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Forestry for Sustainable Rural Development
Policy
is important.
In each
program reviewed, changes in the policies governing forest lands
were required to counter incentives to use forests in unsustainable
ways and thereby contribute to their destruction. Although the new
policies varied in each country, they all enabled local people to
benefit directly from sustainable forest management. They also
broadened people's view of the types of benefits forests and forest
lands can provide—beyond timber, which government forest
departments typically concentrate on. For villagers, nontimber
forest products like grasses, fruits, resins, and leaves were often
as important as wood, and in many cases the ability to plant cash
and subsistence crops in agroforestry programs was critical to the
villagers' sustained interest in land restoration and soil
conservation. The policy changes that enabled villagers to gain
these varied benefits also transformed the relationship between
villagers and government agents. Instead of merely representing the
state's police powers, government personnel became people villagers
could learn from, negotiate with, and call on for technical and
financial assistance.
Government agencies can change.
One of the
most striking findings in the review of the six Asian programs was
the degree to which government forest agencies, commonly viewed as
entrenched, insensitive, and sometimes corrupt bureaucracies, were
capable of change. Each program dealt with an agency that had
innovative leaders within its ranks who, at the field level, were
inventing new approaches to serving both the needs of villagers and
the agency's conservation and production mandates; and who at upper
levels were prepared, when given outside assistance, to lead the
process of change. The change process was slow, however, generally
taking 5 to 10 years to have a significant impact. Furthermore, the
process required that agency leaders remain open to an evolving
understanding of villagers' needs and capabilities and be willing
to adjust policies, agency procedures, and personnel training and
evaluation accordingly.
Collaboration provides needed skills and
perspectives.
In each case
reviewed, the community forestry program was developed through
close collaboration among government agency personnel, NGO
representatives, and academic researchers. NGOs were often critical
to providing an understanding of ways to develop community
organizations and respond to people's needs. Academics were
important in providing a flow of information about the effects of
village-level interventions. Government leaders were crucial to
changing government policy and procedures. Commonly,
representatives from government, NGO, and academic groups formed a
working group, which met on a regular basis. The meetings, informed
by a continual flow of new information, enabled the participants to
follow a "learning-process" approach to organizational
change—continually adapting programs to new opportunities and
information.