Participation in forest and conservation management.

This document is based on a paper written by Banerjee, A; Campbell, G; Cruz, C, M; Davis, S and Molnar, A, as a contribution to the Participation Sourcebook. It presents materials from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Haiti, Mexico, Philippines, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Nepal and India to support the notion that the participation of local communities and other stakeholders in managing forestry and conservation projects can help to improve forest productivity, alleviate poverty, enhance environmental sustainability, and make rules governing forest access more enforceable. It argues that introducing participatory management depends on government commitment; and it requires time and resources to develop consensus among stakeholders, establish new institutional arrangements, decentralise finance and administration, ensure appropriate rules and incentives for local involvement, and build organisational capacity at the local level.