China's Forests: Global Lessons from Market Reforms

"The insights into how policies have affected forests in different regions in China are excellent." Robert Mendelsohn, Yale University.

China's Forests: Global Lessons from Market Reforms. Edited by William F. Hyde, Brian Belcher, and Jintao Xu, 2003. Resources for the Future, Washington, DC, USA, and Centre for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia. ISBN 1-891853-66-X.

Since the early 1980s, China's farmers have demonstrated their own appreciation of the importance of both the market and non-market values of forests, undertaking an unprecedented expansion of tree planting on the lands under their own management. Forest cover on the collective forest and farm lands increased by millions of hectares, as much as 60% in 15 years, a global record in small-scale tree planting.

Despite this period of tremendous forest recovery, China's forests today remain a major environmental management challenge from both national and global perspectives, the latter due to China's sheer size and hence role in the state of the global environment. To better understand the issues of global forest management, China's experience was included as one of the six country cases reviewed by the World Bank as part of the evaluation of its own forest strategy. China's forests were also the focus of a major assessment by the Forests and Grasslands Task Force of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development published in 2002.

China's Forests: Global Lessons from Market Reforms and the work of its editors and contributors is a comprehensive examination of the contemporary issues facing China's forestry. The book's contributors are distinguished forestry experts with a wealth of experience both in China and the rest of the world. Through comprehensive analysis, collectively they provide important perspectives on the impacts of China's policies on its forests. They stress China's forestry successes since the beginning of reforms in 1978 and draw lessons from the experience both for China and for global forestry. They identify the challenges that remain and their implications for future policy.

I have no doubt that this volume will be a landmark in the development of thinking about forest policy, both in China and globally.

Adapted from the foreword to China's Forests: Global Lessons from Market Reforms, written by Uma Lele, Leader, the World Bank's Forest Strategy Evaluation; Co-Chair, China Taskforce on Forests and Grasslands; and Senior Advisor, Operations Evaluation Department, the World Bank.

Further information email n.sabarniati@cgiar.org

Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods

Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods: Uniting Science and Participation. Edited by Barry Pound, Sieglinde Snapp, Cynthia McDougall, and Ann Braun, 2004. Earthscan/James and James. Paperback 1-84407-026-3 Hardback 1-84407-025-5.

Management of local resources has a greater chance of a sustainable outcome when there are partnerships between local people and external agencies, and agendas relevant to their aspirations and circumstances.

Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods analyses and extends this premise to show unequivocally that the process of research for improving natural resource management must incorporate participatory and user-focused approaches, leading to development based on the needs and knowledge of local resource users.

Drawing on extensive and highly relevant case studies, this book presents innovative approaches for establishing and sustaining participation and collective decision-making, good practice for research, and challenges for future developments.

It covers a wide range of natural resources - including forests and soils, and water and management units, such as watersheds and common property areas - and provides practical lessons from analysis and meta-analysis of cases from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

This book offers insights on how to make research participatory while maintaining rigour and high-quality biological science, different forms of participation, and ways to scale up and extend participatory approaches and successful initiatives.

Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods, published by Earthscan, is an invaluable reference for professionals involved in natural resource management for sustainable development. It is also an essential resource for teachers and students of both the biophysical and social science aspects of natural resource management.

Further information email: orders@lbsltd.co.uk or Styluspub@aol.com (attention John Von Knorring).

Policies and Governance Structures in Woodlands of Southern Africa

Policies and Governance Structures in Woodlands of Southern Africa. Edited by Godwin Kowero, Bruce M. Campbell and Ussif Rashid Sumaila, 2003. Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia. ISBN 979-3361-22-0

This book is very timely due to the increasing desire to devolve ownership and management of natural forests to local communities as well as to use those resources to alleviate poverty. It provides information and tools to guide the planning and management of the vast woodlands in Southern Africa. The book also provides a good account of how the forestry sector has evolved in the socio-economic environment, thus offering useful scenarios for planning as alternative forest management options. Adapted from the foreword written by Enos Shumba, Manager, Forestry Commission, Zimbabwe; Arlito Cuco, Director of Forestry and Wildlife, Mozambique; Said Iddi, Director, Forestry and Beekeeping Division, Tanzania; and Kenneth Nyasulu, Director, Forest Department, Malawi.

Southern Africa is essentially a woodland region. The woodlands are home to some of the largest herds of wildlife in the world, support a vast livestock industry, play a pivotal role in the hydrological functioning of the region, support the livelihoods of millions of people through agriculture, forest products and other services. However, there is very little scientific information to guide their development and management. Given the numerous end uses and many stakeholders, it is not possible to rely exclusively on conventional forestry approaches and tools to manage the woodlands.

This book highlights different facets of local community governance of woodlands. The outcomes for people and forest are often dependent on local institutional arrangements, such as rules, regulations, and organisational dynamics. The book explores the role of local institutional arrangements in woodland management, in community-based approaches and in conflict resolution.

It documents approaches and tools to reconcile the demands of the three key stakeholders on the woodlands - local communities, government and the private sector - in the framework of three prominent rural development goals of food security, increased rural incomes and biodiversity or forest conservation. It also highlights tradeoffs between the goals and potential woodland management options.