Participatory community-based NaturalResources Management (NRM) Projects have been implementedover the last 5-6 years in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, andNiger with the support of France, Germany, Norway, theUnited States, and the World Bank's InternationalDevelopment Association facility. Furthermore, pilotoperation concentrating on specific NRM issues are underwayin Chad (pastoral perimeters) and Guinea (land tenuresecurement). Since 70 to 90 percent of the land in thesecountries is collectively owned, such projects are in facttrying to reinforce common property management systems, withthe dual objective of alleviating poverty and improving themanagement of (crop) land, water, pasture, and forestresources. This Note summarizes the impact of NRM on theground, presents the lessons learned, and provides a list ofkey documents on NRM.