Despite widespread reports of the benefits of Community-Based Forest Management, there is little empirical evidence regarding socioeconomic outcomes for local communities. The purpose of my research was to consider the extent of innovation and sustainability in Community Forestry approaches in British Columbia, Canada. Data was collected through a qualitative case study focusing on the Lower North Thompson Community Forest Society and the Wells Gray Community Forest Corporation, and involved document review, participant observation and interviews with community members. Key socioeconomic benefits identified were additional silviculture, local employment, local participation, grant distribution, and strategic partnerships. Although increased local control through grants increases quality of life, innovative practices and diversification opportunities are underdeveloped and require greater policy support to ensure continued success. Findings point to community forests as holding potential to increase the socioeconomic sustainability of local communities, which could make them key players in support for rural areas beyond forestry. / May 2017

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<p>This paper deals with Community Based Forest Management in Mountain rainforests in Babati. This form of management is when the Communities are managing the forest with some help from the Government.</p><p>I have made a field study to see how the managing is working the mountain forests. I made interviews with chairmen, guards and district council. The purpose with the interview is to give answers to my questions about CBFM and how it is working. I want to see if the CBFM is sustainable in Babati and know if the villagers are satisfied with it. To answer the sustainability questions, studies in Ostroms eight principles for sustainable forest management is made.</p><p>The main conclusions of the study are: Babati will have a sustainable management if they follow the rules and laws that are made for Community Based Forest Management, if the community gets some kind of benefits for being the manager and they want to take care of the forest in a good way when they are the owners. If there are threats against the villagers like pressure from others villages or corruptions this sustainability can be destroyed.</p><p>CBFM needs supporting systems, help from the Government, clearly defined boundaries and the basic needs like food and shelter is fulfilled before they can think of the ecosystem health and sustainability.</p>

This paper deals with Community Based Forest Management in Mountain rainforests in Babati. This form of management is when the Communities are managing the forest with some help from the Government. I have made a field study to see how the managing is working the mountain forests. I made interviews with chairmen, guards and district council. The purpose with the interview is to give answers to my questions about CBFM and how it is working. I want to see if the CBFM is sustainable in Babati and know if the villagers are satisfied with it. To answer the sustainability questions, studies in Ostroms eight principles for sustainable forest management is made. The main conclusions of the study are: Babati will have a sustainable management if they follow the rules and laws that are made for Community Based Forest Management, if the community gets some kind of benefits for being the manager and they want to take care of the forest in a good way when they are the owners. If there are threats against the villagers like pressure from others villages or corruptions this sustainability can be destroyed. CBFM needs supporting systems, help from the Government, clearly defined boundaries and the basic needs like food and shelter is fulfilled before they can think of the ecosystem health and sustainability.

As the urgency of tackling climate change globally is pressed against equally urgent needs for local development, the REDD framework is gaining importance as a flexible market- based mechanism, which can potentially be instrumental for the development of local communities. However, such win-win ambitions of projects that integrate development and conservation have been tested for the past two decades, and existing research attests to their questionable outcome with respect to either the interests of local communities, or the environmental objectives, or both. Among reasons for poor performance or failure, various analysts point out the suppression of local cultural and socio-productive systems by a homogenising modernist development agenda. This research is a case study of a REDD project, which claims to have addressed this issue: the Suruí Forest Carbon Project, developed by the indigenous people of Paiter Suruí, who inhabit the Indigenous Territory Sete de Setembro in the Brazilian Amazon. Based on the stated ambition of the Suruí Carbon Project to help preserve the indigenous culture of Paiter Suruí, the inquiry of this research aims to explore the potential of the REDD framework for safeguarding cultural integrity of indigenous peoples. This case study is intended to contribute to the discussion on whether and how ontological and cultural clashes can be mitigated within the REDD framework so as to enhance its benefits on the global and local levels. The experience of the Suruí Carbon Project in integrating the agenda of cultural preservation into the REDD mechanism is analysed by means of document study, telephone interviews with the authors and propagators of the project, and discourse analysis. Additionally, theoretical frameworks of assemblage, by T.M. Li, and of the dwelling perspective, by T. Ingold are employed for interpreting the empirical material. Among the key findings of this research is a demonstration that an epistemological intervention, which developmental projects in this context usually imply, doesn’t necessarily supress local autonomy. On the other hand, the example of the SCP demonstrates that the autonomy of local communities in defining their own developmental models doesn’t by itself guarantee that they will successfully preserve their ancestral cultures. Judging by the case of Paiter, a substantial modification of cultural and socio-productive models is inevitable, and the point of debate is which cultural aspects are to be compromised and how much.

The Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Program (LFLP) was initiated by the Nepal Department of Forest (DOF) in 1993 with two goals: (1) resource regeneration and (2) poverty alleviation. Through support from the United Nations' International Fund for Agriculture Development, the DOF allocated degraded forest and rangeland to eligible, poor households in 10 pilot districts. Today the program supports almost 17,000 families in 22 districts. While the program's tenure and expansion portends success, some have called to question its real economic impact (Baral et al. 2003, Thoms et al. 2006). An exploratory assessment of LFLP was conducted in four districts through in-depth interviews with two major stakeholders: (1) Departments of Forest and Livestock Services officials, who administer LFLP, and (2) user groups. The objectives of the study were to assess perceptions of the social, ecological and economic impacts of LFLP from the perspectives of those most intimately involved in program delivery and outcomes. Thirty personal interviews were conducted in the fall of 2007. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using qualitative analysis procedures. According to study participants, LFLP has contributed to resource regeneration, healthy forest composition, and increased biodiversity in leased forest parcels through controlled grazing, reforestation incentives, and local management. However, mixed reviews of the economic impact of the program were recorded. The collection of rotational funds among user groups has opened avenues of small investments. Yet, study participants blamed inadequate human resources within the Departments for impairing service delivery and depressing the rate of economic return. Furthermore, ambiguous and inconsistently enforced policies around program guideline compliance have engendered conflict over resource access and use. Perhaps the most significant windfall to user groups is not poverty alleviation but rather increased social capital and capacity building among user groups. User group formation has strengthened networks between members in standing against social discrimination, lobbying their rights at the district level, and sharing knowledge. Our findings suggest that benefits attained by user groups are not entirely commensurate with LFLP goals. We recommend further research on the economic impacts of LFLP. In addition, LFLP officials should recognize and bolster investments in social capital among LFLP user groups.

My research is focused on investigating the socio-political processes taking place within Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) in Tanzania. I draw on a political ecology approach in an investigation of the politics of struggles over natural resources, their management and the benefits that can be derived from this. I bring together theories of policy processes, African politics and scale into an examination of power within two case studies of CBNRM from the wildlife and forestry sectors. I carry out a comparative analysis of these case studies, employing a qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participatory activities, participant observation and document analysis. My research is clustered around three core themes. Firstly, I trace the process of policy reform that introduced CBNRM in both the forest and wildlife sectors, and examine the differences between the governance systems prescribed in policy as a result of these processes. The contrasts between the two sectors in Tanzanian CBNRM are important and multiple. Different policy pathways were adopted, relating to the distinct political economies of forest and wildlife resources and their politicisation within the context of power devolution for CBNRM. The prescribed governance systems in the two sectors contain important differences in the processes by which local communities can apply to participate in CBNRM, the mechanisms of revenue distribution, and the ways in which power is devolved to the local level. Secondly I examine the implementation of these prescribed governance systems and their performance in reality through an exploration of the configurations of power set out in CBNRM, and the struggles that take place around these in ‘politics of scales’ as actors attempt to benefit from CBNRM. I examine the ways the governance systems have been adopted and adapted from those set out in CBNRM policy. I argue that the distinctions between the prescribed governance systems in the two sectors produce separate contexts of re-configuration into the performed governance systems within the case studies. However, I also argue that while the contexts are specific to each sector, both the case studies revealed the same underlying socio-political process of struggles over power to both manage and benefit from natural resources. These struggles to control and benefit from CBNRM are closely linked to the unequal distribution of benefits that were witnessed in both case studies. Finally I examine the performance of CBNRM as an integration of systems of power set out in policy and hidden, often unacknowledged, local contours of power. I address the themes of how the reality of CBNRM differs from that set out in policy, examine the processes ongoing within the projects that permit and maintain elite capture and unequal distribution of benefits, and investigate the socio-political processes of corruption taking place within devolved environmental management. I argue that the struggles over power, combined with hidden aspects, especially neopatrimonialism, local moral economy and the cultural context of corruption, are central to these unequal outcomes and the capture of benefits by a small group of individuals. My research highlights that power, the politics of its devolution to the local level, the struggles that take place around it, and its subtle, hidden forms, lie at the heart of gaining further understanding of the ways in which policies develop, the unexpected outcomes they produce and the inequalities these often entail.

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<p>The Miombo forest is represented in seven countries in the subtropical area of Africa and is an example of ecosystem adapted to the disturbance of anthropogenic fire. The forest yields a number of different ecosystem goods and services including fuelwood, honey and soil protection. Fire has found a worldwide acceptance during the last decade due to deeper understanding of their role in the ecosystem. The presence of fire prevents up-building of fuel and big fires, therefore a new fire management is now seen.</p><p>In general the Miombo forest is threatened by overexploitation. A similar situation was represented in Duru-Haitemba forest where the case study was situated in northern Tanzania. To conserve the forest and give the tenure of the forest to the villages in Duru-Haitemba a community-based forest management was established in the middle of 1990’s. The management succeeded to save the forest with a fire management including several methods of fire preventions and now there is a well grown Miombo forest in the area. This essay deals with the topic how the fire is affecting the Miombo forest. From there, this paper examines how the current community-based forest management is formed concerning the role of fire and the objectives of the locals.</p><p>The conclusion of the essay indicates that the fire has an important role in the ecosystem of the Miombo forest and favour ecosystem dynamics and diversity of the Miombo forest.</p><p>The result of the case study showed that the fire management was poorly adapted to the disturbance of fire and was not widely based on local knowledge or specific needs and objectives of the different villages.</p>

The Miombo forest is represented in seven countries in the subtropical area of Africa and is an example of ecosystem adapted to the disturbance of anthropogenic fire. The forest yields a number of different ecosystem goods and services including fuelwood, honey and soil protection. Fire has found a worldwide acceptance during the last decade due to deeper understanding of their role in the ecosystem. The presence of fire prevents up-building of fuel and big fires, therefore a new fire management is now seen. In general the Miombo forest is threatened by overexploitation. A similar situation was represented in Duru-Haitemba forest where the case study was situated in northern Tanzania. To conserve the forest and give the tenure of the forest to the villages in Duru-Haitemba a community-based forest management was established in the middle of 1990’s. The management succeeded to save the forest with a fire management including several methods of fire preventions and now there is a well grown Miombo forest in the area. This essay deals with the topic how the fire is affecting the Miombo forest. From there, this paper examines how the current community-based forest management is formed concerning the role of fire and the objectives of the locals. The conclusion of the essay indicates that the fire has an important role in the ecosystem of the Miombo forest and favour ecosystem dynamics and diversity of the Miombo forest. The result of the case study showed that the fire management was poorly adapted to the disturbance of fire and was not widely based on local knowledge or specific needs and objectives of the different villages.