Resolving Conflicts between Custom and Official Forestry Law in the Southwestern Pacific

Abstract

"An examination of the changing balance in the role of customary and official authority in forest management in the southwestern Pacific. Governments in many of the developing countries of the tropics are heavily dependent on revenues from forest industries. However, disappointment with the overall contribution made by conventional forestry operations to national economic development, together with a growing awareness of the unsustainability of many forest management and utilization practices as they were being implemented, has led many countries to look for alternative approaches to forest management. An important recent development is a growing recognition of the need to involve communities resident on or near forest land in forestry planning and management."