Certification has been developed as an instrument for promoting sustainable forest management. Although the initial focus of certification was on tropical forests, it rapidly shifted to encompass all forest types. Ten years after the first certification schemes were developed, most (91.8 percent) of the 271 million hectares of forests that have been certified are located in Europe and North America. Only 13 percent of certified forests are located in developing countries and only 5 percent of the certified forests are located in the tropics. Among the reasons for this disparity are: weak market demand for certified products in global markets; wide gaps between existing management standards and certification requirements; weak implementation of national forest legislation, policies and programs in developing countries; insufficient capacity to implement sustainable forest management at the forest management unit level and to develop standards and delivery mechanisms; and the high direct and indirect costs of obtaining certification in developing countries. Despite these challenges and constraints, many developing countries remain interested in pursuing certification. Several promising developments have recently emerged that may give further encouragement to developing countries' efforts, including supportive codes of forestry practice, stepwise approaches to certification and increasing interest in forest certification and certified products in the Asia-Pacific region.

Livelihoods and forests are often in trouble because people are marginalized from governance. The forest governance learning group is an independent alliance developing practical tactics for making progress in such situations in Africa. It recognises that the current international drive to combat illegal forestry could do more harm than good if social justice is not brought centre-stage. In Malawi and Mozambique sub-groups have recognised the real danger that communities will disengage from forest stewardship unless practical mechanisms for their ownership and responsibility are found. In Uganda a sub-group has used the space created by decentralisation and high-profile cases of timber trade corruption to develop improved systems. In Ghana, the work points to the potential powder keg created at community level by those involved in flouting the law and over-harvesting timber. A renegotiation amongst stakeholders through forest forums is being called for in bringing the major abusers to book.

Migrants to the Brazilian Amazon frontier arrive individually, but the formation of effective community associations can bind these families together and speed socio-economic development. In this paper we study how formal logging contracts between smallholders and the timber industry affect one aspect of development and organization on the forest frontier: community associations. We ask whether these contracts encourage smallholders to participate in associations and whether the associations with formal logging contracts appear to be more effective. We find that individuals in communities with formal logging contracts are more likely to participate in their respective associations, and are also more likely to rank the association positively, compared to individuals living in other communities. Although the world of social and economic development on forest frontiers is complex and this result far from definitive, it demonstrates the potential for improved logging contracts to be a positive influence on community cohesion.

Solomon Islands is recovering from a period of civil war that has contributed to a rate of harvesting of its natural forests that far exceeds the sustainable level of cut. This over-cutting means that within a decade the country faces a 15-year period during which it will be unable to produce commercial quantities of timber from its natural forests. As the forest industry is a major component of the economy this will have serious consequences. Plantations have the potential to bridge this resource gap. Because of the land tenure system it is difficult to establish large-scale commercial plantations. The AusAID funded Forestry Management Project and the Forestry Division of the Ministry of Forestry, Environment and Conservation have successfully encouraged individuals and families to plant high value trees. If the current planting rate of 1000 hectares per year can be maintained then this will ensure the survival of the forest industry.

Community forestry involves different stakeholders with diverse perspectives and interests in series of decisions and translating these decisions into actions. In decision-making processes, information plays an important role, but information perspectives differ across the users with different social status defined by economic class, caste and ethnicity, gender, education and access to an ,executive position'. People holding an executive position and those without it have conflicting views on the provisions of power sharing and access to information and resources. There are differences in perceiving and evaluating different qualities of information at various levels of policy processes, and what higher policy makers might think is important quality of information for community forest user groups may no longer be valued by the users. This paper explores multiple realities related to information in community forestry through comparative case studies and suggests that more facilitative, interactive policy process are desirable in securing a higher level of informed decisions.

Madhya Pradesh is the leading state in the implementation of Joint Forest Management following the Government of India Resolution in 1990. Though the state has vast areas of natural resources including forest, degradation and deforestation are very much in evidence due to various socio-economic factors. One of those is the poverty of the tribals whose main economic activity is centered around the forest as they depend on forest resources for survival, livelihood and occupation. Lack of income generating activities and economic choices has forced these communities into the exploitation of forest resources. The introduction of Joint Forest Management activities in the last decade has provided the employment opportunities and income generation to alleviate poverty in the area to some extent. Madhya Pradesh Forestry Project ran from Sept. 1995 to Dec. 1999. Within the organizational development and institutional mechanism the project took various steps in asset creation; including natural, social, human, political and physical assets to generate livelihood options.

Le Madhya Pradesh est l'état principal où s 'effectue l'application de la gestion jointe des forêts depuis la résolution du gouvernement indien en 1990. Bien que l'état possède de vastes surfaces de ressources naturelles, forêts-y compris, la dégradation et le déboisement sont notables et dûs à divers facteurs socio-économiques. L'un de ceux-ci est la pauvreté des tribus dont l'économie principale se concentre autour de la forêt. Elles dépendent de celle-ci pour leur survie, leurs moyens d'existence et leur occupation. Le manque d'activités génératrices de revenus ainsi que le manque de choix économiques ont poussé ces communautés à exploiter les ressources forestières au-delà de la capacité des bio-ressources. Voilà pourquoi les activités de gestion jointe des forêts ont été introduites dans la dernière décennie et ont résulté en de plus nombreuses opportunités d'emploi et de création de revenus pour soulager la pauvreté. Le projet sylviculturel du Madhya Pradesh a commencé le 29 septembre 1995 et a été conclu le 31 décembre 1999. Au coeur du développement organisationnel et du mécanisme institutionnel, le projet a fait des pas vers la création de ressources, soient-elles naturelles, humaines, sociales politiques ou physiques, à-même de conduire vers de nouvelles options de revenus. Cet article va examiner les moyens d'existence des générations et la réduction de la pauvreté dans les activités de gestion jointe des forêts au Madhya Pradesh sous l'égide du projet sylviculturel de la Banque Mondiale.

Minimising biodiversity loss in the face of large scale deforestation relies heavily on protecting selected areas of habitat within reserves. However, limited funding means it is necessary to prioritise areas for protection. Most current prioritisation schemes aim to protect the greatest amount of threatened biodiversity possible within a limited area. Here I describe a complementary approach, based on the systematic identification of areas in which species tend to be inherently extinction-prone. This is a more forward-looking approach to global conservation planning that should allow planners to anticipate and prevent future species declines in many parts of the world that still retain much of their original forest cover.

The Community Rainforest Reforestation Program (1993–2000) was an attempt to create healthy vegetated catchments that maximize wood production, environmental protection and employment in eastern Australia. Despite a AUDIO million outlay, these goals were not fulfilled, because of limited resources and continually changing circumstances (goals, staff, institutions) that hampered the efforts of both researchers and coordinators. Both technical and managerial lessons need to be learned: blanket guidelines are rarely helpful because species, nutrition and silviculture need to be matched to each site; vigour, provenance and nutrition of nursery stock is critical to plantation success; health surveillance should not be overlooked; early growth trends may not reflect commercial outcomes; experiments should be planned and adequately funded to examine mission-critical problems thoroughly; and records should be archived, and secured in more than one location. Inability to securely maintain long-term forest research data has been a common failing in many forestry endeavours. Experience suggests that researchers should rely on their professional networks rather than their employing agency to secure data and other records contributing to a professional knowledge base.

International networks in community forestry face challenges in linking with local social movements. We examine four efforts of international networks to overcome these challenges and better link with local people in Peru, Brazil, India and Kenya. The examples demonstrate that the networks created effective links by making funds available for meetings and local data collection; providing international analyses that helped people understand their own situation better; sharing strategies for media, policy and letter campaigns; helping to disseminate information about local people's priorities, providing independent assessments and building local people's confidence. Efforts to improve communications technologies required a better understanding of local conditions. Networks will be more relevant to local movements to the extent that they are regularly active at the local level, can respond flexibly to local needs and small-scale events, and work with an array of national partners. The effectiveness of networks in carrying out these tasks may require a careful balance between linking to versus working at the local level.