Equity and Participation in Participatory Watershed Development. Core challenges for Community-Based Natural Resource management in India

The purpose of this paper was to identify key challenges of equity and inclusion in participatory community-based watershed development management. Furthermore, my ambition was to generate findings that are relevant to research beyond the case of watershed development, i.e. community-based natural resource management (CBNRM)in general. On the basis of a histographic overview of the main developments in research, I illustrate how issues of equity and inclusion are pressing concerns for contemporary CBNRM in general and for participatory watershed development in particular. I develop a theoretical framework to analyze how institutions impact these issues, i.e. the distribution of natural resources and the modes of participation in natural resource management. In the analysis I use qualitative data from four case study villages in Udaipur District of Rajasthan, India. In all four villages, Seva Mandir, which is a large local NGO in the region, implements community-based watershed development projects. My findings suggest that equitable and inclusive CBNRM requires the formulation of explicit re-distributional strategies, as well as development agencies that dare to contest and challenge existing decision-making practices in the communities