Community forestry

Community forestry aims to recognise the dependence of rural communities on forests by giving local people who use the forests the responsibility to manage them. By doing this a sustainable supply of forest products for rural communities can be achieved. However, community forestry is not simple to implement. Field workers must be able to fulfill the roles of facilitator and adviser and must undergo a fundamental shift in attitude and a learn a completely new set of skills. This manual and training program seeks to address the first part of the challenge, training field workers.

This publication provides rich information on Amazon fruits and communities, illustrating how local peoples have adopted and adapted to the plant kindgom around them to distil vital nutrients, medicines and other products fundamental to their survival; it also shows how scientific information can be presented in an innovative and more inclusive way, one that can be adapted accordingly by other actors worldwide.