Community Forest Management

Community, in the policy context, is defined on the basis of fixed in place socio-political unit having residential proximity to the resource or according to state recognized political units. With the boundaries drawn at the village level and the custodial rights of the common lands vested with various departments of the state, it is difficult on the part of the communities to manage such resources. With the advent of participatory forest management powers have been devolved to the communities for protection and use of the resources. Apart from the institutions at the village level, many of the discussions in recent times have focused on the need for nested institutions at various levels to help conserve and protect large landscapes. The need for nested institutions emerges to resolve conflicts and work towards reshaping the boundaries to establish stable governance of the resource. Despite the regulated use of the resources by community institutions, the resources have tended to ge...

The ''Proyecto Pavo'' is a project dedicated to the conservation of the Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata) through sustainable use of the species in multiple-use, community-managed forest concessions of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Petén, Guatemala. Since 2000, the project has conducted selective turkey harvests, performed related research, and promoted the conservation benefits of managed sport hunting for this species. Field activities of the project feature providing high-quality Ocellated Turkey hunts to sport hunter clients. Participating concessions benefit directly from harvest revenues of a resource that was not previously exploited commercially and indirectly from affiliated project activities. The project began operations in a single concession on an experimental basis and evolved into a commercial enterprise operating in multiple concession units. The project has overcome numerous development and operational challenges, including compatibility issues with timber and NTFP extraction. Under proper circumstances, carefully designed sport hunting programs can offer profitable and sustainable forest product diversification alternatives that are highly compatible with tropical multiple-use management and forest conservation objectives.

Philippine forest lands have a great potential to sequester and store carbon. Here we present CFM-based climate change mitigation projects in the Philippines. Two projects are relatively advanced in developing A/R projects: the Laguna Lake project and the Sierra Madre project. For the former, the main proponents/sellers are the Municipality of Tanay and the LLDA. The implementers will be farmers in the Tanay watershed. For the project period (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014), the project will have total net carbon benefits of 3,204 tC (11,759 tCO2-e) and 1,424 (5,230 tCO2-e) under the high and low scenarios, respectively. The anticipated Total Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) Value is US$ 31,380 for the low scenario and US$70,554 for the high scenario. The buyer of carbon credits is the BioCarbon Fund of the World Bank at US$ 4 per t CO2-e. The Sierra Madre project is estimated to sequester a total of 512,000 tC for 30 years, most of which will come from the reforestation component. No buyer has yet been identified and preparation of PDD is underway.

Natural resource tenure and economic feasibility of resource-based activities are two of the most important issues in the current debate around environmental degradation and rural poverty. While many analyses have blamed the 'tragedy of the commons' and government mismanagement for environmental destruction, this paper provides a case study of resin tapping in Honduras which formulates the hypotheses that common property regimes can be successful and that economic liberalization policies may be detrimental to community-level resource schemes. Over half of the 6000 farmer-resin tappers in Honduras are organized into forty-six co-operatives that market the tree sap, wood and other forest products. These activities combine the twin goals of community-based forest preservation and income generation. Established legally in 1974, the tapping groups have expanded to include a variety of organizational and technical arrangements. The two co-operatives of Villa Santa and San Juan de Ojojona demonstrate contrasting histories. ecological endowments and economic outcomes. Currently the Honduran resin tappers are lacing problems over their access to forest resources, the lluctuating profitability of extractive activities and the stability of the co-operative organization. These three issues are relevant to a variety of community-based environmental activities. and the lessons of the Honduran experience can be applied to analyse the processes of environmental degradation and community response elsewhere in the Third World.

Continuous deterioration of the natural resource base has become a serious threat to both the ecological systems and economic production in Ethiopia. Many of these problems have been attributed directly or indirectly to the rapid dwindling of the country's forest cover which is associated with unsustainable forest use and management. Closing community woodlands from human and livestock intervention to promote natural regeneration of forests has been one of the environmental restoration strategies pursued in the degraded highland areas of northern Ethiopia. However, local pressure to use reforested community lands for economic benefit has become a major threat to forest sustainability.

Pakistan has very low forest cover, but these forests are very diverse in nature and of significant importance for the livelihood security of millions of rural people who live in and around these forests. Policies, institutions and processes form the context within which individuals and households construct and adapt livelihood strategies, on the other hand these institutionally shaped livelihood strategies may have an impact on the sustainability of natural resource use. The present paper aims to critically analyse the forest policies of Pakistan. Implications for sustainable forest management and livelihood security of forest dependent people are also given. The first forest policy of Pakistan was announced in 1955 followed by the forest policies of 1962, 1975, 1980, 1988 as part of the National Agricultural Policy, 1991, and the latest in 2001. Most of the forest policies were associated with the change of government. There was much rhetoric in some recent policies regarding the concept of “participation” and “sustainable livelihoods” but in practice these policies are also replica of the previously top-down, autocratic and non-participatory forest policies. Pakistan needs to develop a sustainable, workable, research-based, and people-friendly forest policy enable to catering to the changing needs of stakeholders including government.

This paper critically reviews and analyses participatory GIS (PGIS) and participatory mapping applications within participatory spatial planning for community-based natural resource management in developing countries. There is an often implicit assumption that PGIS use is effective, in that it meets content needs, satisfies underlying local stakeholder interests and therefore is a tool for better governance. The analytical framework looks at participatory spatial planning performance with respect to key dimensions of governance, especially the intensity of community participation and empowerment, equity within communities and between 'governed' and 'governing', respect for indigenous knowledge, rights, ownership, legitimacy, and effectiveness. Specific development focus is given by a case study using participatory mapping and PGIS in community forest legitimization, planning and management in Tinto, Cameroon. 'Good governance' criteria are applied ex-post to the implementation procedures, the geoinformation outputs, and the longer-term outcomes of the PGIS processes. Impacts of incorporating PGIS were examined in terms of the types and degrees of participation in the process; access to, and the uses made of, the geographic information; whether the information outputs met stakeholders' requirements; and the overall changes in equity and empowerment in the community. It was found that PGIS/participatory mapping processes contributed -positively, though not comprehensively -to good governance, by improving dialogue, redistributing resource access and control rights -though not always equitably -legitimizing and using local knowledge, exposing local stakeholders to geospatial analysis, and creating some actor empowerment through training. PGIS promoted empowerment by supporting community members' participation in decisionmaking and actions, and by enabling land use planning decisions beyond community forestry itself.

Reduced-impact logging (RIL) has many demonstrated benefits to the industrial logging operations for which they were developed. It is less clear whether these gains remain consistent in smallholder forest systems that increasingly play an important role in global conservation and that target a broader suite of outputs in their management schemes. We evaluate potential ecological consequences of five RIL components

The Indian Forest Governance has been a leftover of the colonial British policies. The colonial forestry instigated the territorialisation of forests to restrict common access and to exclude the traditional forest dwellers and forest-dependent people. Independent India's approach towards the forests made no difference from the colonial policies rather than promoting the Forest Department as the sole manager of the forests. The state, through the intervention of the Forest Department, excluded the traditional forest dwellers from the policy-making processes and then from the forest itself. Van Gujjars, a pastoral, nomadic, Muslim indigenous community in the Uttarakhand and U.P, have been subjected to systematic oppression leading to the eviction and displacement from their traditional forest lands. This research explores the Van Gujjar struggle for forest rights and the oppressive elements in the state forest policy.

In spite of the widely accepted success of Community Forestry in reviving degraded land, it is still seen as being unable to provide tangible benefits to the poor. This paper illustrates that through continuous sharing, deliberation and negotiation among the poor and non-poor members of Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs), management of community forests can be made far more equitable than the usual scenario. Drawing from the experience on the processes and outcomes of Livelihoods and Forestry Programme (LFP), this paper brings empirical evidence of how facilitation support has enabled the poor to have more equitable access to community forests. Three key pro-poor institutional arrangements resulting from the facilitation process include: a) establishing special use rights arrangements within CFUGs for the poor, b) pro-poor silvicultural practices, c) and equitable forest product and benefit distribution mechanisms. The paper suggests changes in policy and practice to institutionalize these outcomes.

Philippine forest lands have a great potential to sequester and store carbon. Here we present CFM-based climate change mitigation projects in the Philippines. Two projects are relatively advanced in developing A/R projects: the Laguna Lake project and the Sierra Madre project. For the former, the main proponents/sellers are the Municipality of Tanay and the LLDA. The implementers will be farmers in the Tanay watershed. For the project period (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014), the project will have total net carbon benefits of 3,204 tC (11,759 tCO2-e) and 1,424 (5,230 tCO2-e) under the high and low scenarios, respectively. The anticipated Total Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) Value is US$ 31,380 for the low scenario and US$70,554 for the high scenario. The buyer of carbon credits is the BioCarbon Fund of the World Bank at US$ 4 per t CO2-e. The Sierra Madre project is estimated to sequester a total of 512,000 tC for 30 years, most of which will come from the reforestation component. No buyer has yet been identified and preparation of PDD is underway.

The policy link of national and local government units in natural resource management (NRM) is a crucial factor to the state of a country's natural resources. It therefore becomes imperative to examine the mandates of both levels of government and pose the question: What are the implications of policy gaps and lapses in effecting NRM within a local jurisdiction vis-à-vis a national management regime?

The main goal of the study is to determine which socio-economic factors affect level of participation in the community forest management of ''Ludhi-Damgade'' of Gorkha district in Nepal. The empirical evidence for level of participation as a function of social status is obtained by using an ordered probit and two-stage least-squares model. The model also estimates the marginal effects of socio-economic factors on different levels of participation suggesting how per unit change in such socio-economic characters affects the level of participation. Empirical results from the model also verify that participation in forest management determines the quantity and type of benefits received from the community forest. The research findings of the study suggest that participation in community forest management is based on the socio-economic profile of an individual and the level of participation is determined by the benefits obtained from the common forest resources. Lack of participation in community forest management excludes the disadvantaged groups from decision-making in product distribution. Consequently, the disadvantaged groups get less benefit from the community forest. The empirical results are expected to aid policy makers in empowering people of lower socio-economic status to understand the importance of participation in ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.de/jfe 1104-6899/$ -see front matter

Forest management is an important carbon mitigation strategy for developing countries. As demonstrated by the case of Mexico, community forest management is especially e!ective because it o!ers tangible local bene"ts while conserving forests and sequestering carbon. Community forestry receives minimal government support now, but the clean development mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol could leverage additional resources to promote the approach in Mexico and elsewhere. We argue that adequately designed and implemented, community forestry management projects can avoid deforestation and restore forest cover and forest density. They comprise promising options for providing both carbon mitigation and sustainable rural development. These kinds of projects should be included in the CDM.

This paper seeks to understand whether decentralized management of forests can reduce forest loss in developing countries. In South Asia, large-scale experiments in decentralization --Joint Forest Management in India and community forestry in Nepal, in particular -have changed the relationship between forests, the forest departments and rural households. However, have these institutional changes lead to a decline in forest degradation? Have they empowered households with stronger access rights and contributed to household well being? These are important questions to examine because rural households depend on forests to meet numerous subsistence needs. The emerging evidence suggests that community forest management may indeed be contributing to improved forest health. However, the impacts on household well-being are less carefully studied and seem to be far more varied. The paper suggests that clarity over rights, local monitoring and recognition of differences in intra-community needs are issues that require policy support if community forestry is to meet both livelihood and forest conservation expectations.

This paper seeks to understand whether decentralized management of forests can reduce forest loss in developing countries. In South Asia, large-scale experiments in decentralization --Joint Forest Management in India and community forestry in Nepal, in particular -have changed the relationship between forests, the forest departments and rural households. However, have these institutional changes lead to a decline in forest degradation? Have they empowered households with stronger access rights and contributed to household well being? These are important questions to examine because rural households depend on forests to meet numerous subsistence needs. The emerging evidence suggests that community forest management may indeed be contributing to improved forest health. However, the impacts on household well-being are less carefully studied and seem to be far more varied. The paper suggests that clarity over rights, local monitoring and recognition of differences in intra-community needs are issues that require policy support if community forestry is to meet both livelihood and forest conservation expectations.

The potential conservation value of common property management is of particular significance in Mexico, where a large majority of forests are held communally. Systems of common property management often exist in a context of close institutional overlap with state institutions. This project assessed the function of a common property regime nested within Lagunas de Montebello National Park (PNLM) in Chiapas, Mexico. We documented forest status and analyzed common property forest management institutions following severe fires that threatened forest conservation. Forests managed by the common property regime are less intact than federal forests, yet still moderately conserved, and many attributes necessary for common property management are functional, despite the recent fire crisis. Yet external authorities contest common property management by local institutions, resulting in limited joint management by the national park and the community. Formalization and expansion of de facto cooperation between the federal and community institutions may enhance forest conservation within PNLM.

Community forestry in Nepal was specifically designed to address the problem of environmental degradation and enhance livelihood opportunities through increased supply of forest products, generation of income and empowerment of the rural forestdependent ...

This paper estimates the economic returns to carbon abatement through biological sequestration in community managed forest under future REDD policy, and compares these for three possible management scenarios. For the estimation, the research relies on forest inventory data together with other socio-economic and resources use data collected from forest users in three sites of Nepal Himalaya. The paper estimates the incremental carbon from forest enhancement on a yearly basis over a five-year period using the value of $ 1 and $ 5 per tCO 2 for conservative analysis. The results based on the three sites indicate that community forest management may be one of the least cost ways to abate carbon with a break-even price under Scenario 2 which ranges from $ 0.55 to $ 3.70 per tCO 2 . However, bringing community forests into the carbon market may entail high opportunity costs as forests provide numerous non-monetary benefits to the local population, who regard these as the main incentive for conservation and management. An important finding of the research is that if forest resources use by local communities is not permitted, then carbon trading will not be attractive to them as revenue from carbon will not cover the cost foregone by not harvesting forest resources.

Philippine forest lands have a great potential to s equester and store carbon. Here we present CFM-based climate change mitigation project s in he Philippines. Two projects are relatively advanced in developing A/R projects: the Laguna Lake project and the Sierra Madre project. For the former, the m ain proponents/sellers are the Municipality of Tanay and the LLDA. The implementer s will be farmers in the Tanay watershed. For the project period (2004-2014), the project will have total net carbon benefits of 3,204 tC (11,759 tCO2-e) and 1,424 (5,2 30 tCO2-e) under the high and low scenarios, respectively. The anticipated Total Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) Value is US$ 31,380 for the low sc enario and US$70,554 for the high scenario. The buyer of carbon credits is the B ioCarbon Fund of the World Bank at US$ 4 per t CO2-e. The Sierra Madre project is e stimated to sequester a total of 512,000 tC for 30 years, most of which will come fr om the reforestation component. N...

Forest management decisions are strongly influenced by security of forest property rights, and best long-term management practices often hinge on strengthening control over forest resources through participatory engagement with local actors. Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) is the most important non-timber forest product (NTFP) in the trinational region of Pando, Bolivia, Acre, Brazil and Madre de Dios, Peru. This species simultaneously promotes forest conservation and forms the livelihood base for rural communities. The current development of the Interoceanic highway, an extension of the recently paved Brazilian BR-317 into Bolivia and Peru, will change the nature of this formerly remote region by providing regional access to Pacific ports. Within this dynamic context, it is essential to understand how property rights security affects short and long-term Brazil nut management linked to forest conservation and economic futures of this region. We evaluated Brazil nut collection and management practices in twelve communities in Bolivia and Brazil by conducting interviews with 190 extractivists and accompanying Brazil nut harvests in 2006 and 2007. Results of this comparative study show that unclear property rights, coupled with the dominant role of Brazil nut in the Pando household economy, creates an extremely high degree of conflict during the harvest season. Such conflict affects both the timing of Brazil nut collection, as well as management of the resource. Conversely, a secure land tenure system in Acre based on customary "tree tenure," along with more diverse livelihood options, have resulted in less conflict. Participatory mapping may be an important tool for communities to deal with tenure conflict, visualize traditional forest use systems, and leverage integration of traditional practices into formal land titling processes and decision-making.

Amazonian communities have the potential for improving their livelihoods by efficiently managing their forest resources. However, there is limited understanding of how communities are managing their forests in the dynamic Amazon frontier. This issue was studied in four areas in Bolivia, Brazil and Peru. The most common approach to forest management was found to be informal timber rights negotiations between communities and logging companies. Much less common was community forest management (CFM) for timber extraction supported by NGOs. Case studies revealed that stocks of commercial timber species were depleted by logging companies in only a few years in the logged areas, while CFM initiatives planned rotational cycles but were abandoned when external support ceased. Families received limited financial benefits from both loggers (cash income US$ 1.18/m3 and US$ 28.14/day) and CFM initiatives (cash income US$ 12.57/m3 and US$ 8.69/ day). A critical debate on the real potential of these approaches to timber extraction needs to take place.

Community forest management frequently lead to reversal of trends in forest degradation and to increases in biomass stock, thus also to decreasing atmospheric CO2. Whether communities engaged in such forest management stand to benefit from proposed UNFCCC policy (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Developing Countries, or REDD), which is designed to generate and market carbon credits, depends crucially

Community Forests play an important role within the urban green space. Such forests represent nature close to where people live, offer unique recreational settings, and provide special educational environments, e.g. for children and people with special needs. The objective of this article is to link recreational forest use and management by elaborating a sustainable development concept for a peri-urban forest and by showing approaches of how local communities can participate in the processes of planning, designing, establishing, and managing their forest.
This article contributes the example of the participatory development concept for Balfour Forest. The area is located in northern Israel, and it is part of a replanted forest network around Nazareth. It constitutes a cultural landscape that origins from the 20th century, representing the unique legacy of forestation efforts in Israel, with some plantings dating back as far as the British Mandate Period.
The case of the Balfour Community Forest is presented and approaches to shaping peri-urban forests according to the (ever changing) preferences and needs of local urban societies are discussed. Such approaches imply that peri-urban forests are managed on the basis of differing local needs and use preferences in order to become sustainable cultural landscapes.

Forest exploitation has been the main economic driver in the northern Bolivian Amazon. The country enacted changes in legislation and policies affecting natural resource governance. These changes increase the control of the forestry sector by rural communities. Conflicts characterize these changes. The contestation is about forests and forest lands, and actors pursue increased control by assuring property rights. The paper shows that economic and political elites try to obtain control over forests trying to adjust to the legislation that favors communal forestry. The state has an important role in assuring that the promotion of CFM achieves its intended goals but will need to increase facilitating investments to achieve the objectives of legislation and policies. To some extent, local communities are able to find alliances that allow them to mobilize necessary assistance and further their own objectives. D

Researchers concerned with sustainable management of forests in the tropics have argued that the road to improved stewardship of forest resources is the transfer of responsibility to the local communities who get their livelihoods from them. On the other hand, conservationists have declared that the only way to stem the tide of deforestation is to place as many tracts as possible under strict protection. In this context, Mexico presents a national laboratory for studying the social and ecological benefits of delivering forests to local people. As a little-noticed result of the Mexican Revolution in the second decade of the twentieth century, well over half of the forests of Mexico were placed in community-held lands. In historic struggles that passed through several phases, most of these communities have now gained substantial control over the use of their forests. Because of the substantial degree of social capital in rural forms of organization in Mexico, this control of forest resources has led to an estimated 290-479 community forest enterprises (CFEs), through which communities are producing timber on their own lands. New studies are beginning to suggest that important gains in both social and economic justice, good forest management, and biodiversity protection are resulting from the actions of these CFEs. As more forests globally are being devolved to local communities, it is important to carry out more research on the Mexican model of community forest management for timber production.

The indigenous communities of the mountainous regions of Quang Nam province have high levels of vulnerability due to their isolation, lack of productive assets, lack of basic social services, high dependence on natural resources and a lack of defences against external factors. The WWF MOSAIC project is working to address these issues in terms of sustainable natural resource management. A series of activities are under implementation and development that aim to address each of the key conditions required for effective community based natural resource management. These include forest land allocation to community groups, the development of community forest management and protection regulations and 'Village Protection Teams'.

Community forests and protected areas have each been proposed as strategies to stop deforestation. These management strategies should be regarded as hypotheses to be evaluated for their effectiveness in particular places. We evaluated the community-forestry hypothesis and the protected-area hypothesis in community forests with commercial timber production and strict protected areas in the Maya Forest of Guatemala and Mexico. From land-use and land cover change (LUCC) maps derived from satellite images, we compared deforestation in 19 community forests and 11 protected areas in both countries in varying periods from 1988 to 2005. Deforestation rates were higher in protected areas than in community forests, but the differences were not significant. An analysis of human presence showed similar deforestation rates in inhabited protected areas and recently inhabited community forests, but the differences were not significant. There was also no significant difference in deforestation between uninhabited protected areas, uninhabited community forests, and long-inhabited community forests. A logistic regression analysis indicated that the factors correlated with deforestation varied by country. Distance to human settlements, seasonal wetlands, and degree and length of human residence were significant in Guatemala, and distance to previous deforestation and tropical semideciduous forest were significant in Mexico. Varying contexts and especially colonization histories are highlighted as likely factors that influence different outcomes. Poorly governed protected areas perform no better as a conservation strategy than poorly governed community forests with recent colonists in active colonization fronts. Long-inhabited extractive communities perform as well as uninhabited strict protected areas under low colonization pressure. A review of costs and benefits suggests that community forests may generate more local income with lower costs. Small sample sizes may have limited the statistical power of our comparisons, but descriptive statistics on deforestation rates, logistic regression analyses, LUCC maps, data available on local economic impacts, and long-term ethnographic and action-research constitute a web of evidence supporting our conclusions. Long-inhabited community forest management for timber can be as effective as uninhabited parks at delivering long-term forest protection under certain circumstances and more effective at delivering local benefits.

Os processos de governança ambiental subsidiam a promoção do desenvolvimento local. Por essa afirmação, buscou-se discutir em que medida a governança ambiental pode contribuir para o êxito de programas e projetos de desenvolvimento local na Amazônia. É objeto de análise uma cooperativa formada exclusivamente por moradores
de uma unidade de conservação de uso sustentável localizada no oeste do estado do Pará, que comercializa produtos florestais. As informações e os dados apresentados
foram obtidos por meio de entrevistas a atores chave (lideranças comunitárias, representantes do órgão gestor da unidade de conservação e representantes de organizações não governamentais) e mais recentemente, durante oficina de treinamento para aplicação de ferramenta de análise financeira de empreendimentos florestais comunitários, realizada em abril de 2013 (em fase de elaboração). Observa-se que
parcerias, redes de relações socioprodutivas e acordos de cooperação resultam no empoderamento de atores sociais locais e, consequentemente, em governança de forma
a promover a conservação ambiental baseada no uso sustentável dos recursos naturais e desenvolvimento local. Considerando fatores políticos, organizacionais, de gestão e de
parcerias institucionais e técnicas, a cooperativa estudada é uma referência nacional e internacional como caso bem sucedido de manejo florestal comunitário, podendo ainda,
seu caso ser considerado como um exemplo de governança ambiental subsidiando o desenvolvimento local e sustentável de uma floresta pública da Amazônia brasileira.

Based on a comparative case study of four community forestry enterprises in Guatemala and Mexico, we examine the relationship between user group characteristics and state allocation of tenure bundles. Using Schlager and Ostrom's four levels of tenure bundles and collective action theory, we illustrate how tenure bundles and collective action costs interact to either promote or create disincentives for conservation and communal economic benefits. We suggest that in communities with high costs for collective action, a tenure bundle that includes management, withdrawal and exclusion rights yet omits alienation rights may be optimal for community forestry. We also demonstrate how unclear allocation of rights can result in local interpretations of land rights that do support collective action.

This book presents works by different authors who develop their research activities related to forest sciences and socio-ecological systems. It was organized by Felix Furdes and Pablo Donoso, professors at the Universidad Austral de Chile. Chapter 11, under my authorship, refers to the doctoral research completed in 2019 at the University of Sao Paulo. This article presents results of the study on the models of Forest Governance in Brazil and Chile and analyzes on the sustainable management of native forests in these countries.

This paper examines voluntary participation in community forest management, and 7 characterizes how more participation may be induced. We implemented a survey of 8 571 respondents and conducted a case study in Central Java, Indonesia. The study's 9 novelty lies in categorizing the degrees of participation into three levels and in identify-10 ing how socio-economic factors affect people's participation at each level. The analysis 11 finds heterogeneous responses across the three levels and also finds that publicly orga-12 nized programs, such as information provision and benefit sharing, are highly effective. 13 Overall, the results suggest a positive perspective and further corrective measures for 14 the success of community forest management.

Community Forest Management (CFM) in developing countries has become an important topic in the global discourse on climate change. However, forests as a source of carbon emissions were largely ignored under the Kyoto Protocol (KP) and few opportunities appeared to be available for communities managing forests to benefit from this. Now there appear to be new opportunities arising for forests,

Lightning and fire characteristics within the Northwest Territories (NWT) jurisdiction of the Mackenzie Basin between 1994 and 1999 are examined using data from the lightning detection network operating in the NWT and from the national Large Fire Database maintained by the Canadian Forest Service. The convective storm season with associated lightning activity over this region is short but intense, with a strong peak in cloud-to-ground lightning during July. The maximum area of lightning activity is influenced by local moisture sources and by topography. The diurnal distribution of cloud-to-ground flashes indicates that most of the lightning was linked to thunderstorms initiated by daytime heating. The lightning-initiated fire occurrences peaked during July, while much of the burned area was produced in June. The longer, warmer, and drier summer seasons projected to result from climate change are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of forest fires by the end of the 21st ...

We are grateful to the people of Río Cangrejal and to many governmental and nongovernmental organizations, development projects, and research institutions that cooperated with our field research. We thank three anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Environment and Development for their highly relevant and constructive comments. Stefan Hohnwald, Kati Keinänen, Cecilia Käld and Reynel Rivera provided valuable assistance in the fieldwork.

In spite of the widely accepted success of Community Forestry in reviving degraded land, it is still seen as being unable to provide tangible benefits to the poor. This paper illustrates that through continuous sharing, deliberation and negotiation among the poor and non-poor members of Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs), management of community forests can be made far more equitable than the usual scenario. Drawing from the experience on the processes and outcomes of Livelihoods and Forestry Programme (LFP), this paper brings empirical evidence of how facilitation support has enabled the poor to have more equitable access to community forests. Three key pro-poor institutional arrangements resulting from the facilitation process include: a) establishing special use rights arrangements within CFUGs for the poor, b) pro-poor silvicultural practices, c) and equitable forest product and benefit distribution mechanisms. The paper suggests changes in policy and practice to institutionalize these outcomes.

In spite of the widely accepted success of Community Forestry in reviving degraded land, it is still seen as being unable to provide tangible benefits to the poor. This paper illustrates that through continuous sharing, deliberation and negotiation among the poor and non-poor members of Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs), management of community forests can be made far more equitable than the usual scenario. Drawing from the experience on the processes and outcomes of Livelihoods and Forestry Programme (LFP), this paper brings empirical evidence of how facilitation support has enabled the poor to have more equitable access to community forests. Three key pro-poor institutional arrangements resulting from the facilitation process include: a) establishing special use rights arrangements within CFUGs for the poor, b) pro-poor silvicultural practices, c) and equitable forest product and benefit distribution mechanisms. The paper suggests changes in policy and practice to institutionalize these outcomes.

Abstract: Researchers concerned with sustainable management of forests in the tropics have argued that the road to improved stewardship of forest resources is the transfer of responsibility to the local communities who get their livelihoods from them. On the other hand, conservationists have declared that the only way to stem the tide of deforestation is to place as many tracts as possible under strict protection. In this context, Mexico presents a national laboratory for studying the social and ecological benefits of delivering forests to local people. As a little-noticed result of the Mexican Revolution in the second decade of the twentieth century, well over half of the forests of Mexico were placed in community-held lands. In historic struggles that passed through several phases, most of these communities have now gained substantial control over the use of their forests. Because of the substantial degree of social capital in rural forms of organization in Mexico, this control of forest resources has led to an estimated 290–479 community forest enterprises ( CFEs ), through which communities are producing timber on their own lands. New studies are beginning to suggest that important gains in both social and economic justice, good forest management, and biodiversity protection are resulting from the actions of these CFEs. As more forests globally are being devolved to local communities, it is important to carry out more research on the Mexican model of community forest management for timber production.Resumen: Investigadores preocupados por el manejo sostenible de bosques en los trópicos han argumentado que el camino para una custodia mas efectiva de los recursos forestales es la transferencia de la responsabilidad a las comunidades locales que obtienen sustento de ellos. Por otro lado, conservacionistas han declarado que la única manera de detener la ola de deforestación es colocar bajo protección estricta tantas regiones como sea posible. En este contexto, México representa un laboratorio para el estudio de los beneficios sociales y ecológicos de entregar los bosques a los habitantes locales. Como un resultado poco conocido de la Revolución Mexicana, en la segunda década del siglo veinte, más de la mitad de los bosques de México se ubicaban en tierras que estaban en manos de las comunidades. Las comunidades forestales han atravesado por distintas etapas de conflicto, tras la cuáles han obtendio un control sustancial de los usos de sus bosques. Debido al nivel considerable de capital social en formas de organización rural en México, este control de los recursos forestales ha conducido a la integración de entre 290–479 empresas forestales comunitarias ( EFC ), en las que las comunidades están produciendo madera en sus propias tierras. Nuevos estudios están comenzando a sugerir que se están produciendo ganancias importantes en las acciones de estas EFC están generando beneficios importantes, tanto en lo que se refiere a justicia social como económica, la administración correcta de bosques y la protección de la biodiversidad. A medida en que se deleguen mayores extensiones de bosques a comunidades locales, es importante llevar a cabo más investigación sobre el modelo mexicano de manejo comunitario de bosques para la producción de forestal maderable.Resumen: Investigadores preocupados por el manejo sostenible de bosques en los trópicos han argumentado que el camino para una custodia mas efectiva de los recursos forestales es la transferencia de la responsabilidad a las comunidades locales que obtienen sustento de ellos. Por otro lado, conservacionistas han declarado que la única manera de detener la ola de deforestación es colocar bajo protección estricta tantas regiones como sea posible. En este contexto, México representa un laboratorio para el estudio de los beneficios sociales y ecológicos de entregar los bosques a los habitantes locales. Como un resultado poco conocido de la Revolución Mexicana, en la segunda década del siglo veinte, más de la mitad de los bosques de México se ubicaban en tierras que estaban en manos de las comunidades. Las comunidades forestales han atravesado por distintas etapas de conflicto, tras la cuáles han obtendio un control sustancial de los usos de sus bosques. Debido al nivel considerable de capital social en formas de organización rural en México, este control de los recursos forestales ha conducido a la integración de entre 290–479 empresas forestales comunitarias ( EFC ), en las que las comunidades están produciendo madera en sus propias tierras. Nuevos estudios están comenzando a sugerir que se están produciendo ganancias importantes en las acciones de estas EFC están generando beneficios importantes, tanto en lo que se refiere a justicia social como económica, la administración correcta de bosques y la protección de la biodiversidad. A medida en que se deleguen mayores extensiones de bosques a comunidades locales, es importante llevar a cabo más investigación sobre el modelo mexicano de manejo comunitario de bosques para la producción de forestal maderable.

This paper offers a framework for delivering on‐line resources to assist community participation in decision‐making associated with land management. Traditionally community consultation has involved focus groups and community meetings. Within the last decade the World Wide Web (WWW) has grown prolifically to provide the wider public with spatial knowledge in digital form. Subsequently the WWW offers a medium for community discussion that transcends traditional communicative boundaries. A range of on‐line ...