Public participation: A need of forest planning

Abstract

Stakeholder participation in decisions related to forest planning is essential to get long-lasting and viable solutions. Nowadays, public participation is necessary to reach consensus in natural resource management and in citizen governance of land. It is a key element in a forest planning on a strategic level. However, only the first steps are being taken to include public participation in forest planning within the forestry sector. This paper proposes a review of public participation processes in forest planning as a reference for the development of new methodologies in areas with no previous experience in participative processes. The assessment of the existing scientific literature and its use in different models and countries show a high diversity of responses to the challenge of including social aspects and integrating them with methodological proposals. © SISEF.