People in the forest: community forestry experiences from Southeast Asia

Abstract

This paper documents experiences of community forest management in five Southeast Asian nations. It briefly describes the historical and political context that frames contemporary forest sector changes, examining important shifts occurring in the forest policy sector in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, following the decline of industrial forest management paradigms over the last two decades and the emergence of a new generation of environmentally and socially oriented policies and legislation. The paper explores how these new policies, laws and national programmes are affecting forest-dependent people across the region in an effort to track the transition in forest management on the ground. The paper also examines how community forestry systems are affecting forest cover, biodiversity and rural livelihoods.