The first year of the 2004-2009 Strategic Plan saw much greater and systematic efforts on regional and international partnerships, including collaboration with national government and non-governmental institutions. At the same time, organizational expansion required some restructuring and more robust planning and management systems. RECOFTC's role as a non-partisan facilitator of improved community forestry has been enhanced with a strong focus on learning processes to strengthen the capacity of stakeholders.

The overall objective of the present national cross-sectoral Forest Policy is to achieve sustainable forest management that would ensure sustainable increases in the economic, social and environmental benefits from forests and trees for the present and future generation including the poor and the vulnerable groups.

In most countries in the region, local communities' use of forest resources is strictly regulated. The strategy of managing forests through stringent protection and regulation has in fact not been very successful in protecting forests in Asia, and has resulted in conflicts between enforcement officers and communities. New strategies are required that acknowledge the high costs and conflicts in classical protected area management approaches and look at complementary strategies for achieving conservation by working with, rather than against, local communities.

In this study, land use changes between 1986-2001 in Bartın-Ulus-Asagıdere watershed area was determined. In order to determine the land use percentages in 1986, Forest Management plan has been taken into consideration. Land use data belonging to 2001 has been determined by making use of the observations in the study area and data obtained from Forest Management plan of the year 2001. Arcview 3.2 software programme were used to analyze, examine and evaluate the data.

The meaning and scope of the concept of Community-Based Property Rights (CBPR) has become a dominant feature of conservation and development policy discourse over the last decade. The debate has largely been shaped by the growing trends where governments have continued to appropriate traditional lands for conservation and development activities that have resulted into large scale dislocation and widespread disenfranchisement of sections of our society.

Despite political restrictions, monks in Burma are a force to preserve nature...

Los bosques de la Provincia de Formosa sufren un proceso de degradación acelerada. La ganadería extensiva y la extracción de madera sin planificación ni manejo son las causas fundamentales de esta degradación. El escaso valor del bosque en pie determina que los usuarios del recurso prioricen estas actividades frente a un uso sustentable del mismo, el cual sólo será competitivo a través de su valorización. El objetivo de este trabajo es valorar a través del cambio en productividad, un modelo de producción forestal sustentable.

Avoided deforestation (AD) has become a global concern with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This paper discusses financial incentive schemes to reduce rates of deforestation and forest degradation in tropical countries may be established and considers some of the issues from the perspective of host countries and the forest-dependent poor.

This report is an assessment of possible elements in a new and expanded programme related to environment and natural resources in Uganda.The report includes an analysis of important forest and environmental resource sector elements; key challenges, political and administrative structures, policies, activities and future plans.

This is the draft report of a scoping study for the Forestry Commission on forests and climate change. The report discusses the role that sustainable forest management can play in mitigating climate change.

This paper reviews the impact of the Landcare Program on, farming households, communities, and the local environments in three sites in Mindanao, Philippines: Claveria in Misamis Oriental; Lantapan in Bukidnon; and Ned, Lake Sebu in South Cotabato. This paper reviews and synthesizes various studies conducted throughout the period from 1996 to 2004, during which the Landcare Program was established and matured. The key intervention studied is the landcare approach which consists basically of two components: conservation farming technologies and landcare processes and institutions.

The promotion of forestry activities is seen as a means by which to reduce poverty while protecting the environment. But if clearing of forests for agricultural activities can prove more profitable, will such efforts be effective?