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Forests
Special Issues
Redefining Forests and Communities for Sustainability: New Frameworks and Applications
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Redefining Forests and Communities for Sustainability: New Frameworks and Applications

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2019) | Viewed by 12777

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Maureen Reed

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Interests: environmental governance; sustainability science; practices of conservation; sustainability of rural communities; feminist and gender-based analysis; social dimensions of climate change adaptation and resilience; forestry, model forests, biosphere reserves, national parks

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forests and forest-based communities are facing changing economic, environmental, social and cultural conditions that challenge their ability to pursue sustainability. To address these challenges, new frameworks such as “resilience”, “intersectionality”, “ecosystem goods and services”, and “biocultural diversity” suggest attention should be given to a much wider and more dynamic set of principles and a broader set of actors than was envisioned by the international community when sustainable forest management was introduced in the 1990s. This special issue will invite authors who have conducted research with forest-based communities to explain one of these frameworks, describe its key features, and demonstrate its application to forest sustainability through the particulars of a local context. Empirical research will feature articles from the global north and global south that have both a theoretical and an empirical contribution, with an effort to share transferable lessons, while recognizing that local context will always be a primary consideration when pursuing sustainability in forestry.

Prof. Dr. Maureen Reed
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable forest management
  • forestry communities
  • frameworks
  • global north
  • global south

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 687 KiB  
Article
Unraveling the Relationship between Collective Action and Social Learning: Evidence from Community Forest Management in Canada
by Anderson Assuah and A. John Sinclair
Forests 2019, 10(6), 494; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10060494 - 9 Jun 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2653
Abstract
An important outcome of social learning in the context of natural resource management is the potential for collective action—actions taken by a group of people that are the result of finding shared or common interest. Evidence of the relationship between collective action and [...] Read more.
An important outcome of social learning in the context of natural resource management is the potential for collective action—actions taken by a group of people that are the result of finding shared or common interest. Evidence of the relationship between collective action and social learning is beginning to emerge in the natural resource management literature in areas such as community forestry and participatory irrigation, but empirical evidence is sparse. Using a qualitative inquiry and research design involving a case study of the Wet’zinkw’a Community Forest Corporation, this paper presents research that examined the relationships between collective action and social learning through community forest management. Our findings show strong evidence of collective action outcomes on the part of board members responsible for the community forest, such as establishing a legacy fund, adding value to logs, protecting First Nations cultural values, and hiring locally. Our data also reveal that the actions taken by board members were encouraged through social learning that was related to acquiring (new) knowledge, developing an improved/deeper understanding, and building relationships. However, we found limited opportunities for community forest partners and the general public to learn and contribute to collective action outcomes since the actions taken and associated learning occurred mainly among board members. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Redefining Forests and Communities for Sustainability: New Frameworks and Applications)
16 pages, 16354 KiB  
Article
Community-Based Watershed Change: A Case Study in Eastern Congo
by Scott Sabin, Birori Dieudonne, John Mitchell, Jared White, Corey Chin and Robert Morikawa
Forests 2019, 10(6), 475; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10060475 - 31 May 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5956
Abstract
Conflict and environmental degradation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are interrelated and complex. The authors conducted a case study of a community-based environmental restoration project in Eastern Congo and provide early results which suggest a link between community environmental action and [...] Read more.
Conflict and environmental degradation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are interrelated and complex. The authors conducted a case study of a community-based environmental restoration project in Eastern Congo and provide early results which suggest a link between community environmental action and multidimensional outcomes such as peace and reconciliation. The project examined in this study is based on a framework (Theory of Change) which networks communities through autonomous savings groups, churches, mosques, schools, and a community leadership network with the goal of catalyzing sustainable farming, reforestation, and community forest management. The primary project input was training, and the resulting voluntary community action included tree planting and the management of common forest areas. A mixed-methods approach was used to evaluate project results comparing two watersheds, and included a difference in differences analysis, participatory workshops, remote sensing analysis, and community activity reports. Positive change was observed in the treatment watershed in terms of ecosystem health and household economic condition. Results suggest a possible influence on peace conditions which, while fragile, offers hope for continued restorative action by communities. This study provides evidence that a community-based approach to environmental restoration may have a positive influence on multidimensional issues such as forests, watershed health, economic well-being, and peace. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Redefining Forests and Communities for Sustainability: New Frameworks and Applications)
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23 pages, 3730 KiB  
Article
Logging Community-Based Forests in the Amazon: An Analysis of External Influences, Multi-Partner Governance, and Resilience
by Ana Luiza Violato Espada and Mário Vasconcellos Sobrinho
Forests 2019, 10(6), 461; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10060461 - 28 May 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3921
Abstract
Over the last few years, forest-based communities have faced two different but related phenomena. On the one hand, they have become more integrated with global economies, accessing regional and international markets. On the other, they have been pressured by economic groups into becoming [...] Read more.
Over the last few years, forest-based communities have faced two different but related phenomena. On the one hand, they have become more integrated with global economies, accessing regional and international markets. On the other, they have been pressured by economic groups into becoming part of the ecologically unequal exchange that exports natural resources and generates social and environmental problems at a local level. However, within new approaches to managing common-pool resources in common properties such as sustainable-use protected areas, communities are finding their own ways to be resilient and to face the two phenomena that are part of the same global economic system. Communities have built a multi-partner governance system for forest management and community development that involves agents from the civil society, state and market. Accordingly, multi-partner governance has proven to be a strategy to protect community-based forests against increasing timber market pressure. The question that then emerges is, to what extent has multi-partner governance been effective in supporting forest-based communities to be resilient and to face pressures from the global timber market in forests under community use? The aim of this paper is to analyze forest-based community resilience to the global economic system in situations where common properties are under governance of multiple stakeholders. The research is based on a singular case study in the Tapajós National Forest, Brazilian Amazon, which is a sustainable-use protected area with 24 communities involved in a multi-partner governance system. The article shows that forest-based communities under pressure have been resilient, and facing the global economic system have created a community-based cooperative for managing timber and engaging all partners in the process to improve their collective action. The cooperative provides timber sales revenue that supports community development both through diversification of agroforestry production and building of infrastructure as collective benefits. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Redefining Forests and Communities for Sustainability: New Frameworks and Applications)
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