Integrated Natural Resource Management

Integrated Natural Resource Management is defined as follows:

"INRM is an approach to research that aims at improving livelihoods, agroecosystem resilience, agricultural productivity and environmental services. In other words, it aims to augment social, physical, human, natural and financial capital. It does this by helping solve complex real-world problems affecting natural resources in agroecosystems. Its efficiency in dealing with these problems comes from its ability to:

• empower relevant stakeholders
• resolve conflicting interests of stakeholders
• foster adaptive management capacity
• focus on key causal elements (and thereby deal with complexity
• integrate levels of analysis
• merge disciplinary perspectives
• make use of a wide range of available technologies
• guide research on component technologies
• generate policy, technological and institutional alternatives"

According to the IAASTD report:

"Integrated natural resource management INRM approaches are options to consider when choosing a productive agriculture to meet sustainability and development goals. Some of these are mentioned briefly below; more details can be found in the IAASTD reports. In any approach, it is important to keep in mind that:

• INRM often requires participatory approaches to planning and implementation; this is true of land use as well as water management.
• Good husbandry is needed to support agroecosystem health and enable yield to reach physiological potential.

"INRM practices are based on the addition of ecological principles to more widely recognized areas of agronomy, livestock husbandry and natural resources management."

Articles and Resources

External Resources

• Managing Natural Resources for Development in Africa: A Resource Book, Edited by

Washington O. Ochola, Pascal C. Sanginga, Isaac Bekalo, University of Nairobi Press (UONP), 2010.

• Lal, P., H. Lim-Applegate, and M. Scoccimarro. 2001. adaptive decision-making process as a tool for integrated natural resource management: focus, attitudes, and approach. Conservation Ecology 5(2): 11.