This paper first provides a brief overview of what are and what represent forest ecosystem services. Then it considers the issues of price and valuation, and shows that valuation itself is not a solution but merely a tool. Considering then the reasons of the overall degradation of forest ecosystem services it shows that the main reasons tend to be fundamental: deforestation most often happens because it pays for local people - not so much because the institutionally created arrangements are perverse.

A forestry advisor for the Co-operative League of the United States describes a programme to build co-operation between the forestry services and local communities in eastern Zambia. The programme has involved stakeholder workshops to write management plans, and support for more productive agriculture.

The manager of Meru Forest Plantation in northern Tanzania describes how the plantation has made agreements with local communities to share responsibilities and benefits. As a result conflicts over livestock grazing have been minimised, corruption over land distribution has been reduced and no forest fires have taken place for three years.

The overall aim of this study was to explore what the development community can do, or facilitate, to significantly improve livelihoods in semi-arid systems.The authors based their analysis on two case-study sites in the communal lands of southern Zimbabwe. The main tool was a detailed livelihood questionnaire, supplemented by participatory appraisal and observation, action research, biophysical analysis and systems modelling.

This infobrief provides key points that will benefit disadvantaged groups in multistakeholder negotiations. Negotiations that include all the groups or stakeholders concerned should increase democratic decision-making and compromise. Experience has shown that the benefits that disandvantaged groups receive from multistakeholder negotiations depend on how the negotiations are done. This infobrief describes some of the pitfalls of multistakeholder negotiations and proposes ways for disadvantaged groups to avoid them.

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.

Fiche Technique

Les forêts sacrées existent dans tous les pays d’Afrique. Ce sont des lieux mythiques et mystérieux ou sont gardés de grands secrets d’initiation, des objets sacrés et immémoriaux ainsi que des totems. Par conséquent personne ne doit y pénétrer sans y avo

En matière de gestion durable des ressources forestières et fauniques, le Mali est souvent cité en exemple. En effet à cause des changements politiques survenus dans les dix dernières années et du processus de Décentralisation en cours, cette gestion fore

This simple manual is intended for general guidelines on traditional methods in managing natural resources. It is based on the indigenous/traditional knowledge of people of Dayak Kenyah Uma' Jalan society, East Kutai, Kalimantan, Indonesia. Local traditional knowledge is one of the important components to utilise and conserve the natural resources. This manual shows how to prepare the land for planting food crops, community forest management procedures and fire prevention.

CIFOR facilitated 27 communities in the Upper Malinau watershed to develop agreements about their village boundaries and map them through participatory methods. Decentralization reforms created new values of forest resources and uncertainties that increased conflict over local resources. We report on the nature of these conflicts, the stability of agreements and the factors affecting how agreements were reached.