Key factors which influence the success of community forestry in developing countries

Published Date
November 2015, Vol.35:226–238, doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.09.011

Author 

Jack Baynes ^a,,

John Herbohn ^a

Carl Smith ^b

Robert Fisher ^c,d

David Bray ^e

aTropical Forests and People Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore 4558, Australia

bSchool of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4072, Australia

cTropical Forests and People Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore 4558, Australia

dFaculty of Science, University of Sydney, Australia

eDepartment of Environmental Studies, Florida International University, USA

Received 27 January 2015. Revised 20 August 2015. Accepted 11 September 2015. Available online 24 September 2015. 

Highlights

• We review the reasons for the success of community forestry in developing countries.
• •
  Success is influenced by complex causal relationships between five key factors.
• •
  Bridging and bonding social capital are critical mediating influences.

Abstract 

While community forestry has shown promise to reduce rural poverty, improve reforestation and potentially offset carbon emissions, many projects have failed, either partly or completely. In order to understand why community forestry succeeds or fails, we examined in detail the literature related to community forestry from three countries, Mexico, Nepal and the Philippines. We also drew on experiences in other countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. We identified five main interconnected factors which the literature suggests are often critical to the success of community forestry. To integrate the many ways in which community forestry projects can improve the state of these factors, we use the concept of ‘bonding social capital’, i.e. communities’ ability to work together towards a common aim and ‘bridging social capital’, i.e. their ability to liaise with the outside world. To understand the interaction of the five success factors and the way in which improvements to bonding or bridging social capital may affect them, we developed a causal diagram which depicts the interrelationships between the success factors and the key points at which project inputs may be best applied. It is clear from our analysis that failing to appreciate both the complexity and interaction of the various influences may lead to project failure.

Keywords

Community forestry

Social capital

Collective action

Intra-community governance

Causal diagram

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 Table 1

Table 1.

Fig. 1.

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  Corresponding author.

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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026483771400252X