Management

A NEW AGENDA FOR FOREST CONSERVATION AND POVERTY REDUCTION

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The future of the world’s forests and the future of millions of the world’s poorest people are inextricably linked. Rural poverty is concentrated in many areas where the world’s biodiversity is most threatened. More than a billion people now live within the world’s 19 forest biodiversity “hotspots” and population growth in the world’s tropical wilderness areas is 3.1 percent, over twice the world’s average rate of growth. Over 90 percent of those who live on less than a dollar a day depend fully or in part on forest products for their livelihoods. The dominant models of forest management and protection are increasingly inappropriate in the face of this reality. Large- scale logging in commercial forest concessions, industrial forest plantations and public protected areas all deprive poor communities of lands and forests they traditionally controlled and contribute little if anything to rural livelihoods Even social forestry initiatives that do seek to restore these rights typically seek to sharply restrict their commercial use by local people. A fundamental re-assessment of the role of forests in rural development, and the role of local people in forest conservation, is urgently needed. Indeed, changes in forest resources, markets, and governance offer new opportunities for low-income producers. At least 25 percent of the forests in developing countries are now owned or actively managed by indigenous and other communities. Millions of smallholder farmers, especially those in forest-scarce but agriculturally less favored regions, are growing trees not only to recover local ecosystem services, but also to meet rapidly growing domestic demand for forest products. In some areas, forest and farm tree resources are the principal assets of the poor, and the most proximate opportunity for poverty alleviation.

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Series Title

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Call Number

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Publisher

: ., 2003

Collation

1-99

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

0-9713606-6-9

Classification

NONE

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Edition

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Subject(s)

A NEW AGENDA FOR FOREST CONSERVATION AND POVERTY R

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