Social/community forestry and non-timber forest products Group discussion 22 February 2007
Thematic areas 1.Incentives for small-scale community forestry 2.Site classification (soil and climate) and field trials of systems for community forestry/ NTFP 3.Reform of land tenure systems/ conflict resolution 4.Replication of successful community forestry models 5.Processing of NTFP Cross-cutting issue: Fostering social learning processes/ adaptive management
Incentives for small-scale community plantings Policies and Institutions –Researchable issue: analysis of the effectiveness of regulations and impact of land tenure / ownership status, effective size of the management unit Cost-benefit and market analysis for particular species/ products, approaches to consolidation for supply of processing industry –Researchable issue: analysis of systems and markets to produce intermediate returns (local use, firewood as well as industry processing)
Matching sites to species Researchable issue: Site classification (soil and climate), especially in variable environments such as West Timor –utilising existing mapping data –selection of species combinations taking markets and cultural preferences into account Researchable issue: Silvicultural systems adapted for small-scale plantings, including agro- silvopastural systems Researchable issue: Field trials of systems for community forestry/ NTFP and development of replicable extension models
Reform of land tenure systems National versus regional versus local-specific systems ? –consensus that local/ site-specific tenure varied so that we needed to look at specific situations in the research –but develop frameworks that can be replicated between districts Researchable issue: Relationship between land tenure systems and incentives for developing community forestry –establishment of successful models for conflict resolution (including legal frameworks)
Replication of successful community forestry models First need an inventory of current small scale private and community forestry resources – size, location, species, access, governance situation Comparative analysis of benefits of different species (e.g. rubber, coffee, timber species) (?? ACIAR’s role – may be to develop model system to use for inventory and apply to a project site)
Processing of agroforestry products/ NTFP Not much Australian expertise other than some individuals with specialist experience