Can community forestry save biodiversity?

SUMMARY: All over the world, governments are handing over control of state forests to local communities, in the hope that local communities will manage them better than state agencies have. But can villagers satisfy their needs from community forests without depleting biodiversity? This was the main issue addressed at a seminar entitled “Community Development and Conservation of Biodiversity through Community Forestry" organized by the Regional Community Forestry Training Centre (RECOFTC) in Bangkok, October 1994. One hundred forty delegates from 20 countries presented overviews and case studies from more than 20 countries and contributed to brainstorming sessions.

Whilst several of the cases studies showed how community forestry contributes towards community development, they failed to support the notion that it conserves biodiversity. The meeting revealed a lack of controlled, replicated studies, to compare the effects of community forestry and the status quo on biodiversity. Most studies failed to collect biodiversity data both before and after community forestry was implemented and failed to establish adequate control sites. The species lists presented mostly showed how community forestry tends to replace forest wildlife with domestic species, resulting in more uniform forests with reduced wildlife diversity. Furthermore, introduced exotic crops often smother local plant species. What then is the future for the multitude of non-economic species within community forests? Is a high diversity of widespread, domestic plants an adequate substitute for the biodiversity of the original forest? The fact that such vital questions were mostly ignored at the seminar was hardly surprising, since few scientists and no taxonomists had been invited. 

Consequently the meeting failed to generate sound recommendations on how to retain biodiversity, or minimize its reduction, when state-protected forests are handed over to communities. The closing speaker summed up with "the objectives of the seminar have not so much been fulfilled as touched upon".