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Stakeholders, Interests and Power as Drivers of Community Forestry: Comparative Analysis of Albania, Germany, Cameroon, Indonesia, Namibia, Nepal and Thailand
Project
Project code: 116674375
Contract period: 01.05.2009
- 30.06.2014
Purpose of research: Basic research
Community forestry has not met the great public expectations on a significant contribution to sustainable forestry yet. Recent research in the management and policy of community forestry describes a complex process of multi level social choice which determines the outcomes. Our hypothesis is that the key factors determining the outcomes of community forestry are the interests and power of the external stake holders. This hypothesis will be tested in a comparative quantitative and qualitative analysis. In seven countries comprising developed and developing countries 84 cases will be used for comparison. The comparative analysis will be carried out by one PhD student financed by the project. He will do the field work in close cooperation with PhD students who are already conducting their PhD analysis the different countries. The comparative analysis is aimed to explore key drivers of community forestry which are not yet identified in literature.
Results: Community forestry is one of the most popular concepts aiming to improve sustainable management of the forests. In contrast to the proactive application of this model in many countries during the last three decades, the great public expectations have not been met. The failure of many community forestry projects is a problem which is highly relevant for political practice regarding the protection and use of forests as well as for forest policy research. This project contributes to the solution of these problems by identifying and explaining weaknesses of the community forestry concept and by developing options for improving its practical performance by focusing on key political factors. The objective of the project is to identify the political drivers of community forestry using a comparative approach. The hypothesis is that the interests and power of external stakeholders are key factors determining the outcomes of community forestry. This hypothesis should be tested in a comparative quantitative and qualitative analysis of local cases in seven countries from both, the developed and developing world. A final comparative analysis was done between cases from Cameroon, Germany, Indonesia, Namibia and Nepal. The most powerful actors relevant for community forestry were found being state forest service, forest user group representatives and international donor organizations. They strongly influence the outcomes of community forestry. The observed progress in greening the forest is well in line with the interests of these powerful actors. In a few cases biodiversity is promoted as well. The powerful actors try to make their own profit and do not care about the economic outcome for the final forest users. As a consequence, the final forest users get little products and services only from their community forests. The supply of products and services often merely remains on subsistence level. One third of the community forests does not offer opportunities for genuine participation at all to the final forest users. In two third of the cases such participation is restricted in many ways. The powerful actors hinder the development of substantial participation which is at the heart of the community forestry model. Based on the core finding, that powerful actors on district and national level largely determine the outcomes of community forests we conclude that research and practical efforts on the mere management of community forests in local settings alone will fail to improve the performance. This is because such analyses and efforts are blind for the external power network. The contribution of the project to scholarly and practical debates lies in the development of a theoretical concept and a method for field research which provides insights into the power network determining the outcomes of community forestry. A challenge for future research will be integrating its power analysis with Ostrom`s institutionalistic model of co-management of common property resources.
Section overview
Subjects
- Forestry
