Community-based resource management can be an instrument in encouraging individuals to become involved in many ways in the process of improving the environment once it is established in a particular place. Like any social and political movement, environmentalism encompasses a wide range of approaches which can preserve and protect the environment.
One of the many ways in which an organization at a community level can produce result is to imitate the style of several organizations which have been acknowledged by an environmental organization. For example, “Nature Conservancy” an international non-governmental organization (NGO) whose major function has been to help purchase lands that are important to conservation and to ensure that these lands are maintained as nature preserves. The other is “Greenpeace,” whose activities have included maneuvering small boats between whaling ships and whales in an attempt to prevent and draw attention to the practice of whaling.
These types of organizations are now in the process of just maintaining their standards and simultaneously enjoying the benefits of their already founded organization, and credit should be given for their successful program implementation. It should be taken into consideration that establishing organizations like these requires intensive expertise and resources to carry out its objectives. In the political aspect of establishing a community-based resource management organization, government support should be always present in any of its undertakings particularly if the people behind it are planning to launch the organization as an NGO.
A community-based resource management organization requires not only money and power to exist in a manner that it is being effective and beneficial, but expertise from those people staffing the organization should be the first requirement. Most of the time, those who distinguish themselves as environmentalists, are the qualified people to direct and govern management. An interesting set up here is that enticing people with the capability to lead the organization is not actually a difficult process because of their understanding that this would be good practice ground for leading an organization. This is the correct way to maintain an environmental organization if it wishes to create an excellent technical method in which it is planning to maintain and demonstrate.
The core policies in the community-based resource management organization, particularly if it has the intention to protect the environment, should encompass programs which will pave the way to enriching the sustainability of the natural resources of our environment. The policies must coincide with the beliefs and knowledge of several environmentalists that the World will be destroyed if people do not change their approach to the environment. Provided that this common knowledge will curve how the management has been created, there would be no question to the smooth handling of problems once it occurred within the organization.
One very good example of this is the municipality-sponsored organization which tends to organize both students and non-students in order to make them active by way of contributing something to the environment. It can be very enticing to youth and records show that the most active members would be the out of school youth. The reason for this is probably because the program is actually designed for the out of school youth and that those who are studying in school may find it burdensome to continue such endeavors because it is a regulation to require every members of the organization to finish assigned individual projects within a given period of time.
During the first years of its operation, educating the members on the value of the environment is a priority activity because once it has been settled within the mind of the members that they have the responsibility in protecting the environment they would readily be finding themselves active in the activities as formulated and planned within the organization. Example of activities are beautifying the community through cutting of unnecessary grasses paving the way for growing flowers and trees which form aesthetic beauty of the surrounding, the never ending tree planting in strategic locations where they can grow well, proper disposal of garbage by way of segregating biodegradable, non-biodegradable, recyclable, toxic materials and other categories deemed applicable to the wastes or garbage of the community. The implementation of this program is to allow members of the organization to start it in their own households so that it is encouraged that at least one member from each family must be a member to the organization.
There is a good incentive to the members of this kind of community organization. Because it is a government–sponsored organization, leaders as well as members would be invited to several meetings and seminars on environmental projects as well to acquaint and brief them with the existing projects of the national government. Perhaps the most dismal outcome of these kinds of organizations is that it can not last over a long period of time. The continuity of its program is not as intense as compared to the point where the organization has started to implement its programs. The changing of leaders as the years passed by has an indirect relation with this situation. The eagerness and exciting part has gone, so are the leaders which have gained expertise and knowledge to continue operating a designed project.
Because scenarios such as this have already have already been proven in history, local governments should find a way to support the maintenance and continuity of what has been started as environmental campaign. The continuous allocation of funds and assertion of new ideas should pour in to the organization to adopt the changing environment so that it can continue to operate until the real objectives and targets would be met.
Given the wide range of environmental issues, a community-based resource management organization interested in contributing to improving the environment faces a distressing dilemma: which of the many environmental issues should be prioritized? The organization has to choose one of the problems that has the most environmental impact to the community given the prevailing situations in their locality.
There are many local organizations, or local chapters of national organizations, in most parts of the developed and developing nations that are concerned with a variety of environmental problems. For example in the Philippines, the organization, “Luntiang Pilipinas” founded by former Senator Loren Legarda implements programs on forest tree planting and creating and maintaining forest parks in the Philippines with the intention to promote eco-tourism in the country and to promote environmental awareness among its members. Community-based organizations should take the philosophical approach most consistent with their own and that focuses on the issues that have the most meaning to them.
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