Motivating factors and facilitating conditions explaining women's participation in co-management of Sri Lankan forests

Among South Asian countries, Sri Lanka has only recently ventured into community management of its forests. This paper focuses on a qualitative exploration of two communities in a rainforest conservation project in Sri Lanka. The high level of women's participation is attributed to motivating factors and facilitating conditions. Obstacles to forest co-management outcomes include reduced forest dependency and top-down decision making. Adaptive implementation strategies compensate for these obstacles by establishing strong networks and structural organizations in forest boundary communities. This suggests that an intervention addressing the actual needs of stakeholders, rather than focusing on perceived problems, would allow for increased participation. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.