中国台湾地区社区林业计划执行过程及内容

社区林业是一种社区总体营造理念与操作方式,鼓励社区主动提出计划与林务单位共同合作,在整个计划执行过程中充分与公众沟通并达成共识,与社区公众及组织形成伙伴关系,共同维护生物多样性及发挥环境资源的生态系统服务价值,达到森林永续经营的目标,并能有效改善所在社区的经济与环境状况,特别是与原住民部落的关系。文中以中国台湾"林务局"编定的8个"林区管理处"2011-2020年森林经营计划书为基础,分析台湾地区社区林业计划的内容,包括"推动社区林业及伙伴关系的建立""雇用原住民及与原住民社区合作共同巡护措施""原住民传统领域森林产物采取"及"森林游乐区公共参与及伙伴关系"等4个议题,以期总结台湾社区林业经营规划的过程、内容及进展,供专家学者进行社区林业相关计划编制或研究时参考。     

Competing Visions: Domestic Forests, Politics and Forest Policy in the Central Western Ghats of South India

Rural people in developing countries including India continue to access a number of types of ‘forests’ to meet specific needs such as fuelwood, fodder, food, non-timber forest produce and timber for both subsistence and income generation. While a plethora of terms exist to describe the types of forests that rural people use—such as farm forests, social forests, community forests and small-scale forests—the expression domestic forest has recently been proposed. Domestic forest is a term aimed at capturing the diversity of forests transformed and managed by rural communities and a way to introduce a new scientific domain that recognises that production and conservation can be reconciled and that local communities can be effective managers. This paper argues in the context of the central Western Ghats of south India that while the domestic forest concept is a useful umbrella term to capture the diversity of forests used by rural people, these domestic forests are often not autonomous local forests but sites of contestation between local actors and the state forest bureaucracy. Hence, a paradigm shift within the forest bureaucracy will only occur if the scientific forestry community questions its own normative views on forest management and sees forest policy as a means to recognise local claims and support existing practices of forest dependent communities.     

Evolution and Diversification of Community Forestry Regimes in Babati District, Tanzania

Since the 1980s many tropical countries have promoted community forestry (CF). Gradually, various forms of community forest management regimes were developed in response to decentralization processes in the forest administration or the government administration. The emergence of community forestry regime (CFR) complexes and their evolutionary pathways have still been little explored. In Tanzania, Babati District is a pioneer in the development of CF. This paper assesses how emergence of a CFR complex is related to dynamic institutional interactions at local community level and bureaucratic level. It is demonstrated that evolution and diversity of CF regimes is associated with (a) a partial bureaucratic deconcentration of the government’s administrative authority over forests from national level to district level, and (b) democratic decentralization in the form of a partial devolution of formal management authority over forests from governmental authorities to local communities and individual people. Also, it is shown that endogenous changes in the norms and principles of the traditional systems of indigenous forest management occurred, calling for formulation of policy objectives that help to sustain local management practices.     

Development and evaluation of local communities incentive programs for improving the traditional forest management: A case study of Northern Zagros forests,Iran

We examined the local community incentive programs to improve traditional forest management in three forested villages in Baneh city, Kurdistan province in the northern Zagros forests of western Iran. Zagros forests cover 6.07 million ha and support rich plant and animal diversity. Changes in local community social and economic sys-tems and the inefficiency of traditional forest management led to a criti-cal situation in the stability of forest regeneration in recent decades. Due to a shortage of productive and arable lands and resulting unemployment and poverty, people overexploited the Zagros forests. Outside interven-tion in traditional forest management creates conflicts between local peoples and forest management organizations. To achieve sustainable forest management, including forest resources conservation and im-provement of natural resource based livelihoods of communities, it is desirable to implement Forestry Incentive Programs （FIP） based on the important functions of forests. Detailed information on the so-cio-economics of communities, the effect of forests on local livelihoods, and lists of products extracted from the forest were obtained from a sur-vey of local communities though questionnaire, interview and observa-tion. We studied 276 households in three villages and completed 76 ques-tionnaires by householders in the quantitative analysis. Sampling was performed by simple random sampling （SRS）. The needs of rural com-munities, such as livestock husbandry, mainly arise from the characteris-tics and environmental features of villages. We identified the driving forces, pressures, status, impacts and responses （DPSIR） to design incen-tive programs, by DPSIR analysis and interaction analysis. Evaluation of local community benefits from forests showed that in order to improve forest management, 319 dollars per year would be needed by each family as an incentive in 2010 to prevent lopping and firewood collecting, the main causes of forest degradation.     

Certification of a Community-based Forest Enterprise for Improving Institutional Management and Household Income: A Case from Southeast Sulawesi,Indonesia

Forest certification for community-based forest management was designed to strengthen an area’s forestry functions while simultaneously alleviating poverty by developing the existing community forest. It is fundamental for forest certification to maintain the economic benefits for certified local sellers and balance conservation goals with increasing local incomes. This study explores how FSC certification of a community-based forest enterprise in Southeast Sulawesi in Indonesia could improve effectively field situations of community forest management and strengthen local peoples’ financial benefits and social perceptions towards conserving forests. FSC group certification was introduced in the area of teak community forest of several villages in 2005. Because of local strong interest in group certification, the size of certified forests, the number of group certification members and the amount of certified wood harvested gradually increased. The support of a local NGO and an international NGO contributed towards successful establishment of group certification and establishment of a small-scale forestry enterprise producing certified wood in a sustainable manner. These NGOs played important roles in establishing strong relationships between producers and consumers, strengthening local forest management institutions, and promising social and economic benefits to the local people.     

Assessing the sustainability in community based forestry: A case from Nepal

Community based forestry is seen as a promising instrument for sustainable forest management (SFM) through the purposeful involvement of local communities. Globally, forest area managed by local communities is on the rise. However, transferring management responsibilities to forest users alone cannot guarantee the sustainability of forest management. A monitoring tool, that allows the local communities to track the progress of forest management towards the goal of sustainability, is essential. A case study, including six forest user groups (FUGs), two from each three community based forestry models—community forestry (CF), buffer zone community forestry (BZCF), and collaborative forest management (CFM) representing three different physiographic regions, was conducted in Nepal. The study explores which community based forest management model (CF, BZCF or CFM) is doing well in terms of sustainable forest management. The study assesses the overall performance of the three models towards SFM using locally developed criteria (four), indicators (26) and verifiers (60). This paper attempts to quantify the sustainability of the models using sustainability index for individual criteria (SIIC), and overall sustainability index (OSI). In addition, rating to the criteria and scoring of the verifiers by the FUGs were done. Among the four criteria, the FUGs ascribed the highest weightage to institutional framework and governance criterion; followed by economic and social benefits, forest management practices, and extent of forest resources. Similarly, the SIIC was found to be the highest for the institutional framework and governance criterion. The average values of OSI for CFM, CF, and BZCF were 0.48, 0.51 and 0.60 respectively; suggesting that buffer zone community forestry is the more sustainable model among the three. The study also suggested that the SIIC and OSI help local communities to quantify the overall progress of their forestry practices towards sustainability. The indices provided a clear picture of forest management practices to indicate the direction where they are heading in terms of sustainability; and informed the users on issues to pay attention to enhance sustainability of their forests.     

Community participation in a social forestry program in Central Java,Indonesia: the effect of incentive structure and social capital

A new social forestry program has been implemented in Java to overcome encroachment of state forests. In this program, the state and local communities jointly manage the state forests and share the benefits of increased forest resource stock and flow as a result of the management. This article aims to investigate the complete incentive structure of the social forestry program and how the incentive structure changes community member participation in forest management. Property rights transfers and economic analyses were employed to analyze the incentive structure. We conclude that although incomplete, the transfer of rights from the state to the community members is a useful approach toward establishing an effective incentive structure and provides a net gain to the community members. The extent of community participation, however, depends not only on the incentive structure but also on the social capital that exists in the community.     

From Forests to Food Security: Pathways in Nepal’s Community Forestry

There is an increasing recognition of the contribution of forests to food security of poor and marginalized people. However, empirical findings remain limited on how forests contribute to food security. Drawing on four case studies of community forestry in Nepal, this paper discusses pathways through which forests are contributing to food security needs of local communities. The evidence presented here was gathered through 4 years of action research and draws insights from the past 40 years of Nepal’s community forestry practice, which is often regarded as a successful case of conservation and development. It is shown that there are four distinct pathways through which community forests contribute to food security as a source of: (1) income and employment; (2) inputs to increase food production; (3) directly for food; and (4) renewable energy for cooking. Despite emerging pathways linking forest management to food systems at the local level, forestry policies and institutions have neither explicitly recognized nor strengthened the linkage between forest and food security. The paper highlights that there is a need for a fundamental shift in thinking from the conventional notion of ‘forests for soil conservation’ to ‘sustainable forest management for food security’.     

The Embeddedness of Collective Action in Nepalese Community Forestry

Collective action by local communities has been recognised as crucial for effective management of natural resources, particularly the management of forests in rural settings in developing countries. However, the processes and outcomes of collective action in forest management are often analysed through a narrow rational choice model, ignoring the impacts of wider social, political and economic processes in conditioning peoples’ decisions to act (or not to act) collectively. Optimistic assumptions are made for collective action being instrumental to enhance both social and ecological outcomes, but there is a paucity of empirical evidence on how and why the condition of forests has improved (or deteriorated) under collective action, and what impacts the change in forest condition has on various groups within local communities. This study critically examines the emergence, evolution and outcomes of collective action in a case of community forestry in Nepal. A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods has been used to collect primary data from the forest, households, key informants and focus groups. The emergence and outcomes of collective action is found to be embedded in social, economic and political relationships, where powerful actors control the use of forests in order to ensure conservation, thereby resulting in the underutilisation of forest products. Poor users, who depend heavily on forests, are found to be worse off economically under community forestry, but still engage in collective action for a variety of socio-political reasons. This contradicts the conventional wisdom which assumes that people only cooperate when they benefit from cooperation. It is concluded that a deeper understanding of the embeddedness of community forestry is needed in order to achieve the potential of collective action.

Production efficiency of community forest management in Nepal

Nepal's forests have been transferred to community management with the twin objectives of supplying forest products and addressing local environmental problems. Community forests provide a range of benefits, from direct forest products such as timber and non-provisioning ecosystem services such as soil protection. There is a need to understand the extent to which environmental and community benefits are joint products or substitutes. Stochastic frontier production analysis (SFPA) was used to study the production relationship between environmental and community benefits and production efficiency analysis to study the extent to which communities were able to achieve maximum benefits. SFPA indicated that the magnitude of direct forest product benefits was influenced by various socioeconomic and forest related factors such as distance to the government office, community forest size, and group heterogeneity negatively affect community forest products benefits. On the other hand, links to the market, forest products dependency, and the number of households in the community augment benefits from community forests. In addition, forest product benefits and environmental benefits were complementary to each other. Production efficiency analysis showed that communities were not producing forest products efficiently. Factors such as social capital contributed positively to production efficiency, whereas caste heterogeneity in the executive committees of community forest user groups was negatively associated with efficiency. These findings can contribute to better implementation of community forestry programmes in Nepal, improving the welfare of communities by increasing direct forest product benefits without environmental harm.     

Community Forestry in the State of Uttarakhand,India: Not Meeting the Needs of the Villagers

This community forestry case study examines village forest councils (van panchayat) in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand. We describe forest stocking levels of 20 community forests and address the question of whether these forests are in a position to provide commodity resources, such as fuelwood and fodder, on a sustainable basis. In addition, we report on the perceptions of the villagers on whether their respective community forest is meeting their fuelwood and fodder needs. At the biophysical level, none of the community forests were in a position to provide fuelwood and fodder on a sustainable basis. Most forests did not have adequate overstory stocking, and there was no evidence of deliberate management to improve the situation. Interviews with 400 villagers (20 in each village) supported the field findings. Villagers unanimously reported that their respective community forest was inadequate in supplying commodity needs. Furthermore, they wished the Forest Department would provide more technical and financial assistance to guide them with forest management needs. Women are a critical part of community forestry as they are the primary gatherers of fuelwood and fodder. Although the perceptions of women toward forest management issues are important, our interviews with female villagers indicate they play a passive role in decision-making. Decentralization in natural resources management sounds good at the theoretical level as it provides villagers with some authority and autonomy, but it cannot be effectively implemented without professional guidance coupled with resources. The villagers are ready and willing to improve the situation, but they do not have the resources to make change unilaterally—they need professional and financial support from the Forest Department.     

日本森林资源供求变动趋势和经营管理战略创新

丰富的森林资源促进了第2次世界大战结束后日本经济的恢复和高速发展。此后,林产品市场供求、生产经营和产业政策发生了重大变化。文中分析了日本森林资源和森林经营现状、木材供求和森林功能多样化的趋势,以及林业政策、经营管理和技术创新的动向,以期为理论研究和业务决策提供参考。日本在经济高速增长期过后,木材需求量减少,自给率维持低位。近年来,日本林木进入集中主伐利用期,社会对森林生态环保需求增大,森林经营面临着规模过小、国有林缺乏经营活力、年轻劳动力减少等问题。日本森林经营管理创新的重点包括提高科技贡献率、改革林业特别是国有林的生产经营体制、提升森林在生态与环境和经济减贫等多方面价值。目前,上述创新已经效果初现,也是今后日本林业改革发展的主要方向。     

Socio-economic and ecological outcomes of community based forest management: A case study from Tobé-Kpobidon forest in Benin,Western Africa

Community forestry, promoted as a “win–win” forest management strategy yielded a variety of results that includes both failure and relative success. The willingness of government to hold control over forest resources while transferring only part of property rights to local communities is one of the major constraints. Therefore, there is a need to explore alternative approaches, which enhance the position and accountability of local communities in community forest management. This study evaluated socio-economic and ecological outcomes of community forestry in a context of important property rights conceded to local communities. The study was conducted using focus groups discussions, forest income evaluation and assessment of forest resources and their dynamics. Findings showed that institutional design with important property rights conceded to local communities partially empowered local communities and reduced threats while improving the condition of forest resources. The approach also yielded positive economic outcomes that enabled bordering populations to make up to 25% of their global annual income from the forest. However, the sustainability of this scheme of forest management was mostly limited by the financial dependency on local non-governmental organization, by local institutions and discrepancy in forest benefits sharing among local forest users.     

Social Heterogeneity and Community Forestry Processes: Reflections from Forest Users of Dhading District, Nepal

Community forestry has been characterized as a successful model of community-based forest governance in Nepal that shifts forest management and use rights to local users, often socially heterogeneous in caste, gender and wealth status. This heterogeneity forms the basis of social groups, which differ in their needs, priorities and perceptions regarding community forestry implementation processes. This paper explores the dynamics of three community forestry processes—users’ participation, institutional development, and decision-making and benefit-sharing—among forest user groups as perceived by three social groups of forest users—elite, women and disadvantaged—from eight community forests of Dhading district, Nepal, using qualitative and quantitative techniques. It is found that social groups have differing levels of perception about community forestry processes occurring in their user groups. In particular, social elites differ from women and disadvantaged members of the group in users’ participation in community forestry activities and institutional development of forest user groups. An important policy implication of the findings is that social inclusiveness is central to the effective implementation of community forestry processes, not only to safeguard its past successes but also to internalize the economic opportunities it poses through reducing deforestation and forest degradation in the future.     

Tropical Forest Management in the Asia-Pacific Region

Tropical deforestation in the Asia-Pacific Region has accelerated in Lhe last decade, seriously depleting the forest resource base. Most forest loss results from agricultural clearing, but is generally preceded by forest degradation from destructive logging (Southeast Asia) or overuse of forest resources (South Asia). Tropical forests are highly variable, requiring a system of classification to guide management objectives; one such system is ecological life zone mapping. Forestry operations should reflect the need for both conservation and production. Most Asia-Pacific forests are managed on variations of a selection system. Logging damage is the most important forestry-sector threat to commercial forestry, reducing both future timber production and the availability of non-timber products. The short duration of logging concession agreements, nontransferability of concession contracts, and undervaluation of forest resources all contribute to forest "mining" practices. Alternative forest management methods exist: logging damage can be substantially reduced at little or no additional cost; small-scale mobile sawmills can increase local incomes while reducing the need for skidding; and Assisted Natural Regeneration can facilitate the reforestation of denuded lands. The best hope for sustainable use of forest resources lies with those who must live with the consequences of forest mismanagement. Local involvement in foresy planning, implementation and enforcement is essential. Successful forest management projects depend on the judgement of field-based personnel familiar with the forests, cultures and institutions of each country, working in cooperation with local forestry experts and forest-dependent people.     

Sustaining Multifunctional Forestry Through the Developing of Social Capital and Promoting Participation: A Case of Multiethnic Mountain Communities

Communities with multicultural, ethnically diverse populations located in forest areas of the Carpathian Mountains often face serious social and economic problems, including high unemployment rates, weak social support and institutions with little stakeholder participation in decision-making. In this paper, we apply participatory scenario processes to address the development of multifunctional forestry in these mountains by taking as an example the case study of Slovensky Raj National Park and specifically focusing on the involvement of local communities, particularly the Roma minority, in sustainable forest management (SFM). The paper argues that development of local institutions and promotion of horizontal and vertical participation to increase social capital is necessary for addressing social and economic problems, managing potential conflicts and sustaining multifunctional forestry development. The results suggest that the way forward is the integration of multi-purpose forest management with community development, and that learning, repeated stakeholder interaction, trust-building and cooperation between and within multiethnic local communities are important preconditions for success. The scenario process applied turned out to be beneficial for both the majority and the minority populations, particularly allowing for discussions about future development of mountain regions, their local economies and communities, and for providing some guidance about what are the preferred actions for participation in multifunctional SFM.     

Evolution of Portuguese community forests and their governance based on new institutional economics

Forest governance is under reorganisation in many European countries, because of the changes in property and forest tenure rights. Portuguese community-based forestry is an interesting research subject from a New Institutional Economics perspective. Community forests (an important part of community lands known as baldios) cover half a million hectares in the north and the centre of the country and are owned by local communities. Their average size of over 400 hectares and diversity of resources underscore their value, and their management contributes to rural development. Recent laws intend for the complete transfer of their tenure rights to communities and local authorities. In this study, we analysed the transformational processes of Portuguese community-based forestry. To structure this analysis and shed light on forest management-related problems, we followed the 'four-level institutional analysis' developed by Williamson. Particular attention was paid to the first three levels. The first concerned social practice and informal rules. We are describing the history of baldios, their use by rural populations, and the subsequent occupation by the State for afforestation. The second level addressed the institutional environment and formal rules. Here, we focused on the recognition of baldio community properties and their legal framework development. The third level addressed management and the interaction of actors in transaction cost savings. Here, we examined the current community-based management models and future trends. In our analysis, we identified the causes underlying baldio management problems at different levels, which highlight the importance of new governance models and economic activities. The analysis showed that overall, the Portuguese community forest governance is a flexible structure capable of adapting to political and demographic changes and offering valuable support for the development of rural areas in the north and centre of the country. Additional empirical research is needed to improve knowledge on the impact of institutions on the management of community forests, both nationally and internationally.

     

Benefits of forests in Cameroon. Global structure,issues involving access and decision-making hiccoughs

Among many other stakes, the economic stake derived from the exploitation of tropical forest resources is a burning issue. This is evidenced by insecurity in intergenerational access to forest resources and financial benefits relating to the latter, on the one hand, and by a deep iniquity at the intra-generational level, on the other hand. The following paper highlights, as a moral, social and policy dilemma, how stakeholders and generations, ‘self-interested’, mark out access to forest resources and to financial benefits relating to the latter. Through intensive participatory research, quantitative data collection, participant observation, future scenarios and some International Forestry Research's social science methods and interactive games (SSM & IG) based on the evaluation of the sustainability of forest management systems, field research conducted in the forest zone of Cameroon on access to forest resources has generated two central results. Firstly, future generations will be confronted—in a dramatic way—to quantitative and qualitative scarcity of forest resources, following their over exploitation by present generations. Secondly, as concerns the intra-generational access benefits generated by commercial exploitation of forests and the assessment of the circulation of forestry fees, there is much inequity, in as much as those benefits are more profitable to a ‘forestry elite’—‘a self-interested block’—than to local communities, who strongly claim to have historical rights over these forests. As a contribution of social science to public knowledge and to policy development, this article is nourishing ‘rational choice’ and ‘rational egoism’ theory and is targeting decision-making processes in the ever first attempt of forest management decentralization and ‘legal’ benefits sharing in Central Africa (the second largest forest of the World). The article recommends the shortening of the distance between decision-making and beneficiaries, downwardly accountability, ‘bottom-up’ mechanisms of public dialogue in forest management and a collaborative infrastructure in the circulation and the distribution of forest benefits.     

Tree Species Diversity in Community Managed and National Park Forests in the Mid-Hills of Central Nepal

Community forestry is expanding in developing countries but there is limited knowledge of, and contradictory findings about, its contribution to biodiversity conservation. This study aims at increasing the understanding of tree species diversity in community forests compared to National Parks. A forest inventory was carried out in four community forests and one National Park in the mid-hills of central Nepal. The study found that community forestry has contributed to high tree species diversity where forest management communities have interests in multiple species, but most community forests are moving toward promoting limited timber yielding species that have high economic value. Linking community forestry with economic incentives for conserving multiple tree species could therefore be a strategy to conserve biodiversity outside of protected areas.