Over the past few decades, various types of Community Based Forest Management Programs have been implemented around the world. These Community Based Forest Management Programs give rural communities participation in managing their forest in a sustainable way by letting them work with their government or allowing them to manage the forests on their own.[1] Stakeholders including governments, NGOs and charities are trying to assess whether these programs are actually
Community Based Forest Management Programs came about after the governments in many countries took over the rights to forests for either their timber or to clear for agriculture. Population increases, more demand for forest products and technology advances have put additional pressure on forests.[3] Conflicts arose when these governments took over the timber industries or put in place large agricultural facilities, and the people who lived near these forests lost the access that their livelihoods depended on. There is a wide variety in how much control the local communities have over the forests. Some communities are granted legal rights and have full management control over the forest. Other communities do not have control, but abide by government policies and procedures in accessing the resources of their forest. Some programs allow the communities to collect and sell products on the commercial market, and others are not allowed to. Some programs make all community members participate while others let people sign up voluntarily.[4]
The change from government control of forests to Community Based Forest Management came for several reasons. Part of the reason for this change was the realization that forests need to be conserved because of their potential to mitigate climate change. This leads to a second argument for implementing Community Based Forest Management. Many times the most biodiverse forests are in areas where the worlds poorest people live.[5] When allowed the responsibility of caring for their forest, it is believed that these communities can do a responsible job of managing the resources in a sustainable way with the goal of allowing them to raise their standard of living.
There are however, many limitations and challenges to the success of Community Based Forest Management Programs that need to be taken into account. Many assume that a local community will do a better job of managing their resources. This comes from the belief that those involved will suffer from the repercussions of bad decisions. A second reason local communities might be more trusted is that it is believed that by being local to the resources, response to any damages or threats to the resource can be dealt with more quickly and effectively. A third argument is that because the people for those communities may have there for decades and will want to preserve the area for future generations, they will have more of an interest in making sure resources are used sustainably.[6]
These beliefs do not always hold true, however. Weaknesses of the Community Based Forest Management Programs must be addressed and acknowledged in order to gauge their overall effectiveness. Some people wonder if the local community is able to take into account the large scale problems of biodiversity and global warming when making decisions about the economics of their everyday life.[7] It may be difficult for local populations to understand how overall forest systems work and to account for external factors in relation to the outcome from local users.[8] Additionally, local populations may tend to look for solutions that are familiar, and may not be able to take into account multiple variables that might include benefits today versus sustainable practices over the long term.[9] Even when a community does aim for conservation, changes in circumstances like economic hardship, changes in market forces, or job losses might lead members to use resources in an unsustainable way.[10] Community members can still be impacted by decisions made by the more powerful members among their community.[11] Many times these decisions will not be equitable, particularly for women and poorer members.[12] If the community is not well defined, anyone can use the resources which makes it difficult to oversee all activity, so overharvesting may happen.[13] Areas managed under Community Based Forest Management Programs need to provide enough resources to make a financial difference for those involved without harming the forest under management.[14] Further, there needs to be controls so that a sense of fairness is present for those who participate, so that no one is perceived as gaining more from the system.[15] Finally and most importantly, it needs to be determined if communities involved in Community Based Forest Management Programs actually have a raised standard of living and if those forests actually fair better in term of conservation.
The overall objective of Community Based Forest Programs is certainly based on goals that have high ideals. With the threat of climate change due to increased carbon in the atmosphere, preserving forests that effectively sequester 40% of the worlds carbon would make the success of these programs one of the most important ways to address climate change.[16] Further, raising the standard of living of communities in poorer regions of developing countries meets another key part of Sustainability goals. Since sustainable solutions should be measureable in order to have a good understanding of a program’s success, finding ways to assess the Community Based Forest Management Programs remains difficult since the programs vary from region to region, ranging from no government involvement, to regions with helpful policies to help communities. The objective of this blog will be to explore ways to help make Community Based Forestry Programs a sustainable solution, so I will be using the following definition to try to assess the sustainability of Community Based Forestry Programs:
A practice is sustainable if its initiatives, actions or impacts serve to meet the needs of present generations without compromising the needs of future generations through:
- The extraction, creation and use of resources in ways that maximize renewal, reduce or eliminate pollution and waste, and mitigate and/or support adaptation to global climate change while protecting and restoring the health of natural systems and biodiversity;
- Equitable economic development including profit that empowers people to meet their own needs without undermining the ability of others to do so for themselves particularly by eliminating exploitation;
- An elevated and dignified standard of human well being that ensures human rights and social justice for all people;
Best practices for meeting these objectives include using an inclusive, transparent process that employs systems thinking and scientific principles, encourages individual and collective action, and assessment using measurable indicators.
[1]Shreya Dasgupta, “Does Community Based Forest Management Work in the Tropics?” Mongabay, accessed September 9, 2019, https://news.mongabay.com/2017/11/does-community-based-forest-management-work-in-the-tropics/.
[2]Ben Bradshaw, “Questioning the credibility and capacity of community-based resource management,” The Canadian Geographer, 2003. https://ucl.rl.talis.com/items/F2DB205F-BB3B-6FFD-97F1-670B66F81BA1.html?referrer=%2Flists%2F852DAC21-BDE2-70D7-AA1E-AB6A33E35E87.html%23item-F2DB205F-BB3B-6FFD-97F1-670B66F81BA1
[3]Elinor Ostrom, “Self Governance and Forest Resources,” Center for International Forestry Research, February 1999. https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/OccPapers/OP-20.pdf
[4]Shreya Dasgupta, “Does Community Based Forestry”.
[5]Shreya Dasgupta, “Does Community Based Forestry”.
[6]Ben Bradshaw, “Questioning the credibility”.
[7]Ibid.
[8]Elinor Ostrom, “Self Governance”.
[9]Ibid.
[10]Ben Bradshaw, Questioning the credibility”.
[11]Shreya Dasgupta, “Does Community Based Forestry”.
[12]Ibid.
[13]Elinor Ostrom, “Self Governance”.
[14]Ben Bradshaw, Questioning the credibility”.
[15]Elinor Ostrom, “Self Governance”.
[16]Louise Gray, “World’s Forests Absorb Almost 40% of Man Made CO2,” The Telegraph, August 18, 2011, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/8708979/Worlds-forests-absorb-almost-40-per-cent-of-man-made-CO2.html.
Bibliography
Bradshaw, Ben. “Questioning the credibility and capacity of community-based resource management,” The Canadian Geographer, 2003. https://ucl.rl.talis.com/items/F2DB205F-BB3B-6FFD-97F1-670B66F81BA1.html?referrer=%2Flists%2F852DAC21-BDE2-70D7-AA1E-AB6A33E35E87.html%23item-F2DB205F-BB3B-6FFD-97F1-670B66F81BA1.
Dasgupta, Shreya. “Does Community Based Forest Management Work in the Tropics?” https://news.mongabay.com/2017/11/does-community-based-forest-management-work-in-the-tropics/.
Mongabay, accessed September 9, 2019, https://news.mongabay.com/2017/11/does-community-based-forest-management-work-in-the-tropics/.
Gray, Louise. “World’s Forests Absorb Almost 40% of Man Made CO2,” The Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/8708979/Worlds-forests-absorb-almost-40-per-cent-of-man-made-CO2.html.
Ostrom, Elinor. “Self Governance and Forest Resources,” Center for International Forestry Research, February 1999, https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/OccPapers/OP-20.pdf.
