Proceedings of an International Conference on "Rural Livelihoods, Forests and Biodiversity"

Held in May 19-23, 2003, in Bonn, Germany

This proceedings contains 42 papers presented, 1 paper submitted and 30 posters displayed at a week-long conference on "Rural Livelihoods, Forests, and Biodiversity."

The conference focused on the role of forests in supporting rural livelihoods in developing countries and on the maintenance of biodiversity. 

The conference was organized by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR - headquartered in Indonesia) and Capacity Building International (InWent - based in Germany) in collaboration with Germany's Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ),  'Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit' (GTZ) and and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). Other sponsors of the event included United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF),Swedish International Biodiversity Programme (SwedBio), Centre technique d'agriculture et dévelopment rural (CTA) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Objectives

The objectives of the conference were:· to survey the current state of knowledge on the role forests play in sustaining and improving rural livelihoods;· to identify national and international policy lessons with the aim of enhancing awareness about the significance of forests for rural livelihoods; and· to define an overall research strategy on rural livelihoods, forests and biodiversity.

Key questions

This conference addressed four questions:

1. How can the 'safety net' functions of forests be preserved so that rural people do not fall deeper into poverty?

2. How can forest resources be used as a means to lift rural people out of poverty?

3. How can forest-based poverty alleviation strategies be made compatible with the preservation of biodiversity and other ecological functions of natural forests?

4. How can the owners and managers of forests be encouraged to accommodate and protect the various social and ecological roles which forest play?

NOTE: Several of the papers and posters have been modified or updated and are therefore not identical to those at the conference. 2 of the papers presented at the conference are not included in this proceedings by request of the author.