This book provides a uniquely detailed and systematic comparison of environmental forest policies and enforcement in twenty countries worldwide, covering developed, transition and developing economies. The goal is to enhance global policy learning and promote well-informed and precisely-tuned policy solutions.

Documentation and comparation methods to assess options for forest-based livelihoods and their outcomes. The contributions are based on the premise that livelihood and conservation goals can be best achieved by improving information flow about changes in the environment, and the impacts of forest use. The authors report on the strengths and weaknesses of methods that have been tried in the field.

Since the 1970s and 1980s, community-based forestry has grown in popularity, based on the concept that local communities, when granted suffi­cient property rights over local forest commons, can organize autonomously and develop local institutions to regulate the use of natural resources and manage them sustainably. Over time, various forms of community-based forestry have evolved in different countries, but all have at their heart the notion of some level of participation by smallholders and community groups in planning and implementation. This publication is FAO’s fi­rst comprehensive look at the impact of community-based forestry since previous reviews in 1991 and 2001. It considers both collaborative regimes (forestry practised on land with formal communal tenure requiring collective action) and smallholder forestry (on land that is generally privately owned). The publication examines the extent of community-based forestry globally and regionally and assesses its effectiveness in delivering on key biophysical and socioeconomic outcomes, i.e. moving towards sustainable forest management and improving local livelihoods. The report is targeted at policy-makers, practitioners, researchers, communities and civil society.