Community Forestry: Building Success through People's Participation

Abstract

"Forestry management in the past considered only the protective and productive roles of the forest. Now, largely through the birth of the concept of 'community' or 'social' forestry, it is seriously beginning to consider the forest's social role as well. In this article, Y.S. Rao provides a succinct and clear definition of community forestry, outlines what is needed to make it succeed, and discusses the constraints under which it operates at present. Implementing community forestry, he argues, will require nothing less than a radical restructuring of forestry's traditional policies, practices and institutions."