Author Arnold J. E. M.

Year of publication 2001

This publication sets out to provide a review of how community forestry has evolved over the period since it first came to prominence in the mid-1970s. "Community forestry" is interpreted as "any situation that intimately involves local people in forestry activity' (FAO, 1978). It therefore covers a broad range of linkages among people, forests and the outputs of forests, from forest dwelling communities to populations who draw on nearby forests for part of their livelihood needs, and to those outside forests who manage tree stocks on farmland in order to sustain flows of forest outputs, or who engage in artisanal and other local small-scale commercial production and trade of forest products. A major theme of the publication is that community forestry is part of the overall process of adapting forestry and forest management to make it more responsive and relevant to the needs and interests of rural people with a stake in forests. Community forestry thus is interpreted not as a separate form of forestry, but as part of the process whereby forestry is being refashioned in line with broader societal and economic changes. As the impact on forests and rural populations of key forces for such change, such as greater devolution and local participation, has varied throughout the world, the impact of community forestry has differed. Though of real relevance to industrialized as well as developing countries, it has generally been more important in the latter, and this is reflected in the balance of the publication.