Governance and decentralization of forest management in the construction of public policies: process applied to amapá and sergipe – Brazil

Abstract

Forest governance, now in vogue, has been touted by the debate on decentralization. In Brazil, these processes are in progress, coalescing and coming to constitute an important agenda of policy makers, social actors and the academy. This agenda is aimed at harmonizing quality improvement aspirations of living with the support capabilities of the different forest ecosystems. However, the mediation of social demands regarding conservation and use of forest resources is differently expressed and in conflicting hues in the three spheres of government, due to the decentralization of forest management process. Thus, this work presents a process applied in mediating such type of conflict via construction of forest policies in the states of Amapá and Sergipe, located in the Amazon and Semi-Arid Brazil, respectively. The method applied within the forest policy process integrates and complements theories, methods and techniques to articulate forest functions, state functions in forestry, forest policy fundamentals, social demands, and organizational management. The final construction allowed to adjust to the social demands of forest ecosystems carrying capacities and to align them with organizational management, to provide conditions of effectiveness for the implementation of decentralization and strengthening of forest governance.