This study examines the preliminary impacts of Indonesia's decentralization process on the administration and management of forest resources in Ketapang District, West Kalimantan. The case study is based on field work carried out in mid-2000, using a rapid appraisal methodology. The report covers the impacts of decentralization in three areas, in particular: customary adat communities, oil palm and rubber plantations, and conservation issues related to Gunung Palang National Park.

This report explores criteria and indicators (C&I) for monitoring and assessing the sustainability of community managed forests (CMFs), and offers some insights into methodological tools and conceptual approaches for C&I development. The research was intended to explore the potential value of C&I to forest communities, their partners and their representative organisations to legitimise and enhance management, including strengthening of control over forest resources and facilitating the equitable distribution of the costs and benefits of forest management.

The study provides a comparative analysis of the devolution and empowerment process in 14 case studies drawn from eight countries in southern Africa. Each case study examined the extent to which policy and legislation devolves significant control over decision making and benefit flows to communities; the legitimacy and power of different community institutions and their relationship with other stakeholders such as local authority structures, NGOs, donor agencies, and the private sector; and lastly the relationship and divisions between different actors and groupings in the community.

Local people in South-east Asia are often cited as skilled forest managers. It is barely acknowledged that an essential part of this forest management does not concern natural forests, but forests that have been planted, often after the removal of pre-existing natural forests; forests that are cultivated not by professional foresters, but by sedentary or swidden farmers, on their farmlands; forests that are based not on exotic, fast-growing trees, but on local tree species, and harbour an incredible variety of plant and animal species.

El objetivo de este documento es evaluar la situación normativa del aprovechamiento de madera en las concesiones castañeras de Madre de Dios desde el año 2004, cuando se publicó la norma con carácter de complementariedad que permitió esta actividad y hasta la zafra concluída para el año 2010. Para este fin se analizaron las cifras oficiales de volúmenes extraídos de madera tanto en concesiones castañeras y en concesiones madereras dentro de las Administraciones Técnicas de Tahuamanu y Tambopata-Manu.