Building on Indigenous Practices for Sustainable Forest Management

Currently, forests cover about one-third of the world’s land area, just under 4 billion hectares (ha) (FAO, 2006a). It is estimated that 70% of the world’s forests are natural (self-generating), 20% semi-natural (regeneration with some degree of human intervention), 10% anthropogenic (established or significantly transformed by humans) (MA, 2005). 75% of the world’s forests are located in two biomes, tropical (46%) and boreal (26%). Forests are critical ecosystems and play a wide range of important economic, social and environmental functions. Forests provide wood for timber and fuelwood, and non-wood forest projects (NWFPs), including food (berries, mushrooms, edible plants, bushmeat), fodder and others. The production forests account for about half the world’s forests. The reported value of roundwood removals in 2005 was about US$64 billion while the reported value of NWFP removals amounted to about US$4.7 billion in 2005(FAO, 2006a). Forests also provide important social services, which may include recreation, tourism, education and cultural or spiritual sites or species in many societies. Forests provide key environmental services. Forests are home to more than half of the world’s known terrestrial plant and animal species (MA, 2005). Forests protect soil from wind and water erosion, regenerate soil through litter and deep roots, and control avalanche in mountains. They conserve water and filter pollutants in water and air. They store a large portion of carbon in their biomass and the soil under them, and mitigate global climate change. The estimated amount of carbon captured in forest ecosystems (biomass and soil) for the year 2005 is more than the amount of carbon in the entire atmosphere (FAO, 2006a). In spite of their importance as above, forests are being converted to other land use, mainly agriculture, at an alarmingly high rate – about 13 million hectares per year (FAO, 2006a), and resulted in reduction of long-term provision of forest products and services. Moreover, the on-going forest degradation and fragmentation can further weaken potential of forests for providing goods and services. In Southeast Asia, the area of tropical rainforests had reduced dramatically from 250 million hectares in 1900 to below 60 million in 1989 (Poffenberger, 2006). Loss and degradation of forests are driven by a complex interplay of economic, social, cultural, political and demographic factors. One of major driving forces is centralization of forest management from indigenous communities to the state. Colonial and new governments took rights from native peoples and centralized control and management of forests in state forest agencies (MA, 2005). In Asia, the erosion of customary forest