This study assesses the capacity and organizational changes resulting from community engagement activities under a forest and landscape restoration project. It focuses on the impact of training and participatory processes involving Community Forest Associations (CFAs) and related stakeholders. Interventions included gender and social inclusion training, policy engagement, technical agroforestry and restoration training, institutional strengthening of CFAs, and digital tools such as the Regreening App. Using a recall-based Likert scale approach, the study compares conditions before and after engagement to identify shifts in knowledge, practices, and organizational effectiveness. Results highlight improvements in community capacity, participation, and institutional performance, contributing to enhanced implementation of nature-based solutions and sustainable landscape restoration.
Tag: community forestry
Improved Policy Engagement and Community Participation in Forest Landscape Restoration in Taita Taveta and Makueni Counties
This study examines changes in stakeholder engagement and facilitation dynamics in forest and landscape restoration initiatives under a nature-based solutions project. It focuses on interactions between policy-level actors (government and institutions) and community-level actors, including Community Forest Associations (CFAs). Activities included participatory development of Forest and Landscape Restoration Plans (FOLAREPs), forest policy reviews, capacity building, and digital tools such as the Regreening App. Using a recall-based Likert scale approach, the study assesses shifts in engagement before and after interventions. Findings indicate improved multi-level collaboration, stronger stakeholder linkages, and progress toward more inclusive policy-making processes, enhancing the effectiveness of restoration efforts.
Forests for food: Nourishing people, sustaining the planet
The report examines the multiple ways in which forests contribute to food security and nutrition, with a particular emphasis on forest foods because they are among the least visible and least well-documented components of food systems. It brings together evidence from around the world, and it contributes to a shift in perspective, from seeing forests primarily as environmental assets towards recognizing them as fundamental components of sustainable, resilient and nutritious food systems. The report was developed jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Landscape Alliance.
The Challenges and Barriers to Forest Certification for Sustainable Forest Management: A Systematic Review
Forest certification emerged in the international policy agenda during the 1980s due to growing concern about the extent and rate of deforestation. This review was motivated by the view that the challenges and barriers to the forest certification system must be overcome to enhance its contribution to sustainable forest management. This review is therefore aimed at synthesizing scholars’ views on the challenges and barriers of forest certification. The study examines debates on the challenges and barriers of forest certification through a systematic review of papers published in academic literature from 1995 to 2023. This systematic review was carried out on 104 peer-reviewed articles; it was performed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA). The analysis revealed five angles of certification challenges and barriers: administrative/legal, economic, social, environmental, and challenges related to certification systems. This study can be used as a guideline to identify the challenges and loopholes in forest certification for better management of the world’s forests. The governments of various countries and other stakeholders should embrace forest certification as a tool for sustainable forest management.
Towards upgrading the lowland bamboo (Oxytenanthera abyssinica (A.Rich.) Munro) value chains in Ethiopia: Available resources versus economic development perspectives
Ethiopia holds vast, ISO-compliant lowland bamboo reserves (Oxytenanthera abyssinica), yet this resource remains largely untapped beyond local consumption. This study synthesizes current evidence and field assessments to identify key systemic barriers in the lowland bamboo value chain. Our analysis confirms the sector is characterized by a rudimentary, fragmented chain, where commercialization is principally hindered by limited value addition, inadequate technical capacity, and severe policy gaps, particularly concerning forest tenure and utilization rights. Transitioning the sector from an unsustainable extractive economy to a productive, green industrial economy requires securing community land-use rights, implementing targeted capacity-building and promoting strategic investment in engineered bamboo products.
Papua New Guinea Community tree nursery management guide
Welcome to the Papua New Guinea Community tree nursery management guide, a practical resource designed to support individuals, groups and communities to establish and manage successful plant nurseries. Whether you are starting from scratch or looking to improve your existing nursery, this guide provides step-by-step information tailored to local conditions and needs. This guide, while providing general rules and advice for nursery setting and management, is focused on the Bismarck Forest Corridor, which is an important high-integrity forest area bridging the provinces of Chimbu, Eastern Highlands, Madang and Jiwaka, a mountain region known as the Bismarck Range that extends upwards into Mount Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea’s highest peak (4 509 m above sea level).
Supporting local adaptive capacity to climate change in the Congo basin forest of Cameroon: a participatory action research approach
This paper aims at assessing the vulnerability of local communities in the Congo basin forests of Cameroon; to help them identify their specific needs for adaptation, and to facilitate knowledge sharing with the aim of enhancing adaptive capacity. Using participatory-action research approach, research was carried out in two project sites in Nkol-evodo and in Yokadouma in the Center and South-East Regions of Cameroon, respectively. The authors shared participatory-research (PAR) steps and processes to assist other researchers and local stakeholders to jointly assess, monitor and adapt to climatic and other changes. This study shows that the adverse effects of climate conditions to which study communities are exposed are already being felt and exerting considerable stress on most of the important activities to their livelihoods such as agriculture and exploitation of national resources. PAR tools and processes led to participatory diagnosis, conceptualizing of change, participatory identification, prioritization and implementation of specific strategies for climate change adaptation in the study sites. However, further studies are needed to investigate the effectiveness of these strategies. The PAR experiences show that stakeholders’ involvement throughout the project needs to be considered by researchers who wish to enhance the adaptive capacity of the communities they work with. This paper contributes to the description of the process for enhancing adaptive capacity of forest living communities. Findings in this research may provide a crucial foundation for community-based adaptation measures and complement broader-scale scientific research with local precision.
Forest tenure reform implementation in Lampung province: From scenarios to action
Key messages
- The future of forest tenure security for local forest dependent communities in Lampung province is linked to the effective implementation of social forestry (SF) programs, which granted communities management rights to state forests. If SF schemes are implementated effectively, the tenure rights of forest dependent communities will be assured.
- Participatory prospective analysis (PPA) by an expert group consisting of governmental and nongovernmental organization representatives, identified six key driving forces that will influence SF implementation in the next 10 years. These include:
- – the dynamics of SF regulations including regulation of forest product businesses
- – economic options created by communities to improve livelihoods
- – community tenure rights to forest resources
- – budgetary support from regional government
- – human resources capacities of implementating agents such as the Province Forestry Office, Forest Management Unit (FMU) and NGOs
- – the clarity of stakeholder roles including community awareness.
- The different scenarios, which describe plausible conditions of forest tenure reform implementation in Lampung, range from persistence of the status quo, where communities continue to have partial rights to state forests, to variations that include full ownership rights, complete withdrawal of community rights to forests, and the privileging of economic interests over environmental sustainability.
- The desired scenarios are associated with adequate budget allocations including dedicated budgets for implementation. Lack of coordination is a disadvantage and is characteristic of undesired scenarios. The capacity of implementing agents is also a key factor, especially their capacity to work with communities and to support them. Functional forest-based enterprises to support community livelihoods, which in turn provide strong incentives for sustainable forest management, are important. Taken together, the scenarios suggest that devolving SF implementation to the lowest unit, the FMU, is the best option. However, this should be accompanied by community empowerment, the allocation of adequate budgets and support and cooperation among all involved actors.
- The expert group developed an action plan for enhancing SF scheme implementation over the next 10 years. Strategies include enhancing budgetary support to the regional government, strengthening the role of the FMU, strengthening community tenure rights and enhancing local livelihoods. Key actions include supporting cross-sectoral coordination, developing PES systems to boost regional government revenues, increasing legal literacy at community level and community/participatory mapping of resources.
- The action plan will be integrated into Lampung Provincial Government’s forestry development program and will guide Lampung’s Social Forestry Working Group.
- Overall, the PPA method reveals that the implementation of SF programs is multi-faceted, capturing the diverse concerns and roles of different stakeholders. It also enhances the capacity of stakeholders to jointly analyse problems, to anticipate the future and to design current actions to mitigate future problems or enhance the likelihood of meeting desired objectives.
Role of Community and User Attributes in Collective Action: Case Study of Community-Based Forest Management in Nepal
A growing literature on collective action focuses on exploring the conditions that might help or hinder groups to work collectively. In this paper, we focus on community-based forest management in the inner Terai region of Nepal and explore the role of community and user attributes such as group size, social heterogeneities, forest user’ perception on forests, and affiliation to the user group, in the collective action of managing community forests. Household surveys were carried out with 180 households across twelve community forest users’ groups. We first measured ethnic diversity, income inequality, landholding inequality, and user perception towards the use and management of community forests to understand their effect on the participation of forest users in the management of community forests. Our results show that among the studied variables, group size (number of forest users affiliated to the community forests) and perception of the management of their community forests are strong predictors of forest user participation in community forest management. Income inequality and ethnic diversity were found to have no significant association. Land inequality, however, was found to decrease participation in the management and use of community forests. These community and user attributes play a crucial role in the success of collective action and may vary from community to community. Hence they need to be duly considered by the practitioners prior to any community-based project interventions for stimulating successful collective action.
Guide for co-elaboration of scenarios: Building shared understanding and joint action for reform and security of forest tenure
The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) initiated the GCS-Tenure project in Indonesia, Uganda and Peru conducted the study to analyze the relationships between statutory and customary land tenure and how these relationships affect tenure security of forest-dependent communities, including women and other marginalized groups. Using a global comparative approach and standardized methodologies, the study analyzes the differential success or failure of policy and institutional innovations to enhance secure tenure rights. It also examines how these innovations identify strategies likely to lead to desired outcomes.
The Participatory Prospective Analysis (PPA) is used as a first step by engaging key stakeholders. Through participatory meetings, all expert stakeholders progressively identify and develop a range of tenure security scenarios. They then elaborate actions in response to the scenarios identified. With the application of PPA, the research team aims to answer the following questions: What are the key factors influencing forest tenure security? What possible actions can mitigate negative implications (or reduce barriers impeding implementation) and promote positive changes (e.g. equitable access for women and marginalized groups? Who should be responsible for those actions? PPA aims to help decision makers understand the key drivers, challenges and future consequences of policy options.