Contents: Foreword/Marilyn W. Hoskins. Preface/William R. Burch. Acknowledgements. 1. Forest policy as a changing context in Asia/Edward L. Webb. 2. Decentralization and community-based forestry: learning from experience/Arun Agrawal and Elinor Ostrom. 3. The evolution of forest-related institutions in Bhutan: adaptations of local people to the rising state/Edward L. Webb and Lam Dorji. 4. Integrating informal with formal forest management institutions for sustainable collective action in India/Rucha Ghate and Deepshikha Mehra. 5. Decentralization policy and revitalization of local institutions for protected area co-management in west Sumatra, Indonesia/Yonariza and Ganesh P. Shivakoti. 6. Evolution, impacts and challenges of community-based forestry in Nepal/Ambika P. Gautam and Ganesh P. Shivakoti. 7. Implications of leasehold and community forestry for poverty alleviation/Mukunda Karmacharya, Birendra Karna and Elinor Ostrom. 8. Disentangling a complex web: forests, people and decentralization in Nepal/Harini Nagendra, Mukunda Karmacharya and Birendra Karna. 9. Evolution of community-based management and forest health in Northern Thailand: case study of Nahai and Huai-muang villages in Sopsai Watershed, Thawangpa District, Nan province/Nitaya Kijtewachakul, Ganesh P. Shivakoti and Edward L. Webb. 10. Incentives of the forest land allocation process: implications for forest management in Nam Dong District, Central Vietnam/Ngo Tri Dung and Edward L. Webb. 11. Facilitating decentralized policies for sustainable governance and management of forest resources in Asia/Ganesh P. Shivakoti and Elinor Ostrom. About the editors and contributors. Index.
"Asian societies are entering a new era of decentralized governance of forests. The authority to make decisions of forest management has shifted to lower levels of government and, in some cases, to the local people themselves. But can governments simply decentralize authority away from the center, or are there certain core elements necessary to achieve sustainable management and conservation of forests in a decentralized world?
This book argues that policy solutions to resource dilemmas faced by forest accessing rural communities must be flexible, and should allow for local dynamics and innovations to take place. Presenting case studies from Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam, this volume investigates how decentralization is affecting local stakeholders and their management of forest resources.
The contributors conclude that the variety of contextual situations in Asia requires an equally diverse set of institutional solutions. They argue that due to a remarkable diversity of challenges, structural variables support structures and outcomes (as documented in the case studies in the volume), the solutions for sustainable decentralized forest management will be as varied as the contexts themselves." (jacket)
