Launch of New Program
Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) in Southern Africa

Across southern Africa, there is growing experience of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) as a strong foundation for sustainable rural livelihoods. CBNRM involves the management of land and natural resources such as pastures, forests, fish, wildlife, and water by groups of rural people through their local institutions. As such it is an established and evolving African practice. The challenge today is to test and assure its continuing viability.

The Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS), at the University of Zimbabwe, and the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), at the University of the Western Cape, have launched a three-year program of analysis and communication on CBNRM in southern Africa. This program presents wide-ranging opportunities to communicate, interact, and participate in the ongoing critical debate on CBNRM in the region. If you are involved in CBNRM as a resource user, a resource manager, a civil servant, a researcher, a policymaker, or an environmental or development worker, we invite you to:

• receive our newsletter on CBNRM in southern Africa (first edition: October 1999; please contact PLAAS to be placed on the mailing list);
• take part in discussions and receive news about CBNRM by joining our e-mail list (launched in early October);
• visit our southern African CBNRM web site for news, links, and documentation (http://www.cbnrm.uwc.ac.za);
• apply for a small research grant to work with our program on CBNRM in southern Africa (details are available from CASS);
• apply for support for a CBNRM networking study visit between your country and one or two other countries in the region (details are available from PLAAS); and
• look out for the policy and practice guidelines and the comparative research studies that the program will generate over the next three years.

For full details of the program, please contact CASS or PLAAS at the addresses below. We look forward to working with you.

Phanuel Mugabe
(phanny@cass.uz.ac.zw)
Director, Centre for Applied Social Sciences,
University of Zimbabwe,
P.O. Box MP 167,
Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Tel: +263 4 303211, ext. 1340
Fax: +263 4 307134

Najma Mohamed and Stephen Turner
(nmohamed@uwc.ac.za, sdturner@iafrica.com)
CBNRM Unit, Programme for Land & Agrarian Studies,
School of Government,
University of the Western Cape,
Private Bag X17, 7535 Bellville,
South Africa.
Tel: +2721 959 3961
Fax: +2721 959 3732

Stephen D. Turner
Natural Resource Management Unit, Centre for Development Cooperation Services,
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,
c/o Programme for Land & Agrarian Studies, School of Government,
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17, 7535 Bellville,
South Africa.
Tel: +2721 959 3961/3728
Fax: +2721 959 3732