Forest resources share attributes with many other resource systems that make difficult their governance and management in a sustainable, efficient and equitable manner. Destruction or degradation of forest resources is most likely to occur in open-access forests where those involved, or external authorities, have not established effective governance. Conventional theories applied to forest resources presumed that forest users themselves were incapable of organizing to overcome the temptations to overharvest.

The Basic Assessment Guide for Human Well-Being (or The BAG) focuses on the social criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, a topic that has been the subject of considerable controversy and uncertainty. It is designed for people interested in assessing sustainable forest management, but who do not have a high degree of expertise in social sciences. The six simple methods described in this manual are designed for use by biophysical scientists with a college education.

This manual provides a comprehensive set of criteria and indicators (C&I) for sustainable forest management based on CIFOR’s research. This research was conducted by interdisciplinary teams of experts in large-scale natural forests managed for commercial timber production in Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire, Brazil and Cameroon, with additional sites in Germany, Austria and USA. The use of the term ‘generic template’, for these C&I is intended to prevent them being confused with an ideal and universally applicable set of C&I.

The Grab Bag: Supplementary Methods for Assessing Human Well-being is designed to complement The BAG. The Grab Bag is designed for use by social scientists who may find The BAG overly prescriptive. The eight methods presented are either more difficult for non-social scientists to use or, in a couple of cases, can substitute for one or more method presented in The BAG. Again, The Scoring and Analysis Guide provides the user with help in making an actual assessment of the social C&I, based on the results of these methods.

Who Counts Most? Assessing Human Well-Being in Sustainable Forest Management presents a tool, ‘the Who Counts Matrix’, for differentiating ‘forest actors’, or people whose well-being and forest management are intimately intertwined, from other stakeholders. The authors argue for focusing formal attention on forest actors in efforts to develop sustainable forest management.

A medium-size report that deals with the overall situation of data on fuelwood in the Central African Republic. The report is composed of three main parts; the first section is a short description of the country and the terms of the study. The second part is an evaluation of the country's forest cover while the third part states the forest parameters (number of trees, volume, etc.) followed by a conclusion.

Los intentos de transferir funciones y facultades en materia de ordenacin pueden adoptar formas distintas en una escala progresiva que va desde el control central total de los recursos forestales hasta la plena descentralizacin y transferencia de la autoridad y las facultades, aunque las soluciones en cualquiera de los dos extremos de la escala suelen ser inadecuadas. En ests pginas se examinan diversos temas relacionados con la redistribucin de la autoridad y las facultades sobre los bosques y la actividad forestal.