The Equitable Forest

by Colfer, Carol J. Pierce

• ISBN13: 9781891853784
• ISBN10: 1891853783
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-10-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

While there continues to be refinement in defining and assessing sustainable management, there remains the urgent need for policies that create the conditions that support sustainability and can halt or slow destructive practices already underway. Carol Colfer and her contributors maintain that standardized solutions to forest problems from afar have failed to address both human and environmental needs. Such approaches, they argue, often neglect the knowledge that local stakeholders have accumulated over generations as forest managers and do not address issues involving the diversity and well-being of groups within communities. The contributors note that these problems persist despite clear evidence that equity and social relationships, including gender roles, are important factors in the ways that communities adapt to change and manage forest resources overall. The Equitable Forest offers an alternative to traditional, externally organized strategies for forest management. Termed adaptive collaborative management (ACM), the approach tries to better acknowledge the diversity, complexity, and unpredictability of human and natural systems. ACM works to strengthen local institutions and use the knowledge and capacity of groups in local communities to enhance the health and well-being of both forests and the people who live in and around them. The Equitable Forest provides a detailed explanation of the descriptive, analytical, and methodological tools of ACM, along with accounts of early stages of its implementation in tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Although the contributors make it clear that it is too soon to evaluate the efficacy of ACM, their work is supported by evidence that rural communities do make important contributions when involved in formal forest management; that management strategies are most effective when flexible and tailored to local contexts; and that efforts by outside governmental and nongovernmental organizations to support local management are feasible from the policymaking perspective, and desirable for their impact on human, economic, and environmental well-being.

Author Biography

George Akwah is assistant coordinator for Innovative Resources Management and works in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo Njau Anau is an Indonesian working as a consultant for CIFOR in Bulungan Research Forest, East Kalimantan, Indonesia Omaira Bolanos is a Colombian anthropologist from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida Constance Campbell is a social science and biodiversity advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development Guilhermina Cayres is a Brazilian specialist in sustainable development working as a consultant. She was part of the eastern Amazon ACM team Avecita Chicchon is a Peruvian anthropologist working for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, Illinois Carol J. Pierce Colfer is an American anthropologist and public health specialist working for CIFOR Peter Cronkleton is an American anthropologist who coordinated CIFOR's ACM work in Bolivia and is now working on grassroots networking in South America Sushma Dangol is a Nepalese forester working for NORMS, a Nepali NGO, in partnership with CIFOR Mariteuw Chimere Diaw is a Senegalese anthropologist working for CIFOR and leading the ACM teams in Cameroon and Ghana Stepi Hakim, an Indonesian wildlife biologist and natural resource manager, coordinated CIFOR's research in Pasir, East Kalimantan and is now working as a forestry specialist with the European Union-Ministry of Forestry/Indonesia Forest Liaison Bureau in Jakarta Miriam van Heist is an ecologist working as a consultant at CIFOR in Bogor, Indonesia Ramses Iwan is a forest specialist for CIFOR in Bulungan Research Forest, East Kalimantan, Indonesia Trikurnianti Kusumanto is an agronomist who has been coordinating CIFOR's ACM field research in Jambi, Sumatra since 2000 Godwin Limberg is an agronomist and a consultant working as a field team leader for CIFOR in Bulungan Research Forest, East Kalimantan, Indonesia Frank Matose, a Zimbabwean anthropologist and former CIFOR team leader in Harare, is senior researcher and program manager of the Center for Applied Social Studies, University of Zimbabwe and the Program for Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape program on People-Centered Approaches to Natural Resource Management Tendayi Mutimukuru is a Zimbabwean specialist in social learning. She worked as a Participatory Action Researcher with CIFOR in Mafungautsi State Forest in Gokwe District in central Zimbabwe Nontokozo Nemarundwe is a Zimbabwean anthropologist who now coordinates CIFOR's ACM work in Zimbabwe Joachim Nguiebouri is a field researcher working primarily in the Campo Ma'an National Park as part of the ACM-Cameroon team Westphalen Nunes is a community forester and coordinator for Amazonian issues for the National Fund for the Environment of the Brazilian Ministry for the Environment and part of the eastern Amazon ACM team Richard Nyirenda, a Zimbabwean forester who worked as a member of the Zimbabwe ACM team, is now pursuing his M.Sc. at the University of Wales, Swansea Phil Rene Oyono is a Cameroonian sociologist and member of the ACM-Cameroon team Richard Piland is an American anthropologist specializing in tropical agriculture and now working as a natural sciences teacher in Chicago, Illinois Benno Pokorny, a German forester who coordinated CIFOR's ACM research in Brazil, is now in charge of tropical forestry at the Institute for Forest Management and Silviculture at the Forest Faculty of the University of Freiburg Noemi Miyasaki Porro is a Brazilian anthropologist who worked with the ACM team in western Brazil, and is now working as a consultant out of Belem, Brazil Marianne Schmink is an American anthropologist and professor at the University of Florida who linked CIFOR scientists with the ACM field team in Acre, Brazil Bevlyne Sithole is a Zimbabwean anthropologist who worked as a consultant at CIFOR in Bogor Samantha Stone is an American anthropologist from the University of Florida in Gainesville Made Sudana is an Indonesian forester working as a consultant for CIFOR in Bulungan Research Forest, East Kalimantan, Indonesia Anne Marie Tiani, a Cameroonian ecologist who worked on the ACM-Cameroon team, works for Innovative Resource Management in Yaounde, Cameroon Eva Wollenberg is an American scientist at CIFOR who specializes in community forests, livelihoods, and devolution

Table of Contents

Foreword by Angela Cropper	xi
About the Contributors	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
INTRODUCTION The Struggle for Equity in Forest Management	1	(18)
Carol J. Pierce Colfer
PART I. ASIA
1. Negotiating More Than Boundaries in Indonesia	19	(23)
Njau Anau, Ramses Iwan, Miriam van Heist, Godwin Limberg, Made Sudana, and Eva Wollenberg
2. Dealing with Overlapping Access Rights in Indonesia	42	(12)
Stepi Hakim
3. Participation and Decisionmaking in Nepal	54	(18)
Sushma Dangol
4. Scientists in Social Encounters: The Case for an Engaged Practice of Science	72	(41)
Mariteuw Chimere Diaw and Trikurnianti Kusumanto
PART II. AFRICA
5. From Diversity to Exclusion for Forest Minorities in Cameroon	113	(18)
Phil René Oyono
6. Women in Campo-Ma'an National Park: Uncertainties and Adaptations in Cameroon	131	(19)
Anne Marie Tiani, George Akwah, and Joachim Nguiébouri
7. Women, Decisionmaking, and Resource Management in Zimbabwe	150	(21)
Nontokozo Nemarundwe
8. Becoming Men in Our Dresses! Women's Involvement in a Joint Forestry Management Project in Zimbabwe	171	(15)
Bevlyne Sithole
9. Learning Amongst Ourselves: Adaptive Forest Management through Social Learning in Zimbabwe	186
Tendayi Mutimukuru, Richard Nyirenda, and Frank Matose
PART III. SOUTH AMERICA
10. Intrahousehold Differences in Natural Resource Management in Peru and Brazil	207	(22)
Constance Campbell, Avecita Chicchon, Marianne Schmink, and Richard Piland
11. Improving Collaboration between Outsiders and Communities in the Amazon	229	(13)
Benno Pokorny, Guilhermina Cayres, and Westphalen Nunes
12. Diversity in Living Gender: Two Cases from the Brazilian Amazon	242	(14)
Noemi Miyasaki Porro and Samantha Stone
13. Gender, Participation, and the Strengthening of Indigenous Forest Management in Bolivia	256	(18)
Peter Cronkleton
14. Women's Place Is Not in the Forest: Gender Issues in a Timber Management Project in Bolivia	274	(22)
Omaira Bolanos and Marianne Schmink
CONCLUSION Implications of Adaptive Collaborative Management for More Equitable Forest Management	296	(8)
Carol J. Pierce Colfer
References	304	(23)
Index	327