ADDRESSING LOCAL VALUES AND CONFLICT THROUGH COMMUNITY FORESTRY

In developed regions, a recent interest in community forestry can be seen as a response to economic, environmental and social problems associated with conventional forest management. As described in the earlier chapters of this book, community forestry demands the broader integration of societal values and interests in forest governance. Consequently, its implementation in developed regions often requires restructuring the use and control of forest systems. Community forestry supporters see the approach as an opportunity to maintain local livelihoods, public access to open spaces and resources, and environmental conservation goals, as well as fairness and transparency in decision-making processes. Based on principles of local control, benefits and values, in theory community forestry offers an integrated approach to community development that is reinforced by parallel grassroots movements for participatory governance and civic environmentalism.

The stories in this book relay the bottom-up efforts of community groups, senior governments and forestry professionals (Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6) seeking an alternative to the status quo. Examining the history of community forestry in the eastern United States (Chapter 3) and Canada (Chapter 4) reveals that similar motivations were behind early community forestry programs and policies (i.e. concerns for remediation and conservation prompted by earlier poor land use practices) and that the two regions had a similar trajectory with respect to the rise and spread of municipal models (i.e. town and county forests). Community forestry experience in North America shows that, time after time, the community forestry concept has been revived during periods of heightened concern for ecological degradation, social conflict and economic disaster – when it seemed all else had failed and a unique or innovative institutional response was needed.