Prospects for enhancing livelihoods, communities, and biodiversity in Africa through community-based forest management: a critical analysis

Myriad projects have been introduced in recent decades in tropical forest and forest-edge ecosystems to slow or reverse the rapid loss of biodiversity, deterioration of livelihood resources, and deepening of rural poverty - with markedly mixed results. This paper reports the results of a critical review of the literature and four case studies of community-based forest management (CBFM) in Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, analysed in terms of sustainable livelihoods dimensions, participation and social institution strengthening, governance and linkages with external institutions, and outcomes assessment. Derived from the literature review and confirmed in the case studies, our central finding is that sustainable positive effects of CBFM can be achieved only through integrated approaches that simultaneously enhance social capital of households and local institutions, improve the productivity of forest-edge landscape resources, and foster livelihood diversification and increase incomes while reducing economic vulnerability.