Community forestry

Abstract

Recent and ongoing international studies on community forestry in developing countries have begun to question the success of the international community forestry concept that was introduced by the end of the 1970s. Though it appears that community forestry does contribute to a positive ecological outcome, further results seem to reveal that other advantages promised by the model, i.e., devolution of power to the local resource users and improvement of their livelihoods, simply do not happen. But community forestry is a complex collective action by forest users that takes place within a broader network of multiple actors at local, national, and international levels. Apparently, the driving forces behind the programs are actors who are very powerful within the hierarchies. To understand this relationship, it is important to know the involved actors, their power and interests, as well as the outcome of community forestry as such. The following chapter therefore presents an approach which can help to unlock the complexity of community forestry.