ABSTRACT

Community forestry belongs to the community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) family of approaches derived from theories of common pool resources and common property regimes. The theoretical contention is that, under certain conditions, community ownership and management may be preferable to either state management or individualized ownership. Broadly, those conditions include a common pool resource which cannot readily be sub-divided, a community which can effectively exclude outsiders, a resource which offers significant and sustained benefits to the community and a level of internal organization and communication (institutions) to enable the community to manage the resource (Ostrom, 1999). In so far as CBNRM involves citizens being accorded certain rights within a formally constituted association recognized and regulated by the state, it may be characterized as a civil society approach to conservation.