This research project was initiated in 1995 to address some concerns of many people, including scientists, who were questioning the prospects of tropical plantations established in short-rotation forestry as a sustainable natural resource. It is an international partnership of public and private organisations coordinated by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). It is based on the proposition that productivity is the foundation of successful plantation forestry managed for wood production and/or ecosystem services.

Nepal introduced various community based forest management (CBFM) programmesthat aim to improve forest management while improving the livelihoods of the forest dependent poor. One of these programmes is the Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Programme (LFLP). Various studies have demonstrated its positive impacts but severa studies also pointed out its unintentional negative impacts. This policy brief presents implementation and related design constraints facing the LFLP and suggests ways to resolve them and improve programme outcomes.

“Why do so many forestry aid projects fail?” is a question being asked more frequently. Most replies list technical difficulties in implementation. However, this paper argues that the answer can only be found through understanding two much more general processes; how a forestry activity relates to the broader socio-economic context in which it is embedded; and how development assistance operates in practice.

This document is a report on the implementation of an initial project of Bulungan Research Forest in East Kalimantan, Indonesia 1997-2001 with financial support from International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). It contains an executive summary, the main text of the project objectives and outputs, brief report on technical and scientific aspects, lessons learned and recommendations for future projects.

CIFOR's research in the Bulungan Model Forest in Malinau, East Kalimantan, Indonesia took the form of a 3-year investigation into ways of achieving forest sustainability in a large forest landscape with diverse, rapidly changing and conflicting uses. The study reported in this book highligts the complexity of the challenge while also clarifying the key aspects.