permaculture

220 Facilitator’s Handbook for Permaculture Workshops

Some key points for successful community forest management are:

Strengthening community ownership, connection, and responsibility.

• Short, medium, and long-term strategies are planned by community.


• Multifunctional and diverse design that imitates a natural forest.


• Awareness and education about connection between environmental
  sustainability/diversity and long-term income security – Including
  diversity of income sources and diversity of product ranges.


• Sustainable local businesses that use forest resources wisely – Seeds,
  medicines, furniture, oils, bamboo products, nuts, honey, and many other natural
  products which are highly saleable and sustainable if the source of the raw
  materials is well managed.

Land use policies are developed and implemented by the whole community.

A community can create an agreement about which people or groups will be

responsible for managing the community land, which includes a plan for dividing

the produce generated. For example ¹/ 3 of the produce can be given to the people

responsible for managing the community land and ²/ 3 is given to the other community

members.

Note: If the management system is based solely on income based decisions the systems

may not be sustainable, especially in the long-term. Therefore, the appointed community

land managers would need to also be in charge of protecting and supervising the land

and its resources.

This will include identifying land needs and proposing actions needed to increase the

sustainability of the systems. In the same way that the benefits of the community land

are shared benefits, any inputs needed to maintain the community systems can be a

shared responsibility.

The community may also wish to consider traditional payment systems for the community

land managers such as not having to pay for ceremonies or other exchanges.

It is very important that these productive community forests and their management

systems are developed and/or agreed upon by all members of the community to avoid

disputes.

There are many more ideas presented later in this module in the exercises:

• Presentation - “Tree protection for crops and community forests”.


• Creative thinking - “Forest management plan”.