State of knowledge

• Managing forests more sustainably will require more attention to local communities
• Local communities are not homogenous entities; they are marked by social differences that usually have implications for power and wealth distribution.
• There are big differences between men’s and women’s use of forests, and both tend to be important.
• Local groups represent a vastly under-utilized resource, in terms of intelligence, local knowledge, energy, and motivation. Catalyzing that resource will benefit people and the environment.
• Local people tend to use much more from a forest than just timber; it pays for us to examine their uses before making management plans or policies.
• Improving forest and human conditions can go together (win-win), but this requires knowledge of local situations, mobilization of various stakeholders, and cooperation across scales (local, district, national, sometimes even global).
• Improving forest and human conditions also takes time and patience and flexibility from all parties.