Thumbnail Image

Forests and people: 25 years of community forestry







Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Technical book
    Community-based forestry for forests, people and climate in West Africa
    Status and the ways forward
    2025
    Also available in:
    No results found.

    Community engagement in forest management and restoration, as well as in climate action, has been increasingly recognized and implemented in West Africa over the past four decades. Significant progress has been made in terms of policy frameworks, capacity development, and local community empowerment. Despite the considerable attention paid to community-based forestry since the 1980s, there is still no major initiative to regularly report on the status and progress of CBF in the subregion. This policy paper attempts to fill this gap by taking stock of progress in West Africa.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Article
    Journal article
    Successful 20 years of community forest management in Guatemala informs an Integrated Community Forest Management pathway to support scaling
    XV World Forestry Congress, 2-6 May 2022
    2022
    Also available in:
    No results found.

    Research increasingly highlights the powerful link between environmental and social challenges and outcomes, and how local communities can be effective guardians of the forest. In the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala, which Rainforest Alliance supports since more than 20 years, a broad alliance has been made between forest communities, local and national government bodies, companies, as well as academia and implementing partners. This public-private alliance supports the local population in its responsible management of forests, as a powerful tool contributing to peace and social justice, as well as to human development. Impact studies show that the deforestation rate in the forest concessions is near zero, while protected areas and buffer zones nearby suffered high deforestation levels, and that the initiative contributes to all the 17 SDGs. Based on a learning inventory of the Rainforest Alliances’ work in Guatemala and other countries it operates in, we have broaden our approach in order to catalyze long-term transformation at scale. We have developed and tested tools and methods to foster an enabling environment and to support the deployment of viable community-based forest enterprises, implementing sustainable forest management, restoration or reforestation, and providing equitable benefits. We have organized this approach in an Integrated Community Forest Implementation pathway which is presented in more detail in this paper. To deploy this pathway, a unique coalition of corporate stakeholders, forest communities, Indigenous Peoples and regional implementing partners are uniting with the Rainforest Alliance within its Forest Allies Community of Practice. Using the Integrated Community Forest Management approach, we leverage the power of partnerships to protect and restore forests in critical landscapes while also empowering communities and improving livelihoods. Because we believe the best guardians of the forest are those who make their living from it. Keywords: Adaptive and integrated management, Community Forest; Sustainable forest management, Economic Development, Partnerships. ID: 3485602
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (series)
    Technical study
    Forty years of community-based forestry 2016
    Also available in:

    Since the 1970s and 1980s, community-based forestry has grown in popularity, based on the concept that local communities, when granted sufficient property rights over local forest commons, can organize autonomously and develop local institutions to regulate the use of natural resources and manage them sustainably. Over time, various forms of community-based forestry have evolved in different countries, but all have at their heart the notion of some level of participation by smallholders and comm unity groups in planning and implementation. This publication is FAO’s first comprehensive look at the impact of community-based forestry since previous reviews in 1991 and 2001. It considers both collaborative regimes (forestry practised on land with formal communal tenure requiring collective action) and smallholder forestry (on land that is generally privately owned). The publication examines the extent of community-based forestry globally and regionally and assesses its effectiveness in del ivering on key biophysical and socioeconomic outcomes, i.e. moving towards sustainable forest management and improving local livelihoods. The report is targeted at policy-makers, practitioners, researchers, communities and civil society.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files