Community forestry in the Amazon

  
Community forestry usually refers to a forest management system where local communities and/or indigenous people are involved in forestry activities with the aim to develop sustainable forest use. Community forest management can be a great tool in achieving the combined benefits of forest conservation, rural development and poverty reduction. There are numerous community forest management programs all around the world, however, success rates depend on a number of factors, and most importantly, it seems, on tenure sequrity. 

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI), in 2008, published the report ‘Community Forestry in the Amazon: the unsolved challenge of forests and the poor’ with the aim to assess efforts put into the establishment of community forest programs in the Amazon region and the reasons for their high rate of failure.

One of the issues mentioned is the ignorance of traditional focus on rural procedures on agricultural production and the extraction of Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs). Ignoring the cultural preference of horizontal organizational structures and activities with immediate economic returns, implementing organizations tend to push vertical organizational structures and focus on long-term economic gains. As a result, these programs often fail due to lack of support from local communities. Another problematic area discussed in the report is the communication gap that can occur between professional foresters and local communities. Moreover, most community forestry programs require significant subsidies to cover operational costs for a substantial period of time and revoking financial support can lead to almost immediate collapse.  

Nonetheless, according to the ODA it is not the principle of forest management by communities that is in question but the current framework. To achieve success, the report argues, “a clearer vision of the aspirations of indigenous communities in the region is needed”, which “will help to define more coherent and realistic policies which promote the effective use of forests by smallholders as an important input for the sustainable development of the region and as a means of reducing rural poverty”.
    

100 years old farmer in the Juma Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon
Photo: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Source: CIFOR Forests Blog