With an estimated 1,300 indigenous communities inhabiting over 12 million hectares of forest in the Peruvian Amazon, enormous scope exists for communities to be actively involved in forest management. And when you consider the vast numbers of other communities and people living in the Amazon, such as river dwellers, peasants and settlers, it is obvious how important Community Forest Management (CFM) is to the region.

Communities that live in or rely on Peru’s forests are well placed to play a leading role in sustainably managing one of the world’s most important forested areas.

Several environment and development organisations working in Peru have come together to harness and channel this potential (see box for partners and donors). In November last year the partners organised an international workshop called 'Community Forest Management in the Amazon: Lessons on Demands of a Collaborative Process,' held in Pucallpa, Peru. Almost 100 people attended, including representatives from communities, the private sector, NGOs, government agencies, research centres, education institutions, and national and international cooperation agencies. Forty percent of attendees came from indigenous and peasant communities.

The meeting allowed the diverse groups to share and learn from each other’s CFM experiences and brought together presenters from Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Peru. This international interaction also looked at developing a common agenda for promoting sustainable CFM initiatives in the Peruvian Amazon.

Judging by the workshop’s discussions and recommendations, it was obvious local communities are keen to play a stronger role in managing their surrounding forests.

As a result of the workshop the initiating organisations became formally known as a Working Group (WG-CFM) and other Peru based organisations have since joined.

In March this year a follow up seminar in Lima, Peru, explained CFM’s importance to more than 50 influential people from the private and public sectors, international organisations, the financial sector, academia and the media. The seminar focused on CFM’s potential role in development and outlined the Pucallpa recommendations.

WG-CFM is also developing forest management guidelines for indigenous communities, and held another workshop in March to review experiences and lessons.

The proceedings from the Community Forest Manage-ment Workshop are available in printed form or CD-Rom by emailing:cifor-peru@cgiar.org orvcolan@terra.com.pe