Attitudes of coastal-forest users in Eastern Cape Province to management options arising from new South African forest policies

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A.F. Obiri ◽  
Michael J. Lawes
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Forest Resource ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Participatory Forest Management ◽  
Management Policies ◽  
Forest Users

New participatory forest management policies are being promoted in South Africa involving devolution from the state to local communities at a time when traditional authority has been eroded and is weak. Here, attitudes of forest stakeholders (forest resource users and managers) to three possible forest management policies, as well as to resource use, were investigated using questionnaires. There was concordance in the attitudes of resource users and managers and a general lack of support for community forest management (CFM), particularly among older resource users. Power shifts, uncertainty about land tenure and the management of what has essentially become an open-access system, all confound attempts to implement community-based forestry programmes. Local communities appeared to be wary of taking on responsibility for forest management at this time and indicated comparatively stronger support for state forest management (SFM). Forest stakeholders were more equivocal in their support for participatory forest management (PFM), although this probably reflects a poor understanding by forest users of the new PFM process. No stakeholders supported a total ban on forest resource use, but all supported controlled use. These latter attitudes were independent of the preferred management system (i.e. CFM, SFM or PFM). This study corroborates the view that CFM has been overemphasized. Rather than narrowing forest management around communities, but recognizing the state's incapacity to ensure the integrity of forest resources into the future without the co-operation of forest users, an all-inclusive approach, such as PFM, provides for greater management input by the state.

Developing capacity of forest users through participatory forest management: Evidence from Madhupur Sal forest in Bangladesh

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khondokar H. Kabir ◽  
Andrea Knierim ◽  
Ataharul Chowdhury ◽  
Beatriz Herrera
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Participatory Forest Management ◽  
Sal Forest ◽  
Forest Users

Participatory Forest Management in India: An overview and some emerging issues

Social Change ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 156-164
Author(s):  
V. K. Misra ◽  
S. N. Shabbeer
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Community Forest Management ◽  
Joint Forest Management ◽  
Forest Patch ◽  
Participatory Forest Management ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
Forest Users

Joint Forest Management (JFM) represents a radical departure from the tradition of centralised forest management in India. Forest Department (FD) all over the country has started to forge alliances with local communities to regenerate degraded forests adjoining villages. The strides it has made in less than a decade-with 20 states issuing JFM orders; large numbers of forest officers, NGOs and villagers experimenting with new approaches and relationships; and between four to five million hectares of degraded forests regenerating under local care are remarkable. The local community is given more formal access and usufruct rights over a forest patch which they regenerate by protection and plantation. Given its potential of restoring both the health of our forest and the self respect and dignity of impoverished forest users through assured access to forest resources for securer livelihoods, enthusiastic supporters of JFM have understandably tended to monitor positive impacts of achievements through studies and research. A set of studies were conducted during 1995-96 on self-initiated Community Forest Management (CFM) and Joint Forest Management (JFM) systems, with the aim to largely serve as the benchmark or baseline studies to gain a preliminary understanding. Juttadapalem, a small tribal village in the district of Vishakapatnam, A.P., is one of the sites where SPWD supported a research programme in collaboration with Andhra University, Vishakapatnam. The present paper discusses the findings of the sub-network on ecology and economics with Juttadapalem as a case study.

Enhancing equity in participatory forest management through forest management agreements: the case of Gathiuru and Karima forests in Kenya

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-63
Author(s):  
S.N. Chisika ◽  
C. Yeom
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Cost Sharing ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
The State ◽  
Participatory Forest Management ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Equity Effects

Kenya is keen on realizing equity between the state and local communities participating in sustainable forest management. Hence, prominence is accorded to Forest Management Agreements (FMAs) under the Participatory Forest Management (PFM) framework. However, there is a scarcity of equity lessons from FMAs implemented so far by the state and Community Forest Associations (CFAs). This paper addresses this gap by exploring two FMAs for procedural and distributive equity effects by comparing the processes of recognition, income, and cost-sharing as well as challenges experienced by the state and CFAs to determine whether FMA implementation was yielding equity outcomes or not. Using literature review and 19 key informant interviews, results from Gathiuru and Karima forests substantiate that FMA is a reasonably robust, multi-objective-win-win tool that promotes equity in PFM. However, the implementation process has been slow. There is a need for more capacity building of CFA members, establishing an inventory-based NTFPs utilization system, and complementing the current PFM framework with explicit provisions for Corporate Social Responsibility.

scholarly journals Mapping Forest Disturbances between 1987–2016 Using All Available Time Series Landsat TM/ETM+ Imagery: Developing a Reliable Methodology for Georgia, United States

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shingo Obata ◽  
Pete Bettinger ◽  
Chris J. Cieszewski ◽  
Roger C. Lowe III
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Forest Disturbance ◽  
The State ◽  
Thematic Mapper ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Forest Resource ◽  
Forest Disturbances ◽  
Disturbance History ◽  
Resource Sustainability

Forest resources have a high economic value in the State of Georgia (USA) and the landscape is frequently disturbed as a part of forest management activities, such as plantation forest management activities. Thus, tracking the stand-clearing disturbance history in a spatially referenced manner might be pivotal in discussions of forest resource sustainability within the State. The two major objectives of this research are (i) to develop and test a reliable methodology for statewide tracking of forest disturbances in Georgia, (ii) to consider and discuss the use and implications of the information derived from the forest disturbance map. Two primary disturbance detection methods, a threshold algorithm and a statistical boundary method, were combined to develop a robust estimation of recent forest disturbance history. The developed model was used to create a forest disturbance record for the years 1987–2016, through the use of all available Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)/Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data. The final product was a raster database, where each pixel was assigned a value corresponding to the last disturbance year. The overall accuracy of the forest disturbance map was 87%, and it indicated that 4,503,253 ha, equivalent to 29.2% of the total land area in Georgia, experienced disturbances between 1987 and 2016. The estimated disturbed area in each year was highly variable and ranged between 84,651 ha (±36,354 ha) to 211,780 ha (±49,504 ha). By combining the use of the disturbance map along with the 2016 database from the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), we also analyzed the regional variation in the disturbance history. This analysis indicated that disturbed forests in urban areas were more likely to be converted to other land-uses. The forest disturbance record created in this research provides the necessary spatial data and address forest resource sustainability in Georgia. Additionally, the methodology used has application in the analysis of other resources, such as the estimation of the aboveground forest biomass.

User perceptions of conservation and participatory management of iGxalingenwa forest, South Africa

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN ROBERTSON ◽  
MICHAEL J. LAWES
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Participatory Forest Management ◽  
Traditional Leadership ◽  
Management And Conservation

New forest policies in South Africa seek to reconcile conservation and development objectives by devolving some responsibility for forest management from the state to local communities. Community participation in forest management aims to protect forest-based subsistence livelihoods by incorporating the interests of resource users, while simultaneously diffusing threats to biodiversity by managing resource use. To date, participatory forest management (PFM) has had mixed success in South Africa because the transfer of rights to users has not accompanied changes in policy. A questionnaire survey of 60 households (43%) revealed the attitudes of users toward current management and conservation options for iGxalingenwa forest. Users chose participatory forest management (52%) over community (25%) or state-dominated forest management (2%) structures. User choice was motivated by the desire to secure rights of access to, and ensure equitable benefit from, a dwindling resource base, rather than the conservation of these resources to sustain future yields. Users were unwilling to reduce resource use and compromise usufruct rights to achieve conservation goals, even to improve the availability of the resource stock. Current user needs compromise biodiversity conservation goals, and users regard state conservation practices as protectionist and obstructing their rights of access to resources. While the National Forests Act of 1998 seeks to conserve resources by limiting access to them and is based on principles of sustainable use, it is nevertheless perceived to offer few incentives to users to participate in forest management and conservation. Ideally, an institutional and legal framework that allocates user rights and managerial responsibilities to households is required, but clearly suitable alternatives to forest products are also vital for successful management. Greater trust between the provincial parks authority and users is needed, but is complicated by weak traditional leadership and poor community representation. Ultimately, users preferred PFM because, while recognizing that harvest rates are unsustainable, user dependence upon forest resources and weak traditional leadership means they can protect usufruct rights only by participation. Changes to any of these factors may create demands for a new management system. PFM allows the greatest flexibility for responding to changes in demands as well as the environment.

scholarly journals Decentralization Drivers beyond Legal Provisions: The Case of Collaborative Forest Management in Java Island

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiene Andriyana ◽  
Karl Hogl
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Forest Community ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
The Impact

This study analyzes the impact of the Indonesian government’s decentralization policy and movement on the state forest community involvement program on the island of Java from 2000 to 2014. For more than 30 years, approximately 76 percent of the state-owned forests in Java, covering 2.4 mio. hectares (5.9 mio. acres or 9,266 square miles), or 42 percent of the forests in Java, were exclusively managed by the State Forest Company (SFC). The general perception was, and largely still is, that the decentralization era reforms had little or no effects in Java, simply because the national decentralization regulations essentially maintained this dominant role. Thus, possible effects were hardly examined. This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing whether the national decentralization movement and policy affected and changed the policies and practices of involving local actors and communities in Java’s state forest governance and management. Our analytical framework follows the Policy Arrangement Approach (PAA), comprising four main analytical dimensions for assessing change and stability: The actors involved; the distribution of power and resources; the existing and applied rules; and discourses concerning the topic of research. The analysis is based on an extensive review of scholarly literature and policy documents, as well as 73 in-depth interviews with actors, from the national to the local levels, of two districts in Central Java. Overall, our findings show that the nationwide decentralization movement significantly affects the modes of collaborative forest management in Java, much more than one would expect if only looking at changes in the respective legal texts. The movement fueled changes, inter alia, by promoting discourses on sustainable forest management for local development, and triggering the revival of grassroots movements further empowered by local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as by triggering the formal institutionalization of the informal norms and practices of local communities. New actors entered the arena, and the distribution of power, resources and benefits drawn from state forest management has changed in favor of district authorities and local communities at the expense of the State Forest Company.

scholarly journals Integrating local and expert knowledge using participatory mapping and GIS to implement integrated forest management options in Akok, Cameroon

2005 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Robiglio ◽  
W A Mala
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Participatory Mapping ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Forest Zone ◽  
Humid Forest

A spatially explicit understanding of local knowledge about land use and tenure is fundamental to developing and assessing sustainable management options for tropical forests in Central Africa. This paper presents a case study in the Humid Forest Zone of Cameroon to demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating participatory rural appraisal techniques with remote sensing and vegetation mapping in a geographic information system (GIS) environment. The full integration of biophysical and socio-cultural patterns within a GIS can identify spatial units important for ecosystem management and relate social institutions to land units across a variety of scales. Key words: landscape, forest-agriculture interface, tropical forest management, land tenure, participatory mapping, local knowledge

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