This policy brief analyses forest policies in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali and their implication for adaptation and conflicts under climate change. It presents results of studies undertaken by Tropical Forest and Climate Change Adaptation (TroFCCA). The policy brief tracks the flow of specific forest ecosystem goods and services and the potential for social conflicts in the form of disagreement. Divergent views, arguments and clashes are identified.

In recent years, awareness has grown in Nepal and globally regarding two of community forestry’s most critical challenges: equity and livelihoods. Yet even as understanding of these challenges has improved, actors from the local to the national levels in Nepal continue to be confronted with the dilemma of how to address these challenges in such a diverse, complex and dynamic context. This synthesis explores an adaptive collaborative approach to governance and management as one avenue to meet these challenges.

The study documents practices of 28 community-based forest enterprises (CBFEs) in Nepal, representing different enterprise models - FUGs (CFUGs or LFUGs), networks, cooperatives, and companies. FUGs are primarily constrained by their limited scale in terms of membership and land area. The formation of intergroups and networks minimizes this limitation. Networks are often constrained from doing group enterprises since they do not have legal identity to transact as a group and this constraint can be overcome by registering as a formal business entity - either as a cooperative or a company.

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.