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The connection between forest and watershed has been well studied in the field of forestry science. However, the social facet of this field is yet to be thoroughly understood and studied. In Nepal, community forestry is playing a crucial role in maintaining the health of watersheds which act as a crucial source of water in the mid hills. Managing these watersheds and rivers is fundamental towards providing quality water to the community. Despite a growing body of knowledge on forest and water, the needs and concerns of managing these resources remain largely unaddressed. An important question then to emerge from this is - can community that is effectively managing forests, manage the water resources emerging from the forests? This thesis aims to investigate opportunities and challenges of water management in community forestry system. Specifically, it analyses whether and how water in the community forests is being managed at present. The study was designed using a mixed methods approach of qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative data collection included a questionnaire survey (99 completed the questionnaire), conducting semi-structured interviews (20 interviews), attending community workshops and initiating informal discussions. The quantitative data collection also involved conducting a water quality analysis on two water streams within the Lamtar catchment. The analysis of the data indicated that the community manages water in Lamatar in a number of different ways, and with some hierarchies and different roles affecting access. User groups manage water on a small scale providing water to the community. However, within community forestry, water management is not a prime responsibility. This is because a) there is no legislation to require water management within community forestry, b) no concrete knowledge as to how water management can be done through community forestry; c) unlike other forest products such as timber, herbs, fodder, water does not belong to the FUGs, it belongs to the state, and d) ...

Metadata only record ; This article examines the current situation with forest governance in Liberia. From 1990-2003, Liberia suffered a painful civil war funded, to a large extent by revenues from illegally harvested timber in an extreme example of a natural resource curse. Drawing upon the resource curse literature, the paper offers a case study of forest policy reform in Liberia, focusing on the historic development of tensions over land tenure, three C's policy of commercial, conservation, and community forestry, and examines current conditions of community engagement.

Containing contributions from academics, practitioners, and professionals, the Routledge Handbook of Community Forestry presents a truly global overview with case studies drawn from across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The Handbook begins with an overview of the chapters and a discussion of the concept of community forestry and the key issues. Topics as wide-ranging as Indigenous forestry, conservation and ecosystem management, relationships with industrial forestry, trade and supply systems, land tenure and land grabbing, and climate change are addressed. The Handbook also focuses on governance, looking at the range of approaches employed, including multi-level governance and rights-based approaches, and the principal actors involved from local communities and Indigenous Peoples to governments and national and international non-governmental organisations. The Handbook reveals the importance of the historical context to community forestry and the effects of power and politics. Importantly, the Handbook not only focuses on successful examples of community forestry, but also addresses failures in order to highlight the key challenges we are still facing and potential solutions.

"This handbook provides a comprehensive overview and cutting-edge assessment of community forestry. Containing contributions from academics, practitioners and professionals, the Routledge Handbook of Community Forestry presents a truly global overview with case studies drawn from across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. The Handbook begins with an overview of the chapters, and a discussion of the concept of community forestry and the key issues. Topics as wide-ranging as Indigenous forestry, conservation and ecosystem management, relationships with industrial forestry, trade and supply systems, land tenure and land grabbing and climate change are addressed. The Handbook also focuses on governance, looking at the range of approaches employed, including multi-level governance and rights-based approaches, and the principal actors involved from local communities and Indigenous peoples to governments and national and international non-governmental organisations. The Handbook reveals the importance of the historical context to community forestry and the effects of power and politics. Importantly, the Handbook not only focuses on successful examples of community forestry, but also addresses failures in order to highlight the key challenges we are still facing and potential solutions. The Routledge Handbook of Community Forestry is essential reading for academics, professionals and practitioners interested in forestry, natural resource management, conservation and sustainable development"--

Community forestry refers to a complex amalgam of trends in decentralized environmental governance, economic development, and responses to contingent historical and geographical factors. In this presentation Dr. Belsky compares the forces behind and responses to market forces in two places cele-brated for forest landscapes and livelihoods: the Himalayan country of Bhutan and the state of Montana. Community forestry in Bhutan is a highly prescribed government-led effort to decentralize forest management in the context of creating a modern, market-based economy. In con-trast, community forestry efforts in Montana are bottoms-up, public-private collaborations to counteract privatization and development threats to forestlands resulting from neo-liberal market forces underlying corporate timberland divestment.

Rural communities in Myanmar have numerous economic, environmental, and social opportunities but also face challenges as they seek a clear and solid pathway to development. The Government of Myanmar (GoM), as well as several development and donor organizations, have recognized the potential of community forestry (CF) to address many of these challenges. This recognition has taken the form of targets for CF development (for example, 2.27 million acres [919,000 hectares (ha)] of community forests by fiscal year 2030/31), legal frameworks (for example, Community Forestry Instructions [CFIs], 1995 and 2016), and programs by state and non-state actors (NSAs).

The research will examine cases of community forestry in Hoa Binh and Son La provinces as compared with the larger community forestry programs of Vietnam. The results have revealed that community forestry programs in the research sites have created mixed impacts in terms of forest greenery and socio-economic improvement. However, the forest administration is still seen as the most influential of actors and as such is involved in most community forestry activities

This research was conducted to find out the relationship between Community Forests User Groups (CFUGs), local government, and provincial government concerning monitoring and management ownership. The benefit-sharing mechanism in community forestry has always been a point of discussion to deal with, that follows the share given by law and constitution. In this study, different stakeholders were interviewed to record the actual views of CFUGs, local political leaders, forest officials and others on forest use and management responsibility in the context of federal restructuring of Nepal. CFUGs along with local political leaders were found favoring to hand over the monitoring and management responsibility to the local government, whereas the forest officials were reluctant on this proposed arrangement. The forest officers considered that giving the functions of monitoring and management responsibilities to the local government would destroy the past successful history of community forestry in Nepal, and it would turn to massive deforestation along with degradation of forests in the name of development. Being the policy formulation process occurring on a provincial and local levels, a lack of coordination among local governments and CFUGs may create a major challenge in the forest management and utilization of resources. The benefit-sharing mechanism in both the scientifically managed and traditionally managed forests was found not following the provisions of the Forest Act, 2019 and 1993. In particular context of pro-poor livelihood activities and coordination with local government during the community development activities reflect weak governance. Proper coordination and cooperation among three tiers of government are necessary through involving the CFUGs in the local government planning process and support to CFUGs.

Policy reforms aimed at preserving the Philippines' remaining forests, including the flagship community forestry program, have created a gap in the supply requirements of the local wood industry. Trade liberalization, however, is expected to fill this gap with the importation of lumber until forest plantations, both corporate and community based, are capable of yielding the needed volume. This article focuses on political intervention and how it can impede the process of communities taking over former logging concessions and other forestry reform policies. Community forestry represents a shift in policy from the system of timber license agreements given to the elite in the past and was most pronounced during the authoritarian years of government. Democracy, coupled with an effective nongovernmental organization movement and a vigilant civil society, enabled the change. However, pressures from politicians can derail this flagship program of government, as a case study of the largest community-based forest in the Philippines shows.

China's south-western province of Yunnan is a mountainous area of high biological and cultural diversity that was annexed into China relatively late in Chinese history. The province has lost over two thirds of its original forest cover and lost half of what remained in the last fifty years. Ethnic minorities make up about a third of the population of the province but predominate in forested areas. Chinese policy towards 'minority nationalities' at first recognized their right to self-determination but since liberation has oscillated between assimilationist and integrationist approaches. Despite strong central government control, the law grants them an important measure of cultural and institutional autonomy at the local level. Nationally, forest policy has been highly centralized and geared towards timber production. Quota driven overharvesting has depleted forests and led to serious soil erosion, local impoverishment, flooding and massive loss of life in the lowlands. While mass afforestation efforts have disappointed. Since 1998, the government has banned logging in Yunnan, allowing only a very restricted cut for domestic use. Imprudent natural resource use is linked to the doctrine of State ownership of all lands and forests and the imposed structure of village collectives. Since the late 1970s, the government has progressively devolved land and then forests to local farmers to manage and enjoy use rights to. Massive increases in agricultural production have resulted, but the lesser degree of autonomy granted farmers with respect to forest land, combined with the top-down quota system, inadequate supervision capacity, poor delineation of forests and the slower rate of return on investment have frustrated social forestry initiatives. Farmers' skepticism that devolved tenure would really give them rights over timber has been confirmed by the logging ban. At the same time, in Yunnan, many upland farmers are being obliged to plant trees on their higher fields, with the aim of limiting run-off. The simultaneous loss of grain for subsistence and income from timber has hit farmers hard. The losses have not been made up with subsidies and grain handouts. Local activists distinguish between the government's 'social forestry' and the 'community forestry' that has been promoted, since the late 1980s, by the Ford Foundation, international development assistance projects and the international networks, notably RECOFTC. Despite major advances in awareness raising, training, the development of forestry school courses and curricula, and despite numerous educational pilot projects, community forestry has not yet 'taken off' in the province. This can only come when the central government's policy changes. Laws restricting civil society organizations are quite strict in China, yet despite these limitations an incipient provincial level network has evolved promoting participatory approaches to development. Efforts to promote a national level community forestry network have been less successful. Although Yunnan has had a relatively limited experience with international community forestry networks, local actors provide highly insightful lessons and suggestions about how such networking should be improved. International networking is valued as a source of information and inspiration but should be made more interactive, locally driven and strategic. The main challenges now facing community forestry in Yunnan are achieving national policy reform, and building local capacity and awareness in both communities and forestry bureaux. Recent government moves to allow village level democracy and slim down the administration offer opportunities to give farmers greater initiative. Perhaps minority areas, where indigenous forest related knowledge is retained, and where more autonomy is, notionally, allowed, offer hopeful beginnings.