Participatory Approaches : Experiences and perceptions in Petén, Guatemala

Participatory approaches have been dominating the development arena for the past years. It became very popular because of the failures of many development efforts to have concrete impacts on the communities where the conventional 'technology transfer' approaches were used. Although 'participatory approaches' have been utilized for many years in various parts of the world, they remain relatively new in the agricultural research and extension in Guatemala, hence, its impacts have not been documented and evaluated. This exploratory study focuses on the project entitled 'Multi-stakeholder participatory development of sustainable land use alternatives for degraded pasture lands in Central America (CATIE/Norway-PD)', specifically in its project site located in Petn, Guatemala. The project has based its activities on the 'participatory approaches' with the goal of developing and strengthening stakeholders' skills and participation in the process. The aim of this exploratory study was to document the project and stakeholders' experiences about the activities that have been developed and to understand some of the relationships that have been created.