Community And Forestry

The road to sustainable forest management and stewardship has been debated for decades. Some advocate for governmental control and oversight. Some say that the only way to stem the tide of deforestation is to place as many tracts as possible under strict protection. Caught in the middle of this debate, forest inhabitants of the developing world struggle to balance the extraction of precarious livelihoods from forests while responding to increasing pressures from national governments, international institutions, and their own perceptions of environmental decline to protect biodiversity, restore forests, and mitigate climate change. Mexico presents a unique case in which much of the nation’s forests were placed as commons in the hands of communities, who, with state support and their own entrepreneurial vigor, created community forest enterprises (CFEs). David Barton Bray, who has spent more than thirty years engaged with and researching Mexican community forestry, shows that this reform has transformed forest management in that country at a scale and level of maturity unmatched anywhere else in the world. For decades Mexico has been conducting a de facto large-scale experiment in the design of a national social-ecological system (SES) focused on community forests. What happens when you give subsistence communities rights over forests, as well as training, organizational support, equipment, and financial capital? Do the communities destroy the forest in the name of economic development, or do they manage them sustainably, generating current income while maintaining intergenerational value as a resource for their children? Bray shares the scientific and social evidence that can now begin to answer these questions. This is an invaluable resource for students, researchers, and the interested public on the future of global forest resilience and the possibilities for a good Anthropocene.

Canada is experiencing an unparalleled crisis involving forests and communities across the country. While municipalities, policy makers, and industry leaders acknowledge common challenges such as an overdependence on US markets, rising energy costs, and lack of diversification, no common set of solutions has been developed and implemented. Ongoing and at times contentious public debate has revealed an appetite and need for a fundamental rethinking of the relationships that link our communities, governments, industrial partners, and forests towards a more sustainable future. The creation of community forests is one path that promises to build resilience in forest communities and ecosystems. This model provides local control over common forest lands in order to activate resource development opportunities, benefits, and social responsibilities. Implementing community forestry in practice has proven to be a complex task, however: there are no road maps or well-developed and widely-tested models for community forestry in Canada. But in settings where community forests have taken hold, there is a rich and growing body of experience to draw on. The contributors to Growing Community Forests include leading researchers, practitioners, Indigenous representatives, government representatives, local advocates, and students who are actively engaged in sharing experiences, resources, and tools of significance to forest resource communities, policy makers and industry.

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview and cutting-edge assessment of community forestry. Containing contributions from academics, practitioners, and professionals, the Routledge Handbook of Community Forestry presents a truly global overview with case studies drawn from across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The Handbook begins with an overview of the chapters and a discussion of the concept of community forestry and the key issues. Topics as wide-ranging as Indigenous forestry, conservation and ecosystem management, relationships with industrial forestry, trade and supply systems, land tenure and land grabbing, and climate change are addressed. The Handbook also focuses on governance, looking at the range of approaches employed, including multi-level governance and rights-based approaches, and the principal actors involved from local communities and Indigenous Peoples to governments and national and international non-governmental organisations. The Handbook reveals the importance of the historical context to community forestry and the effects of power and politics. Importantly, the Handbook not only focuses on successful examples of community forestry, but also addresses failures in order to highlight the key challenges we are still facing and potential solutions. The Routledge Handbook of Community Forestry is essential reading for academics, professionals, and practitioners interested in forestry, natural resource management, conservation, and sustainable development.

This book brings together the work of over twenty-five researchers to provide a comparative and empirically rich portrait of community forestry policy and practice in Canada. Tackling all forestry regions from Newfoundland to British Columbia, it unearths the history of community forestry across the nation, demonstrating strong regional differences tied to patterns of policy-making and cultural traditions. Case studies reveal innovative practices in governance and ecological management but also uncover challenges related to government support and market access. This book also considers the future of the sector, including the role of institutional reform, multiscale networks, and adaptive management strategies.

Providing a critical and incisive examination of community forestry, this is a detailed study of complex issues in local forest governance, community sustainability and grassroots environmentalism. It explores community forestry as an alternative form of local collaborative governance in globally significant developed forest regions, with examples ranging from the Gulf Islands of British Columbia to Scandinavia. Responding to the global trend in devolution of control over forest resources and the ever-increasing need for more sustainable approaches to forest governance, the book highlights both the possibilities and challenges associated with community forestry implementation. It features compelling case studies and accounts from those directly involved with community forestry efforts, providing unique insight into the underlying social processes, issues, events and perceptions. It will equip students, researchers and practitioners with a deep understanding of both the evolution and management of community forestry in a pan-national context.

Community forestry is an expanding model of forest management around the world. Over a quarter of forests in developing countries are now owned by or assigned to communities and there is a growing community forestry movement in developed countries such as Canada and the USA. There is, however, no economic theory of community forestry and no systematic treatment of the potential economic advantages of promoting Community forestry in developed countries. As a result much of the policy debate over forest management and forest tenure rests on confused and often erroneous views held by policy makers and encouraged by the dominant forestry industry. The Economic Theory of Community Forestry aims to address this gap and provides the tools for understanding community forestry movement as an alternative form of ownership that can mobilize community resources and encourage innovation. It uses a wide range of economic principles to show how community forestry can be economically superior to conventional forestry; provides examples from Canadian practice; and discusses the regulatory regime that policy makers must put in place to benefit from community forestry. This book will be of interest to policy makers, activists, community forestry managers and members, foresters and forestry students.

Canada is experiencing an unparalleled crisis involving forests and communities across the country. While municipalities, policy makers, and industry leaders acknowledge common challenges such as an overdependence on US markets, rising energy costs, and lack of diversification, no common set of solutions has been developed and implemented. Ongoing and at times contentious public debate has revealed an appetite and need for a fundamental rethinking of the relationships that link our communities, governments, industrial partners, and forests towards a more sustainable future. The creation of community forests is one path that promises to build resilience in forest communities and ecosystems. This model provides local control over common forest lands in order to activate resource development opportunities, benefits, and social responsibilities. Implementing community forestry in practice has proven to be a complex task, however: there are no road maps or well-developed and widely-tested models for community forestry in Canada. But in settings where community forests have taken hold, there is a rich and growing body of experience to draw on. The contributors to Growing Community Forests include leading researchers, practitioners, Indigenous representatives, government representatives, local advocates, and students who are actively engaged in sharing experiences, resources, and tools of significance to forest resource communities, policy makers, and industry.