Community-Based Forest Management

Also see:
Defenders of the Forests
Women and Forests
Health and Forests
Food sovereignty
Mumbai Porto Alegre Forest Initiative

 

Community Forests. Equity, use and conservation.

World Rainforest Movement. June 2004. Also available in French and Spanish

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WRM SPECIAL BULLETINS ON CBFM

Special Bulletin Nº - May 2004 ( complete version)

The fact that forests continue to disappear does not mean that the direct and underlying causes of deforestation are not well-known. They are. What are much less well-known are the causes of forest conservation. However, in the tropics it is quite clear that wherever there is a forest in good condition, in most cases there is an indigenous or local community living there. They need the forest and hold the knowledge to use it sustainably. The obvious solution for the forest crisis is thus to empower local communities and to create the necessary conditions for enabling them to manage forests adequately. By sharing analyses and concrete experiences on community-based forest management, we hope that this bulletin will be a contribution to that aim.

Special Bulletin 63 - October 2002 (complete version)

For centuries, local communities benefited from sustainable forest use. However, centralized control over natural resources has for many years now been eroding local rights and resulting in extensive deforestation processes. The current disaster --generated by state and corporate driven activities in forests-- shows the need to change course and to put forest management back again in the hands of local communities. The industrial model has clearly failed to ensure forest conservation, while community-based approaches show that the improvement of peoples' livelihoods is compatible with the sustainable use of forests.

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Global Caucus on Community-Based Forest Management

In May 2002, a number of people attending the 4th Preparatory Meeting for the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), decided to group themselves under a common banner in order to influence government delegates on the need for the global community to recognize community-based and indigenous forest management as a viable tool for alleviating poverty and sustaining the Earth's environment.

After just a few days of organizing --and despite warnings that they were beginning their efforts too late-- they were successful in securing this recognition in text being negotiated by the delegates. The Global Caucus on Community-Based Forest Management was thus born.

The Caucus, which currently includes more than 200 members from over 30 countries held again a number of meetings and carried out numerous activities some months later at the Johannesburg Summit. Rumors about the Caucus' effectiveness spread, and it was invited to facilitate an open forum on forests, the results of which was formally transmitted to the UN.

In the coming months and years, Caucus members look forward to joining forces to support community-based and indigenous forestry worldwide, through such activities as sharing knowledge and skills, collaborating on the ground, and providing a meaningful voice for forest peoples in policy development. Some Caucus members have already begun working together on community-based monitoring projects and the challenges of protected areas among others.

MUMBAI PORTO ALEGRE FOREST INITIATIVE

A global movement for peoples´ rights and forest conservation

A number of participants at the World Social Forum 2004 met in Mumbai believing that forest issues are in essence social and political and that forest communities are increasingly affected by globalization -and new forms of trade and economic liberalization that comes in its way. They agreed on the need to create a global movement to ensure forest conservation and peoples' rights over forests. The principles on which the movement would be based were agreed upon and circulated by the groups as the Mumbai Forest Initiative -Statement of Principles

A year later the group and some other participants of the World Social Forum 2005 met in Porto Alegre, Brazil, reviewed and revised the Mumbai forest initiative.

The result is the Mumbai - Porto Alegre Forest Initiative.

LINKS

RECOFTC
(Regional Community Forestry Center for Asia and the Pacific)

http://www.recoftc.org/

ACICAFOC
(Coordinadora Indígena Campesina de Agroforestería Comunitaria)

http://www.acicafoc.org/

International Network of Forests and Communities
http://www.forestsandcommunities.org

Forests, Trees & People Programme & Network
http://www-trees.slu.se/

World Agroforestry Centre
http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/home.asp

CBNRM Net
(The Community-Based Natural Resource Management Network)

http://www.cbnrm.net/

National Network of Forest Practitioners
http://www.nnfp.org/

Forest Action Network
http://www.fanweb.org/index.shtml

Desarrollo Forestal Comunitario
http://www.desarrolloforestal.org/

Federation of community forestry users
http://www.fecofun.org/

Community Forestry International
http://www.communityforestryinternational.org/

 


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