Poverty alleviation through community forestry in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam An assessment of the potential》.pdfVIP

Forest Policy and Economics 8 (2006) 386– 396 /locate/forpol Poverty alleviation through community forestry in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam: An assessment of the potential William D. Sunderlin * Forests and Livelihoods Program, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), P.O. Box 6596 JKPWB, Jakarta 10065, Indonesia Abstract Introduced (as compared to traditional) models of community forestry have developed rapidly in Cambodia and Laos in the last decade, and were recently begun in Vietnam after a pilot phase. What is the potential of these community forestry models to deliver livelihood improvements to participants? This is an important question for two reasons. First, some donors are placing high hopes on community forestry to support poverty alleviation in the Mekong Region. Second, community forestry has generally under-performed in poverty alleviation worldwide. Existing and planned models must be examined to understand to what extent they can fulfill their goals and how they can be improved. Among various theoretical preconditions for successful poverty alleviation through community forestry, this article focuses on two: (1) the degree to which poverty alleviation is a guiding force in the establishment and implementation of community forestry; and (2) the compatibility of government commitment to poverty alleviation through community forestry with other goals being pursued by the government. How do the three case study countries perform with respect to these preconditions? With respect to the first precondition, it is found that although all three country programs now espouse poverty alleviation as a key goal, other state goals (e.g., compliance with donor organization recommendations, de