Author The Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Program (FLEG II)

Year of publication 2015

A valuable new tool is in the making to better assess the basic elements of a community’s reliance on its forests and help policy & forest resource practitioners identify threats and opportunities associated with forest resource use, even in the absence of direct in-person research in that community. The Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Program (FLEG II) is developing these “Forest Community Fingerprints” (FCFs) based on its recent forest dependency surveys in rural communities in Eastern Europe and Russia. The fingerprints will allow comparison between communities with similar traits using common metrics. The goal is to better understand how forest resources support various communities across the region in order to facilitate more effective policies and laws that accurately consider local needs and priorities.