College of Forestry

FoLIAGe Research Group

Community, collaborative and small-scale forestry

Decorative Banner - Community, Collaborative and Small-Scale Forestry

Social-ecological dynamics of community forestry in southeast Asia: With collaborators across OSU, the Spatial Informatics Group, and RECOFTC (Centre for People and Forests), this NSF-funded research looks at the impacts of community forestry on forests, biodiversity and poverty, across Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. It also aims to elucidate the interlinkages between forests and people in community forests, to better understand this dynamic social-ecological system and clarify support mechanisms that positively influence outcomes. 

 

Community forestry in the United States: In partnership with researchers at the US Forest Service and NC State, we've been creating an inventory of community forests in the US, to better document this emerging local forest governance model. We also conducted case studies to explore the mechanisms by which they contribute to conservation and community well-being, and with FES graduate student Lauren McCaskill, looked at intra-community equity considerations.

  • Hajjar, R., McGinley, K.A., Charnley, S., Frey, G.E., Cubbage, F.W., Schelhas, J. Hovis, M., Kornahuser, K. (in press). Characterizing community forests in the United States. Journal of Forestry.
  • McGinley, K.A., Charnley, S., Cubbage, F.W., Hajjar, R., Frey, G.E., Schelhas, J., Hovis, M., Kornhauser, K. (2022). Community forest ownership, rights, and governance regimes in the United States. In, Bulkan, J., Palmer, J., Larson, A., Hobley, M. (eds). Routeledge Handbook on Community Forestry. Earthscan.

 

Synthesizing lessons learned in community forestry globally: In principle, community forest management (CFM) can secure greater sustainability of forests and more equitable livelihood outcomes for stakeholders, while securing local forest rights: a triple-win outcome. Case studies of CFM around the world have provided evidence of successes in achieving one, two or all three of these goals, while providing rich analyses of what factors can lead to successful outcomes. At the same time, there are many instances where CFM initiatives have failed to deliver on any or all of these goals. In collaboration with researchers at University of Manchester, the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and others, we've synthesized available evidence on community forestry, examined which contextual factors lead to positive outcomes, how new programs affect community forest resiliance, and traced new trends in community forestry research. This builds on previous work examining community forestry in Brazil, Mexico, Cameroon, and elsewhere.

 

Community forest enterprises in Mexico: Understanding trade-offs in decision-making: With FES graduate student Gretchen Engbring, we explored how different organizational structures of CFEs in Oaxaca, Mexico make trade-offs in their decision-making around collective goals, such as profit and growth, participation, transparency, and accountability. This project builds on previous work in Mexico on understanding the degree of decentralization and community-level autonomy in decision-making, examining local goals and priorities for community forest management, and analyzing the role of secondary-level institutions in advancing community forestry, particularly in a REDD+ context.

 

Enabling environments for small-scale forest enterprises: At the local level, small-scale forest enterprises (SFEs) play an important role in livelihoods, food security, and poverty reduction. SFEs can also contribute towards the achievement of REDD+ goals through conservation, sustainable use of forests, and enhancement of carbon stocks, while simultaneously improving local livelihoods and contributing to local economies. In previous work with collaborators at the University of British Columbia, we examined critical success factors that create enabling environments for SFEs to meet their potential as meaningful and sustainable pathways to prosperity for local communities. With postdoc Jazmin Gonzales Tovar and graduate student Paula Lopez Vargas, we've been studying informal, small-scale forest enterprises in the Peruvian Amazon.

 

Community-based Natural Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) in Ghana:  While Ghana does not have community forestry, per se, the CREMA model has been implemented in a number of forested landscapes, particularly as buffers around national production forests and protected areas. With graduate student Samuel Mawutor, we studied to what extent are CREMAs decentralizing power to local communities, and with the effect it has had on the empowerment of forest-reliant people.

 

Collaborative forestry in the US: Forest collaboratives were created as a way to involve local stakeholders in the management of US Forest Service lands. With graduate students Kailey Kornhauser and Meredith Jacobson, and in partnership with Cascade Pacific, we explored the utlity of creating a forest-wide collaborative on the Siuslaw National Forest as a way to address key governance gaps on the forest. Kailey also looked at power, participation, and policy effectiveness of collaboratives in Oregon for her dissertation research.  Meredith looked at the narratives and social constructions associated with the role of tribes in cross-boundary forest governance in the US (co-advised with Dr. Emily Jane Davis).