WHY COMMUNITY FOREST MANAGEMENT MATTERS

The document advocates for Community Forest Management (CFM) as a critical tool for biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation. It presents evidence that CFM often outperforms strict protection regimes in reducing deforestation, particularly when supported by secure land tenure and local autonomy. The briefing highlights the role of CFM in carbon sequestration and climate adaptation, while warning against 'false solutions' like REDD+ and the financialisation of nature, which it claims threaten community rights and traditional governance.

• Community Forest Management (CFM) is often more effective at reducing deforestation and biodiversity loss than the Protected Areas approach. A meta-analysis of 40 Protected Areas and 33 CFM experiences across Mexico, South America, Africa, and Asia showed that CFM areas had a lower and less variable annual deforestation rate.
• Secure land tenure and legal recognition of community rights are primary drivers of success in CFM. In Brazil, the legal recognition of indigenous and community rights is estimated to have prevented deforestation in those forests from being 22 times higher.
• CFM contributes significantly to climate change mitigation through high levels of carbon storage. In the Brazilian Amazon, indigenous forests contain 36% more carbon per hectare than other areas, and emissions from deforestation were 27 times higher in areas outside these community forests.
• CFM supports climate adaptation by protecting communities from extreme weather. Examples include the presence of mangrove forests in Ranong, Thailand, which helped avoid deaths and destruction during the December 2004 tsunami, and agroecological diversity in Nicaragua which reduced economic losses after Hurricane Mitch in 1999.
• Several factors are critical for successful CFM, including tenure security, local autonomy in decision-making, strong local leadership, and the presence of 'social heritage' (social norms and trust). The participation of local forest users in governance is strongly associated with positive forest outcomes.
• The document identifies several threats to CFM, including 'land grabbing' by agribusiness, conflicts between formal and customary laws, and the 'financialisation of nature'. It specifically criticizes REDD+ and carbon market mechanisms as 'false solutions' that risk transferring control of nature to corporations and increasing the risk of land grabbing.

APA

Friends of the Earth International (2015). WHY COMMUNITY FOREST MANAGEMENT MATTERS. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Community-Forest-Management-EN1.pdf

Chicago

Friends of the Earth International. WHY COMMUNITY FOREST MANAGEMENT MATTERS. 2015. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Community-Forest-Management-EN1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Friends of the Earth International |title=WHY COMMUNITY FOREST MANAGEMENT MATTERS |date=November 2015 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Community-Forest-Management-EN1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{friendsoftheearthinternational2015why, author = {{Friends of the Earth International}}, title = {{WHY COMMUNITY FOREST MANAGEMENT MATTERS}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2015}, month = nov, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Community-Forest-Management-EN1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }