Proactive conservancy in a contested milieu: From social mobilisation to community-led resource management in the Simeto Valley

Since Ostrom pioneered work on community-based forms of management of common-pool resource systems, the amount of research on the topic has increased. Action-oriented researchers have contributed to the debate identifying how, in specific problematic situations, communities can be helped to fill the gap between a disappointing reality and best planning practices and theories. The paper shows how, in a highly contested milieu challenged by the presence of organised-crime (Eastern Sicily, Italy), a collaborative and action-oriented approach to research helped the Simeto Valley community to evolve from a successful social mobilisation against the project of building a controversial waste-to-energy facility to an innovative and stable form of community-based natural resource management. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.