Forest Policy and Environment Programme: Grey Literature Participatory Forest

The inclusion of communities in the management of state-owned or formerly state-owned forest resources has become increasingly common in the last 25 years. Almost all countries in Africa, and many in Asia, are promoting the participation of rural communities in the management and utilisation of natural forests and woodlands through some form of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) (see Wily, 2001 * for details on African countries). Many countries have now developed, or are in the process of developing, changes to national policies and legislation that institutionalise PFM. A report from Forest Trends (White and Martin, 2002) suggests that the forest area under community tenure or management is now approaching 25 % in global terms. However, the definition of what is meant by community tenure or management can vary. For example, in Ghana forests are nominally held by the customary authorities but in reality tree tenure is in the hands of the state which acts in the name of communities and the customary authorities. There are now a wide range of activities variously called community forestry, adaptive co-management and Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) t