Does One Size Fit All? Heterogeneity in the Valuation of Community Forestry Programs?

Through the implementation of a choice experiment valuation exercise, this study set out to identify the set of community plantation attributes that impact the welfare of potential community forestry program participants. We employed a combination of choice models to evaluate the preferences, welfare impacts and choice elasticities associated with alternative community forestry programs, allowing for different assumptions regarding heterogeneity. In line with economic theory, increased participation costs reduced the demand for community forestry, while increases in expected productivity raised the demand. With respect to preferences for the other alternatives considered - type of forest, area enclosure and type of land upon which the forest was to be situated - the results point to significant differences in preferences across the study population, suggesting that programs should be tailored to the communities in which the program is to be implemented.community forestry, choice experiment, conditional logit, random parameters logit and latent class model

Forestry policy and poverty: the case of community forestry in Nepal

Common forests in developing countries are valuable sources of raw material supplies, employment and income generation, particularly for low income households. This paper looks at the effect on income and employment when common forest resources have external policies that constrain their use. Using a mixed-integer linear programming model, this study examines the impacts of conservation-oriented community forest policies in Nepal on three household income groups. The results show that current community forest policies, which focus on environmental outcomes through forest use restriction for environment conservation and timber production, result in a large reduction in employment and income of the poorest households and largely explain the recent increase in poverty of rural areas.Forestry policy, poverty, Nepal, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Comparing the profitability of farming and forestry

This paper updates an analysis of returns from major productive land uses in New Zealand carried out in 2008. Trends in profitability over time are shown, and a preliminary investigation of the relationship between land-use change towards forestry (new land planting) and forestry profitability is described.Profitability, farming, forestry, land use, land-use change, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries,

Forest resources and rural livelihoods in the north-central regions of Namibia

Economics, Forestry, Markets, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Women and forestry : operational issues

Women are major actors in forestry throughout the developing world. Women and children are the primary collectors of fuel and fodder for home consumption and for sale to urban markets. This alone gives women a major role in the management and conservation of renewable forest resources. When convinced of the utility and practicality of a forest improvement or management scheme, women can be a powerful lobby to persuade their entire houshold or community to invest the resources necessary to make the scheme work. Involving women in forestry projects often makes the difference between achieving or not achieving project objectives, particularly for the long-term sustainability of interventions.Environmental Economics&Policies,Forests and Forestry,Forestry,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Fuelwood consumption and participation in community forestry in India

Decentralized forest management is an important policy issue in India and elsewhere. Yet there are few careful studies of the impacts of community forestry. The authors try to fill this gap by analyzing National Sample Survey data from 524 villages in five states in India. Their analysis seeks to answer two key questions: (1) Who participates in community forestry and what are the determinants of participation? (2) What is the impact of participation on household fuelwood consumption? The authors find that proximity to forests, leadership, and fuelwood dependence are significant factors in explaining village participation in community forestry. Household participation is strongly correlated with scarcity, a result that has implications for a recent policy to expand community forestry from degraded to less degraded forests. The authors'most important findings are that fuelwood consumption and participation are linked, and household participation has a significant positive impact on consumption. However, the presence of a village level forestry institution does not have a direct effect.Community Development and Empowerment,Silviculture,Housing&Human Habitats,Environmental Economics&Policies,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Forestry,Silviculture,Community Development and Empowerment,Environmental Economics&Policies,Housing&Human Habitats

The data not collected on community forestry

Conservation and development practitioners increasingly promote community forestry as a way to conserve ecosystem services, consolidate resource rights, and reduce poverty. However, outcomes of community forestry have been mixed; many initiatives failed to achieve intended objectives. There is a rich literature on institutional arrangements of community forestry, but there has been little effort to examine the role of socioeconomic, market, and biophysical factors in shaping both land-cover change dynamics and individual and collective livelihood outcomes. We systematically reviewed the peer-reviewed literature on community forestry to examine and quantify existing knowledge gaps in the community-forestry literature relative to these factors. In examining 697 cases of community forest management (CFM), extracted from 267 peer-reviewed publications, we found 3 key trends that limit understanding of community forestry. First, we found substantial data gaps linking population dynamics, market forces, and biophysical characteristics to both environmental and livelihood outcomes. Second, most studies focused on environmental outcomes, and the majority of studies that assessed socioeconomic outcomes relied on qualitative data, making comparisons across cases difficult. Finally, there was a heavy bias toward studies on South Asian forests, indicating that the literature on community forestry may not be representative of decentralization policies and CFM globally

Tree Planting Progress at Four Community Forestry Sites In Leyte: Some Observations and Lessons Learned

This paper critically reviews tree farming and community forestry in four municipalities in Leyte. It examines problems and issues experienced by the local people in communities with respect to forestry, and makes observations about the progress of tree planting in both community and farm forestry. Field visits and discussions with local people, Local Government Unit (LGU) officials and Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR) personnel were undertaken in each of the four sites. Some lessons are drawn and problems identified with respect to the development of community and farm forestry. Planting progress has been relatively slow at the four sites, and a number of difficulties have been apparent in relation to physical stand performance and property rights of growers. The importance of organizational assistance, livelihood support and availability of seedlings of suitable species is apparent. Regardless of the difficulties, a high level of enthusiasm exists for forestry projects, and the potential community benefits are considerable