*2.3. CBNRM as a Way of Self-Development*

As mentioned above, the top-down governance of environmental management has caused many conflicts in local communities, and TEK has been a focus in understanding local natural-resource management. Based on this approach, TEK can be the foundation of a management system. Therefore, community-based natural-resource management (CBNRM) can be an alternative form of governance of the local environment.

CBNRM requires the participation of local and indigenous groups with local knowledge as local (non-technical) experts from within the community. In the meantime, the principles of CBNRM can be summarized as follows. Firstly, benefit to the local population should be the priority; secondly, the TEK of the local community can be integrated into a formal management system; and thirdly, by connecting the issues on environmental destruction and social equality, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could also bring in the social-justice issue of minority groups' treatment in the historical process as a way to get them involved [17] (pp. 1–3).

Although CBNRM seems to solve the problem of governance failures, there are still problems that need to be tackled. First, most NGOs and the government focus on international conservation trends that they want to introduce but repress local knowledge or ignore the local political situation [18]. In other words, the government usually misunderstands the relationship between local TEK holders and external support, relying on external ecological specialists to manage the local natural resources; this means the local community or institute is ignored.

For the indigenous community, CBNRM also implies sovereignty based on the right of the indigenous peoples to govern their own environment. The new CBNRM approach emphasizes the resilience of place, state-local partnerships, subsidiarity, institutionalism, self-determination, accountability, the security of tenure/rights, and sovereignty [19]. The new trend of CBNRM stresses the local institution instead of the community; subjectivity is a weapon to force the state to be a partner in managing the environment. However, it would be romanticizing to regard the local place as a functional institution or assume the state will be effective at managing it [20]. Therefore, a local environmental management system should include local institutions, the government, related scholars, and NGOs, all of which need to cross disciplines as partners to start institutional learning and form adaptive co-management systems [20,21]. In sum, CBNRM could be successful with a dynamic process involving different participants and partnerships based on local places.

TEK is one of the core elements of CBNRM, and the sovereignty of the indigenous community is also key to CBNRM in indigenous regions. For the A'tolan tribe (belonging to the Amis) to manage the marine area locally, TEK and its relationships with institutions (social organizations of the community) need to be clarified. Freediving spearfishing men among the A'tolan Amis are the most knowledgeable holders of TEK of the marine area, which includes knowledge on currents, waves, underwater landscapes, fish species, coral-reef ecosystems, etc. Furthermore, the marine TEK can be classified into four categories: knowledge of the local marine area, the management system, the social organization, and the context of the local beliefs and worldview [16].
