Rural communities have engaged in the governance and management of forest resources by developing institutions that prevent overexploitation of common-pool resources and maintain the basis of their livelihoods. Effective community forestry relies on several conditions, including secure tenure rights, an enabling regulatory framework, strong governance, and sufficient knowledge. Worldwide, customary community forests have gained legal recognition in the wake of tenure reforms with the expectation that this formalization would enhance tenure security. In Thailand, the Royal Forest Department (RFD) began in 2000 to legally recognize community forests and share formal rights and responsibilities with communities through a national co-management program. This program was further expanded to support the development of community forest networks. The RFD could not provide extension services to approximately 10,000 community forests and aimed to improve the information sharing among communities. The objective of this dissertation was to investigate whether both program elements, i.e. forest tenure formalization and community forest networking, could provide better conditions for community forests. It was of particular interest whether the formalization could enhance the security of tenure rights, which could affect the willingness of communities to invest in forest conservation. The intervention to enhance inter-communal networks is of particular relevance for the international community due to its uniqueness. A diverse set of methodological approaches was required to address each objective. A quasi- experimental design was used to analyze the effect of community forest management on deforestation and the impact of the subsequent formalization based on statistical matching and panel data analyses. Comparative case studies were investigated subsequently to better understand the relationships between formalization, tenure security, forest-related conflicts, and deforestation. Social network modeling was used to analyze how networking organizations affected the flow of information between communities. The findings indicated that community in Thailand have effectively protected their forests even before receiving legal recognition. The formalization procedure has improved the relationship between communities and RFD officials but it has not enhanced their ability to prevent forest encroachment as support from the State has been insufficient in the case of tenure conflicts. In the absence of state-led extension services, established networking organizations enabled communities to provide mutual support as indicated by the enhanced inter-communal flow of information on a provincial level. However, networking organizations still depended on external funding and support during their initial establishment. The co-sharing of forest tenure rights and responsibilities between communities and the RFD might have helped to build trust and acceptance. This study has, however, confirmed that formalization can only provide limited benefits to forest-managing communities if they remain unprotected from forest encroachment because their formal tenure rights are not being enforced. Thus, communities might become disillusioned if their rights are not protected against more powerful actors. The community forest networks have the potential to increase the political influence of these communities while also enhancing their capacity to share and develop new knowledge. However, communities require more financial resources as their responsibilities increase while their ability to generate financial returns remains legally limited. Thus, the regulatory framework can be changed to balance communal rights and responsibilities or expanded by developing financing mechanisms to fund community-based conservation activities, such as forest patrols and fire prevention measures.:Acknowledgements Summary List of Figures List of Tables 1 Enabling effective community forestry 1.1 Potential outcomes of community forestry 1.2 Conditions for effective community forestry 1.3 Policy interventions in Asia’s community forests 2 Justification and objectives 2.1 Impact of formalization on tenure security and local institutions 2.2 Impact of registration on forest loss 2.3 Impact of network administration organization on information-sharing 3 The history of community-based forest management models in Thailand 3.1 Expansion of state control over forestland 3.2 Forest Village Programs 3.3 Community forestry discourse 3.4 Community Forest Program 3.5 Conclusions 4 Designing impact evaluations for policy interventions 4.1 Quantitative impact evaluation 4.2 Qualitative impact evaluation 4.3 Social network analysis 5 The impact of community forest formalization on tenure security and forest co- management in Thailand 5.1 Abstract 5.2 Introduction 5.3 Background 5.4 Methodology 5.5 Results 5.6 Discussion 5.7 Conclusion 6 Community-based forest management moderates impact of deforestation pressure regardless of formalization in Thailand 6.1 Abstract 6.2 Introduction 6.3 Methodology 6.4 Results 6.5 Discussion 6.6 Conclusion 7 Network administrators facilitate information sharing among communal forest organizations in Thailand 7.1 Abstract 7.2 Introduction 7.3 Methodology 7.4 Results 7.5 Discussion 7.6 Conclusion 8 Synthesis, implications and outlook 8.1 Synthesis of key results 8.2 Policy implications 8.3 Future research 8.4 Critical reflections on research methodology Supplementary material for Chapter 6 Supplementary material for Chapter 7 References Supplementary material

Since 1998, the communities of Combomune in Southern Mozambique have participated in a project intended to improve the quality of their lives, while ensuring the natural resources they depend on are well managed and sustainably used. The approach employed is Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). CBNRM is the resource conservation and management approach which has emerged as one of the models to involve local communities, previously excluded from conservation and management of natural resources and rural development programs. This model promotes community participation, responsibilities and benefit sharing among stakeholders involved in natural resource management programs. A case study was conducted to assess the impacts of the Combomune CBNRM project on household livelihoods and on the environment. The Combomune CBNRM project is meant to improve the household livelihoods of the Madliwa, Hochane and Chaves communities involved in the management of indigenous forest resources. The involved communities derive direct and indirect benefits from the CBNRM project. These benefits have impacts on household livelihoods and on the environment. The most noted benefits are social and economic changes. These changes have positively affected the living conditions of the involved communities. Further, the study revealed the Combomune CBNRM project charcoal production was the only activity generating monetary income to individual and to community development funds. Monetary income was invested in the improvement of homesteads, the purchase of domestic animals and the development of infrastructure with a high social impact. Water supply, education, health care and household homestead improvements were the major project achievements. The project encouraged environmental friendly practices such as sustainably agricultural activities and a fire management program. Local residents were also encouraged to plant trees on bare soil to protect it from being eroded. The study has not deeply explored the CBNRM project impacts, therefore more case studies are recommended to further explain effective CBNRM project contributions to household livelihoods, so it may be reasonably promulgated as a strategy not only devoted to involve local communities or merely for resource conservation, but as the approach which improves livelihoods of the rural poor. / Thesis (M.Agric.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

In the face of rapid urbanization and global climate change, urban trees and green spaces (UTGS) can contribute to the welfare of people and the urban environment. Urban trees and green spaces can assist to address urbanization challenges related to environmental degradation. While functions of UTGS have been well documented in the developed world, they have not yet received full attention in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, UTGS are under threat from urban development and fragmentation. Notably, the problems associated with UTGS also fall into the governance realm and indications are that poor governance and management of UTGS can negatively influence the potential benefits of UTGS to local people and the environment. This formed a basis for this research. The main objective of the study was to determine the current governance and management approaches to UTGS in South Africa. Through document search and review, the study determined the governance institutions influencing UTGS at national level and at provincial level (in the Limpopo and Eastern Cape Provinces). Face-to-face and online survey methods were used to determine the extent to which 28 local municipalities had adopted planned, systematic and integrated management of UTGS. The snowball approach was used to determine the key actors involved in UTGS activities and interviews were conducted to establish the roles and capabilities of these actors. A total of 540 household interviews were conducted to determine the institutional factors influencing local peoples’ ability to access, plant and use UTGS. The findings of the study showed that UTGS have not been adequately covered in existing governance institutions and practice at national and provincial levels. Local government municipalities were not managing their UTGS in a planned or systematic manner due to constraining factors such as insufficient funds, insufficient personnel, lack of equipment and lack of political support. Only 7.1 % of the surveyed municipalities had an urban tree management plan and an estimate of the urban tree stock; 32.1 % had tree policies; 28.6 % had tree bylaws; 21.4 % had tree planting schedules; 10.7 % had tree maintenance schedules and only 3.6 % had tree inspection schedules. Key actors involved in UTGS activities differed among levels of government. The actors included national and provincial government departments, local government municipalities, Non-Governmental Organizations, private sector companies and local volunteers. Most of the actors, however, either planted trees or provided tree seedlings to municipalities and the local people. Tenure security was a key institutional factor affecting peoples’ ability to plant, use or even remove trees from their residential plots. The same applied to trees in the streets and public parks. Whereas most respondents did not require permission to plant (79.8 %) or remove (75 %) trees on their residential plots, a majority of them required permission to plant and remove trees from streets (over 70 %) and public parks (over 80 %). However, with regard to planting and removing urban trees in public open spaces, 54% of the respondents indicated that permission was not required suggesting a lack of clarity among local residents on the issue. Overall, the findings of this study indicate that there is no political recognition and support for UTGS at almost all levels of government. This has resulted in the lack of incorporation of UTGS in urban planning and development and has caused UTGS to receive limited funding to permit planned and systematic management. Given the current rates of urbanization and urban development, the lowly prioritised UTGS are vulnerable to exploitation. To conserve UTGS and promote their potential contribution to local people and the environment, UTGS must be recognized and placed on political and development agendas. There is a need to develop national guidelines for UTGS management, assess the extent of the urban forest resource in local municipalities, clearly define the roles and capabilities of different actors, integrate UTGS in the urban planning and development system, and most of all seek to involve the local people in overall management and governance of UTGS.

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