Cette etude a ete realisee en 1997-98 par le CIFOR en collaboration avec les institutions et les chercheurs camerounais, grace a l'appui financier du DFID du Royaume-Uni. Son objectif general est de compendre les causes qui expliqueraient le taux de deforestation beaucoup plus elevependantla crise economique (qui commenca en 1986) par rapport a ala periode avant le debut de la crise. Le project de recherche a examine les effects de la crise sur les migrations, les systemes de cultures, la division sexuelle du travail et leur incidence sur le couvert forestier.

A principal criterion for classifying a tourism operation as 'ecotourism' is that local residents at the site should receive substantial economic benefits, which serve both to raise local living standards and as enhanced incentives for nature conservation. This paper sets out a methodological framework for analysis of the alleged participation-income-conservation link, and applies it to the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon region.

The Scoring and Analysis Guide for Assessing Human Well-Being is designed to supplement The BAG and The Grab Bag. It provides a scoring method that can be used with the two manuals, to come to a decision about particular criteria and indicators in particular forest and human settings. Following the section on scoring is a section on analysis. It begins very simply, leading the user through the steps of making a spreadsheet, and concluding with more complex statistical analyses that may be desirable in some circumstances.

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.

Estimating the incomes of people whose livelihoods depend on the forests is a key to understanding their well being and the use of the forest. Yet there has been little agreement about the methods to undertake such assessment. This paper reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the methods available. The authors summarise the methodologies used in 10 case studies and use these cases, as well a insights from their own research in Indonesia, to suggest ways of overcoming the logistics of collecting income information related to possibly hundreds of products.

In the last two decades, there has been increasing interest in the potential of small-scale non-timber forest product collection and other low-impact uses of the forest for achieving forest conservation. Experience suggests however that such uses do not guarantee conservation and economic outcomes. This book documents and compares methods to assess options for forest-based livelihoods and their outcomes.

If one is of the mindset that the world is fundamentally chaotic and irrational, then the discpline of economics probably has little to offer. But if one accepts the notion that there is some method to the apparent madness of individuals, governments and organizations, then economic inquiry does have no some contributions to make. In this excercise, we argue that economic criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management should reflect the dimensions of efficiency, equity and sustainability, and need to look beyond the forest stand to institutional and policy issues.