Community Forestry and Forest Conservation: Friends or Strangers?

Abstract

This paper is a meta-study of local forest management experiences in developing countries drawn from a review of 56 case-studies presented in 52 papers. Many case-studies report positive links between community forestry and forest conservation. In international organizations and NGOs there is a generally accepted agreement that collective management (community forestry) will yield success in forest conservation. However, the claim is seldom rigorously examined. We suggest to have a review of the literature and to propose a first step to a test of the claim in order to reach a first generalization as to the success of community forestry in forest conservation. The review of the literature is the first step towards such an examination, enabling us to make some initial generalizations for further research. In the present paper, a statistical test is performed and the claim is found wanting. The reviewed papers are very heterogeneous in their approaches, and it is also suggested that the state still has a role to play, even when the transfer of management rights to the forest resources is genuine. Community forestry does not work in a vacuum, and we suggest that a minimum requirement is probably the presence of a legal structure, which exists in India and Nepal but not in many other countries.

Empirical linkages between devolved tenure systems and forest conditions: Selected case studies and country experiences

“…Bowler et al (2010) provided another meta-analysis of 42 peerreviewed articles that came to a similar conclusion, finding that community-based management was associated with greater tree density and basal area but not with other indicators of global environmental benefits (e.g., biodiversity). Casse and Milhøj (2011) is yet another meta-study of local forest management experiences in developing countries drawn from 56 case studies presented in 52 papers. They began with a few astute observations: (1) many case studies report positive links between community forestry and forest conservation; and (2) international organizations and NGOs generally agree that community forestry will yield success in forest conservation; but (3) the claim is seldom rigorously examined.…”

Key factors which influence the success of community forestry in developing countries

“…Community forestry is an increasingly important form of forest management (FAO, 2010) and has developed in response to concerns that centralised forest ownership in developing countries has failed to promote sustainable management (Schusser, 2013;Maryudi et al, 2012;Casse and Milhøj, 2011;Sunderlin, 2006). As a broad approach to combating forest degradation, shifting forest ownership from governments to local communities has become a global trend (White and Martin, 2002;Bixler, 2014).…”

“…A disadvantage of these studies has been their narrow focus (e.g. forest conservation, Casse and Milhøj, 2011;participation, Chhetri et al, 2013; elite benefit capture, Persha and Andersson, 2014) or discovery of a large number of independent variables (e.g. 43 independent variables, Padgee et al, 2006).…”

Tenure Issues in REDD+ Pilot Project Sites in Tanzania

“…Relying on perceptions is not uncommon. In a meta-study of 52 articles comparing community forestry and forest conservation, Casse and Milhøj [46] found that 21 depended on perception based assessments of forest changes. When comparing forest conservation outcomes reported in the studies (positive, ambiguous, negative, none), they find no significant difference between inventory, remotely sensed, and perception based data.…”