What is Ecosystem-Based Community Forestry?
(adapted from Burda et al., 1997)

Ecosystem-based community forestry is forest management which directly involves and benefits the local community and is conducted in a way which maintains the integrity and health of the forest ecosystem.

What Is Community Forestry?

Community forestry is based in the local control over, and enjoyment of the benefits from, the local forest resource. These benefits are not simply monetary, nor are they derived exclusively from timber production, but may vary with the many values associated with forest ecosystems, including cultural, spiritual, social, medicinal, ecological, recreational, aesthetic and economic values (Curran and M’Gonigle 1997). Community forestry presents an opportunity for the interests and values of local citizens to be reflected in a range of diverse approaches to forest use.

Individual countries describe community forestry initiatives with terminology that reflects their own social and historical contexts, for example in the Philippines the term 'upland development' is used, in Thailand the term is 'joint forest management', and in India the term 'social forestry' is used. (Ford Foundation, 1998).

Common features of all community forestry initiatives are that they: support the control, management and use of forest and tree resources by local communities; they respect the social, economic and cultural relationships between people and forests; and they involve a decentralized and participatory approach to forest management, which assumes that the best stewards of the world's forests are the populations living in and around them (FAO, 1997). Community forestry projects vary in their objectives, they may include the sustainable management of large forest tracts; agroforestry; reforestation; roadside plantations, etc. (Ford Foundation, 1998)

A non-aboriginal Community Forest is defined broadly by forestry analyst Peter Duinker and colleagues as "a tree-dominated ecosystem managed for multiple community values and benefits by the community" (Duinker 1994). To attain these benefits and maintain these values for the long term, three basic criteria are necessary: local control; the retention of local benefits; and the maintenance of forest ecosystems through local stewardship (Cortex Consultants Inc. 1996; Clark 1996).

To maintain these criteria over the long term, "community" must be understood in its comprehensive sense to include human and ecological communities, and future, as well as past, generations. In this manner, it is possible to understand "community" as an inherent aspect of sustainability in that the term embodies a range of interests maintained over the long-term.

What is Ecosystem-Based Forestry?

Ecosystem-based forestry is a forest management system that seeks to sustain fully functioning ecosystems by adapting economic activity to natural limits, rather than eroding ecosystems to support economic activity. In other words, ecosystem-based approaches focus first on what to leave and then on what can be taken without damage to ecosystem functioning (Silva Forest Foundation 1996).

While ecosystem-based forestry practices may not be the same for every forest type, they generally seek to minimize impacts and maintain ecosystem integrity by preserving the structures of the natural ecosystem. Specific practices will vary depending on forest type, forest management objectives, and community context.

The evolution of ecosystem-based forestry involves the development of an approach to forest use that protects forest functioning at all scales through time as the first priority, and then seeks to sustain, within ecological limits, a diversity of human and non-human uses across the forest landscape.

An ecosystem-based approach begins from the premise that humans "do not sustain the forest; the forest sustains us" (Hammond 1996). In practical terms, the parameters of ecosystem health set the limits for human economic activity.

In general, the principles underlying ecosystem-based forestry are:

• Ecological limits define appropriate limits for human activities;
• Ecological boundaries define the relevant management unit;
• Harvest levels are primarily determined by ecosystem goals rather than by economic factors;
• Alternatives are required to conventional forestry practices, (e.g. clearcutting, single species plantations) ;
• Maximum value from all harvested forest products is sought, (e.g. through value-added manufacturing); and
• Informed community-based control and management of forests is necessary, with decision-making embodying ecological and democratic principles.