TY - JOUR

T1 - Community Forestry and Forest Conservation

T2 - Friends or Strangers?

AU - Milhøj, Anders

AU - Casse, Thorkil

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - This paper is a meta-study of local forest management experiences in developing countriesdrawn from a review of 56 case-studies presented in 52 papers. Many case-studies reportpositive links between community forestry and forest conservation. In internationalorganizations and NGOs there is a generally accepted agreement that collective management(community forestry) will yield success in forest conservation. However, the claim is seldomrigorously examined. We suggest to have a review of the literature and to propose a first stepto a test of the claim in order to reach a first generalization as to the success of communityforestry in forest conservation. The review of the literature is the first step towards such anexamination, enabling us to make some initial generalizations for further research. In thepresent paper, a statistical test is performed and the claim is found wanting. The reviewedpapers are very heterogeneous in their approaches, and it is also suggested that the state stillhas a role to play, even when the transfer of management rights to the forest resources isgenuine. Community forestry does not work in a vacuum, and we suggest that a minimumrequirement is probably the presence of a legal structure, which exists in India and Nepal butnot in many other countries. Copyright©2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

AB - This paper is a meta-study of local forest management experiences in developing countriesdrawn from a review of 56 case-studies presented in 52 papers. Many case-studies reportpositive links between community forestry and forest conservation. In internationalorganizations and NGOs there is a generally accepted agreement that collective management(community forestry) will yield success in forest conservation. However, the claim is seldomrigorously examined. We suggest to have a review of the literature and to propose a first stepto a test of the claim in order to reach a first generalization as to the success of communityforestry in forest conservation. The review of the literature is the first step towards such anexamination, enabling us to make some initial generalizations for further research. In thepresent paper, a statistical test is performed and the claim is found wanting. The reviewedpapers are very heterogeneous in their approaches, and it is also suggested that the state stillhas a role to play, even when the transfer of management rights to the forest resources isgenuine. Community forestry does not work in a vacuum, and we suggest that a minimumrequirement is probably the presence of a legal structure, which exists in India and Nepal butnot in many other countries. Copyright©2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

U2 - 10.1002/eet.566

DO - 10.1002/eet.566

M3 - Journal article

VL - 21

SP - 83

EP - 98

JO - Environmental Policy and Governance

JF - Environmental Policy and Governance

SN - 1756-932X

IS - 2

ER -