scholarly journals Geographical Factors Trump Community Factors in Deforestation Risk in Two Watershed Conservation Forests in Myanmar

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 541
Author(s):  
Khin Thu Wint Kyaw ◽  
Tetsuji Ota ◽  
Nobuya Mizoue

Community forestry, which is how local communities are involved in forest conservation and utilization activities, is an important forestry program in developing tropical countries. We evaluated the importance of geographical factors and community characteristics in the deforestation of community forests between 2000 and 2019 in the buffer zone of Inlay Lake Biosphere Reserve, Myanmar, using a mixed-effects logistic regression model. Distance to the nearest village, slope, and distance to the community forestry boundary were the most important variables explaining deforestation in community forests. Forests closer to human settlements and with gentle slopes faced higher risks of deforestation, presumably because such forests are more accessible. In addition, forests located far from the boundaries of community forests were more vulnerable to deforestation. Community characteristics were less important compared with geographical factors. Leadership was the most important variable among community characteristics, although not statistically significant. We conclude that deforestation depends more on forest accessibility. This indicates that the locations at which new community forests are established should receive increased consideration.

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudeep Jana Thing ◽  
Buddi S Poudel

This paper examines the transfer of management rights over forests and natural resources and exercise of such rights by various sections of local communities in Protected Area (PA) buffer zones in Nepal. The study is based on an extensive review of government policy documents, available published and grey materials. The paper has also been drawn from the long experiences of the authors working in PAs and buffer zones in various parts of the country. We found that Buffer Zone Community Forests (BZCFs) have so far made significant contribution to biodiversity conservation, local livelihoods and institutional building in buffer zones. However, we also found a range of critical challenges in realising clear, comprehensive and secure rights by the local communities. Effective functioning of buffer zone community forestry is undermined by ever-increasing demand of forest products, lack of needed management autonomy and support from the PA management authorities, absence of clear policy guideline, increasing human-wildlife conflict and persistence of social exclusion of women, poor and marginalised. We argue that a better understanding and attention to address tenure related challenges in BZCFs would aid both conservation and local livelihoods and thereby enhance socio-ecological resilience of buffer zone communities.


1970 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pem N Kandel

In early 2005, 10,045 ha Community Forests (CFs) were certified in Bajhang and Dolakha districts of Nepal by using the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification scheme. After two years of forest certification, subsequent questions are being asked such as: What benefits have certification brought for the Forest Users Groups (FUGs)? What tangible differences are there in forest management system because of forest certification? and What lessons have been learnt from the certified forests? In an attempt to answer these questions, a study was carried out in April 2007 in Dolakha district where 11 (2,182 ha) community managed forests were certified in 2005. On the basis of field study from two certified forests (Vitteripakha and Suspa) of the district, this paper analyzes the effects of forest certification and its implications for enhancing Sustainable Community Forestry (SCF) in Nepal. Key words: Sustainable forest management, forest certification, community forestry Banko Janakari: A journal of forestry information for Nepal Vol.17(1) 2007 pp.11-16


Check List ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1749 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Gabrielle Elizabeth Brown ◽  
Andrew William Whitworth ◽  
Alex Fowler ◽  
Marcus Brent-Smith ◽  
Oliver Burdekin

We present a new distribution map, including new locality records for the Blue-fronted Lancebill (Doryfera johannae) from southeast Peru. One of these records is the first physical capture record for the Madre de Dios region and supposes a range extension of ca. 470 km to the southeast. We provide notes related to the environment in which this individual was found, along with photos of the captured female from the Manu Learning Centre in the buffer zone of Manu Biosphere Reserve.


2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sushma Bhattarai ◽  
Prakash Kumar Jha ◽  
Niraj Chapagain

In spite of the widely accepted success of Community Forestry in reviving degraded land, it is still seen as being unable to provide tangible benefits to the poor. This paper illustrates that through continuous sharing, deliberation and negotiation among the poor and non?poor members of Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs), management of community forests can be made far more equitable than the usual scenario. Drawing from the experience on the processes and outcomes of Livelihoods and Forestry Programme (LFP), this paper brings empirical evidence of how facilitation support has enabled the poor to have more equitable access to community forests. Three key pro?poor institutional arrangements resulting from the facilitation process include: a) establishing special use rights arrangements within CFUGs for the poor, b) pro?poor silvicultural practices, and c) equitable forest product and benefit distribution mechanisms. The paper suggests some changes in policy and practice to institutionalise these outcomes. Full text is available at the ForestAction websiteDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jfl.v8i2.2304 Journal of Forest and Livelihood 8(2) February 2009 pp.1-15


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-196
Author(s):  
L. Puri ◽  
I. Nuberg ◽  
B. Ostendorf ◽  
E. Cedamon

Operational plans are a key element in community forestry in Nepal. However, the relevance of these plans to forest user groups (FUGs) is under scrutiny. This study investigates the usefulness of operational plans against the backdrop of knowledge, capacity and management practices of FUGs. Data were collected from 13 operational plans, 16 group discussions involving forestry professionals, and 218 household interviews in two villages of Lamjung district in Nepal. Whereas operational plans should specifically reflect site specific objectives and activities of forest management, the survey revealed identical objectives across the community forests. Current operational plans are technically complex, poorly linked to the place-based context of livelihood needs and less useful to the FUGs to inform and enhance forest management. This study proposes to differentiate community forests according to their production potentials, and revise the operational plans by shortening the elements that have little or no relevance to the FUGs.


1998 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter N. Duinker ◽  
Reino E. Pulkki

In June 1997, we visited the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme (MCF), a community forest in the Alps of northern Italy. We have prepared this article to help broaden the perspectives of Forestry Chronicle readers on community forests and what they mean in various parts of the world. We first describe the area and its forests, and then give a brief history of the MCF. Then we review the forest-management strategies used in this Norway spruce forest, and summarize the logging and wood-processing activities of the enterprise. We continue with a comparison of this community forest with three community forests in Canada, concluding that generalization on what makes a community forest successful is dangerous — each situation is unique. Finally, given that the MCF recently won permission to use the eco-label of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), we discuss our perceptions of how the MCF operation does and does not meet the FSC's Principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship. Despite several shortcomings, we believe that the MCF is in most respects a sound example of sustainable forest management.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Gross-Camp ◽  
Iokine Rodriguez ◽  
Adrian Martin ◽  
Mirna Inturias ◽  
Glory Massao

We explore local people’s perspectives of community forest (CF) on their land in Tanzania and Bolivia. Community forest management is known to improve ecological conditions of forests, but is more variable in its social outcomes. Understanding communities’ experience of community forestry and the potential benefits and burdens its formation may place on a community will likely help in predicting its sustainability as a forest and land management model. Six villages, two in Tanzania and four in Bolivia, were selected based on the presence of community forestry in varying stages. We found that communities were generally supportive of existing community forests but cautious of their expansion. Deeper explorations of this response using ethnographic research methods reveal that an increase in community forest area is associated with increasing opportunity costs and constraints on agricultural land use, but not an increase in benefits. Furthermore, community forests give rise to a series of intra- and inter-community conflicts, often pertaining to the financial benefits stemming from the forests (distribution issues), perceived unfairness and weakness in decision–making processes (procedure/participation), and also tensions over cultural identity issues (recognition). Our findings suggest that communities’ willingness to accept community forests requires a broader consideration of the multifunctional landscape in which it is embedded, as well as an engagement with the justice tensions such an intervention inevitably creates.


2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 320-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colibrí Sanfiorenzo-Barnhard ◽  
Luis García-Barrios ◽  
Elvia Meléndez-Ackerman ◽  
Romeo Trujillo-Vásquez

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