Community forestry has transformed over the past 25 years from being an experimental means of providing wood-fuel for the rural poor to a community-led movement demanding reform of the forestry sector. International networks to promote community forestry, which emerged at very different moments in this history with different visions, goals, targets and participants, have played a key role in this transformation.

This book is a compilation of the abstracts of in-house and external publications produced in the year 2002 by CIFOR scientists and their collaborators. The abstracts are grouped into seven themes: general, biodiversity, forest governance and community forestry, forest management, non-timber forest products, plantations and rehabilitation of degraded forests, policy and extrasectoral issues that represent CIFOR's research activities. Indexes are provided by author and keyword.

Community forestry has transformed over the past 25 years from being an experimental means of providing wood-fuel for the rural poor to a community-led movement demanding reform of the forestry sector. International networks to promote community forestry, which emerged at very different moments in this history with different visions, goals, targets and participants, have played a key role in this transformation.

Cameroon's 1994 Forestry law launched a new approach to natural resource management. The 1996 Constitution introduced decentralized authorities, whose role is to enable the economic, social and cultural development of its peoples. The new legal framework for environmental policy and overhaul of the Constitution show the Government's will to decentralize and to improve forest resources management. At the same time, decentralization management might be inappropriate in Cameroon.

The purpose of this manual is to help trainers in future scenario better facilitate training workshops for field officers such as forestry managers, extension officers and researchers who are keen to facilitate future scenarios in their forest management projects. Future scenarios are a diverse and flexible set of methods that can be used to help forest user groups and decision makers define clear unified objectives, identify opportunities or obstaclesin the path to their management goals, or prepare strategies and action plans for alternate future situations.

This document is intended for those interested in gathering natural resource information that reflects the needs of local communities. It describes a multidisciplinary survey developed with indigenous communities in the fores-rich landscapes of the Malinau watershed in East Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). The final methods reflect a mixture of judgements, compromises and reactions to trials over many months. It is intended that it is useful to readers from diverse backgrounds given the multidisciplinary nature of the procedures described. This is not intended as a manual.

This paper provides a global review of the link from forests to poverty alleviation. Definitions are clarified and the key concepts and indicators related to livelihoods and policy reduction and prevention are explored--distinguishing between the analysis and the measurements of poverty. Reviewing the macro-level literature on the relationship between economic growth, inequality and poverty, the authors found that economic growth usually does trickle down to the poor and that poverty reduction without growth is in practice very difficult to achieve.

Forest governance is now recognized as a critical factor for effective resource management and enhancing livelihood outcomes. This paper recognizes the need for having learning element in the governing process, for which there has to be a continuous monitoring process in place. Based on recent studies, the current monitoring system at different layers in Nepal's community forestry is reviewed, and opportunities for improved micro-macro linkages and forest governance are identified.

Community forestry in the Philippines has gone through a long process of change over the last thirty years. It reached a high level of achievement with the creation of a comprehensive and integrated programme called Community-Based Forest Management (CGFM) in 1995. In this programme, local people are recognised as partners in the management and protection of the country's forests and forest resorces. However, the government, and other local stakeholders still face problems in implementing the programme effectivelly.

Problems with governance of forests are closely linked to incompatible interests between different stakeholders. Having a clearer understanding of the relative importance of forest landscape functions among stakeholders can bring much clarity about why governance problems persist. The voice of the weakest actors is often insufficiently heard in decision-making processes that affect how stakeholders can use forests.

In 2002, mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) was listed on Appendix II of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). This requires that all producing countries define and implement sustainable production systems for mahogany, the most commercially important neotropical timber, which is still harvested from natural forests. The only serious efforts to produce mahogany sustainably from managed natural forests are those of communities in Quintana Roo, Mexico, which control 800,000 of natural production forests.