Networking
This service area currently is focused around CBNRM Net - the Community-Based Natural Resource Management Network. Organized by the World Bank in 1998, it later moved to civil society. CBNRM Net provides powerful and applied tools for communities, NGOs and institutions, aimed at networking and knowledge management of the field of community-based natural resource management globally. Some earlier networking activities are also included.
This service area is developing in an interesting dialectic with and feedback between practical work and experiences with managing and running CBNRM Net, on the one hand, and theoretical and analytical work in the form of participation in conferences and workshop, and writing papers and publishing, on the other hand. It is constituted by concerns with ICTs and development, languages, communication, knowledge management and strategic communication. At the same time, viewed from the position of the global users, CBNRM Net is to a large extent about training and capacity building and networking Thus, the work in this service area integrates all the other of Supras’ service areas, that is, Projects, Publishing, Research, Training and capacity building, and Webservices.
Documents produced in connection with these networks are available as follows: newsletters and papers series (see Publishing), guides and evaluations, etc. (see Projects).
Specific activities in this service area are available here. Relevant knowledge from other sources – in the form of references, documents for downloading, websites, etc. – is also available.
- Community-Based Natural Resource Management Network (CBNRM Net). 1988. Washington DC, USA: World Bank Institute, World Bank.
Comment: Set up in response to recommendations by participants at the International CBNRM workshop organized by the World Bank in May 1998. It later moved to civil society, and is now managed by “CBNRM Networking,” a Norwegian non-profit. Lars T. Soeftestad is the Founder and also the current Coordinator of CBNRM Net. [access] - World Bank Group’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Network (FishNet).
Comments: Established by Lars T. Soeftestad in 1997. It aimed partly to support and consolidate fisheries and aquaculture as an important sub-sector in the Bank’s work, and partly to connect World Bank staff that worked on fisheries and aquaculture with outside experts. A Fishnet website on the Bank’s intranet was established in early 1998, and an external site was created in early 1998. A newsletter was published. Continued interest in and support for the initiative turned out to be difficult, and FishNet closed in 1998 and has since been partly replaced by other initiatives and modes of working and collaborating. The only visible remains today is in the url www.worldbank.org/fishnet [access] - World Bank Group’s Common Property Resource Management Network (CPRNet).
Comments: CPRNet was established in 1995 by Lars T. Soeftestad with the support of Narpat S. Jodha. CPRNet was an international network open to practitioners, policy makers/managers, researchers and others interested in property rights and sustainable natural resource management. It was concerned with property rights, sustainable natural resource management, partnerships, and with tenurial and institutional aspects of managing natural resources. A fundamental premise for CPRNet’s work was to build local capacity. Activities included: (1) a regular series of internal World Bank lunch seminars were organized over several years, (2) a newsletter was published, (3) an intranet website was established and maintained, and (4) local chapters were established, including in Bangladesh and Burkina Faso. CPRNet was one of the organizers behind the World Bank’s International workshop on Community-Based Natural Resource Management workshop in May 1998. An early version of "Guide to CPRNet" is still available on the World Bank website. As it turned out, CPRNet was not given priority by the Bank, partly because it was deemed a task in which the Bank had no comparative advantage, and partly because its inter-disciplinary focus did not fit well with the priorities of managers. When CBNRM Net moved from the Bank to civil society in 2001, CPRNet opted to become part of CBNRM Net, and the CPRNet newsletter series is today continuing as the CBNRM Net newsletter series. [access: CPRNet on CBNRM Net|Guide to CPRNet]