Social forestry reconsidered

This paper reviews the expectations for forestry's contribution to rural de velopment - and for its special contributions to the most disadvantaged, to women and the landless users of the forest commons. A growing literature c hallenges some of these expectations; in particular, certain expectations a bout cultural differences and physical stocks as explanatory factors for pa tterns of household behavior. This literature could also be used to support a call for sharper definitions of deforestation, improved indicators of th e effects of forest resources on the rural poor, and improved design of for est policy interventions. Our paper reviews the literature, suggests some u nifying themes, and identifies the critical issues that remain unanswered. The primary contention arising from this literature is that households foll ow systematic patterns of economic behavior in their consumption and produc tion of forest resources, and that policy interventions in social forestry should be analyzed with regard to markets, policies, and institutions. Mark ets for forest resources generally exist in some form - although they may b e thin. Successful forestry projects and policies require careful identific ation of the target populations and careful estimation of market and market -related effects on the household behavior of these populations. Institutio nal structures that assure secure rights for scarce forest resources are un iquely important in a forest environment often characterized by open access resources and weak government administration. Social and community forestr y, improved stoves, improved strains of multi-purpose trees, and even priva te commercial forest operations can all improve local welfare, but only whe re scarcity is correctly identified and the appropriate institutions are in place. An increasing number of observations of afforestation from developi ng countries around the world is evidence that forestry activities do satis fy these conditions in selective important cases. The critical point for po licy is to identify the characteristics of these successful cases that are predictive of other cases where new forestry activities can be welfare enha ncing.