Reem Hajjar

Framing community forestry challenges with a broader lens: Case studies from the Brazilian Amazon

Community forestry initiatives have been shown to reduce rural poverty while promoting the conservation and sustainable use of forests. However, a number of challenges face communities wanting to initiate or maintain formal, community-based forest management. Through a grounded theory approach, this paper uses three case studies of community forest management models in the eastern Amazon to create a framework showing challenges faced by communities at different phases of formal management. The framework shows that, in the development phase, four root problems (land ownership, knowledge acquisition, community organization, and adequate capital) need to be addressed to obtain legal management permission. With this permission in hand, further challenges to operationalization are presented (deterring illegal loggers, maintaining infrastructure, obtaining necessary managerial skills and accessing markets). The interrelatedness of these challenges emphasizes that all challenges need to be addressed in a holistic manner for communities to maintain a profitable and self-sufficient operation. This contradicts current development approaches that only address part of this framework. The framework proposed here can be used as a starting point for community forestry initiatives in other regions.

The data not collected on community forestry.

Abstract Conservation and development practitioners increasingly promote community forestry as a way to conserve ecosystem services, consolidate resource rights, and reduce poverty. However, outcomes of community forestry have been mixed; many initiatives failed to achieve intended objectives. There is a rich literature on institutional arrangements of community forestry, but there has been little effort to examine the role of socioeconomic, market, and biophysical factors in shaping both land‐cover change dynamics and individual and collective livelihood outcomes. We systematically reviewed the peer‐reviewed literature on community forestry to examine and quantify existing knowledge gaps in the community‐forestry literature relative to these factors. In examining 697 cases of community forest management (CFM), extracted from 267 peer‐reviewed publications, we found 3 key trends that limit understanding of community forestry. First, we found substantial data gaps linking population dynamics, market forces, and biophysical characteristics to both environmental and livelihood outcomes. Second, most studies focused on environmental outcomes, and the majority of studies that assessed socioeconomic outcomes relied on qualitative data, making comparisons across cases difficult. Finally, there was a heavy bias toward studies on South Asian forests, indicating that the literature on community forestry may not be representative of decentralization policies and CFM globally.

Benefits and Barriers to Certification of Community-Based Forest Operations in Cameroon: An Exploratory Assessment

Community-based Forest Operations (CFOs) have played a notable role in promoting sustainability within Cameroon’s indigenous forest-dependent communities, but they are fraught with a range of socio-economic and ecological hurdles. As a means of achieving more sustainable forest practices, one possible solution would be for CFOs to adopt forest certification, though various barriers would have to be overcome. Using a number of examples at the regional level, this paper examines the potential benefits and barriers to community forest certification in Cameroon. Specifically, the paper identifies these barriers as legislative and political, economic, and informational in nature. While adoption of forest certification hinges upon what initiatives are employed by CFOs, it is argued that there is also a need for the government of Cameroon to play a leadership role in removing hurdles and promoting the uptake of certification.

The Evolution of the World Bank's Policy Towards Forestry: Push or Pull?

SUMMARY The World Bank has historically funded, and thus heavily influenced, a significant amount of forestry activities in developing countries in recent decades. The Banks approach towards investment in forestry has undergone major changes. Early projects financed industrial operations to the detriment of tropical native forests. In the early 1990s, the Banks forestry strategy prioritized forest preservation. The Banks strategy shifted again at the turn of the century, to focus on sustainable management and the role of forests in poverty alleviation. This paper examines the changes in policy direction undertaken by the Bank, in light of concurrent changes in international forest policy and the conservation community. The central question addressed is whether the Bank has led the way in bringing about change in the forestry paradigm, or were the different Bank strategies reactions to the policy environment and prevailing attitudes and pressures of the time?

Certifying small and community producers in developing countries: prospects for adoption and diffusion

Certification can be a useful tool to enhance benefits received by small-scale forest producers. Yet its diffusion among communities and smallholders in developing regions has been slow and challenging. The theory of innovation adoption and diffusion states that once a critical mass of early adopters has been reached and aided to become certified, then certification should diffuse more rapidly as success stories are communicated through networks. Using informant interviews of international experts on small-scale producer certification, this study describes characteristics of situations where communities and smallholders seem to be most ready for certification. These characteristics can help to identify potential early adopters as a means of enhancing the diffusion process by aiding in the recruitment of a critical mass of adopters. However, the study also found that without fundamental changes in the conditions that hinder the development of small-scale forest enterprises, and in the certification process itself, it is unlikely that adoption of certification among smallholders and communities will go far towards reaching that needed critical mass.

Promoting small and medium forest enterprises in national REDD+ strategies: a global analysis of enabling environments

REDD+ has emerged as a key component of climate mitigation strategies in developing countries. Small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) can contribute towards the achievement of REDD+ goals through conservation, sustainable use of forests, and enhancement of carbon stocks, while simultaneously improving local livelihoods and contributing to local economies. Thus, the promotion of SMFEs can be thought of as an important component of a nation’s REDD+ strategy. This study assesses the degree to which enabling environments for SMFEs are being promoted in countries that are in the midst of becoming REDD-ready. It uses an analytical framework, developed from a literature review on small-scale forestry-enabling environments, to conduct a qualitative content analysis of REDD-readiness documents that 41 countries have submitted to multi-lateral funders and assess the degree to which enabling environments for small-scale forest enterprises are being promoted under the auspices of REDD+. Despite a general recognition of the importance of SMFEs in REDD+ schemes, most countries failed to propose strategies and actions for improving enabling environments, particularly with respect to internal business capacities. Priority areas for investment of REDD-readiness funds that will deliver returns for both carbon and livelihoods through SMFEs are identified and enumerated. Policy relevance Small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) – with their potential to bring about high returns in terms of livelihoods, forest management, and climate change mitigation when compared to alternative forest uses – represent a potentially formidable tool for successful REDD+ implementation. By uncovering gaps in countries’ REDD-readiness with regards to SMFEs, results from this work can be used to design appropriate climate policies that will foment pro-poor REDD+ implementation that creates appropriate enabling environments for SMFEs to thrive. Doing so will not only reduce emissions, but it will also deliver substantial co-benefits.

Do Current Forest Carbon Standards Include Adequate Requirements to Ensure Indigenous Peoples' Rights in REDD Projects?

SUMMARY Although REDD projects can generate benefits for forest communities, they can also create negative social impacts, undermining the rights of indigenous peoples (IP). There is a need to analyze whether current forest carbon standards include adequate requirements to ensure IPs rights in REDD projects. This paper summaries the negative social impacts that REDD projects can cause in forest indigenous communities and establishes an evaluation framework of policies and measures needed to avoid or mitigate those impacts. This framework is used to assess how current carbon standards for REDD projects address social issues and whether they adequately protect IPs rights. The results of this assessment show that carbon standards, by and large, do not adequately include social standards to protect IPs rights. For example, while many standards call for clarification of tenure, few actually include recognition of traditional land and resources right. In addition, only half of the standards analyzed require monitoring of social impacts throughout the projects implementation, or require free prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples. Therefore, forest carbon standards for REDD projects should incorporate social principles in their methodologies or should be implemented jointly with social forest carbon standards.

Public Awareness and Perceptions of Watershed Management in the Min River Area, Fujian, China

With the increasing magnitude and frequency of natural disasters in China, environmental issues are of major concern to governments and the general public. Using questionnaire surveys, we examined public perceptions of environmental problems resulting from economic development in the Min River Watershed, China. This study found that public awareness and understanding of environmental issues were high. Two major concerns identified were water pollution and flooding, primarily thought to be caused by the discharge of untreated waste directly into water bodies and the overlogging of natural forests, respectively. Results also point to a desire for enhanced public participation in watershed management. The dialogue between decision makers and the general public should be sufficiently flexible to enable community involvement. The cooperation of multiple stakeholders across spatial and political boundaries is needed for the successful watershed management in this area.