This chapter explores Indigenous knowledge systems and traditional practices in forest conservation in Sabah, Malaysia. It highlights how Indigenous communities manage natural resources through customary laws, spiritual beliefs, and practices such as rotational agriculture, resource-use restrictions, and community-based governance. The chapter emphasizes the importance of traditional knowledge, community mapping, and protocols in sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services. While these practices contribute significantly to conservation, Indigenous communities face ongoing challenges related to land tenure insecurity, governance conflicts, cultural erosion, and limited recognition of customary rights in formal legal systems.
Tag: community forestry
Are community aspirations being accommodated in development plans?: a lesson from collective action in Jambi
The brief describes development planning consultations, locally known as musrenbang, conducted in stages through different levels of governance: village, sub-district and district. The brief then documents lessons from experience catalyzing collective action among local community goups (in particular women’s groups) to engage in this development process and to help articulate the women’s aspirations in such a way that they could be heard by district decision makers. While some progress was made, such as women’s improved presence in different forums and their capacity to speak and propose distinct proposals for development, some challenges such as elite capture remain.
Enhancing adaptiveness and collaboration in community forestry in Nepal: reflections from participatory action research
Constraints to exercising forest tenure rights by forest adjacent communities in Indonesia
Towards a shared vision and action frame for community forestry in Liberia: Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Community Forestry in Liberia, Monrovia, 12-15 December 2005
This volume contains proceedings of a historic workshop held in December 2005 that has brought clarity to the concept of community forestry in Liberia. The workshop addressed a wide range of issues pertaining to community forestry, based on presentations from a range of experts, local community representatives, policy makers, researchers and the donor community. The ‘Monrovia Declaration’ adopted by the wide cross-section of stakeholders in Liberian forestry who attended the workshop, sets out a framework for future action on community forestry based on a common understanding of how the concept can be made practical in the Liberian context. It was the unanimous view of all workshop participants that community forestry had great potential to act as the motor for sustainable development of Liberia’s rural areas, and within an integrated framework that will help safeguard the country’s rich and diverse forest for posterity.
Linking social movements: how international networks can better support community action about forests
International networks in community forestry face challenges in linking with local social movements. We examine four efforts of international networks to overcome these challenges and better link with local people in Peru, Brazil, India and Kenya. The examples demonstrate that the networks created effective links by making funds available for meetings and local data collection; providing international analyses that helped people understand their own situation better; sharing strategies for media, policy and letter campaigns; helping to disseminate information about local people’s priorities, providing independent assessments and building local people’s confidence. Efforts to improve communications technologies required a better understanding of local conditions. Networks will be more relevant to local movements to the extent that they are regularly active at the local level, can respond flexibly to local needs and small-scale events, and work with an array of national partners. The effectiveness of networks in carrying out these tasks may require a careful balance between linking to versus working at the local level.
Estudio Global Comparativo de CIFOR SOBRE REDD+ (GCS REDD+)
El GCS REDD+ (www.cifor.org/gcs) es la investigación enfocada en REDD+ más amplia del mundo, que por más de 10 años ha generado evidencia crucial para el análisis e implementación de REDD+ y otras iniciativas similares. Con trabajo en más de 20 países, el GCS REDD+ ha generado resultados que permiten avanzar hacia un REDD+ “3E” (eficaz, eficiente y equitativo).
Forest and landscapes Restoration: Voices from the Communities
This collection of farmer stories explores how women, men, and youth in Makueni and Taita Taveta Counties are engaging in forest and landscape restoration whose outcomes were supported by the Delivering nature-based solution outcomes by addressing policy, institutional and monitoring gaps in forest and landscape restoration project which was funded by UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) and implemented by CIFOR-ICRAF in partnership with the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations-Kenya (FAO), and implemented in Makueni and Taita Taveta Counties. The project addressed key policy, institutional, and monitoring gaps in restoration while promoting gender-transformative and socially inclusive approaches. By strengthening community forest associations (CFAs), building local capacity, and supporting evidence-based decision-making, it contributed to more resilient landscapes, improved livelihoods, and Kenya’s climate and restoration commitments.
The stories highlight personal experiences, drawing from project activities such as community dialogues about how gender roles shape access to resources, decision making, and participation in restoration, as well as trainings and household “vision journey” exercises. These approaches have helped break down barriers, strengthen mutual understanding, and promote more inclusive and equitable participation in restoration. The stories show how training and inclusive practices are influencing household dynamics, encouraging women and men to make decisions as partners, strengthening community forest associations, and shaping local livelihoods, offering insight into the practical and social changes that support more equitable and sustainable land management.
- Damaris Kayalo (English)
- Purity Musyoka and John Muteti (English)
- Bosco Mwendo and Catherine Muia (English)
- Leonard and Catherine Kalenga (English)
- Domiana Muteti and Joseph Wambua (English)
- Elizabeth Mbinga (English)
- Elizabeth Mbinga (Swahili)
- Christopher Mwamburi (English)
- Jenliza Raphael and Kwaze (English)
- Frederick Mjomba (English)
- Frederick Mjomba (Swahili)
- Mentors CBO (English)
- Mentors CBO (Swahili)
- Green Valley Youth Group (English)
- Green Valley Youth Group (Swahili)
Power dynamics and actor interests in community forestry: Insights from Mount Cameroon National Park buffer zones
Community forestry in Cameroon has underperformed in promoting participatory sustainable forest management, improving community livelihood and equitable benefit sharing predominantly due to the complex power dynamics within its governance. A comprehensive understanding of buffer zone transformation into CF, power dynamics, and the mechanisms through which diverse actors with often competing interests drive outcomes in this sensitive landscape remains a critical gap in existing literature. This study applies a novel Power-interest-outcome (PIO) framework from integrating ACP framework and the PIDO approach to assess the power dynamic and actors’ interest in Etinde, Woteva and Bakingili CFs buffering the Mount Cameroon National Park. We identified dominant and actor’s constellation via mixed-method of household surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and social network analysis, assess their mobilisation of coercion, incentive, and dominant information, categorised their ecological, economic, and social interests and examined how these interests, mediated by constellations, shape CF outcomes.
Findings revealed three actor constellation-driven contested CF governance process dominated by State-Donor constellation which mobilises coercion, incentives and dominant information for their ecological interest, resulting to a moderate-positive ecological outcome. Economic and social outcomes are constrained by elite capture, with communities receiving less than 10% of intended revenue, while reinforced customary elite legitimacy hindered their participation, demonstrating that dominant actors strategically shape CF outcomes, marginalising community priorities. Theoretically, this paper advances ACP by integrating actor-interest-outcome dynamics. Practically, it highlights policies to address livelihood and elite capture concerns. Future research should explore longitudinal power shifts and comparative analyses across governance contexts.
Harnessing Giants: Ethical Trade of Goliath Beetles in Community Forests for Biodiversity Conservation and Livelihood Enhancement
The Upper Guinean forest block of West Africa is a biodiversity hotspot, home to the chief goliath beetle (Goliathus cacicus), an ecologically significant species threatened by deforestation, agricultural expansion, unsustainable harvesting, and climate change. Populations have declined sharply, prompting calls for its listing as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, alongside Goliathus regius (Endangered). Despite these threats, G. cacicus holds considerable economic potential due to high demand in international markets, with specimens valued between $300–$1500. Ethical trade practices—such as limiting collection to naturally deceased beetles or surplus males—could align biodiversity conservation with rural income generation. Community forest initiatives integrating sustainable trade and eco-tourism offer a replicable model for conservation practitioners and policymakers, balancing ecological protection with livelihood support.