Empowering communities for environmental resilience through people centric strategies in natural resource management and sustainable rural development

Environmental degradation, accelerating climate change, persistent rural poverty, and biodiversity loss represent some of the most pressing challenges confronting the global community today. These intertwined crises have intensified the urgent need for sustainable natural resource management (NRM) and rural development strategies that place communities at their center. In response, a marked paradigm shift has emerged from centralized, top-down governance towards people-centric, community-driven frameworks that recognize the indispensable role of local and Indigenous actors in stewarding natural resources and sustaining ecosystem services. Despite this growing recognition, the existing literature on Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) remains largely context-specific and lacks comparative synthesis, while empirical analysis of participatory governance structures—particularly the vertical alignment of local, national, and international policy frameworks—remains limited. This study addresses these critical gaps through a systematic literature review (SLR) of 150 peer-reviewed journal articles published between January 2020 and May 2025, guided by the PRISMA and ROSES reporting frameworks, and employing thematic synthesis and comparative analysis to generate robust, transferable insights. This review seeks to answer three research questions: (1) How can the scaling of participatory natural resource management models be achieved? (2) What strategies can be employed for the integration of green innovation and the circular economy within rural and resource-dependent communities? (3) How do policy environments impact community participation in natural resource governance? The findings reveal that the application of CBNRM improves household livelihoods by 75% when tenure security is ensured and stakeholder engagement is facilitated. Green innovation is advanced through context-driven eco-innovation and waste-to-resource technologies, with circular agriculture emerging as a particularly effective mechanism for resource efficiency. Multi-level governance coordination is identified as essential for the effective implementation of environmental policies, while participatory policy development significantly outperforms conventional top-down approaches in achieving policy compliance and community buy-in. These findings underscore the imperative for integrated strategies that combine social capital development, adaptive governance, rights-based approaches, and transformative participation. The study makes a significant contribution to sustainable development scholarship by providing actionable, evidence-based frameworks for policymakers, practitioners, and development organizations seeking to empower communities as agents of environmental resilience in alignment with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.