Beyond Experimentation: Emerging Issues in the Institutionalization of Joint Forest Management in India

/ During the last decade, a major initiative for community involvement in the management of state forest lands was started in India in the form of Joint Forest Management (JFM) programs. Despite the progress and positive impacts, the JFM program is still in the experimental phase. Latent conflicts related to caste, class, and gender issues are threatening JFM institutions at the village level. The Forest Department is also facing a number of internal conflicts as it tries to adjust to its new role under JFM. Some thoughtful and creative attempts have been made to resolve these conflicts. However, a much more concerted effort is required along with creation of suitable mechanisms at local, state, and national levels to discuss and resolve present and future conflicts.     

From Forest Regulation to Participatory Facilitation: Forest Employee Perspectives on Organizational Change and Transformation in India

Despite the critical role of government agencies in decentralizing natural resource governance, little work to date has focused on the organizational aspects of the responsible government bureaucracies. Based on a qualitative investigation of the perspectives of Forest Department employees involved in India's Joint Forest Management (JFM) program, this paper aims to provide an understanding of these internal dynamics. Elaborating on why bureaucracies with a learning orientation are essential if participatory natural resource management is to succeed, the paper underlines the constraints to transforming forest agencies' hierarchical work cultures. Foresters describe JFM as a radical departure from traditional forest governance, but suggest that corresponding transformation within the Forest Department has not occurred. Foresters cite as reasons: (1) a target-based incentive system that leaves little room for establishing the relationships with local people needed for collaborative management; (2) rigid rules and regulations that prevent the flexibility needed for adaptive, site-specific problem-solving; (3) a hierarchical, top-down style of communication that prevents the upper administration from learning what is happening on the ground and stifles initiative by field staff; (4) the need for a committed leadership to reverse this hierarchical culture. They point to the few such team-oriented leaders as the key to transforming the Forest Department and enabling participatory forest management to succeed. The authors also recommend accompanying changes in training and reward systems.     

Challenges for Community-Based Forest Management in the KoloAla Site Manompana

Following the IUCN 5th World Congress on Protected Areas in 2003, the then-President of Madagascar decided to increase the area of Madagascar’s protected areas from 1.7 to 6 million ha. To combine the aims of protection and timber production, a new concept was developed through the establishment of community-based forest management (CBFM) sites, called KoloAla. However, experience shows that similar management transfers to communities in Madagascar have only been successful in a very few cases. We aimed to explore the success to be expected of this new approach in the particular case of the Manompana corridor at Madagascar’s eastern coast. In a first step, the readiness of the corridor’s resource users for CBFM has been analysed according to the seven resource users’ attributes developed by Ostrom that predict an effective self-organized resource management. In a second step, we explored how KoloAla addresses known challenges of Madagascar’s CBFM. Analyses lead in a rather sober conclusion. Although KoloAla attempts to address the goals of poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation and timber production under a single umbrella, it does so in a rather non-innovative way. Challenges with regard to the state’s environmental governance, agricultural inefficiency and thus deforestation remain unsolved.     

Value Orientation and Forest Management: The Forest Health Debate

Among both forest practitioners and the general public, “forest health” has become an issue of contention. Whereas the debate over which treatments will best achieve healthy forests has been framed largely by the popular media and politicians as a struggle between industry and environmentalists, the views of the general public remain unexplored. Survey results from Oregon and Washington residents were used to assess the relationships between respondents’ self-described environmental or economic priorities and the following two variables: (1) acceptability of forest management practices and (2) perceived threats to forest health. Findings indicate that active management was generally accepted by a majority of respondents regardless of their environmental or economic orientation. Disagreement emerged, however, when the appropriateness of specific management practices within specific forest conditions was examined. Additionally, strong evidence was found for a relationship between self-described environmental or economic orientation and perceived threats to forest health. Those with an environmentally oriented viewpoint tended to perceive human-caused factors as the largest threats, whereas those with an economic orientation saw naturally occurring processes as the greatest threats. These findings suggest that the issue of contention is not active management per se. Rather, the major divisions in the forest health debate are defined by specific contexts and circumstances, as well as the management practices used.     

Forest Health,Collective Behaviors,and Management

This study compares community-based managed forests under different purposes of management, namely, state-driven conservation or community-designed utilization in two villages located in the Sopsai watershed, Nan Province, northern Thailand. The forest health under different intensity of uses is assessed in association with the collective behaviors and long-term purposes embedded in village social–cultural context. The study found no significant differences in forest succession and proportion in diameter at 1.3 m (dbh) class and height-class distribution of the forest under different use intensity. The forest for utilization also showed higher density and basal area of the local preferred species than the conservation forest. In the utilization forest, we also found a higher number of multipurpose and preferred species than in the conservation forest, which actually responded to the needs of the community in the long term to have more wood products (both firewood and timbers). The community-based forest management (CBFM) for utilization can also lead to natural regeneration and biodiversity similar to conservation forests. Through CBFM, forest resources can be managed to maintain the healthy condition under different intensities and respond to both community needs and external expectation. The findings also emphasize the importance of recognizing community needs and management objectives in watershed restoration and improving the productivity of forests under collective management.     

Management Regimes,Property Rights,and Forest Biodiversity in Nepal and India

This article compares a range of initiatives aimed at involving people in the management of forest resources in Nepal and India. In Nepal, we focus on three categories of state-initiated programs: community forestry, the parks’ buffer zone program, and leasehold forestry. In the southern Indian state of Karnataka, we study the state-initiated Joint Forest Planning and Management program along with older institutions of leaf manure forests (Soppina betta) and historical sacred forests (Kans). We conclude that state-initiated approaches to involving communities have been limited, at best, promote standardized and relatively inflexible management practices, and lead to partial improvement in biodiversity and people’s livelihoods. When management is initiated and owned by the community, as in the case of sacred groves in India, and when other conditions are appropriate, communities can have the opportunity to demonstrate their capacity for putting effective and adaptive conservation practices in place.     

Participatory Forest Management in Ethiopia: Learning from Pilot Projects

Different arrangements of decentralized forest management have been promoted as alternatives to centralized and top down approaches to halt tropical deforestation and forest degradation. Ethiopia is one of the countries piloting one of these approaches. To inform future programs and projects it is essential to learn from existing pilots and experiences. This paper analyses five of the pilot participatory forest management (PFM) programs undertaken in Ethiopia. The study is based on the Forest User Group (FUG) members’ analyses of the programs using selected outcome variables: forest income, change in forest conditions, forest ownership feelings and effectiveness of FUGs as forest managing institutions. These variables were assessed at three points in time—before the introduction of PFM, during the project implementation and after the projects ended. Data were collected using group discussions, key informant interviews and transect walks through the PFM forests. The results show that in all of the five cases the state of the forest is perceived to have improved with the introduction of PFM, and in four of the cases the improvement was maintained after projects ended. Regulated access to the forests following introduction of PFM was not perceived to have affected forest income negatively. There are, however, serious concerns about the institutional effectiveness of the FUGs after projects ended, and this may affect the success of the PFM approach in the longer term.     

Current Status and Problems in Certification of Sustainable Forest Management in China

Forest certification is a mechanism involving the regulation of trade of forest products in order to protect forest resources and improve forest management. Although China had a late start in adopting this process, the country has made good progress in recent years. As of July 31, 2009, 17 forest management enterprises and more than one million hectares of forests in China have been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Several major factors affect forest certification in China. The first set is institutional in nature. Forest management in China is based on centralized national plans and therefore lacks flexibility. A second factor is public awareness. The importance and value of forest certification are not widely understood and thus consumers do not make informed choices regarding certified forest products. The third major factor is the cost of certification. Together these factors have constrained the development of China’s forest certification efforts. However, the process does have great potential. According to preliminary calculations, if 50% of China’s commercial forests were certified, the economic cost of forest certification would range from US$0.66–86.63 million while the economic benefits for the forestry business sector could exceed US$0.66–86.63 million while the economic benefits for the forestry business sector could exceed US150 million. With continuing progress in forest management practices and the development of international trade in forest products, it becomes important to improve the forest certification process in China. This can be achieved by improving the forest management system, constructing and perfecting market access mechanisms for certificated forest products, and increasing public awareness of environmental protection, forest certification, and their interrelationship.     

Forest Insect Pest Management and Forest Management in China: An Overview

According to the Seventh National Forest Inventory (2004–2008), China’s forests cover an area of 195.45 million ha, or 20.36% of the total land area. China has the most rapidly increasing forest resources in the world. However, China is also a country with serious forest pest problems. There are more than 8,000 species of potential forest pests in China, including insects, plant diseases, rodents and lagomorphs, and hazardous plants. Among them, 300 species are considered as economically or ecologically important, and half of these are serious pests, including 86 species of insects. Forest management and utilization have a considerable influence on the stability and sustainability of forest ecosystems. At the national level, forestry policies always play a major role in forest resource management and forest health protection. In this paper, we present a comprehensive overview of both achievements and challenges in forest management and insect pest control in China. First, we summarize the current status of forest resources and their pests in China. Second, we address the theories, policies, practices and major national actions on forestry and forest insect pest management, including the Engineering Pest Management of China, the National Key Forestry Programs, the Classified Forest Management system, and the Collective Forest Tenure Reform. We analyze and discuss three representative plantations—Eucalyptus, poplar and Masson pine plantations—with respect to their insect diversity, pest problems and pest management measures.     

基于林农参与式森林经营培训的影响评价——以福建山连村为例

森林参与式经营在林农林业生产中起着重要的作用。针对当前公众参与政策制定不足的现状,通过对案例点开展参与式森林经营管理培训实践的分析,认识到森林参与式培训对林农经营森林资源的意义和作用,了解并发现林农对现行森林资源管理政策的需求以及当前政策中存在的问题。研究表明,森林参与式培训效果作用明显,资源管理政策缺乏有效的公众参与,导致政策设定有失合理。提出对策建议,以期对参与式森林经营管理培训的推广提供一定的实践意义。     

Simulating Spatial and Temporal Context of Forest Management Using Hypothetical Landscapes

/ Spatially explicit models that combine remote sensing with geographic information systems (GIS) offer great promise to land managers because they consider the arrangement of landscape elements in time and space. Their visual and geographic nature facilitate the comparison of alternative landscape designs. Among various activities associated with forest management, none cause greater concern than the impacts of timber harvesting on the composition, structure, and function of landscape ecosystems. A timber harvest allocation model (HARVEST) was used to simulate different intensities of timber harvest on 23,592-ha hypothetical landscapes with varying sizes of timber production areas and different initial stand age distributions. Our objectives were to: (1) determine the relative effects of the size of timber production areas, harvest intensity, method used to extract timber, and past timber harvest activity on the production of forest interior and edge; and (2) evaluate how past management (in the form of different initial stand age distributions) constrains future timber production options. Our simulations indicated that the total area of forest interior and the amount of forest edge were primarily influenced by the intensity of timber harvest and the size of openings created by harvest. The size of the largest block of interior forest was influenced most by the size of timber harvests, but the intensity of harvest was also significant, and the size of nontimber production areas was important when harvests were numerous and widely dispersed within timber management areas, as is often the case in managed forests. Stand age-class distributions produced by past harvest activity limited the amount of timber production primarily when group selection was used, but also limited clear-cutting when recent harvest levels were high.KEY WORDS: Simulation modeling; Timber harvest; Historical context; Spatial context; Landscape pattern; Forest interior; Forest edge     

Governance Change and Institutional Adaptation: A Case Study from Harenna Forest, Ethiopia

Many common pool resources have traditionally been managed through intricate local governance arrangements. Over time, such arrangements are confronted with manifold political, social, economic and ecological changes. However, the ways in which local governance arrangements react to such changes are poorly understood. Using the theoretical concept of institutional adaptation, we analyse the history of Harenna forest, Ethiopia, to examine processes of institutional change over the last 150 years. We find that the traditional institutions that governed Harenna’s resources persisted, in essence, over time. However, these institutions were modified repeatedly to address changes caused by varying formal, supra-regional governance regimes, the development of markets for forest products, increasing population pressure and changes in formal property rights. A key mechanism for adaptation was combining elements from both informal and formal institutions, which allowed traditional rules to persist in the guise of more formal arrangements. Our findings also highlight several constraints of institutional adaptation. For example, by abolishing fora for collective decision-making, regime changes limited adaptive capacity. To conclude, we argue that such insights into traditional resource governance and its adaptability and dynamics over time are essential to develop sustainable approaches to participatory forest management for the future, both in Harenna and more generally.     

Impact of Community-Based Forest Management on Forest Protection: Evidence from an Aid-Funded Project in Ethiopia

Many African countries have adopted community-based forest management (CBFM) to prevent deforestation. However, empirical studies have not reached a consensus on the effectiveness of CBFM. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the establishment of participatory forest management associations in Ethiopia. We used remote sensing data to gauge the change in forest area and employed a two-stage least squares model to correct for possible biases. The results indicate that the forest area managed by forest associations declines more in the year of establishment than forest areas with no association. This finding suggests that villagers may engage in "last-minute" logging. However, 1 year after the establishment of the forest associations, the forest area of the associations increased substantially, most likely because the associations monitor illegal logging, enabling the regeneration of open areas within the registered forest area. On average, the forest area of the forest associations increased by 1.5?% in the first 2 years, whereas forest areas not managed as part of an association declined by 3.3?%. The cumulative impact over 2 years yields a net increase in the rate of change of 4.8?%. These results demonstrate that it is important to improve the monitoring of forest areas during the initial establishment of participatory forest management associations to maximize the effects of association establishment.     

Forest networks

Summary A study beyond the political boundaries in planning strategies for long-term management of the global forest estate is presented. Three alternative forest networks are proposed: (1) the genetic-evolutionary network, based around common evolutionary features, thus delineating similar forest types where conservation and management issues are likely to be compatible; (2) the current ecological and environmental network, based around the role that forests play in the wider ecosystem, including regular and irregular migration pathways, networks to absorb the impact of climate change, water filters etc; (3) the human impact network, based on the history of human involvement in the forest and its implications. The practical policy significance of the various networks is discussed in turn.This paper was researched as part of a project carried out for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Nigel Dudley is an ecologist, based in the UK, with 15 years experience as a consultant for NGOs, local government and international organizations. He is a former director of the Soil Association and now works with Equilibrium Consultants at the above address. For the past five years he has worked closely with WWF on forest conservation projects and has written several reports for the organization, includingForests in trouble: a review of the status of temperate forests worldwide.     

Deforestation and Forest Management in Southern Ethiopia: Investigations in the Chencha and Arbaminch Areas

Long-term human impacts are considered to be the prime cause of unsustainable forest exploitation in Ethiopia. Yet there exist well-established systems and a wealth of local experience in maintaining and managing forests. This study explores the trends and driving forces of deforestation plus traditional practices regarding sustainable forest use and management in the Chencha and Arbaminch areas, Southern Ethiopia. Satellite image analysis (images from 1972, 1984 and 2006) combined with field surveys were used to detect and map changes in forest cover. Household interviews and group discussions with experienced and knowledgeable persons were also employed. The results show a 23 % decline in forest cover between 1972 and 2006 with the most significant change from 1986 to 2006. Change was greatest in the lowlands and remarkable episodic forest changes also occurred, suggesting nonlinear spatial and temporal forest cover dynamics. According to farmers, the main driver of deforestation is agricultural land expansion in response to local population increases and a decline in agricultural production. Growing local and regional fuel wood demand is another chief cause. Despite these issues, remarkable relicts of natural forests remain and trees on farmland, around homesteads and on fields in every village are basic elements of farm activities and social systems. This demonstrates the effect of cumulative traditional knowledge and long-term local experience with forest management and preservation. Therefore, these practices should be promoted and advanced through the integration of local knowledge and forest management practices in the design and implementation of sustainable environmental planning and management.     

An Ecoregional Context for Forest Management on National Wildlife Refuges of the Upper Midwest,USA

To facilitate forest planning and management on National Wildlife Refuges, we synthesized multiple data sources to describe land ownership patterns, land cover, landscape pattern, and changes in forest composition for four ecoregions and their associated refuges of the Upper Midwest. We related observed patterns to ecological processes important for forest conservation and restoration, with specific attention to refuge patterns of importance for forest landbirds of conservation priority. The large amount of public land within the ecoregions (31–80%) suggests that opportunities exist for coarse and meso-scale approaches to conserving and restoring ecological processes affecting the refuges, particularly historical fire regimes. Forests dominate both ecoregions and refuges, but refuge forest patches are generally larger and more aggregated than in associated ecoregions. Broadleaf taxa have increased in dominance in the ecoregions and displaced fire-dependent taxa such as pine (Pinus spp.) and other coniferous species; these changes in forest composition have likely also affected refuge forests. Despite compositional changes, larger forest patches on refuges suggests that they may provide better habitat for area-sensitive forest landbirds of mature, compositionally diverse forests than surrounding lands if management continues to promote increased patch size. We reason that although fine-scale research and monitoring for species of conservation priority is important, broad scale (ecoregional) assessments provide crucial context for effective forest and wildlife management in protected areas.     

Harnessing Ecosystem Models and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for the Support of Forest Management

The decision-making environment in forest management (FM) has changed drastically during the last decades. Forest management planning is facing increasing complexity due to a widening portfolio of forest goods and services, a societal demand for a rational, transparent decision process and rising uncertainties concerning future environmental conditions (e.g., climate change). Methodological responses to these challenges include an intensified use of ecosystem models to provide an enriched, quantitative information base for FM planning. Furthermore, multi-criteria methods are increasingly used to amalgamate information, preferences, expert judgments and value expressions, in support of the participatory and communicative dimensions of modern forestry. Although the potential of combining these two approaches has been demonstrated in a number of studies, methodological aspects in interfacing forest ecosystem models (FEM) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) are scarcely addressed explicitly. In this contribution we review the state of the art in FEM and MCDA in the context of FM planning and highlight some of the crucial issues when combining ecosystem and preference modeling. We discuss issues and requirements in selecting approaches suitable for supporting FM planning problems from the growing body of FEM and MCDA concepts. We furthermore identify two major challenges in a harmonized application of FEM-MCDA: (i) the design and implementation of an indicator-based analysis framework capturing ecological and social aspects and their interactions relevant for the decision process, and (ii) holistic information management that supports consistent use of different information sources, provides meta-information as well as information on uncertainties throughout the planning process.     

Comparative Influence of Forest Management and Habitat Structural Factors on the Abundances of Hollow-Nesting Bird Species in Subtropical Australian Eucalypt Forest

We examined the impact of single-tree selective logging and fuel reduction burns on the abundance of hollow-nesting bird species at a regional scale in southeastern Queensland, Australia. Data were collected on species abundance and habitat structure of dry sclerophyll production forest at 36 sites with known logging and fire histories. Sixteen bird species were recorded with most being resident, territorial, obligate hollow nesters that used hollows that were either small (<10 cm diameter) or very large (>18 cm diameter). Species densities were typically low, but combinations of two forest management and three habitat structural variables influenced the abundances of eight bird species in different and sometimes conflicting ways. The results suggest that habitat tree management for biodiversity in production forests cannot depend upon habitat structural characteristics alone. Management histories appear to have independent influence (on some bird species) that are distinguishable from their impacts on habitat structure per se. Rather than managing to maximize species abundances to maintain biodiversity, we may be better off managing to avoid extinctions of populations by identifying thresholds of acceptable fluctuations in populations of not only hollow-nesting birds but other forest dependent wildlife relative to scientifically valid forest management and habitat structural surrogates.     

Forest Management Systems Evaluation: Using ISO14000

Sustainable forest management (SFM) or ecosystem management is now the stated goal of forest managers in most countries. SFM takes a longer-term, broader perspective on forest values than timber production or the narrow multiple use regimes of the past. As a result of international activities including the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Ministerial Council on Protection of Forests in Europe and the Montreal Process for temperate and boreal forests outside Europe, there are now sufficiently specific and agreed principles, criteria and indicators (C&I) to guide policy makers towards SFM. To achieve SFM requires holistic assessments of forest management systems in terms of these C&I to ensure the delivery of sustainable outcomes across forest regions. This paper focuses on the implementation of SFM as defined by the C&I, and, in particular, how to identify needed reforms in forest management systems. The paper explains and evaluates the International Standards Organization's (ISO's) environmental management systems (EMS) ISO14000/EMS approach adopted for this purpose in Australia to assess the adequacy of forest management systems. The approach was applied as a key element in the regional forest agreements prepared to meet the Australian National Forest Policy Statement. The ISO14000/EMS, in conjunction with the SFM criteria, provides a systematic approach to assessing forest management systems to reveal the adequacy of the legislative, planning, implementation, monitoring and review of all-tenure forest management as required by SFM.