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Now showing 1 - 10 of 136
  • Journal Article
    Agenda 21 - Chapter 11 - Combating Deforestation: Ecosystem Management
    (1998) Bucknum, Susan
    "This note discusses the United States' adherence to its Agenda 21 commitment to combat deforestation. Section II of the paper discusses the specific provisions of Chapter 11 that recommend strong governmental policy schemes and advocate a sustainable ecosystem management approach to the forests. Specifically, this section explains the concepts of Chapter 11 provisions and their importance to the United States. Section III examines actions taken by the United States to sustain its National Forests both before and after the Earth Summit. Section IV evaluates the United States' actions by analyzing the efforts of the United States Forest Service in implementing ecosystem management and determining the consistency of those efforts with Chapter 11 and the Forest Principles. Finally, Section V provides recommendations for future United States action in managing its National Forests so as to achieve the goals expressed in Chapter 11 of Agenda 21."
  • Journal Article
    IUFRO's Special Programme for Developing Countries
    (1994) Riley, Lorne F.
    "The forests of the developing world are usually more complex than those in much of the developed world. They are at this moment subject to greater population pressures as well as lower levels of management and, therefore, of conservation. Deforestation and consequent forest environmental degradation are taking place at rates unmatched today in the developed world. These are the challenges to which forest research in developing countries must respond. Although notable examples of solid research activity can be cited, current levels of research are often insufficient to meet the challenge of providing the necessary information to support effective forest conservation through good management."
  • Journal Article
    Experimenting with Approaches to Common Property Forestry in China
    (1995) Bruce, John W.; Rudrappa, Sharmila; Zongmin, L.
    "As the reform process towards a mixed economy proceeds in China, there have been a variety of approaches to local management of forested lands, including common property arrangements. In China, incremental reforms towards a mixed economy began in 1978. The reforms have been carried out under the auspices of the communist party, but the party has allowed considerable local experimentation with organizational form and property rights for resource management. This has produced a rich body of experience that must be considered within the context of an unusual approach to law and social change where law is seen as the capstone of the change process by which the state finally approves and consolidates successful social and economic experiments. In the reforms of rural production organization in China during the late 1970s and the 1980s, the agricultural sector was the main focus of attention. Large communes were broken into smaller units, often corresponding to the smaller cooperatives from which they had been formed in an earlier consolidation. The smaller cooperatives, in turn, had often been based on pre-revolutionary village units. The reforms retained land as a public good, but they clarified the nature and locus of public ownership and management authority over land and associated resources. The 1982 Constitution (art. 10) and the National Land Administration Law which came into force in 1987 (arts 8 and 12) confirmed that the new "administrative villages" had succeeded to ownership of the land and that land might be assigned to smaller units or households for management. The land included all house sites, private plots of cropland and associated wasteland and mountain land."
  • Journal Article
    Considering the Impact of Structural Adjustment Policies on Forests in Bolivia, Cameroon and Indonesia
    (1998) Kaimowitz, David; Ndoye, Ousseynou; Sunderlin, William D.; Pacheco, Pablo; Erwidodo
    "A preliminary insight into how structural adjustment policies (SAPs) may have affected deforestation and forest degradation in the lowland tropical forests of Bolivia, Cameroon and Indonesia. Developing countries around the world are using similar policies to improve their trade balances, reduce inflation and stimulate economic growth. These include: currency devaluation, export promotion, reduced government spending, tax increases, privatization of public enterprises, trade and financial liberalization and land reform. While specific policies differ between countries and the depth of reforms varies, the general trend towards 'structural adjustment' seems almost universal."
  • Journal Article
    Fishing Villages and Community Tree Nurseries in Malawi
    (1994) Mills, Graham G.
    "This article reports on the forestry' needs of the fishing villages around Lakes Chilwa and Chiuta, describing an attempt by' the Malawi-German Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MAGFAD) Project to address local environmental degradation through the development of community forestry nurseries between 1989 and 1992."
  • Journal Article
    Forest Management Partnerships: Regenerating India's Forests
    (1992) Poffenberger, Mark; Singh, Samar
    "Recent experiences in West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat, Orissa, and Jammu and Kashmir have shown that when government forest staff collaborate meaningfully with the rural communities, management problems can be overcome in the interest of all. Instead of being progressively degraded through overgrazing and cutting, forest lands can begin to regenerate dramatically. As the trees recover; so too does overall forest productivity, generating fodder grasses, fuelwood and other forest products that are crucial in the socio-economic context of an agrarian society. This article presents experiences from West Bengal and Gujarat where foresters and forest administrators as well the non governmental organizations and researchers are exploring ways to bring the forest departments and local communities of India together in the management of public forest lands."
  • Journal Article
    Forest Peoples in the Central African Rain Forest: Focus on the Pygmies
    (1996) Dembner, Stephen
    "This article describes the life of the central African pygmy people and highlights their relationship with neighbouring farmers as being valuable for the economic, social and sustainable use of the rain forests. It points out that the nomadic lifestyle of the indigenous peoples is potentially compatible with the sustainable exploitation of the forest, often more so than are 'sedentarization' programmes. The authors affirm that biological al diversity exists in central Africa because of human habitation and that excluding human beings from large areas of forest will not conserve the present biological al diversity."
  • Journal Article
    Uses of Wood and Non-wood Forest Products by Amazon Forest Dwellers
    (1996) Dubois, Jean C.L.
    "Some observations on the use of wood and non-wood forest products by Indians and riverain populations in the Amazon region. For centuries, Amazonian Indians have lived from shifting agriculture, fishing, hunting and harvesting forest products. In the transition region between the Amazon forest and the cerrado (savannah) some afforestation, using native species, has even been performed by the Kayapó Indians, with the objective, among others, of increasing their sources of wood and non-wood products."
  • Journal Article
    Harvesting and Marketing of Edible Products from Local Woody Species in Zitenga, Burkina Faso
    (1992) Guinko, Sita; Pasgo, Lamouusa Joseph
    "Based on a market study, this article provides quantitative and qualitative information on how the rural population of one area of dryland Africa uses and trades edible tree and shrub products."
  • Journal Article
    Moose Hunters of the Boreal Forest? A Re-examination of Subsistence Patterns in the Western Subarctic
    (1989) Yesner, David R.
    "Many descriptions of lifestyle in the western subarctic region have been built on the premise that the hunting and use of moose was a central feature of those lifestyles. While this may be true, it is worthwhile to question the time depth that underlies this adaptation and the degree to which it may have applied to former societies inhabiting the boreal forest region. Any such effort must include an analysis of available faunal remains from archaeologic sites in that region. A consideration of the faunal record suggest that the intensive utilization of moose is relatively new in the western boreal forest, or at least was not widely characteristic of the late Holocene period. Thus, it cannot be assumed that the archaeologically designated late prehistoric Athapaskan tradition was isomorphic with modern subsistence regimes. To the degree two which large game played a central role in Athapaskan lifestyle it was caribou, rather than moose, that seems to have dominated in the northern ecotonal region. Fish and small game seem to have dominated in importance in the southern coastal forest region, with a mixed subsistence economy characteristic of the central region. Historical factors, primarily involving widespread fires, habitat disturbance and impacts on predators, seem to be most responsible for the increase in moose numbers during the past century. The role of fire is particularly critical and may have had great influence on the nature and stability of past subsistence regimes in the boreal forest region, including impacts on both large and small game."