d evelopment and environmental management, to a new participatory approa ch. Successive World Bank funded watershed management projects in the Himalayan foothills were widely held not to have achieved and sustaine d their full potential in the past, largely due to an absence of effec tive local management of assets after the projects' end. On the other hand communities and groups have shown on a small scale a capacity to manage resources in a sustainable way. The Government of Uttar Pradesh 's (UP) European Union (EU) funded Doon Valley Project has been throug h a first phase in which a participatory method of village level plann ing has been initiated. The article addresses the required changes and constraints involved in this first step of transformation. These incl ude issues to do with organizational structure and procedures, trainin g, gender and other social issues, and the dynamics of organizational change. The implications of a participatory approach are far reaching. The 'off the shelf' schemes that Government has offered to individual s, groups and communities in all watershed management as well as other rural development programmes are challenged both by the specificities of the Himalayan environment, and by the adoption of a genuinely part icipatory approach. Allowing people to decide how they will manage the ir hillsides requires an ability to facilitate that process. Facilitat ors need to have the flexibility and creativity to offer a variety of technical and managerial possibilities such that individuals, groups a nd communities can choose what suits them best. Constraints derive par tly from the Government's set procedures and schemes in rural developm ent, and from its advocacy of particular well worn technology packages . Constraints also derive from the way in which the whole project has been handled by Government and the Commission of the European Union fr om the beginning, and from the way in which technical assistance has b een organized. It is important that governments and donors learn from such experiences so that future participatory environmental management work can have a greater chance of success.