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Summary: The nature of migration–forest linkages in migrant-sending regions is underreported and poorly understood. In rural Latin America and elsewhere, out-migration, together with agricultural crises and the deterritorialization of rural livelihood, are transforming forests and the communities that manage them. Drawing on research in indigenous communities of Oaxaca (Mexico), we identify the parameters of a new landscape of forest use and conservation, finding that: migration challenges community practices for self-governance of forest resources; declines in agriculture create new spaces for forest recovery and use; and forest conservation policies create economic opportunities around both extractive and non-extractive forest use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known, in a collective sense, about commons or commons research across the diverse regions and countries that make up Latin America. This paper addresses that knowledge gap by means of a review of communal land tenure data for the region, followed by a detailed analysis of international scholarly publications and conference presentations on Latin American commons, covering the period 1990-2012. We show that commons scholarship in the region, while growing, is focused on a relatively small number of countries. We speculate on the reasons for this, as well as identify the challenges that face commons researchers in Latin America as it looks to maximise the academic and policy impact of their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource regimes are complex social-ecological systems that operate at multiple levels. Using data from two distinct cultural and environmental contexts (Mexico and India), this paper looks at the susceptibility and response of such regimes to rural out-migration. As a driver of demographic and cultural change, out-migration impacts both the practices and institutional arrangements that define territorial resource use and management. The research shows that critical yet poorly recognised shifts in migration dynamics can increase the pressures felt locally and serve to reduce the effectiveness of institutional adaptations at the community level. From an environmental perspective, the research adds to the body of work examining the impacts of rural depopulation on land and seascapes and associated biological diversity. We question the assumption that rural-urban migration necessarily simulates ecosystem recovery and aids conservation. This finding is timely as funding agencies and government programs show belated interest in the consequences of out-migration for environmental management, resource use and rural livelihoods in tropical country settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the new term "communities of learning" in the concept of natural resources and environmental management (NREM). These communities present new forms of interaction and cooperation that combine the indigenous ways of knowing and the academic and scientific methods. It also cites the meaning of "indigenous ways of knowing," which is how indigenous and local inhabitants develop knowledge based on NREM.

Researchers and advocates have long argued that on-going engagement by broad segments of the public can help make forests and forest-based communities more sustainable and decisions more enduring. In Canada, public engagement in sustainable forest management has primarily taken one of two approaches: advisory forums through forest-sector advisory committees (FACs) and direct decision-making authority through community forest boards (CFBs). The purpose of this paper is to compare these two approaches by focusing on who participates and the values that participants bring to their deliberations. We conducted a national survey of FACs and CFBs involving 402 participants. Results showed that both models favoured well-educated, Caucasian men and fell short on the representation of women and Indigenous peoples. Additionally, despite different levels of authority in relation to forest management decisions, participants in CFBs and FACs shared similar forest values. Hence, we conclude that neither model of forest governance encourages participation from a diverse public. Our findings suggest the need to find new ways of recruiting diverse participants and to investigate more deeply whether local and extra-local pressures and power dynamics shape these processes. Such information can inform the establishment of more robust institutions for decision-making in support of sustainable forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]