What meaningful participation actually takes

‘Participation’ is a fundamental principle of natural resource governance and is often preceded by an adjective such as ‘effective’ or ‘meaningful’, or paired with another important principle, as in ‘participation and inclusion’.

In the context of RECOFTC’s work, effective or meaningful participation involves providing ethnic groups, Indigenous Peoples and local communities with access to relevant information so that they are able to influence decisions pertaining to their natural resources. It goes beyond numbers of people participating or consulted.

At our ‘Community forests for a biodiverse future’ conference organized in May 2026, we put the principle of meaningful participation into practice. Based on this experience, I have distilled some lessons in what it really takes to achieve this in the context of knowledge-sharing events.

Designing for community leadership

It started with designing a conference that would amplify community voices and share the successes and lessons of communities integrating biodiversity into their community forests. We also invited researchers, practitioners and policymakers, so that there could be a genuine exchange of information among them and community members.

This is especially important since findings and lessons are so often only shared externally, written up in English, like this article. For us, it is crucial that they be shared back with the communities from whom the knowledge was drawn in the first place. This also meant that selecting participants from each community was an important step in the process.

Across our focal countries, our programme staff know the communities intimately, and I could reach out to them to ensure appropriate representation. It was exciting to see the range of people who came to represent their communities from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Viet Nam. We had youth, women, members of ethnic groups, Indigenous Peoples, local leaders, cooperative members and entrepreneurs, among others, with each group bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to the conference.

But such a diverse group of participants also meant we would be working across at least eight languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Burmese, Khmer, Lao, Nepali, Thai, Vietnamese and English. This meant hiring interpreters able to simultaneously translate between these seven languages and English, as well as investing in interpretation equipment – both listening and speaking devices and interpretation booths.

Creating space for dialogue across languages

It also meant designing sessions that were not hurried or cramped, so that translation could keep an easy pace and listeners could absorb what they were hearing. Each session ran at least 1.5 to 2 hours with generally three and sometimes four speakers. This gave speakers ample time to present and gave the audience time to take it in through translation.

Speakers were asked to include images and photos in their presentations – since a picture speaks a thousand words – and to speak slowly so interpreters could keep up. The proof that this worked was the genuine exchange that followed: community members asking questions of researchers, practitioners and policymakers, and vice versa.

For some of the community representatives present, this was the first time they had travelled outside their country, or even their villages. It was important to make them feel safe, both while travelling and at the conference venue. We made sure at least two representatives from each community attended, accompanied by our staff from the respective countries.

What meaningful participation requires

To ensure community members can meaningfully participate in conferences, both as knowledge providers and as knowledge seekers, a few things matter.

The first is to set aside enough budget. This includes the cost of translation, covering both interpreters and equipment, as well as additional travel costs, since community members often don't live close to international airports and may need to obtain a passport for the first time.

Another crucial element is the support of field staff who work closely with communities. They can help create a safe space for participants, both at the conference venue and while travelling to and from it.

I would also note that it is essential that we pay close attention to the design of the agenda. When bringing together participants with different languages, education levels and sectors, it is important to make space for each to shine. The experience and knowledge shared by each participant is invaluable, whether they are a youth representative, an Indigenous community member, a local leader, a private sector project designer, an academic researcher, an NGO practitioner or a policymaker.

It is also important to design for two-way exchange, not just presentation. Building in adequate time for questions and dialogue after each speaker is vital. This ensures information flows both ways between communities, researchers and policymakers rather than one group simply presenting to the other.

Another key point is accessibility. We must make materials accessible, not just translated. Encouraging speakers to use images and visuals and to speak slowly makes a big difference, since accessibility is also about how information is delivered, not just what language it is delivered in.

A step that can sometimes get overlooked is closing the loop after an event has been completed. It is essential that we share outputs back with communities in a language and format that they can use, not only in English for an external audience. Knowledge exchange should flow both ways.

For RECOFTC, meaningful participation is about creating opportunities for community members to share their knowledge and experiences, while also learning from researchers, practitioners and policy makers. That exchange does not end when a conference closes.

Recently, I was glad to hear that one of the community participants has gone on to share their experience with other community members back home, sparking further interest in future knowledge-sharing events. To me, that is what meaningful participation looks like: when the conversations started at a conference continue long after participants return to their communities.

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Janita Gurung is Programme Lead, Governance and Rights, at RECOFTC