Collaborative forest management: a review

Summary

The term collaborative forest management (CFM) is adopted in this review because it has become popular internationally as a generic descriptor of a range of participatory approaches involving some form of co-management between government forest agencies and other stakeholders. It seems likely that Australia will go down its own track towards CFM, at least in some forest areas and communities. But as Africa has learned from Asia, the development of CFM in Australia could be vastly aided by heeding the wealth of experience of CFM from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

This paper outlines the ‘drivers’, trends and extent of various types of community-based forest management worldwide. The terminology of participation in resource management is covered, as are concepts of stakeholder power and accommodation of multiple interests, and the need for acceptance of action learning and ‘emergence’ in the collaboration process. A generic example of a ‘start-up’ process for collaborative management is presented, although the importance of developing locally appropriate approaches to CFM is emphasised. Brief reference is made to Australia's first CFM initiative, in the Wombat State Forest in Victoria, which prompted the writing of this review.

Keywords:

• forest management
• community forestry
• community involvement
• participation
• collaboration
• decision making
• learning
• Australia