Community participation

The objective of this manual is to provide the basic framework and material to trainers in order for them to train field level staff to become facilitators in the Forest Management Learning Group process. The overall training objective is to build their confidence and skills in order to be able to facilitate the Forest Management Learning Group process in their own area.

In recent decades "participatory" approaches to forest management have been introduced around the world. This book assesses their implementation in the highly politicized environments of India and Nepal. The authors critically examine the policy, implementation processes and casual factors affecting livelihood impacts.

This book describes how an era of biohappiness, based on the conservation and sustainable and equitable use of biodiversity, can be launched. It deals with all aspects of conservation such as in situ, ex situ and community conservation, and also covers conservation issues relating to mangroves and other coastal bioresources, whose importance has grown with the emerging possibility of sea-level rise from global warming.

This document reflects the main ideas of a joint production by the two Technical Co-operation projects "Implementation of the Biodiversity Convention" (BIODIV) and the "Tropical Ecology Support Programme" (TOEB), entitled "Tourism in Technical Co-operation." It addresses the planning and management of socio-economic benefits of tourism as sustainable development.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment emphasises the inter-relationship between ecosystem health and human well-being. Most ecosystems are severely degraded and the services that they provide to society are diminishing. As a result, important targets for biodiversity and development are unlikely to be met. Community conservation processes are often isolated and marginalised from mainstream conservation efforts.

More than twenty years have passed since community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) rose to prominence in different parts of Africa as a strategy for rural development, local empowerment, and conservation. Led by new ideas about the merits of decentralized, collective resource governance regimes, and creative field experiments such as Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE, these community-based approaches evolved in a wide range of ecological, political, and social contexts across Africa.

This publication features detailed analysis of laws and existing conservation legislation in Nepal and India. Special attention is made to policies and customary law in addition to statutory law.