| [Back to front page] | Community-based forest
management One policy that has swept much of the developing world in recent years is devolution of management. In many nations, resources such as forests are no longer being managed by the national governments, but control has moved to state and local authorities. People at the provincial, municipal and community levels are making decisions about the fate of forests. At the same time, an effort is being mounted in many tropical countries to strengthen those forest management systems that are considered ‘traditional’. These changes affect hundreds of millions of people. Yet the institutions, policies and incentives necessary to reconcile their needs with other demands for use or conservation of forests remain unclear. Many questions remain unanswered. Do the policies of devolution contribute to increased equity, economic productivity and environmental sustainability? What factors influence people’s incentives to protect or exploit a forest? Community control brings multiple and often competing interests into play; can they be accommodated in decision making about forests, especially when some of the players are less powerful than others? CIFOR’s work on ‘Local Livelihoods, Community-based Management and Devolution’ is attempting to answer these complex questions. Researchers seek information on the issues of local control that also have practical implications for improving the well-being of the forest’s human neighbours as well as its inhabitants. More resources during 1997 were devoted to studying policies and local institutions. Current field research in Madagascar, the miombo woodlands and Indonesia is being complemented by studies in China, India and the Philippines, thanks to a grant from the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development. Linkages between CIFOR’s work on policy and community-based management are recognised in studies on the effects of devolution of forest management in municipalities in Central America and Bolivia.
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