The equity of Bhutan's new community forestry program was assessed after three years of experience with timber harvesting. Despite the impressive achievements of community forestry programs elsewhere in South Asia, there is increasing evidence that poor and disadvantaged members of community forestry management groups benefit less than other members. We compared this with the situation in Bhutan. All households in three villages were ranked by socio-economic status before analyzing the distribution of community forest (CF) products. A household survey and focus group interviews provided more detailed information on how the socio-economic groups participated in the CFs. Economic equity (distribution of benefits) and political equity (participation in decision making) were found to be higher than reports from neighbouring countries. We discuss the cultural context and hypothesise that these unexpected findings can be attributed to four factors: ethnic homogeneity, active participation of women, supportive government policy and intensive extension support. Further study with additional CFs over a longer time period is needed to test this hypothesis and assess the relative importance of these four factors.

In the context of the changing needs of the professional forester market and the reforms in European higher education, this study examined the possible shortcomings in forestry university programmes. We compared the views of 18 employers and 25 universities regarding European Master education through a survey that examined 42 competencies. Generally, employers and universities provided similar assessments regarding the importance of competencies and the gap between their achievement in higher education and the market needs. Environmental services, carbon sequestration, and the ability to communicate with specialists and non-specialists were competencies where both employers and universities saw the greatest need for emphasis. Employers identified, as compared to universities, greater gaps in bioenergy, products trade and marketing, economics, and governance. Universities, in turn, placed a greater emphasis on the importance of generic competencies such as capacity to learn. These and other findings provide potential value for the development of forestry curricula.

During the last two decades, considerable attention has been paid to the issue of local participation and government involvement in communitybased conservation initiatives. While the main purpose to introduce such measures was to increase transparency and local decision making in resource management, forest services have been sidelined, mainly on the premise that they are too corrupt and ineffective to play a useful role in natural resource management. In this paper, we expose the limitations of conventional ideas of corruption in understanding forestry services. Corruption for personal gains is just one aspect of the issue. We analyze how forest agents, faced with severe shortages of resources, engage in what we call an ‘alternative system’ in order to perform official tasks. We argue that a better understanding of these issues will help to both reform and redefine the role of forest services so that they can become viable actors in community-based conservation.

The European Union's FLEGT initiative aims at eliminating illegal timber from its market. An important instrument to achieve this is the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) to install, amongst others, wood tracking systems in timber exporting countries. Ghana was the first to conclude VPA negotiations with the EU. Using the Policy Arrangement Approach (PAA), this paper presents a critical policy analysis of the consensus building and negotiation process and outcome (so far). It shows that the national forest discourse of Ghana has been reshaped by the VPA process, that the traditional forest sector has been opened up, that new forest rules have been designed and that power relations have changed in favour of so-called fringe actors. Theses developments seem in line with the wider shift from government to governance in politics. Yet the question is whether these observable changes will be sustained in the implementation phase of the VPA.

The coverage of protected areas (PAs) is an indicator recommended by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to its parties for tracking progress towards the 2010 target to halt biodiversity loss. Data from the World Database on Protected Areas and other sources show that 10.6 percent (5 million hectares) of the area of Cameroon is covered by PAs. Of these, 45 percent (2.2 million hectares) of PAs coverage were designated after Cameroon signed the CBD. National parks cover 3.1 million hectares corresponding to 61 percent of the area protected with 11 of the 20 parks classified under IUCN category II. Forest and wildlife reserves comprise 940 242 and 869 428 hectares or 18 percent and 17 percent of land protected respectively. Nationally, Cameroon has invested efforts in attaining the Convention's target regarding PAs coverage and is equally involved with the creation of trans-boundary PAs.

This study documented traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) on the management of Acacia senegal trees (Gum arabic trees) using a structured questionnaire. A total of 149 randomly selected respondents from six locations in two districts of Samburu (Rift valley Province) and Isiolo (Eastern Province) were interviewed. Results show that local communities use their indigenous knowledge to manage natural gum arabic tree resources to sustain and improve their livelihoods. Restriction to the collection of only dead and fallen wood, community by-laws and nomadism were the main conservation strategies employed by the locals to protect gum arabic trees. Collection of gum arabic from wild gum arabic trees was mainly done by women during the dry months of the year. June to September season yielded higher quantities of gum arabic than the January to March season. More gum arabic was collected from gum arabic trees located on hilly and rocky sites than on plain and flat areas and along riverbanks. Small sized trees with small girth were prefered to big trees with a wide girth during gum arabic collection. Apart from harvesting gum arabic from the trees and selling it to earn cash income, the local communities got fodder, fuel wood, traditional medicine, fencing material and fiber from the trees. Besides, gum arabic is used as food during hunger season. There is strong evidence that TEK is a useful concept for sustainable management of gum arabic trees and could be used in designing of sustainable conservation and exploitation strategies of gum arabic trees and consequently environmental conservation.

The potentials of forest carbon sinks and employment creation from afforestation in China are described in the paper. The analysis indicated that there were huge potentials in both creating carbon sinks and employment from afforestation in China. From 2009 to 2020, 2021 to 2050, and 2009 to 2050, forest carbon storage are estimated to be 2.07, 2.34 and 4.41 billion tons of carbon and the value of these forest carbons are estimated to be 22.8, 25.8 and 48.6 billion US Dollars, respectively. These afforestation initiatives are estimated to create 26.36 million,29.82 million and 56.18 million short-term jobs, 169 767, 192 102 and 361 869 long-term jobs, respectively.

An annual trade deficit in Australia for forest products of approximately $2 billion (Aus$), predominantly in paper, pulp products and sawn timber, makes sound argument for continued support of plantation forestry expansion. Existing government policy promoting afforestation through fiscal tax-based incentives for Managed Investment Scheme (MIS) retail forestry however, has raised many questions regarding the need for performance targets and accountability criteria in response to the collapse of several private plantation companies during the global financial crisis of 2009 and 2010 that had been responsible for managing a large sector of the national estate. This paper reports on the first stage of a social research case study for a sub-tropical rural community in north-eastern NSW, Australia that had been undergoing rapid land use-change to plantation forestry prior to the global financial crisis. Socio-political, economic and environmental concerns of stakeholders are identified through social research methods to provide insights for a follow-up study using participatory modelling. Community concerns raised also help inform debate on the need to reform existing federal retail forestry policy to improve triple-bottom line sustainability¹.

This paper characterizes the charcoal value chain in Uganda, focusing on production and trade in three districts in the west central region of the country. Data come from surveys of 407 charcoal value chain participants undertaken in 2008. The surveys included 171 charcoal-producing households and 236 non-producer participants including agents, traders, transporters and retailers. Linear regression models are used to study overall profits and per-unit marketing margins along the value chain and to test several hypotheses regarding the importance of location, human and social capital, and asset ownership on observed economic returns and scale of activity. Evidence suggests the greatest overall returns to participation in the charcoal value chain are found among traders. Returns are positively correlated with the scale of activity. Controlling for a participant's role in the charcoal trade, his or her characteristics, and available assets, we find little or no evidence of differences in economic returns among districts, despite widespread popular views of differences in available supply of charcoal. Location of production relative to major markets, and location-specific levels of monitoring and enforcement are not strongly correlated with observed outcomes.

The majority of Sub-Saharan Africa's population relies on forest products for subsistence uses, cash income, or both. In the case of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), it is imperative to 1) clearly understand the socio-economic contributions that they make to rural livelihoods in order to 2) design policies, interventions, and business ventures that serve to safeguard forest assets for the poor in a targeted manner. Based on existing literature, this article highlights the quantitative contributions that NTFPs have made to rural household incomes in several forested, Sub-Saharan African countries. Reasons for a paucity of data on this front are discussed. The article then identifies five broad socioeconomic factors (location, wealth status, gender, education, and seasonality) affecting levels of dependency on NTFPs by rural households, and calls for a better understanding of the linkages between these five factors in order for targeted policies on poverty alleviation in forest-dependent communities to be developed.