Community forestry: policy issues, institutional arrangements, and bureaucratic reorientation
Mukul Sanwal
Ambio 17(5): 342-346
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0044-7447 DOI: 10.2307/4313491Document Number: 354792
An analysis and discussion of problems in community forestry programmes, which leads to the conclusion that most are not related to technical production questions, but to issues of distribution and equity. To date, most studies have emphasized strategies for halting deforestation and planting more trees, often to the exclusion of strategies for maintaining the plantations and meeting the needs of the poor. The paper argues that the characteristics of any programme should determine its management, and to this end, tabulates, describes and discusses the differences in design, implementation and training between community forestry, farm forestry and social forestry. It is shown that community forestry programmes need to stress different participants, activities, and levels of analysis. The form these approaches take will depend on local conditions. However, it is possible to lay down some broad rules for relating patterns of organization to performance, and to conceptualize alternatives to existing bureaucratic arrangements; these changes are summarized.