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This article examines the livelihoods and experiences of local people after two decades of living close to a strict protected area (PA). A total of 290 local PA neighbors and 60 key informants were interviewed. Findings reveal a limited access to assets and low incomes. An average PA neighbor earns US$0.5 per adult equivalent unit (AEU)/day. PA proximity is associated with lower incomes, mainly because of wildlife damages that cost an average household (HH) up to 10% of its annual income. Other recurrent PA costs include the “invisible” costs incurred to cope with crop raiding, and restricted access to PA resources, that jointly amount to 16% of an average HH’s annual income. PA benefits include the sharing of tourism revenues, integrated conservation and development projects, and park-related employment. In total, benefits constitute 3.5% of the total annual income of an average HH, a figure higher than the contribution of other PAs in Uganda. However, overall, an average HH accrues a net annual loss of 12.5% of its total income or a total loss of US$1.54 million for the 1,1875 HHs, yet the park sends up to US$7 million to the central treasury. This highlights the need for policy revisions of the political economy of PA management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia is a federation in which the Constitution vested forest management to the states. A joint Commonwealth-state process was developed to implement a National Forest Policy, involving joint oversight of resource assessment and planning for each of eleven regions. Codes of forest practice and planning systems were greatly improved by incorporating available research on nonwood as well as wood uses. The 39% increase in the area of conservation reserves system necessitated major withdrawals from wood production. Despite the increases in reserves, conservation groups and allied interests were generally dissatisfied with the outcomes. Furthermore, resource security for the industry was not realised. Pre-election promises made by incoming governments, both state and Commonwealth, involved breaking the spirit, if not the letter of the agreements. Nevertheless, lower order processes of third-party audits and joint reviews of practices and planning should be continued to improve sustainability and the information made available in forms accessible to the community. The contribution of science, however, is limited by the inability to adequately evaluate the tradeoffs between uses. The higher level processes should identify the major options and leave the political process, he that state or Commonwealth, to resolve the choice between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed the effects of landscape measures within the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SF1) program on the suitability, abundance and spatial pattern of vertebrate habitats based on modeling and simulation of landscape and stand structure in a forested watershed in East Texas. Eight vertebrate species representing guilds established according to breeding and foraging requirements were selected: American beaver (castor canadensis), American woodcock (Scolopax minor), pine warbler (Dendroica pinus), downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens), barred owl (Strix varia), wild turkey (Meleagris gallopato silvestris), fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) and gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Habitat suitability of the landscape in general increased with the implementation of SF! measures and habitat conditions were more diverse and even. Fragmentation and establishment of narrow and elongated habitat areas in a network configuration were the main consequences of the implementation of SF1 measures in terms of habitat spatial structure. These changes were usually not limiting for the species analyzed. Mature pine Sand hardwood stands were absent from the simulated landscapes limiting the habitat for species like downy woodpecker or barred owl. Most of the species considered in this work benefited particularly from the implementation of streamside management zones (SMZs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the local community benefits associated with intensively managed industrial roundwood plantations (IMPIRs). It is based on a review of existing literature. I focus on three issues: natural resource access and control, job creation, and the effects of creating forest reserves as a corollary of establishing industrial roundwood plantations. The cases reviewed here indicate that IMPIRs often bring about land ownership concentration, loss of customary rights of resource access, rural displacement, and socioeconomic decline in neighboring communities. Beneficiaries include large rural landowners who sell or lease their land to forestry companies, and people who are able to find jobs in the forestry sector. IMPIRs do not appear to provide enough quality .jobs to stimulate community development, and rarely benefit people who are already politically and economically marginalized. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which plantation forestry can become more integrated with surrounding communities to increase local benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]