Community Forestry

Abstract

Recent and ongoing international studies on community forestry in developing countries have begun to question the success of the international community forestry concept that was introduced by the end of the 1970s. Though it appears that community forestry does contribute to a positive ecological outcome, further results seem to reveal that other advantages promised by the model, i.e., devolution of power to the local resource users and improvement of their livelihoods, simply do not happen.

But community forestry is a complex collective action by forest users that takes place within a broader network of multiple actors at local, national, and international levels. Apparently, the driving forces behind the programs are actors who are very powerful within the hierarchies. To understand this relationship, it is important to know the involved actors, their power and interests, as well as the outcome of community forestry as such. The following chapter therefore presents an approach which can help to unlock the complexity of community forestry.

Annex

Questionnaire: Task and Experiences with Community Forestry

Researcher:            Interviewee :

Community Forestry:

Date:

Please complete the table:

Mention all actors you deal with related to the specific Community Forest (CF):

Questions 1–5

• 1. Who of these actors provides you with information related to the specific CF and how good was this information according to your own judgment? (0 no or unacceptable information, 1 acceptable- good information, 2 very good information)

• 2. Have you ever verified this information? (0 always, 1 never, 2 sometimes)

• 3. Who of these actors provides incentives (0 no incentives, 1 material or moral incentives or disincentives)

• 4. Apart from the information or provided incentives is one of these actors still needed to carry out your activities related to the specific CF? (0 not needed, 1 needed)

• 5. Do you need to get permission from one of your mentioned actors to carry out your activities related to the specific CF? (0 not needed, 1 needed)

Name of actor

1: T q Information 0 no or unacceptable 1 good 2 very good

2: T v Info verified 0 always 1 never 2 sometime

3: I Incentives 0 none 1 yes

4: C i Needed actor 0 not needed, 1 needed

5: C p Permission 0 not needed, 1 needed

Quantitative Actor- Power Network Analysis and calculation instructions for the preliminary quantitative power analysis

Calculate based on the entries in the above table the values for the different power elements as followed:

Power element Trust $\left(T={T}_q\div {T}_v\right)$, possible cases:

• No Trust Power:

  $$ {T}_0=\left\{\left[\left({T}_q=0\right)\wedge \left({T}_v=0\right)\right]\vee \left[\left({T}_q=0\right)\wedge \left({T}_v=1\right)\right]\vee \left[\left({T}_q=0\right)\wedge \left({T}_v=2\right)\right]\vee \right.\kern2.5em \left.\left[\left({T}_q=1\right)\wedge \left({T}_v=0\right)\right]\vee \left[\left({T}_q=2\right)\wedge \left({T}_v=0\right)\right]\right\},\kern1em \mathrm{code}\ \mathrm{with}\ 0 $$

• Some Trust Power:

  $$ {T}_1=\left\{\left({T}_q=1\right)\wedge \left({T}_v=1\right)\vee \left({T}_q=1\right)\wedge \left({T}_v=2\right)\vee \left({T}_q=2\right)\wedge \left({T}_v=2\right)\right\},\kern1em \mathrm{code}\ \mathrm{with}\ 1 $$

• Full Trust Power:

  $$ {T}_2=\left\{\left({T}_q=2\right)\wedge \left({T}_v=1\right)\right\},\kern1.25em \mathrm{code}\ \mathrm{with}\ 2 $$

Power element Incentives $\left(\mathrm{I}=\mathrm{I}\right)$, possible cases:

• No Incentives Power

  $$ {I}_0=\left\{0\right\},\kern1.5em \mathrm{code}\ \mathrm{with}\ 0 $$

• Incentives Power:

  $$ {I}_1=\left\{1\right\},\kern1.75em \mathrm{code}\ \mathrm{with}\ 1 $$

Power element Coercion $\left(C={C}_i+{C}_p\right)$, possible cases:

• No Coercive Power:

  $$ {C}_0=\left\{\left({C}_i=0\right)\wedge \left({C}_p=0\right)\right\},\kern2em \mathrm{code}\ \mathrm{with}\ 0 $$

• Coercive Power:

  $$ {C}_1=\left\{\left[\left({C}_i=0\right)\wedge \left({C}_p=1\right)\right]\vee \left[\left({C}_i=1\right)\wedge \left({C}_p=0\right)\right]\right\},\kern2.25em \mathrm{code}\ \mathrm{with}\ 1 $$

• Strong Coercive Power:

  $$ {C}_2=\left\{\left({C}_i=1\right)\wedge \left({C}_p=1\right)\right\},\kern2.5em \mathrm{code}\ \mathrm{with}\ 2 $$

Enter the calculated power element values accordingly into the following Table:

Sort the summarized power elements for all actors with the highest value to the lowest value per power element and proceed as followed

The peak on the graph dominance degree graph (Dm) indicates the point of separation between the group of powerful actors (Actor 4 and Actor 5) and the group of less powerful actors (Actor 1, Actor 3 and Actor 2).