International Forestry Resources And Institutions Research Articles

Effect of water on microorganisms in solid state bioprocessing

Methodological challenges have confounded studies of the commons for much of its recent history. These problems range from a large number of potentially influential variables, difficulties in capturing and measuring these variables, and large sets of interacting and mediating factors. With respect to quantitative methods, a specific dilemma is their use at or beyond their methodologically accepted limits. More specifically, this paper explores the potential implications of applying multinomial logistic regression techniques in small samples. It does so by drawing upon published data from the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) program to explore potential problems of method from prominent research findings in the literature on forest commons. A subset of the results is then compared to a similar study of tropical deforestation. The results point to considerable inconsistency in the sign of parameter estimates, and a large number of type II errors. However, they also suggest that type I errors are relatively rare. As a whole, this paper demonstrates the general reliability of multinomial logistic regression in small samples by showing that statistically significant parameters are unlikely to lead policymakers in the wrong direction. Nevertheless it also suggests that this approach is likely to overlook several influential factors, posing potential dilemmas for the development of a theory of sustainability.

Leadership and Trade-Offs Between Social–Ecological Outcomes in Community-Governed Forests

ABSTRACTI explore the effect of leadership on the trade-off between social and ecological outcomes of community driven efforts in governing forests globally. I do so by using logistic regression and QCA (qualitative comparative analysis) for the analysis of cross-sectional data from the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research program. While the net effect of leadership on the trade-off in forestry outcomes is significant, there are multiple causal paths via which various factors influence the trade-off in forestry outcomes. Some of these paths take place in the presence of leadership, while the presence or the absence of leadership is irrelevant for the rest of the paths. This finding indicates that leaders often play an important role in the decisionmaking process during the governance of forests, especially when hard decisions need to be taken.

Moving forward in collaborative forest management: Role of external actors for sustainable Forest socio-ecological systems

Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) of local forest users and governments promoted to achieve sustainable forest Social-Ecological Systems (SESs) by consolidating strengths of these actors. Although much of the writings on CFM acknowledge its potential to deliver sustainable SESs, knowledge about what specific role of government can strengthen local forest management and utilization is still poor at best. This study aims to fill the gap by analyzing meta-data from International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) database for 77 SESs (IFRI sites) in seven countries. We used Ordinal logistic regression to model association between government's Forester Department involvement in important forest management activities and sustainability of forest SES. Our result shows that Forester Department involvement in planting, forest maintenance activities and forest benefit sharing among forest users are associated with sustainable SESs while their involvement in monitoring, sanctioning and transfer of local people harvest right are associated with unsustainable SESs. Our finding has important implications for the ongoing local to global level discourse on how to structure appropriate government interventions to achieve positive social and environmental outcomes from local forest management. However, we suggest precaution not to overstretch the implication of our findings as a panacea for CFM.

Identifying salient forest SES attributes for sustainability: A multi-country study

The question of under what settings locally managed forests will lead to successful conservation without frustrating the local people’s subsistence outcomes remains contested. This research investigates the relationship between attributes of locally managed forest SES and its forest and livelihood outcomes using data from 83 forest SESs across seven countries. The data were obtained from the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) database. Thirteen predicators that were selected from the attributes of forest, user group and governance of the local forest SES were used to evaluate their influence on SES sustainability. Our results showed that sustainable forest SES was significantly associated with forest size, diversity of the NTFP that is extracted from the forest, networks among the forest users, rule making by external non-forest harvest organizations in dispute resolution, and benefits sharing. On the other hand, the distance of forest users’ settlements in the forest, rule making for forest protection and harvest quantity as well as sanctions by external non-forest harvest organizations were found to be significantly associated with unsustainable forest SESs. Our findings have important implications for the ongoing discourse on how to promote sustainable forest management at local level. The results on the success factors can assist decision makers to improve the chances for the success of forest governance that rely on local people who depend upon forests.

Confronting problems of method in the study of sustainability

Methodological challenges have confounded studies of the commons for much of its recent history. These problems range from a large number of potentially influential variables, difficulties in capturing and measuring these variables, and large sets of interacting and mediating factors. With respect to quantitative methods, a specific dilemma is their use at or beyond their methodologically accepted limits. More specifically, this paper explores the potential implications of applying multinomial logistic regression techniques in small samples. It does so by drawing upon published data from the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) program to explore potential problems of method from prominent research findings in the literature on forest commons. A subset of the results is then compared to a similar study of tropical deforestation. The results point to considerable inconsistency in the sign of parameter estimates, and a large number of type II errors. However, they also suggest that type I errors are relatively rare. As a whole, this paper demonstrates the general reliability of multinomial logistic regression in small samples by showing that statistically significant parameters are unlikely to lead policymakers in the wrong direction. Nevertheless it also suggests that this approach is likely to overlook several influential factors, posing potential dilemmas for the development of a theory of sustainability.

The virtue of conflict: an institutional approach to the study of conflict in community forest governance

SUMMARY Conflict may simultaneously help and hinder the local governance of community forests. Based on 499 observations of forest user groups included in the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) database, it is shown here that variables which are associated with good community forestry outcomes also correlate positively with the occurrence of conflict. This finding seems to be incongruent with the notion that conflict undermines collective action and therewith the potential for sustainable governance of community forests. Individual preferences cannot be easily amalgamated into a group preference. Efforts to articulate group preferences depend on the institutions chosen to reach compromises. These institutions are commonly challenged by those whose preferences are poorly served, adding to the potential for conflict. Therefore it is argued here, that the study of conflict in community forest governance should incorporate rules and rule-making procedures in its analyses.

In Honor of Elinor Ostrom

Southern Economic JournalVolume 79, Issue 3 p. 481-483 In Memoriam In Honor of Elinor Ostrom James C. Cox, James C. Cox jccox@gsu.edu Noah Langdale Jr, Eminent Scholar Chair, and Director of the Experimental Economics Center, Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USASearch for more papers by this author James C. Cox, James C. Cox jccox@gsu.edu Noah Langdale Jr, Eminent Scholar Chair, and Director of the Experimental Economics Center, Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USASearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 January 2013 https://doi.org/10.4284/0038-4038-2012.219Citations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume79, Issue3January 2013Pages 481-483 RelatedInformation

Women's participation in forest management: A cross-country analysis

The role of women's participation in community forestry has recently been investigated in a number of theoretical and empirical papers. This paper takes an existing theoretical framework developed by Agarwal (2001) and applies it to examine two questions: (1) What determines women's participation in forestry institutions? and (2) What effect does women's participation have on institutional outcomes (such as levels of conflict and rule fairness)? To answer these questions data is used from two sources: (1) a detailed household survey conducted with 1.433 households in Bolivia, Kenya, Mexico, and Uganda and (2) a more aggregated dataset from forest associations investigated by the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) program in 10 countries. The analyses suggest that women's participation is likely when institutions exist that are less exclusionary, when households have more education, and when there is small economic inequality in general and across genders in particular. A history of women's participation, especially when women are seated on forest councils or attain leadership positions, is highly correlated with less disruptive conflict.

Common property rights, adaptive capacity, and response to forest disturbance

This paper reports the results of a statistical analysis which measures the effects of adaptive capacity on forest conditions in response to a prior disturbance. Particular emphasis is placed on common property rights as a form of institutional adaptive capacity. Common property rights are delineated in terms of rights of access, withdrawal, management, exclusion, and alienation. Using statistical analysis of 326 forest user groups from 13 countries in the database of the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) program, the effects on user group rankings of forest conditions are estimated with a probability model. Overall, the results indicate that user groups with more complete property rights are more likely to rank forest conditions favorably. However, the effects of property rights also depend on the level of other forms of adaptive capacity such as the organizational capacity of the group and the number of rival user groups.

Sustainability, autonomy, and benefits from forest commons

Chhatre and Agrawal's article (1) is an important contribution to the Commons literature, with large policy implications. They conclude that the dual benefits of carbon storage (CS) and livelihood support (LI) from forest commons occur simultaneously if the forest size is large and there is local autonomy in decision making. These claims are well intentioned but debatable on three counts: definitions used, choice of variables, and sample selection. Sustainable forest use in the authors’ study (1) occurs when both CS and LI are high. Is this a dynamic equilibrium outcome whereby stocks and flows from these forests have been stabilized? Chhatre and Agrawal (1) do not establish this. A high current LI may degenerate to a low CS in future, resulting in “unsustainable” or “overused” commons. Furthermore, they state that the livelihood variable is strongly correlated with poverty, which should not be a long-term desirable outcome. In the authors’ study (1), the outcome with low LI (read poverty) and high CS is associated with community ownership and long distance to forest and administrative center. The variable FCONSERVE (therefore Rulematch) may not represent “autonomy”. First, FCONSERVE presumably records whether forest use is sustainable, not whether there is autonomy in rule making. Therefore, Rulematch (independent variable) and LivCar1 (dependent variable) may not have a “cause and effect” relationship because both record “sustainable” use. Second, the choice of Rulematch to represent autonomy rests on the assumption that if forests are managed by local users then there is congruence between conservation rules and the state of the forest. We believe this is a relationship that should be examined rather than stated because it assumes that communities not only possess requisite knowledge but also have the ability to create and enforce sustainable use rules. The simultaneous occurrence of these requirements is not common (2, 3). The study (1) has only 14 cases of community ownership, half of which show the expected value for Rulematch; this may be too small a number from which to draw such strong conclusions. They did not test (or control) for influence of the market on conservation. Sadmin and Smarket [recording distance from the nearest market in the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) database] are strongly correlated. Sadmin in the regression in the authors’ study (1) could be interpreted alternatively as measuring the impact of market forces rather than administrative control. Interestingly, Sadmin is not significant in either of the outcomes HH (high CS and high LI) or LL (low CS and low LI). The range of forest size in the sample is very large (21–22,700 ha). If the contest is for allocation between current and future use, and between different land use types, the sample if not random [as in the authors’ study (1)] should exclude the very large forests. Their inclusion may bias the regression results and cause forest size to seem significant. We believe the points made by Chhatre and Agrawal could have been made in a more persuasive way and that the larger IFRI database provides opportunity for this. Unfortunately, alternative regression specifications could not be attempted on the original IFRI data because of difficulties in identifying the forests selected in their study (1).

Monitoring and sanctioning in the commons: An application to forestry

We examine theoretical determinants of monitoring and sanctioning at both the local community level and from external government agents using the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. We then estimate a bivariate probit statistical model to test the theory using data from 100 forests in 14 countries collected by the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research program. Among other things, we find that a right to harvest some portion of the resource is an important determinant of local monitoring and sanctioning. The number of external aid agencies and NGOs is an important determinant of external monitoring and sanctioning.

Fourteen years of monitoring community-managed forests: learning from IFRI's experience

Although community managed forests constitute a significant proportion of the worlds’ forests, there is little information about their condition or how they are managed. The International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) network is a research programme established in 1992 to collect interdisciplinary information about forest sustainability and governance. IFRI is unique in terms of the large number of small-scale sites monitored (more than 350 communities and 9000 forest plots) for more than a decade, under the guidance of strong central leadership, a well defined research framework, relative autonomy of network members, and a strong inward focus. These features have enabled IFRI to have particular impacts on new knowledge, policy and local communities, and capacity building. Lessons about how to further strengthen, extend and sustain these impacts include developing more robust agreement about measures of forest sustainability, building network members’ capacities to conduct comparative analysis, ensuring the database meets the needs of multiple users and expanding the membership and outreach of the network.

Forest property rights under nationalized forest management in Bhutan

Forest nationalization policies in Asia have often resulted in decreased local property rights over forests and users' short-term exploitative behaviour, leading to degradation of forests. Bhutan's centralized forest management structure was initiated with the Forest Act of 1969. This paper evaluates how nationalization of forests in Bhutan changed forest property rights and associated incentives and disincentives and management outcomes for leaf-litter forests (sokshing) and non-sokshing forests. Using the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IRFI) research protocols, 12 sites across Bhutan's broadleaf zones were surveyed. Changes in forest property rights were analysed using Ostrom and Schlager's ‘bundles of rights’ framework. The forest nationalization policy changed the array of de jure rights that local people had over both traditionally community-used forests (the majority of forests) and small blocks of sokshings that were usually owned by a household and managed to produce valuable leaf litter for their agriculture livelihoods. There was more compliance with regulations in sokshing than in non-sokshing forests. Non-compliance of local people with forest conservation occurred in areas where the chance of being caught for rule breaking was perceived to be low or the costs of compliance were high. This was almost exclusively the case in non-sokshing forest in the form of widespread but low-intensity illegal tree cutting. The continuing significance of sokshing for agricultural livelihoods serves as a strong incentive for conservation of sokshings by rural people, even though the sokshings are under ultimate state control. The successful management of forests requires minimal difference between de jure policies and de facto practices for which rules that allocate property rights and the way those rules are enforced are important elements. Conservation and management rights of non-sokshing for communities would not only promote local stewardship, but also put the limited capacity of the Department of Forest to best use. Increased deforestation around villages may result, because modern development alternatives may make leaf litter insignificant for agriculture.

ASSESSMENT OF TREE STOCKING AND DIVERSITY FOR JOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT (JFM) IN NKWESHOO VILLAGE FOREST MANAGEMENT AREA, KILIMANJARO, TANZANIA

ABSTRACT A village forest near the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro managed under Joint Forest Management (JFM) by the government and the local people was studied to assess its growing stock and to suggest interventions and management to promote its sustainable use. Data were collected using the methods of the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research programme. 19 tree species were identified and enumerated; the stocking was 714 trees/ha, basal area 27.5m2/ha and standing wood volume of 310 m3/ha. Almost half the standing volume was Macaranga kilimandscharica, a canopy tree species that was less desired for sawn timber and had not been over-harvested. Commercial timber production of other species that has been the dominant object of management is currently not sustainable. However, M. kilimandscharica is now the most preferred for firewood and light timber by the local user groups. Limited removal of over mature trees of this species by the local user groups for subsistence and community uses is recommended. The need for continued selective harvesting requires the determination of the sustainable allowable cut through recurrent resource assessment. Meanwhile the controlled harvesting will both demonstrate the value of the forest and motivate local people to protect it and, at the same time, increase its productivity and biodiversity.

Heterogeneity, Group Size and Collective Action: The Role of Institutions in Forest Management

AbstractCollective action for sustainable management among resource‐dependent populations has important policy implications. Despite considerable progress in identifying factors that affect the prospects for collective action, no consensus exists about the role played by heterogeneity and size of group. The debate continues in part because of a lack of uniform conceptualization of these factors, the existence of non‐linear relationships, and the mediating role played by institutions. This article draws on research by scholars in the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research network which demonstrates that some forms of heterogeneity do not negatively affect some forms of collective action. More importantly, IFRI research draws out the interrelations among group size, heterogeneity, and institutions. Institutions can affect the level of heterogeneity or compensate for it. Group size appears to have a non‐linear relationship to at least some forms of collective action. Moreover, group size may be as much an indicator of institutional success as a precondition for such success.

Grassroots to Grassroots: Why Forest Preservation was Rapid at Loma Alta, Ecuador

What social arrangements stop deforestation? This paper chronicles the sociological factors underlying the rapid establishment, in 14 months, of a community-owned protected forest in Ecuador. Methods developed by the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research program provide a stakeholder analysis related to trends in deforestation. Interviews, community meetings, and informal discussions provide data on attitudes of local people during and after establishment of the forest preserve. Knowledge and resources external to the community motivated local people to preserve a cloud forest, but local institutions and communal land tenure were critical for the rapid establishment of the protected area.

Early Detection of Tropical Forest Degradation: an IFRI Pilot Study in Uganda

Early detection of forest degradation may help to compensate for the time-lag that often exists between recognition of poor stewardship and the policy-changes required to mitigate such negative impacts. We report here on an International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) pilot study in Uganda.