Community gathering for shared governance
Daryl Bosu
A clear governance framework
The Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) is a governance and management framework, which aims to build the capacity of local communities to manage sustainably natural resources in off-reserve areas. The CREMA provided a structure to gather traditional authorities and communities and find common solutions to increase their income sources without threatening natural resources in the Park.
A governance management framework has to be rooted within the culture and structure of a community. It should rest on previously collected information on the relationship that people have with natural resources around them and the dynamics between individuals regarding the use of these resources. In order to fully integrate this framework, the community needs to see that the end goal and mechanisms are about them, and driven by them.
The CREMA framework most importantly helped to build trust between the various stakeholders; this was essential to convince them of the importance and benefit of collectively developing a framework to manage and monitor natural resources, and address threats to national parks in their areas.