Participatory forest management in Sri Lanka: myth or reality?

Although stakeholders' participation in forest management helps overcome problems and conflicts that prevent sustainable solutions, different approaches and nomenclature for similar contents in the literature hinder theoretical progress on the topic. This study organises existing information through a bibliometric analysis of scientific papers from the last 30 years (1991–2021) on sustainable forest management, focusing on the stakeholders' participation. Results demonstrate that stakeholders' participation in sustainable forest management gained relevance from 2017 onwards. Case studies are predominant (66%) and six major trends were identified. The first emphasises a systemic approach to participation. The second updates the community management discussion. The third studies historical problems related to the use of resources, rights, and services. The fourth focuses on regional assessments and studies. The fifth concerns assessment, decision-making, and planning, including issues related to certifications and policies. The sixth discusses innovation related to adaptation, climate change, equity, and resilience. The studies included in this last classification are problem-solving-oriented and seek new forest management. Although important, the role of innovation in stakeholders' participation in sustainable forest management is overlooked, which constitutes an avenue for future research.

Forest ecosystems are important to ecological, economic and social wellbeing, particularly for the adjacent communities who depend on it. Understanding the socioeconomic dynamics that make households choice to be involved in forest conservation is crucial for sustainable management of natural resources. This study therefore examined the socioeconomic factors that influenced households’ participation in forest management. Multistage probability sampling technique was used to select 202 respondents from households adjacent to Aberdare forest ecosystem. Data collected was analysed using Chi-square test, Spearman’s rho correlation and multinomial logistic regression. The factors that influenced participatory forest management included forest management approach (χ² = 17.551, p < 0.001), distance to the forest reserve (χ² = 29.071, p < 0.001), distance to the national park (χ² = 27.303, p = 0.008), gender of household head (χ² = 10.719, p = 0.002), land tenure (χ² = 34.313, p < 0.001), sources of income (χ² = 31.353, p < 0.001) and importance of the forest ecosystem (χ² = 29.241, p < 0.001). The factors that significantly influenced the regression model were farm size, household size, annual income, forest management approaches (FMA), land tenure, and importance of the forest ecosystem where R2 was 0.703. The study established that, although the proposition that natural resources need protection from anthropogenic destruction is widely accepted, communities are interested in collaborating with resource managers for long-term resource conservation. This study therefore recommends strategies for harnessing this high interest through broadening the economic benefits base on spur community involvement in conservation, a prerequisite for sustainable forest conservation. These include promotion of agroforestry practices, supporting non-extractive benefits and formation and capacity building of community associations to enhance participation in forest ecosystem management. Key words: Benefit-cost sharing, economic and non-economic benefits, forest ecosystem, forest management approach, forest reserve, national park, livelihoods.

The PFM scheme; where the community-based natural resource management has been receiving growing scientific attention over the past three decades. Most studies, however, focus on investigating institutional designs and outcomes and pay scant attention to how community-based natural resource management arrangements are carried out in practice. Therefore, this study focused to examine the possible promises with the establishment and actual practices of PFM scheme and visible contests that needs solutions to sustain the scheme in Kafa forest coffee Biosphere Reserve. To realize this thought 16 PFM sites of five districts of Kafa zone were purposively studied by collecting primary data through focused group discussions with forest management committee members and triangulated site based actual assessment practices with members to be evidenced about the promises and available contests of/on PFM scheme. Through an in-depth survey study in all of the participatory forest management (PFM) sites in Kafa zone, southwest Ethiopia, this article demonstrates a significant promises and contests between the PFM forest management plan and actual local forest management practices. The study confirms the usefulness of a practice-based approach to understand and explain how a newly introduced institutional arrangement is acted upon by local actors situated in their social, political and historical context as promises. On the other hand, the lagging commitment from the government agents, illegal users, uncontrolled forest use pressures and unbalanced commitment among the forest user group were proved as greatest upcoming contests on the sustainability of Kafa forest coffee Biosphere reserve in general and PFM of each site in particular. The findings also contribute to empirical knowledge useful to initiate dialog and to critically reflect on whether and what kind of intervention is actually needed to positively influence forest management practices on the ground for its sustainability based on the plan. Keywords: PFM arrangement; promises and Contests of PFM; practice-based approach DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/65-01 Publication date: May 31 st 2020

Engkuni-Pasek is predominantly a Dayak Benua' village. Formerly, the village was separated as two villages, Engkuni and Pasek, which merged into one in the 1960s. Participatory forest management is relevant and important to be implemented in the Engkune-Pasek Village since they could not organize to manage their natural resources (forest) sustainably and they suffer much due to forest and land fire. Through participatory forest management, the customary rules, regulations and indigenous knowledge in managing their natural resources will be accomodated into the legal forest management policy in written form. Moreover, participatory approach will rebuild cooperation and trusts amongs the villagers and other stakeholders in the village. The main objectives of participatory forest (fire) management is to prepare and implement forest (fire) management plans by involving all stakeholders particularly local people (villagers) to all the process. In conclusion, the proposed participatory approach in reforestation of the Engkuni-Pasek Village has to consider all internal and external factors. The inter-relation between the factors and its effect has to be understood by the villagers and other stakeholders which need to be discussed.

Over the past 15 years the Tanzanian government has promoted participatory forest management (both joint forest management and community-based forest management) as a major strategy for managing natural forests for sustainable use and conservation. Such management is currently either operational or in the process of being established in &gt; 3.6 million ha of forest land and in &gt; 1,800 villages. Data from three case studies of forests managed using participatory and non-participatory forest management approaches suggest that community involvement in forest management is correlated with improving forest condition. In our first case study we demonstrate increasing basal area and volume of trees per ha over time in miombo woodland and coastal forest habitats under participatory forest management compared with similar forests under state or open access management. In our second case study three coastal forest and sub-montane Eastern Arc forests under participatory forest management show a greater number of trees per ha, and mean height and diameter of trees compared to three otherwise similar forests under state management. In our third case study levels of cutting in coastal forest and Eastern Arc forests declined over time since initiation in participatory forest management sites. We conclude that participatory forest management is showing signs of delivering impact in terms of improved forest condition in Tanzanian forests but that further assessments need to be made to verify these initial findings.

It has been widely recognised that the participation of different groups of people is crucial to urban forest management. This paper aimed to focus on the motivating factors and conditions that foster participation in urban forest management. Also, the main constraints which limit participation were explored. Therefore, a survey using a researcher-designed questionnaire was used to gain information from forest visitors. Exploratory factor analysis was used to categorise all the effective factors and constraints into summarised factors. Using a principal component analysis, it was found that the most important factors encouraging participation in urban forestry were health and environment improvement and involvement spirit. These two factors explained about 60% of citizens’ participation variance. The constraints also were categorized into four categories namely “lack of legal support”, “lack of cooperation spirit”, “lack of motivation” and “lack of time and awareness”. The stepwise regression model with socio-economic features and factors affecting citizens’ participation in forest management also showed that five variables, namely health and environment improvement, having a child, involvement spirit, lack of motivation and income were predicting 45.1% of the effective factors on citizens’ participation. The results suggest that to enable more participation of citizens, the legislative structure should change and institutional support increase. In addition, motivation, particularly economic and increasing awareness are necessary for attracting citizens to participate in forest management plans.

IntroductionSince the last few decades, the government of Ethiopia has introduced and adopted participatory forest management (PFM) in different regions of the country. However, there is a lack of research dealing with perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM in Wof-Washa Forests (WWF). The aim of this study was to evaluate the perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM implemented in WWF. We hypothesized that the perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM differ with socio-economic variables, such as sex, age, level of education, family size, occupation type, annual income, length of duration of local residence, livestock, and land ownership.MethodsA structured questionnaire comprised of close- and open-ended questions was developed and administered to a total of n = 64 households to collect information on the perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM in WWF. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regressions were used to analyze and interpret the data.ResultsThe results revealed that socio-economic variables had significant effects on the perceptions towards “the prevalence of the problems with the existing PFM system” (39% variance explained), “the concept of PFM” (30% variance explained), and “the presence of PFM practice” (11% variance explained). Majority of the respondents accepted the PFM program introduced in WWF in order to protect and manage the WWF. The study also revealed that socio-economic variables had significant effects on the attitudes towards “managing forests via participatory approach” (16% variance explained), “having the responsibility to protect the WWF” (40% variance explained), and “accepting the PFM practice” (54% variance explained). However, the findings suggested that there were some respondents who were yet unsure to fully accept the concept and practice of PFM.ConclusionsCreating public awareness about PFM is crucial to alleviate the problems of deforestation and reduce the unsustainable use of the WWF. As socio-economic variables that affect perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM may change over time, future research is crucial to consider the time dimension as possible factor while studying perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM.

Participatory forest management for improving livelihood assets and mitigating forest degradation: Lesson drawn from the Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia

The forest resources in Ethiopia have suffered decades of mismanagement due mainly to loosely defined property relations over these resources. As one of the solutions, Participatory Forest Management (PFM) scheme was introduced during the early 1990s by some NGOs. Nearly two decades of experience now exists in the country. However systematic assessments of the performance of the scheme are scanty. This study reports the experience from Bonga PFM project, which is one of the oldest pilot sites. Forest inventory and socio-economic survey were conducted to collect data. The study was conducted during a transition from NGO - Community to State - Community based management of the PFM project. PFM is shown to have positive impacts both on the state of the forest and living condition of participant households at least within the project life time. Forest conditions such as seedling and sapling densities improved. PFM also (i) promoted awareness about forest, (ii) capacitated locals to form new institutional arrangement that increased their participation in forest management, helped to reduce open access and assisted a regulated forest use, and (iii) contributed towards social equity in terms of gender and minority ethnic groups. When accompanied with complementary non-forest based livelihood activities, PFM helped to diversify income sources, increase household income level, and build household assets. This reduced dependence of communities on forests for livelihoods. A challenge threatening the sustainability of the PFM program in Ethiopia is the weak government support for the scheme. PFM is still far from being mainstreamed in the forest management system of the country. Thus, it will be appropriate to assess how the PFM programs would perform few years after the support of the NGOs terminates.

The paper discusses the chronological changes in Indian participatory forest management from the perspectives of forest conservation and the impact of participatory forest management approach in the context of socio-economic issues of native dwellers, using archival resources, secondary information and previous academic and non-academic materials. The idea of participatory forest management in India can be traced back to the British colonial period. However, this idea was revitalized in the 1980s. Historically, it was hard to protect entire forest areas by the Forest Department because the forests had been part of local peoples' day-to-day life. Therefore, native peoples' participation in forest management along with their socio-economic improvement has been required to protect forests. Throughout the history of community participation, villagers have been involved in forest management schemes through a give-and-take symbiotic relationship. Community participation in forest management from the standpoint of forest conservation in India has shown that it is an evolving process, embedded within local socioecological systems and negotiated between the state and local communities.

The study examined the impact of participatory forest management (PFM) on the wealth of households living adjacent to Arabuko–Sokoke Forest (ASF). The study question was “is PFM an asset or liability to local communities living adjacent to ASF”. The study hypothesized that PFM areas have higher household wealth than non-PFM zones. Between 2008 and 2009, questionnaires were used to collect data in PFM and non-PFM zones. Data on wealth parameters were collected. Data was collected up to 5 km from forest hedge along 10 km transects sampling 600 households. The results showed that in the PFM zones, community benefits arising from PFM have translated into improved household wealth. The PFM zones have households who have higher levels of education, food reliability and better housing. The non-PFM zones showed frequencies of households that have no crop field, always have insufficient food, do not own a cow, goat or chicken and have no house or are headed by females. There is need to carry out more studies on the impacts of PFM on gender and household headship. The study concludes that PFM is a critical forest conservation tool that should be implemented in non-PFM zones. Key words: Participatory, forest, management, household, benefit, cost, Arabuko–Sokoke.

Alienating forest dependent communities from forest by depriving them of the right to use forest resource is what widely accepted over recent years as a major factor in conditioning local communities to develop feelings of hostility towards the forest; and push them to destroy the forest resource irresponsibly. This consideration was lied the foundation for new development in forest management known as participatory forest management (PFM).This form of forest management through local participation is a phenomenon that emerged over recent decades as a remedial measure to the old (top down) form of forest management. One of the core concepts in this Participatory forest management (PFM) is improving local community’s sense of ownership toward the forest by empowering them as both developer and beneficiaries of forest resources. Taking local participation as fundamental principle of PFM approach, this research was under taken on Jello forest with the objective of studying local communities’ participation, attitude towards the new approach (PFM) and improvements in their sense of ownership toward the forest. A total of 172 sampled respondents were randomly selected from both non-PFM and PFM member households. Data were collected from sampled households using Household survey questionnaire, key informant interview and focus group discussion. Qualitative data were analyzed using content and discourse analyses; whereas quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics using R-statistical software. Accordingly the result of household survey, focus group discussion and key informant interview were revealed that local communities participation in forest management have improved under the newly introduced forest management system (PFM). The study further revealed that local communities have positive attitude towards PFM and also their sense of ownership toward the forest has significantly improved. About 70% of non- PFM and 85% of PFM members were strongly agreed that the establishment of PFM has improved communities’ participation in forest management. Based on the findings of this study it could be concluded that PFM is effective in improving local community’s participation and sense of ownership towards the forest. Keywords: Participatory Forest management, Sense of Ownership, participation, Sustainable development, Jello Forest. DOI : 10.7176/JRDM/61-01 Publication date: November 30 th 2019

Alienating forest dependent communities from forest by depriving them of the right to use forest resource is what widely accepted over recent years as a major factor in conditioning local communities to develop feelings of hostility towards the forest; and push them to destroy the forest resource irresponsibly. This consideration was lied the foundation for new development in forest management known as participatory forest management (PFM).This form of forest management through local participation is a phenomenon that emerged over recent decades as a remedial measure to the old (top down) form of forest management. One of the core concepts in this Participatory forest management (PFM) is improving local community’s sense of ownership toward the forest by empowering them as both developer and beneficiaries of forest resources. Taking local participation as fundamental principle of PFM approach, this research was under taken on Jello forest with the objective of studying local communities’ participation, attitude towards the new approach (PFM) and improvements in their sense of ownership toward the forest. A total of 172 sampled respondents were randomly selected from both non-PFM and PFM member households. Data were collected from sampled households using Household survey questionnaire, key informant interview and focus group discussion. Qualitative data were analyzed using content and discourse analyses; whereas quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics using R-statistical software. Accordingly the result of household survey, focus group discussion and key informant interview were revealed that local communities participation in forest management have improved under the newly introduced forest management system (PFM). The study further revealed that local communities have positive attitude towards PFM and also their sense of ownership toward the forest has significantly improved. About 70% of non- PFM and 85% of PFM members were strongly agreed that the establishment of PFM has improved communities’ participation in forest management. Based on the findings of this study it could be concluded that PFM is effective in improving local community’s participation and sense of ownership towards the forest. Key w ords: Participatory Forest management, Sense of Ownership, participation, Sustainable development, Jello Forest. DOI : 10.7176/JAAS/59-01 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

ABSTRACTThis study examines a participatory forest management program and its impacts on forest conditions in Gebradima Forest, southwest Ethiopia. Vegetation data were collected from both participatory forest management (PFM) and nonparticipatory forest management (non-PFM) forest blocks. A total of 54 plots (27 from each forest block) measuring 20 m × 20 m were employed to collect species composition and structural data. Results indicated that a total of 51 different woody plant species (49 at PFM and 43 at non-PFM blocks), representing 31 families were recorded, with 41 species were shared for both forest sites. Species diversity and evenness were higher in the forest with PFM (H´ = 3.29, E = .85) compared to the forest without PFM (H´ = 2.97, E = .79). The overall mean values of tree/shrub and seedling density per hectare, diameter class (≤ 20 cm) were also significantly (p < .05) higher in PFM forest than non-PFM forests. However, no significant variations were observed in sapling density per hectare and basal area between the two studied forest blocks. It can be concluded that PFM had a positive effect on forest conditions compared with a similar forest without PFM. Hence, it is important to scaling up PFM in neighboring forests.

This study examines the impact of participatory forest management (PFM) on forest-adjacent household livelihoods in the Arabuko-Sokoke forest in Kenya. It compares the impacts on households near PFM forests (PFM zones) with those near forests with no participatory management (non-PFM zones). The study questions were: does conservation of the Arabuko-Sokoke forest result in net household incomes?; does PFM increase net household benefits?; and are household benefits uniformly distributed within the 5 km PFM intervention zone? The hypotheses tested were: forest conservation benefits exceed forest conservation costs; PFM zones have higher household benefits than non-PFM zones; and benefits and costs reduce with distance from forest edge. In the year 2009, we collected data on household benefits and costs in PFM and non-PFM zones. Data were collected along 10 km transects at 1 km intervals, sampling 600 households up to 5 km away from the forest. The results show varied household dependence on the Arabuko-Sokoke forest. The forest benefits exceed costs in PFM zones but the forest is a cost in non-PFM zones, and costs and benefits reduce with distance from forest edge. The study concludes that, though not cheap, PFM is a tool that can help the Arabuko-Sokoke forest win the support of the adjacent local communities.