Community-based forest management is unlikely to be sustainable without a process of social learning between the internal and external actors. This situation is evident in West Lampung District in Lampung Province, Indonesia. This research assessed the processes and outcomes of social learning within three villages (i.e. Villages A, B and C) in West Lampung District that were engaged in a community forestry (CF) program. The data was gathered through questionnaire and interview which then analyzed with Likert Scale. The CF program outcomes were different in each village. Village A had the highest scores for facilitation, egalitarian atmosphere, repeated meetings, and diverse participation. This has resulted in a high level of community involvement in the CF program. In particular, the high level of facilitation by external actors such as training programs, and marketing information and funding has resulted in the community having a good knowledge of CF and the associated socioeconomic development programs available to them. Village B has highest score for multiple sources of knowledge variable. Due to the existing egalitarian atmosphere, each stakeholder in Village A can openly express their opinion without any hesitation, particularly between men and women. Meanwhile, the other sub variables of existing egalitarian atmosphere were scored the same for Village A, B, and C, such as the balances between old and young people as well as rich and poor people. In general, the implemented social learning has a greater positive effect on the livelihoods of CF group members in Village A compared to Villages B and C.

New intervention that demands farmer's adaptation of new approach to land use, requires understand their perception of the status quo and the potential of the new approach. This is particular important in the case of marginal tea small holders because of their already exposure to vulnerabilities which may make them less comfortable to take risks. Research has shown that farmer's perception commonly reflects the reality. Once the farmers have to adopt sustainable agricultural practices, they first need to believe that the practices are important, provide a safe rural environment, and will bring in stable and long term income by facing natural climatic and environmental problems. Understanding farmer's perception is vital in enhancing policy formulation towards addressing problems faced by farmers. This study departs by broadly considering physical, institutional and intervention issues as a measure of threat and opportunity for sustainability of farming in marginal tea farm land. A total of 25 key stakeholders from marginal tea growing areas in Matara district were interviewed. Ten of the interviewees were government staffs (TSHDA) while the rest fifteen were small tea farm holders. A total of 26 pre tested statements ranked from-5 (extremely disagree) to + 5 (extremely agree) were prepared for the interview. The questions categorized as: important biophysical constrains for their farming, choice of external organizations, incentives for fuel wood plantation establishment, problems for continuing tea farming and satisfaction with the existing property rights. The results of the study shows that soil erosion and heavy winds are vital physical factors for the farmers. Low productivity, high cost of land management, labour intensity and labour scarcity are key disadvantages of tea farming. While considering environmental protection, good market demand, comparatively less labour requirement is found to be important advantages of fuel wood planting in marginal tea plantations. The stakeholders also found to prefer government involvement over other actions to plant fuel wood trees within their marginal tea plantations. Stakeholders suggest that planting fuel-wood minimize the risk of depending on one crop as well as avoiding risks and uncertainty of environmental factors affecting tea farming. They strongly recommend that it is good to plant timber and fuel wood trees inside their plantation. Therefore stakeholders suggest, in future government intervention for popularizing of planting timber/ fuel wood trees inside as well as along the boundaries of marginal tea plantations would have been increased. Introduction of new policy and regulations are necessary in the future on planting, harvesting and transporting of timber /fuel wood with a aim of increase the farmers income as well as safeguard the sustainability of Marginal small tea farming in Sri Lanka.

<p>Although it is said that societies in Southeast Asian countries are loosely structured, every area has its own attributes. In such vastly differing societies, the mode of organizing themselves differs between ethnic groups, as well as geographic location. The objective of this study is to understand how local people respond to exogenous development by focusing on their mode of organizing themselves, through dyadic relationships or individual ties between peoples, groups, and development organizations. One of the Dayak ethnic groups, which can be found in the central region of Borneo, the Bahau, make swiddens along rivers. They call a complex of these swiddens "daleh". The Bahau people organize a reciprocal labor exchange known as pela'do with the people who have swiddens in the same daleh, but recently their method of organizing pela'do has undergone changes. The people have adapted themselves to the introduction of tight development organizations (farming groups), in such a way as to allow for coexistence with customary loose organizations (pela'do).</p>

Climate change spurs havoc on social-ecological system. People and places vulnerable to climate change have been the focus of many discussions. However, in the forestry sector, limited studies have been conducted that link human vulnerability to recent initiatives, such as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation or REDD+, especially in highly vulnerable countries. Using case studies from the Philippines, this paper focuses on the vulnerability of two community-based forest management (CBFM) organizations, with and without REDD+ readiness intervention, to show the impacts of climate variability and extremes. Two balance-weighted approaches, the livelihood vulnerability index and the IPCC-framework, were used in the vulnerability assessments. Results revealed high vulnerability of both CBFM organizations, although Malitbog Upland Developers for Sustainable Association (MUDSA) livelihood vulnerability is largely aggravated by its exposure to disaster, climate variability and extremes, accessibility to health facilities and water supply. The long history of CBFM implementation in both organizations have minimal contribution in enhancing the adaptive capacity of members to cope with and adapt to climate change impacts. REDD+ (readiness), does not insure reduced vulnerability to climate change, unless sustainable livelihood is achieved. As the State controls forest resources, the rights of CBFM-organizations to commercially benefit from these resources are limited, a disincentive to the development of new and viable development programs in CBFM areas, such as REDD+. This also constrains the achievement of climate resiliency.

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is a recent global response to the challenges posed by emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Global interest in REDD+ is growing and warrants a comprehensive review of what REDD+ is, how it is implemented and what key issues need to be considered to steer REDD+ towards a climate resilient socio-ecological system. This chapter indicates that REDD+ can be understood as global multilevel forest governance that links different actors at different scales, from the local to the global (glocal). REDD+ has evolved from the narrowly scoped reducing emissions from deforestation (RED) to the current REDD+ that has considered not only deforestation but also forest degradation, sustainable forest management, and social and biodiversity safeguards through repeated engagement and negotiation among glocal actors since the 2005 Cancun IPCC meeting. Currently, a total of seven kinds of actor, ranging from multilateral financial institutions to national governments and indigenous people, are identified as playing an important role in the negotiation and/or design and/or implementation of REDD+. The authors identify five salient issues that need to be addressed to achieve a resilient socio-ecological system. These are: lack of a strong global institution
biodiversity concerns
lack of competitiveness
lack of tenure clarity
and prospects for distributive and procedural justice.

The question of under what settings locally managed forests will lead to successful conservation without frustrating the local people's subsistence outcomes remains contested. This research investigates the relationship between attributes of locally managed forest SES and its forest and livelihood outcomes using data from 83 forest SESs across seven countries. The data were obtained from the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) database. Thirteen predicators that were selected from the attributes of forest, user group and governance of the local forest SES were used to evaluate their influence on SES sustainability. Our results showed that sustainable forest SES was significantly associated with forest size, diversity of the NTFP that is extracted from the forest, networks among the forest users, rule making by external non-forest harvest organizations in dispute resolution, and benefits sharing. On the other hand, the distance of forest users' settlements in the forest, rule making for forest protection and harvest quantity as well as sanctions by external non-forest harvest organizations were found to be significantly associated with unsustainable forest SESs. Our findings have important implications for the ongoing discourse on how to promote sustainable forest management at local level. The results on the success factors can assist decision makers to improve the chances for the success of forest governance that rely on local people who depend upon forests. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The global to local-level importance of Indonesian forests for the environment and development is now very well documented. However, how to govern these forests to achieve the diverse and, at times, conflicting interests is still an open question. Hutan Kemasyarakatan (HKm) is a community forest (CF) that is being implemented to contribute to local development while creating sufficient incentives for conserving the forest. Previous studies have demonstrated the potential of HKm to conserve forests. This study analyzed the changes in the five major types of capital for HKm farmers. The results indicated HKm to have contributed positively to the improvement of natural, physical, and human capital. In addition to its direct impact, HKm was also found to improve the financial capital of the farmers by avoiding patron-client relationships and side payments between the pre-HKm illegal encroacher farmers (now legal land cultivators) and government officers. Although the results support the possibility of HKm producing a win-win situation between forest conservation and rural development, its future applicability, especially with consideration of population growth and associated increase in demand for cultivation land, needs to be given due emphasis.

This study demonstrates the potential of transformation strategy (an approach that emphasizes strengthening interdependence among social and ecological systems) to rehabilitate degraded land by examining two cases in Bangladesh and one in the Philippines. The study considers the benefits obtained from forests and forest-related activities in the form of income and energy sources as key parameters to link the social system (local people) with the ecological system (forest). Qualitative and quantitative analysis of data on land use and socio-economic changes indicates that the transformation strategy improved both the wellbeing of local people and forest cover. In the case of the Philippines, social and ecological linkages were found to be strong, with local people rehabilitating the degraded land while also obtaining a high proportion of their total income from the activity. For the two Bangladesh cases, however, the level of dependency on the forest for livelihood declined as local people used their income from the forest and forest-related activities for diversification to non-forest activities.

Aim of study: To facilitate REDD+ implementation and identify relevant attributes for robust REDD+ policies, this study evaluated and synthesized information from national forest programs in South and Southeast Asian countries.
Area of study: Data was collected from six countries: Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines, India and Thailand.
Methods: The data sources for the evaluation was an in-depth desk review of relevant documents and focus group discussion among experts from each study country.
Main results: We found out that diverse factors may influence program feasibility and the ability to achieve 'triple benefits': the nature of the forest targeted by the policy, the characteristics of the population affected by the policy, attributes of the policy instrument and the different actors involved.
Research highlights: We argue that national policies and programs targeted for REDD+ implementation should focus on the identified features to achieve REDD+ goals.

Unsustainable land use systems in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) have damaged the environment and enhanced vulnerability of indigenous people. Promoting improved land use in degraded and abandoned shifting cultivation areas has been widely suggested for better livelihoods and environmental conservation. This article analysed four major land uses, agroforestry, fruit orchards, shifting cultivation and village common forest (VCF), in the CHT by correlating them with local perceptions. Traditionally, the indigenous people of the CHT are dependent on shifting cultivation and VCF for their livelihood. Agroforestry and orchards are newly introduced land uses in the CHT area. This analysis is performed by using the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) approach in combination with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The introduction of agroforestry and fruit orchards influenced marginalised indigenous people to reduce the shifting cultivation area. However, potential weaknesses and threats were associated with shifting cultivation, agroforestry and fruit orchards. Except for shifting cultivation, the positive factors of other land uses outweighed the negative ones. The AHP results indicate that while adopting a land use, the respondents prioritised economic benefits (75 % preference) over social (17 %) and environmental aspects (8 %). Considering these three factors, people ranked four land uses in the order of orchards &gt; agroforestry &gt; VCF &gt; shifting cultivation. This suggests that future land use planning in the CHT cannot secure sustainability by mere trade-offs among the three sustainability factors (social, economic, environmental). Instead, if the activities for achieving social and environmental benefits of a project can be employed to create benefits in terms of income or savings (money/effort/time), they will be well accepted by the marginalised rural communities.

Homestead forests in the Teknaf Peninsula ecologically critical area of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh have not been widely studied. This paper explores floristic diversity of homestead forests together with their contribution to the household economy and climate change mitigation. Data were collected from a survey of 140 households and a vegetation survey of 70 homesteads in three sites. Villagers allocated 70 % of their homestead area for homestead forestry and altogether 73 plant species were recorded from the study sites. The average density was 4,000 plants/ha. The above-ground biomass was estimated 235.45 Mg/ha, equivalent to 117.73 Mg C/ha. Villagers maintain sustainability of homestead forests by planting seedlings every year and thus ensure several diameter and height classes. Homestead forests contribute substantially to household income, provide fuelwood and timber for own consumption and sale, and protect villagers during cyclones. Homestead forests thus meet the conditions to be a clean development mechanism forestry project which would provide a win-win strategy for involving small-scale farmers in climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives, and biodiversity conservation.

The Philippines is one of the pioneers to adopt participatory approach in forest management, as embodied in. its national strategy for sustainable forest management and social justice in the uplands, called Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM). The program's almost three decades of implementation saw positive impacts on the livelihood assets of local communities. CBFM has evolved to tackle global concerns as well, such as climate change and biodiversity conservation. Meanwhile, international climate change negotiations have drawn a means to provide financial incentives to reduce deforestation and forest degradation through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD Plus). This mechanism hopes to bring "triple benefits", namely: emission reduction, biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation. Given their parallel goals, CBFM sites are promising candidates for implementing REDD Plus, and the latter is expected to have important implications on the process and potential outcomes of CBFM. This paper looks into the local stakeholders' assessment of the impacts of CBFM on the livelihood assets of local communities and the potentials of REDD Plus implementation in the future. The literature is replete with examples emphasizing the importance of local stakeholder's participation in REDD Plus, yet their perception particularly on the added value it gives remained unclear. Results of the study revealed that CBFM implementation contributed largely to building the capital assets of people organization (PO) members, especially the human, social, natural and physical capitals. Full positive effects have yet to be realized though for the financial capital. PO members and the local institutions (DENR, LGU, NGO) expressed optimism, though with varied levels, on REDD Plus further enhancing the above capital assets. This optimism, however, does not translate to confidence in achieving the triple-benefits, as risks are also perceived by PO members posed by the likely creation of forest enclosures that could limit areas for livelihood activities. If realized, improved economic conditions could also encourage in-migration that would increase pressure to the forests. Caution should therefore be exercised in implementing REDD Plus to ensure that the intended goals are achieved in the context of views and aspirations of local stakeholders.

The objective of this paper is to consider the effectiveness of environmental sociology in terms of practical policymaking research that connects local praxes with national policies and international treaties. Firstly, "a pincer strategy toward the state" is suggested, in which a researcher with a foothold in the local livelihood arena, one of four different policy arenas, could have a certain impact on the nation. Secondly, the role of a researcher, able to make a contribution in different ways from an organizer's or a facilitator's, is proposed. Taking into account the above propositions, the paper focuses on the REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) global initiative to mitigate climate change as an example of policy research. A one-shot questionnaire survey based on long-term research, including participant observation, was conducted in order to discover people's preferences in terms of land-use and income sources at four villages in the West Kutai district of East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The survey revealed that local people have strong preferences toward commercialized rubber plantations, traditional rubber gardens, and swidden agriculture, moderate preferences toward orchards and low preferences toward rattan gardens and oil palm plantations. By considering the underlying causes of such attitudes, the following policy implications emerged: it is important to design institutions from which people can expect to receive increased income, social conflicts such as those caused by land expropriation should be avoided, and the people should be able to satisfy their daily needs when the government introduces REDD+, or a brand-new international mechanism. Specifically, it is suggested that the national government should integrate the local people's right to collect non-wood forest products into any forestry business based on the concessions provided to enterprises in the forestland where the national government has authority. A further suggestion is the establishment of incentive mechanisms by connecting carbon enterprises with forest-like land use such as orchards, rattan gardens, and traditional rubber gardens on non-forestland over which the local government has authority. The role of the researcher to play an inconspicuous but vital role, who clarifies the policy implications of research to the relevant stakeholders involved in each policy arena, should be recognized positively in the field of environmental sociology.

The State Forest Company of Indonesia launched its Company-Community Forestry Partnerships system on the island of Java in 2001 (PHBM system). We examined the PHBM's effects on the economic lives of participating villagers through a case study in Madiun, East Java. We specifically examined the potential and limits of the PHBM's contribution to villagers' livelihoods by quantitatively evaluating (i) the system's impact on household livelihoods and (ii) the continuity of its impact. Of households engaging in PHBM, 45.6% had more than half their arable land in the forest, and 10.0% of households had arable land only in the forest. The bulk of non-timber forest products, mostly fuel-wood, was collected in the forest. Among villagers earning an income, 12.2% earned more than half via the PHBM, which was the only source of cash income for 2.2% of the engaged villagers. For some households, PHBM has helped significantly improve their livelihoods. However, the benefits derived from the PHBM were tempered by problems of quality, quantity, and continuity. The benefit of the system could be increased by providing preferential opportunities (to access farmland in the forest and/or cash income) to small-scale or impoverished farmers by improving the usage of intercropping land under planted trees, and promoting small business as a group enterprise.

This paper posits a Modified Actor-Power-Accountability Framework (MAPAF) that makes three major improvements on the Actor-Power-Accountability Framework (APAF) developed by Agrawal and Ribot (1999). These improvements emphasize the nature of decentralized property rights, linking the outputs of decentralization with its outcomes and the inclusion of contextual factors. Applying MAPAF to analyze outputs and outcomes from two major decentralized forest policies in Ethiopia, i.e., delegation and devolution, has demonstrated the following strengths of the framework. First, by incorporating vital bundles of property rights into APAF, MAPAF creates a common ground for exploring and comparing the extent of democratization achieved by different decentralizing reforms. Second, the inclusion of social and environmental outcomes in MAPAF makes it possible to link the output of decentralization with local level outcomes. Finally, the addition of contextual factors enhances MAPAF's explanatory power by providing room for investigating exogenous factors other than democratization that contribute to the outcomes of decentralization reforms. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Even though many forest villagers have been living on forest department land and serving the department in the northeastern hill forests region of Bangladesh since the early 1950s, their livelihood has not yet been fully explored. This paper examines the livelihoods of forest villagers (Khasia ethnic people) and their contribution to forest conservation, using data from the Sylhet forest division. The forest villagers are well-endowed with all the elements of a sustainable livelihoods framework, though human capital in terms of education is not satisfactory. Strong social capital, stable natural capital and a productive market-oriented agroforestry system facilitate the generation of financial and physical capital that make the livelihoods of Khasia people sustainable. At the same time, their reciprocal contributions in terms of forest protection and plantation development support forest conservation. However, some institutional issues such as insecure land tenure with regular agreement renewal problems need to be resolved for the sake of their livelihoods and forest conservation. Lessons learned from the study can be utilized in formulating future participatory forest management schemes in the country.

Decentralized forest policy has been moderately successful in delivering resource-use rights to local people. At the same time, it is possible that decentralization leads to recentralization because governments never give their authority over forest resources. Recentralization studies have paid little attention to the potential of local dynamics to lead to institutional arrangements that affect forest outcomes. This paper uses a case study of Community-based Forest Management (CBFM) in the Philippines to explore how local realities lead to the development of effective institutions for forest management. In this case study, local informal regulations of forest resource use were created through the process of settling local conflicts among competing CBFM interests, including members and non-members of people's organizations, and frontline foresters who are working at local level. Frontline foresters played a role as coordinator of institutional arrangements that regulate local forest exploitation within the CBFM implementation process. The behavior of frontline foresters affected by their own personalities and existing social relations among residents, can deter recentralization in some ways. More attention is needed on the role of frontline foresters and non-members of people's organization as influential negotiators in state-society relations concerning forests.

Recent changes in the policy and institutional framework for forestry of Ethiopia emphasize the decentralization of power including through devolution. With the aim of filling the gap in the literature on Ethiopia, this study explored the actors involved, the nature of power they hold, the accountability relationships among actors and the social and environmental outcomes of the devolved governance system using a Modified Actor-Power-Accountability Framework (MAPAF). The results indicated that discretionary decision-making space is created for the local population and the leaders of Forest Cooperatives to manage and protect the forest and use it for subsistence purposes. To generate income from their withdrawal rights, however, local actors require approval from a mid-level actor, the Oromia Forest and Wildlife Enterprise. Devolution has improved physical and human conditions and the benefits from natural capital, which were identified as salient for the local population as a means of coping with their vulnerabilities and for income generation. The environmental outcome differed depending on the policy followed by the mid-level partner organizations that make decisions with the local population on income-generating activities from the sale of forest resources. Overall, elite capture and the recent emphasis on income generation over forest conservation were identified as key factors hampering positive social and environmental outcomes from the devolved governance system. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, we surveyed 80 households to observe the effects of participatory forestry (PF) on the livelihood of local participants. We analyzed the effects on livelihood capitals to compare in two ways: (1) before and after participation, and (2) participants and non-participants. In Cox's Bazar, there were some significant changes regarding income sources, but annual income was little changed after participation in participatory forestry. Literacy (about 10 % after participation) and mobile phone ownership (75 %) were significantly higher than before. Housing conditions were better (brick walls: 7.5 %; sun-grass roof: 70 %) than those of non-participants (brick walls: 0 %; sun-grass roof: 77.5 %). PF ensured legal rights on forest lands for participants, while non-participants were illegally living on public forestland. However, expenses were considerably higher than income; people were still struggling with poverty and many of them suffered from malnutrition. This ultimately put pressure on all capital. People had redistributed their available capital to cope with adversity, and there was a trend toward involvement in economic activities other than forests. Our study found that social capital was more influenced by PF more than other capitals. Due to the involvement with the PF program, people were feeling much more secure, women had elevated status, and social relationships became stronger.

Decentralizing property rights from state control to user communities has encouraged people's participation in forest management. Relatively few studies, however, examine the forest regulations required for exercising such property rights. To address this issue, Schlager and Ostrom's 'bundle of rights' framework was used to examine various forms of property rights and regulations in three systems of community-based forest management. The field research was undertaken in the northern Philippines, using eight cases of community-based forest management at sites in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Ifugao. Local communities were found to informally retain the authority to create locally crafted property rights and regulations in a central government-initiated program. While forest regulations and practices prescribed at the national level have improved forest conditions, the flow of forest benefits to communities has been limited because of decentralization without devolution of authority. A case study of a site initiated by a local government indicated that the transfer of responsibility from the central government to local government units can create more favourable conditions for the flow of forest benefits to communities. But due to a lack of clarity about devolution of cutting permits and about the locations of afforested critical watershed areas, authorized local users lose their authorization. When forest is managed traditionally, communities can have more assured rights than in government-initiated programs, particularly in relation to tree ownership. This is because individuals have the authority to devise collective-choice rights as well as operational rights.

Forests ecosystems provide several intangible benefits which policy makers ignore since these values do not register in conventional markets or are difficult to measure. Drawing on results of a case study of a forest reserve in japan, this paper suggests that the annual value of the ecosystem services provided by forests is not only worth millions of dollars, but also in per hectare terms much more than hitherto known. This value for the Oku Aizu forest reserve ranged US$ 1.427-1.482 billion or about US$ 17,01617671 per ha. If these are accounted for, then governments and societies faced with the development versus conservation dilemma can make more informed decisions and policies that will help conserve forests and the ecosystem services they provide, and thereby promote human well-being and sustainable development. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

South Asian upland cultivators are transitioning from subsistence production to commercial production using mainly small-scale rubber cultivation, which helps this transition and reduces poverty. This study, conducted October 2007 through February 2009, examines how small-scale rubber planting enhances people's livelihoods. Data were gathered from Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka. We found differences in rubber tree stock, growth, management, and livelihood impact. Plantations in India and Sri Lanka were doing well, while Bangladesh tree stock was low. Strong institutional support, proper silvicultural practices, funding for plantation maintenance, and participant awareness of benefits contributed to satisfactory plantation conditions in India and Sri Lanka, where participants realized good earnings from tapping, while Bangladeshi participants earned little. Because monoculture rubber plantations present risks, participants should practice mixed cropping. Rubber agroforestry can be the best alternative to monoculture rubber plantations because it reconciles economic and sustainable uses of natural resources, and biodiversity conservation.

Mountain villages suffer from the depression of industries such as agriculture and forestry industries, the lack of public facilities for daily living, and the fragility of social organization. For the depression of industries such as agriculture and forestry industries and the lack of public facilities for daily living, various measures were taken. However, for the fragility of social organization, particular measures were not taken. As a result, many local societies are on the verge of collapse. To revitalize these societies, it is necessary to promote the society change which forms new identities in these societies. And "endogenous development" plays an important role to promote this society change. "Endogenous development" exists on a network of local inhabitants, and this network is tied up in "thought (bonds) " that is going to protect a local inhabitants common "important thing". The stronger such "thought" to protect an "important thing" becomes, the more vibrant will be the activities to protect an "important thing". And the more vibrant such activities to protect an "important thing" becomes, the more "local resources (the commons) " will be required.

Social forestry as a development strategy has evolved since the 1970s, especially in the tropics, to address forest degradation and promote local community development amidst the burgeoning population in these areas. As a practice, however, social forestry has been in place since ancient times in many parts of the world, including Japanese forest communities. Forest-people relationships in Japan drastically changed through massive afforestation programs after the energy source change and with the industrialization of the forest sector in 1950s. The majority of the planted forests are underutilized today and forest communities are marginalized due to the decline of forestry operations, depopulation, and changes in people's values. Some communities address this concern by inviting potential urban migrants who may be interested in settling in rural areas. Using the case of the Nishiawakura Village in Okayama Prefecture, this paper explores the recent challenges confronting social forestry in Japan. It is found that underutilization of forest resources can be a cause of serious environmental degradation and marginalization of forest communities, and that Nishiawakura's journey to renew forest management in partnership with migrants is a process of revisiting and creating the forest-people relationship. This study advances two related arguments, namely (1) the interaction of the local people and the migrants brings new perspectives to forest management, and (2) in a community facing depopulation and underutilization of forest resources, social forestry can be an effective approach to rediscover traditional forest management in a new form and revitalize forests and local communities.

Drawing on the example of community forestry in Myanmar's Dry Zone area, this paper conceptualizes and empirically assesses key factors for obtaining the participation of user group members, with emphasis on the implementation stage. More specifically, the study clarifies the commonalities and differences in influential factors between two types of community forestry: agroforestry and natural forest types. Field data were collected by semi-structured interviews with 54 households in four selected user groups, by key informant interviews, by informal interviews, and by direct observations. Our analysis was conducted in accordance with a framework in which selected social/institutional, economic, and physical factors affect participation. The results show that social/institutional factors are the most influential factors in both types, while economic factors are directly related to participation of user groups in the agroforestry type alone. Results indicated that preconditions, such as selection of leaders, should be considered in accordance with the local context in which the people have a shared recognition of what confers legitimacy to leadership. We recommend collaboration of the Forest Department with user group members in providing information regarding the use and selling of forest products from agroforestry-type community forest, as well as frequent communication with user groups to provide incentives regarding property rights stability for future benefits to continue participation of user group members in managing the dry forest.

Decentralized forest management is a pivotal approach in Ethiopia for balancing biodiversity conservation with demand for economic development, and for improving forest-dependent local peoples' livelihoods. With the aim of filling the literature gap on Ethiopia, this paper explores the dynamics of decentralization in the forestry sector using the actor-power-accountability framework. Generally, three forms of decentralization are practiced: deconcentration to government administrative branches, devolution of selected decision-making power to local people, and delegation to enterprises. Although transfer of meaningful discretionary power to local people or to downwardly accountable lower-tier governments is a precondition for achieving positive outcomes from decentralization, this prerequisite has been realized in none of the three forms decentralization. Overall, three important trends emerged from the latest decentralization reform, which was a switch from the conservation-oriented deconcentration form of decentralization to the income generation-oriented delegation form of decentralization. Those trends are as follows: monetary income generation for local people through enterprise, albeit with possible risk of being deprived of income and subsistence opportunities on which local people depend for their livelihoods
moving decision-making power away from the grassroots
and lack of incentive to manage natural forests, a major source of biodiversity. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

This paper uses case studies to measure and evaluate livelihood assets in the process of sustainable forest commons governance. The aims of the study are based on two key hypotheses: Community Based Co-Management (CBCM) has changed the livelihood assets of local community residents in the study area
and the changes in livelihood assets are different between participators in CBCM and non-participators. The findings of the study show that the total value of livelihood assets was 0.56 in 2006 and increased to 0.71 in 2010, which supported hypothesis A and illustrated that livelihood assets indeed changed significantly from 2006 to 2010. Livelihood asset conditions are significantly different between participators and non-participators in CBCM projects (0.77 for participators and 0.51 for non-participators), and the findings, taken together, also supported hypothesis B. Physical capital does not show a remarkable increase, but application of energy-saving stoves, mash gas pools, and the use of alternative energy sources optimize the household energy structure and decrease the amount of firewood used. The change in natural capital demonstrates that the majority of local community residents, in their subjective consciousness, are willing to protect forest resources and biodiversity. In terms of human capital, the capacity building of local people shows significant improvement, but their health status and medical situation are associated with a series of problems that need to be resolved. In terms of financial capital, household income and expenditures both show significant improvement, and alternative and diverse livelihood approaches have appeared and been well developed. Social capital shows significant improvements in some aspects regarding the status of women and the relationship between the government and communities. Finally, we advocate incurring the lowest natural resource costs to obtain the greatest benefits in the process of sustainable livelihood development and forest common governance. © 2012.

This study analyzed the livelihoods of households located in and around forests in Ethiopia, and investigated the impacts of two major forest policies of the country, delegation and devolution. The results showed that forest-related livelihoods are an important mechanism to cope with drought and concomitant food shortages. The forest is also an important source of income, especially for the relatively resource-poor community and for the poor and very poor households in the community. The delegation policy has frustrated this role of the forest in local people's livelihoods while devolution yielded mixed results, with some forest-related benefits declining while others showed increase. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Ecosystem services valuation has achieved considerable prominence in research and policy circles in recent years. This paper reviews the studies that have tried to estimate the value of forest ecosystem services. Broadly, this study addresses the following questions: (1) What insights do these studies provide on the value of forest ecosystems? (2) What lessons do they offer from an economic and policy perspective? (3) What are the shortcomings of the existing studies, and what are the challenges and issues for future research? Evidence from a cross section of forest sites, countries and regions suggests that not only the total valuation of ecosystem services varies widely across studies but also the valuation of individual services. This variation suggests that policies to conserve ecosystems and their services should emphasise local contexts and values. This paper concludes by discussing the shortcomings of existing studies, and suggests that, among other things, future research should focus on the neglected ecosystem services, 'disservices', assess the role of dynamic factors and environmental catastrophes on the provision of ecosystem services, and assess the benefits of keeping forests intact versus converting them to alternative uses. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

This article tries to reveal the field reality in East Kalimantan, especially the preferences of villagers in terms of income source and land use, to ascertain the implications for Indonesia's national REDD-plus policy or one of the emerging regimes under UNFCCC. In forest lands, the villagers have no expectations for labour opportunities involving logging and planting trees in concession areas. In non-forest lands, villagers want to continue practicing swidden agriculture, to expand traditional rubber gardens, and to develop commercialised rubber plantations. They also think that rattan gardens and orchards are important. In order to suppress competition over land used for coal mining and oil palm plantations, to ensure villagers' rights to resources, and to conserve natural resources, it is recommended that Indonesia introduce programmes to support, as REDD-plus activities, the sustainable management of remaining forest and forest-like land uses such as orchards, rattan gardens, and traditional rubber gardens. This study shows the importance of not confining one's perspective to the REDD-plus policy framework determined by the government, but rather evaluating it by checking actual conditions in the field to aid constructive discussion. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

This paper examines the constraints on achieving positive social and environmental outcomes from community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) in Ethiopia, a rarely researched country. A comparative case study on successful and failed CBNRM in a pioneering and influential CBNRM project revealed the important determinant for disparity in outcome to be whether the existing collective decision-making arrangements on use rights and benefit-sharing support the members to whom those benefits are salient. Institutionalising CBNRM in government forest policy and improving the capacity to implement it are recommended to improve current conditions.

The purpose of this article is to clarify the Shipibo&rsquo;s distribution of bananas, and to consider the current situation regarding the importance of &ldquo;aquinquin (sharing)&rdquo; in their society. The Shipibo people practice food distribution as a custom. While bananas are the major staple food that is eaten most frequently, most households do not supply their own needs. They acquire and exchange bananas in various ways: they get the fruit through requests, as gifts, in requital/exchange, and through purchase in the settlement, as well as through requests to harvest made by the &ldquo;have-nots&rdquo; or the gift of harvesting permission by the &ldquo;haves,&rdquo; both of which are made through face-to-face communication, as well as distribution without tacit permission or formal notification by field owners. While the Shipibo people consider &ldquo;sharing&rdquo; to be important and expect male villagers to produce bananas by themselves, banana distribution has been practiced in a circle that includes &ldquo;chiquish (lazy)&rdquo; people who do not have their own banana fields. However, &ldquo;lazy&rdquo; people were recently excluded from this circle because of their lack of &ldquo;shinna (care for others).&rdquo; The Shipibo people have continued banana distribution with a core notion of &ldquo;aquinquin,&rdquo; but it is not an essentialistic and stable custom, rather is the dynamic process of rearrangement for day-to-day as villagers sound out each other&rsquo;s acceptable situations in their daily life.

Most of rural areas in Japan are suffering from depopulation. This study shows changes in the relationships between out-migrants and their origin village by focusing on traditional festivals, and discusses the capability of out-migrants to support their depopulated village. The analysis is based on the results from field work in Mogura village, Hayakawa town, Yamanashi prefecture, Japan.<br> In the Mogura village, there are festivals that are initiated by young men called &ldquo;Wakeisyu&rdquo;. Since 1960s, the out-migration of young men to town to attend their high school became common. However, although the families and the jobs of these young men are located in town, they have continued to visit their village and keep on contributions for their village in some way. Especially they participate in initiating festivals so that the festivals can survive even after there are no young men living in the village.<br> The factors that contributed for out-migrants to continuously participate were found to be: （1）they acquired the local knowledge and techniques in their childhood;（2）they keep their past neighborhood network;（3）they keep the rules of participation in the festivals flexible.

An agroforestry system based on Areca catechu L. and Piper betel L. has been gradually developed by farmers of northern rural Bangladesh since the late 1980s. This paper explores the indigenous practices and the socio-economics of this agroforestry system, seen as a promising land use strategy in the region. Data were collected by interviewing household members and visiting their agroforestry plots as well as by focus group discussions in five villages of Panchagarh district. Results indicate that farmers allocated a portion of their farmland along with homesteads for Areca and betel-based agroforestry because they felt it was both sustainable and profitable. Sustainability was ensured by the presence of different Areca and betel leaf age gradations in the plantations and by buoyant product markets. Variation was observed among farmers regarding land allocation, tree density, income, and marketing of products. Though poor farmers had less land at their disposal, they allocated the same proportion of their land to agroforestry as did the largest land holders. Poor farmers' agroforestry plots had the highest Areca tree density and also derived the highest income per hectare. Net income per farmer was directly proportional to the amount of land allotted to agroforestry. © 2011 Taylor &amp
Francis Group, LLC.

Since the 1990s, many empirical studies of "community-based conservation" (CBC) have discussed the relationship of benefits from wildlife to local attitudes. In addition to that relationship, this article examines the use of benefits and the consistency of that use with wildlife conservation goals in a CBC project in Kenya. Kimana Sanctuary is a flagship CBC project in Kenya. In partnership with a tourism company, the community earned sufficient monetary benefit and realized hoped-for development. While CBC is an attempt to conserve wildlife over its entire habitat in partnership with local communities, it failed to attain the expected goal of the local conservation initiative. Wildlife benefits betrayed the assumption of CBC because involved parties overlooked the iscrepancy between the definitions of conservation by local people and outsiders, and the function of monetary benefits as a trigger for future change. The design of CBC projects should be based more on local subsistence. © Taylor &amp
Francis Group, LLC.

Rattan, rubber and oil palm, are produced in the tropics, of which previous researches were focused on the aspects of ecology and economy. This article aims to clarify the preference of swiddenners to such products and to understand their emic livelihood strategy. As a result, it was clarified that villagers selected the rubber production as the source of cash income because of high 'returns to works', and sustained the rattan production because of high 'flexibility' in terms of daily use and so on. Villagers hesitated to introduce oil palm because of low 'flexibility' and 'autonomy' caused by oil palm company. On the other hand, villagers have expectation to high 'return to works'. Therefore villagers accepted the development of oil palm plantation in upper river area where villagers have not practiced swidden yet, but refused around the village areas where the lands are de facto owned by villagers. We can conclude that the people take the 'mosaic' livelihood strategy, where they try to combine the advantages and disadvantages of rattan and rubber production, and introduce oil palm plantation partially for avoiding the risks.

Western-style monophyletically extrinsic economic development, that has been a model for Japan and South Korea, is leading to a deterioration of the global environment and depletion of resources. Nations and communities are being forced into a situation where they will have to pursue "independent, polyphyletic endogenous economic development". In Kaneyama-town, local production for local consumption of "Kaneyama-type houses" which are built with local resources (Kaneyama cedar) using local techniques (Kaneyama carpentry) is bringing about "endogenous development". The purpose of this report is to examine what is spurring this development. In order to understand residents' thoughts about "Kaneyama-type houses", we sent questionnaires to them. As a result, we learned that local residents who share the "common idea" of preserving and nurturing their beautiful townscape (the local commons), order "Kaneyama-type houses" from Kaneyama carpenters and "endogenous development" is achieved by Kaneyama carpenters linking home construction with local use of Kaneyama cedar materials produced at local sawmills.<BR>The key to sustainable "endogenous development", that is, whether or not this pursuit of "endogenous development" will continue, depends on whether or not the local residents will continue to share the "common idea" of preserving and nurturing their beautiful townscape (the local commons).

Sustainable participatory management and conservation requires an understanding of site-specific, rights structure, resource use and resource dependency patterns over time. This paper documents these issues by examining the resource use pattern overtime by the Katu people in Nam Doug district, Thua Thien Hue province, central Vietnam, before and after allocation of natural forest to the households of the community. Household interview, key informant and group discussions were used for data collection and crosscheck. Descriptive analysis and pair-sample T-test are main tools used to explore those parameters. We found a weak performance of property rights and differences in the De facto to the De jure rights of forest recipients. On contrary to the increased rights, forest use and forest dependency of local people have been reduced due to the degradation of resources, and availability of alternative opportunities from emerging agriculture and animal grazing options. Considering dynamic nature of resource dependency overtime, it is necessary to consider in the post-allocation programme which embrace the local context to have better forest protection and management as well as the satisfaction of local people on the forest resources they manage.

As a strategy of social development, the Bangladeshi government has attached the highest priority to participatory forestry (PF) since the early 1980s. In this article, we examine the impacts of PF on livelihoods of ethnic people, drawing empirical data from three villages involved in two PF projects. The projects have varying impacts on livelihoods of participating villagers. Disparities in income and forest conditions in the study villages were traced to factors including forest production technologies (agroforestry), the top-down approach of project management, failure to create awareness about project benefits, and the inability of project staff members to organize planters. Findings also indicate that PF projects are not sufficient to conserve and develop forests without assuring people&apos;s basic needsfood security and regular income sources. Meeting the diversified needs of people necessitates a long-term integrated plan that focuses on sustainable management of land, water, and other resources with a coordinated approach.

The Kenyah people have been largely dependent on the collection of NTFPs and the practice of swidden agriculture. Therefore, they manage resources based on their customary rules to assure resource security. Decentralization policy in 1999 has granted the district government broader authority to create policies related to resource management that may either strengthen or undermine customary resource management (CRM). Field work was conducted in three Kenyah villages in 2006 to conduct interviews with 93 individuals. The objective of the study is to evaluate the importance of boundaries in CRM under decentralization policy. Results suggest that decentralization has increased boundary conflicts over resources among the Kenyah and also between the Kenyah and other Dayak groups. Boundaries are regarded as very important in resource management, and the Kenyah communities have adopted the strategies necessary to secure collective rights over resources by clarifying 'outer' boundaries. In urbanized Kenyah communities, CRM is not as rigorous due inevitably to factors such as individual claims over land and heterogeneity in ethnicity of landowners. To secure individual rights, most of the individual lands have been certified, which is regarded as clarification of 'inner' boundaries.

The Khasia ethnic community of Bangladesh has been a population of forest villagers in the north-eastern hill forests of Bangladesh since the early 1950s, practicing a betel leaf-based agroforestry system on land granted by the Forest Department. Taking a sample forest village of the Sylhet forest division as a case study, this article examines the sustainability attributes of betel leaf production in the agroforestry system. The presence of several positive attributes of sustainability including the composition of agroforestry, disease control, soil fertility management, profitability, socio-cultural acceptability and institutional support indicate that betel leaf production within the agroforestry system is stable under the prevailing traditional management system. Income from the sale of betel leaf is the principal livelihood means and villager's reciprocal contributions help to conserve forest resources. However, problems with land ownership and regular agreement renewal need to be resolved for the sake of their livelihoods and forest conservation. © 2009 Steve Harrison, John Herbohn.

This study used two contrasting sample villages (one relatively successful and the other relatively unsuccessful) as case Study sites to investigate the impacts of a forest-based settlement project on community livelihood. It was found that although since customary forestry practices (shifting cultivation) could not support participants&apos; livelihoods all year, joining the settlement project had improved their livelihoods. Many project participants have given Up Customary forestry practices completely and diversified their livelihood strategies. Due to budget allocation disparities, differences in raising awareness about project benefits, and inconsistencies in monitoring and motivation. project outcomes varied between the villages, Several factors were identified that underlay success or failure of the settlement project in achieving targeted project&apos;s objectives. A recommendation is made for effective participation by participants that would heighten the sense of ownership, enhance collective management, and ensure long-term project sustainability.

In recent years, changes in traditional communal (Iriai) forest ownership have been taking place in rural Japan. One cause is the emergence of Authorized Neighborhood Associations introduced under the revised Local Autonomy Law, 1991. This study analyzes the effects of instituting multifunctional Authorized Neighborhood Associations on collectively owned forests in Japan. It examines the comparative institutional and policy characteristics of Authorized Neighborhood Associations and two other types of forest ownership, and presents findings based on case studies undertaken in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The study reveals that hamlets are establishing Authorized Neighborhood Associations to acquire formal collective ownership of Iriai forests, adapt to present socioeconomic realities, and reduce bureaucratic transaction costs. Authorized Neighborhood Associations are clearly emerging as an attractive alternative to other formal and informal grass-roots forestry institutions.

Because of illegal logging, increased population pressure and intensified shifting cultivation, forest coverage of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) has decreased drastically resulting in land degradation. Many development projects have been implemented to combat forest loss and land degradation and also to improve the livelihoods of the hill people. This paper reports an empirical study of the Upland Settlement Project (USP) of Bangladesh which was undertaken to prevent land degradation and enhance the standard of living of the people. Planters were found to have given up shifting cultivation and adopted soil conserving agroforestry practices, and forest coverage has been increased in the project village. Interacting with project staff members, government officials and NGOs assisted planters in diversifying livelihood strategies thereby reducing dependency on project resources. Rich planters, utilizing their own capacity, expanded their income sources successfully. Poor planters still remain wage labourers because they do not have sufficient finance and networks to invest in productive ventures. Planters' participation in project activities and the information flow between them and project staff were found to be minimal. Suggestions are made for the continuity of project functions, which involve greater participation of planters in rubber management functions, improved information flow, resolution of land tenure and greater equality in distribution of rubber revenue. © 2008 Steve Harrison, John Herbohn.

By sampling an upland settlement project (USP) village, this study examined why the project failed to achieve the planned objectives in some villages, and what livelihood strategies villagers (planters) have adopted to sustain their livelihoods. The paper uses data obtained by qualitative and quantitative methods. The USP was formulated with the objectives of settling 50 landless and marginal tribal families in a project village and introducing agroforestry and rubber plantations for short- and long-term socioeconomic development of planters, in a participatory manner. There are now only 15 planters in the project village and, although agroforestry has progressed well, only 30 to 40% of poor quality rubber trees remain. Planter participation in project activities was limited to wage labour, indicating that the USP failed to adequately achieve all its proposed objectives. In the face of project failure, planters have adopted diversified strategies to maintain their livelihoods. Several shortcomings caused failure of the project, such as the inability of project staff members to organize planters, failure to create awareness among planters about project benefits, lack of regular project money disbursement, sociocultural ignorance, and lack of social capital among planters. Recommendations are made for securing effective participation of local people to assure successful and sustainable project outcomes. Lessons learned will be helpful in formulating future development programmes in this country and elsewhere.

By sampling two contrasting villages of the Upland Settlement Project (USP), a PF project of Bangladesh, this research examines: • the present conditions of the USP in terms of progress towards achieving targeted objectives • issues of local-level governance that affect attaining those objectives. Findings indicate that the project authority could not adequately attain project objectives because of low level of participation, lack of accountability and transparency in handling project money, gaps in communication and information flow and the poor response of project staff. For better project outcomes, governance situation need to be improved through the formation of social capital. Copyright © 2008 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

This article reviews the process of decentralization in forest management in developing countries in South and Southeast Asia. Decentralized forest management (DFM) is an alternative to centralized or state-regulated forest management, which transfers the forest use and management rights to local communities. It is a process of gradual change in forest management, which started in the 1970s when social forestry programs involving people's participation were first attempted and expanded in the 1990s when DFM policies were enacted to recognize the traditional forest rights of local communities. DFM has no single definition, depending instead on the state's willingness to move away from the command and control approach toward forest management. There are some plus points, but these are still limited and the drawbacks of decentralization far outweigh the gains.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the policy and practice of community-based forest management (CBFM) in the Philippines over the last three decades - one of the longest experiences in Asia. As a form of structural policy reform, CBFM may be viewed as radical and progressive. It replaced the century-old corporate mode of forest utilization where benefits flowed directly to an elite minority and attempts to institutionalize a more "people-oriented;" approach of forest management. However, progress on the ground in terms of achieving the CBFM's goals on sustainable and equitable forest management remains elusive. Unstable policy, overly bureaucratic procedures, CBFM viewed as a project and not as an approach to replacing commercial large-scale forestry, and weak institutional support system, deter effective implementation. Drawing from three decades of experience, the paper distilled emerging lessons for sustainable and equitable forest management that may be useful to other countries promoting community forestry.

Forest policies that devolve forest-use rights to local people have undergone development over the past few years in Laos. As collaboration between local people and forestry officials is seen as indispensable to effective and sustainable local forest management, the objective of this study is to clarify the issues pertinent to the resolution of latent conflict between these two stakeholders. The issues are examined by presenting two case studies in terms of forest management as perceived by local people and forestry officials; the first in a rich forest area and the second in a degraded forest. Issues relating to land and borders and social capital are identified as the most important in the degraded forest area, while social capital is a very important issue in the rich forest area. Our studies show that the problems of land and border issues in the degraded forest area were caused by an inappropriate resettlement policy. This can be interpreted as the mismanagement of social capital, and for effective local forest management it is very important to overcome problems of this nature. The effective use of social capital has so far been overlooked, however, in the establishment of collaborative forest governance at the local level.

The potentialities of agroforestry are generally investigated through their biophysiological phenomena, cost-benefit analysis, and possible impact upon poverty reduction. There have been inadequate studies on the actual impacts of agroforestry intervention on small landholders and of farmers' attitudes toward these agroforestry programs. Drawing upon the findings of an empirical study, this article explores the effects of small-scale agroforestry on upland community development in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. More specifically, the study clarifies the merits and demerits of different agroforestry systems as perceived by farmers, their impacts on the rural economy and the environment, farmers' attitudes toward the adoption of agroforestry, and impacts of various government policies. Field data were collected by administering questions to 90 randomly selected smallholders of the Upland Settlement Project (USP), as well as from project staff. The research tools employed were semistructured interviews, group discussions, and uncontrolled observations. The results indicated that the agroforestry interventions have in fact increased farmers' income through employment and the selling of farm products, as well as by improving the ecological conditions of these areas through reduction of soil erosion, increasing tree coverage, and maintaining soil fertility. The adoption of different agroforestry systems was governed mainly by the farmers' interests in following these techniques, their ability to cultivate the land in the prescribed manner, and the market demand for their products. The major obstacles that prevented increased agroforestry improvements included lack of confidence in new land-use systems, inappropriate project design (e.g., top-down innovation approach), and policy issues regarding land tenure. Recommendations are proposed to strengthen social capital in local organizations to enhance the livelihoods of the upland communities.

Despite the trend of dwindling productivity, tribal people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) still practise shifting cultivation as a dominant hill farming system to support their livelihood. Drawing on an empirical study in Khagrachari district of the CHT, this research examined how far the production from present shifting cultivation supports the tribal people's livelihood and what alternative livelihood strategies they have adopted for subsistence by using data on input/output and income/expenditures, and analysing current government policies. The findings showed that productivity declined markedly, yields were almost equal to input values and farmers experienced food shortages for at least two to six months in a year. To make a living, farmers have adopted new occupations such as wage labour, animal husbandry, cultivation of annual monocrops and extraction and selling of forest products. Policy analysis indicates that previous policies were unable to reduce shifting cultivation intensity or improve tribal people's livelihoods or the region's forest resources. Reorientation of government policies, easy access to institutional support and the active participation of local people in development intervention are of the utmost importance in order to find alternative land uses for sustainable hill farming, to improve the farmer's living standards and to conserve forests and protect watersheds. © 2005 Taylor &amp
Francis Group, LLC.

In Kemang, a mountain village in West Java, Indonesia, the local people call the hillsides pasir, a term which includes both privately owned hillside land or nationally owned forest land. It is apparent that the national forest lands function as a social safety net, serving as land where the middle-class and the poor can conduct "informal" cultivation, through temporary agreements with the state forestry corporation, or even "illegal" cultivation without permission. In this study, the households cultivating on national forest lands were identified as: (1) having most household members living together
(2) having a relatively young head person
(3) cultivating a small area of rice field
(4) having participated in the former perhutanan sosial system
(5) being dependent on the income from hillside land
(6) taking advantage of the rare opportunities for off-farm income
and (7) having a low total income. Meanwhile, the talun-huma system is dominant on privately owned hillside land, where a part of the talun, or tree garden, is cleared for use as a swidden on a 30-year rotation. In such cases, the land functions as a safety net only for the limited number of people who are permitted access to the land. The function of the privately owned hillside land, through the mutual-aid system, should not be overestimated
it is probably less important than national forest land in terms of income redistribution. It is recommended that the government of Indonesia consider the possibility of formally ensuring the long-term rights of local people to utilize the national forest lands in Java.

<p>In Indonesia, the Decentralization process is ongoing after the implementation of the regional autonomy laws (Law No.22 / 1999 on Regional Governance and Law No.25 / 1999 on Fiscal Balance between the Central Government and the Regions). In the forestry sector, the decentralization process is also going forward after the Law No.41 / 1999 on Forestry. However, as it stands, the decentralization process is in chaos, lacking in concrete policy and consultation for the regions by the central government.</p><p>Therefore, field research was conducted in West Kutai district, East Kalimantan Province in order to make an actor-oriented analysis on the forest management and clarify dynamic movements and relationships among the forest management bodies and the background and logic to their decisionmaking. Through the analysis, we proposed a future forest management system and the possible role of development assistance in achieving it.</p><p>It is revealed that the decentralization process has gone relatively well so far in West Kutai district because of the multi-stakeholder coordination. And it is accomplished through the efforts by (1) projects by foreign donors that helped in forming multi-stakeholder working groups for the forest management, and (2) Bupati (regent) and his staff achieving good relations with NGOs, the local people and research institutes. We put a high value on the process of consensus building through the multi-stakeholder working groups that resulted in establishment of the regional forest management plan and new regional regulations on forest management. It is also noted that the ownership of these working groups has already been transferred from the foreign donors to the local governments.</p><p>Meanwhile, the relationships among the levels of governments in each level (central, province and regency) are not yet in harmony because of their struggle for more authority. The empowerment of governmental sections and the local people is needed to ensure that participatory forest management is achieved.</p>

Nowadays people can freely choose their place of residence because they have been almost emtirely released from traditional bondage to inherit and maintain their property while living in their parents' home. As a result, it becomes very important to choose their residential location based on, whether a certain village is attractive or not. In Sawauchi Village, several activities, such as the manufacturing of special products, which originated from a governmental campaign created in response to local characteristics, have been comstructively carried out, based on the human relations within each sub-village. Through those activities, human networks supporting them have spread throughout the city area. The more densely and widely such human networks were set up inside and outside the sub-village, the more those activities could be vitalized. While people living in the researched sub-village positively participate in the activities, they can keep living in their sub-village with confidence and pride. This is one of the reasons why the population of Sawauchi Village has not declined as rapidly as that of other mountain villages.

The main objective of the paper is to clarify the characteristics of participatory forest management systems in Southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. Important sociological factors, such as legal status of land, main actors of forest management, and work organization for forest management, are adopted as an analytical framework for comparative policy analysis. Following the framework, participatory forest management systems are examined and evaluated. The characteristics of the systems are clarified as follows; 1) most of the land still belongs to the state and the right to use the land is granted to the local people, 2) protected areas are mainly controlled by the government, 3) most of the collective management by the local people are not implemented by fundamental groups but by functional groups, and 4) the systems in the Philippines seem to be advanced in terms of transfer of responsibilities for forest management from government agencies to the local people, because the indigenous people are granted the land ownership and the local people are involved even in the management of protected areas. On the other hand, field research at local level reveal the importance to understand the real state of forest utilization based on the folk category of land and to identify the possibility for the local people to manage their forests. In order to connect the forest sociological studies at local level with the forest policy analysis at national level, the approach of political ecology seems to be helpful.

Focusing on cities nearest to "Mountain Villages" as defined by "the Mountain Villages Development Act", the followings were considerd; the relation between necessary time from villages to the nearest city and population trends in these villages, and the relation between population trends in villages and population size of the nearest cities. In the 1960's, most mountain villages became depopulated. In the 1970's and 1980's, the rate of mountain villages increasing in population is higher in villages with shorter necessary time. A specific relation was found between necessary time and population trends in mountain villages. In the 1990's, the necessary time has not affected population growth significantly. On the other hand, population sizes are under 100 thousand in the cities near mountain villages increasing in population. In conclusion, it is thought that shortening with a necessary time by improving roads and building tunnels or developing cities large populations selectively are not always effective in developing the population of mountain villages.

Commons vary in definition and classification. In a wide sense, in both open-access and common property regimes, they are classified into "local-commons" where access to the resource is limited to certain groups and "global-commons" where everyone has access. The former are classified into "tight local-commons" associated with regulation and sanction and "loose local-commons" characterized by free access within the groups. Nowadays the importance of "tight local-commons" is recognized as the defects of privatization and nationalization are observed in various places. This paper examines the forest systems of the Kenyah people in East Kalimantan, involving swidden sub-system, common forests sub-system, and other sub-systems. The commons have ecological and socio-cultural functions. To examine the ecological function, three manners in sustainable utilization are categorized to serve as a conceptual device. "Haphazard" sustainable use is defined as the mode of utilization where unconscious action brings about sustainable use of the resources ; "incidental" sustainable use is defined as the mode of utilization where conscious actions for other purposes achieve sustainable use; and "intended" sustainable use is one where sustainable resources management is achieved as intended. It is concluded that the swidden sub-system and common forests sub-system are regarded as "loose local-commons"; the other systems are considered to be "global commons". Their forest systems go through drastic change because they do not involve "tight local-commons". The change has been caused by "incomplete industrialization", involving timber revolution in 1970's, plywood revolution in 1980's, and re-afforestation revolution in 1990's, preceded by the long process of incorporation into market economy for centuries. Two alternative responses for the Kenyah people are derived logically: "complete industrialization" strategy where the Kenyah people can adapt themselves to industrialization based on private property regime and "reconstruction of the commons" strategy where new social system may be constructed based on common property regime. Under the present forest policy, the latter may not be available. It is recommended that an Article 2 of Basic Forestry Law should be revised as for the forest dwellers to establish a kind of "tight local-commons" grounded on Basic Land Law, in cooperation with NGOs and the government.

In the mountainous "Gantarang" region inhabited by the Makassar people, the upper classes living at the foot of the palace had monopolized rainfed rice fields and sugar palm communities, while the commoners, who were shifting cultivators, had produced maize on the slopes of the mountains around the upper classes' villages. From the 1970s, the commoners began to settle down and make colonies on the middle mountain slopes in consequence of strong prohibition of shifting cultivation due to pine plantation projects by the government. As a result, in the late 1980s when the watershed management project was inaugurated in cooperation with JICA, slash-and-burn agriculture and firing for grazing had vanished. Since the implementation of the project, the upper classes have been earning considerable amounts of cash income as wage laborers for the various activities of the project, and the commoners have been diversifying their income sources, stimulated by construction and improvement of the road network. Organizational aspects of the culture show signs of changes under the influence of the project. The project's effects, however, have not reached the ideological aspects of the culture.

In the tropical forest areas the endogenous development mechanisms would be hardly formed, because the areas have been under the influence of exogenous economic forces as the areas have been the periphery regions in the periphery countries. The patterns of changes in forest utilization in the tropics, however, do not seem to be uniform. This paper describes and considers the changes in swidden agriculture and the customary law concerning the utilization of the forest products, based on the field surveys at the Kenyah Dayak and the Buginese villages in East Kalimantan, the Wana villages in Central Sulawesi and a village in Siberut island.<BR>Traditional types of swidden agriculture, which produce subsistence crops under the condition of the low population density, whether recurrent type or pioneer type, seem to change toward unsustainable land utilization in the course of economic development along with population increases and the infiltration of cash economy, because the practices concerning the use of swiddens are not so strict as customary law would imply.<BR>In utilizing the forest products, it is crucial whether the customary law has developed well or not before going through the economic development. The areas where the customary law have developed well will possibly develop endogenously, or form the conditions, suitable to peculiar ecosystems, for everybody as individual human being to make good use of the possibilities through satisfying the basic human needs based on their own tradition, referring to exogenous knowledge, technology, institution, etc.. Even in the society with elaborately developed customary law, however, it is uncertain how long the customary law will be effective, because of the contradiction with the national law and the influence of radical economic development. It seems necessary to form the system where forest dwellers could manage the forests with the assurance of the long term right of utilization.

Since the 1950s, the Kenyah Dayak people have been moving out of their isolated home. The further they migrate downstream, the more the monetary economy infiltrates into the village. At the same time, social and economic structures such as work organization, the mutual aid system, and the traditional land tenure system change. As the result of such changes, the originally sustainable swidden system has changed to a less sustainable one. To examine the dynamics of the swidden system practiced by the Kenyah people, the infiltration of monetary economy and the effect of the system on the environment are adopted as parameters.