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Over one billion people in the world depend on forests to meeting livelihood needs and more than half of them engage in community-based forest management. Community forestry has the potential of making important contributions in achieving the sustainable development goals; however, their positive effects on local livelihoods have been questioned. Actors, with their interests and power balance, can be important factors explaining the success of community forestry by shaping the decisionmaking process. Hence, the aim of our study was to analyze the economic performance of community forestry across the world, through its contribution to poverty reduction and explain how the economic outcome relates to the interests of the powerful actors. Community forestry from seven countries was analyzed including cases in Asia (Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam), Africa (Namibia and Cameroon), and Europe (Germany and Albania). Data were collected with a sequence design method aiming to identify the participating actors and their power. A multivariate principal components analysis was conducted to capture the power dynamics within each community forestry. Results showed that community forestry programs do not always lead to poverty alleviation. The economic outcomes can be linked to the interests of the most powerful actors which in most cases do not desire a high economic outcome but rather promote contributions up to subsistence level. Key words: comparative study, livelihoods, decentralization, poverty reduction, co-management, Introduction Over one billion people in the world depend on forests as a contribution to meeting their livelihood needs (Hajjar et al. 2020). As a consequence, multiple forest use can [...]

Comparative analysis could offer a number of advantages in the science of forest policy. Comparisons make use of the compiled material from different countries, point to new origins and solutions of issues of forestry and allow to question the common presuppositions in the national forest policy in a critical way. The basic requirement of fruitful comparative research is a common scientific framework. In the light of empirical-analytical theory it is more promising to compare only one factor across regions than the whole system. The forest administration could be such a suitable object of comparison in particular because it is to be found all over the world, and it has a formal and partly public organization with a number of similarities. The product of forest administration is policy. The significance of the bureaucratic behaviour in agenda setting, policy formulation, legitimating, and implementation with regard to an issue of forest policy is to be analysed. The two significant fields of analysis, namely forest administrations and the issues of forest policy characterize the strategies of research. By making use of a collection of papers dealing with forest bureaucracy we can select countries for comparison according to the following criteria: socioeconomic context, space and time. The next step is to analyse comparatively the behaviour of the forest bureaucracy in treating a special forest issue. The explanations can be tested empirically in different countries. Perhaps the dying of the forest could be a suitable issue as an object of comparative analysis which again could enlarge our knowledge about the forest administration as a political factor.

Public forest administrations in the Western Balkans were challenged when facing novel forest policies following the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. To answer (i) what (formal) goals lead public forest administrations nowadays and (ii) how do public forest administrations fulfil these goals, we evaluated the implementation of forest policy goals in Serbia, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, and Republika Srpska by using existing criteria and indicators and the 3L model as a theoretical basis. Survey and document analyses focused on the effects observable in state and private forests. In state forests, all public or state forest enterprises were able to reach goals of multifunctionality and profitablity by prioritizing marketable goods. Sustaining forest stands is important, but it is met differently in practice. Performance in private forests is much weaker and the influence of ministry departments or sectors is weak. In conclusion, the potential for a new, stronger role of public forest administration exists: (i) the supply of marketable and nonmarketable goods could be increased, whereas securing sustained forest stands remains a permanent challenge; (ii) efficiency and profits could be improved if internal and external pressures grow; and (iii) joining forces of forestry actors could strengthen the currently weak political role and enable a strong forestry representative to emerge in the future. Key words: 3L model, Western Balkans, public forest administration, forest policy, criteria, and indicators. Les agences responsables de la gestion des forets publiques dans les Balkans occidentaux ont du relever un defi lorsqu'elles ont ete confrontees a de nouvelles politiques forestieres apres le demantelement de la Yougoslavie dans les annees 1990. Pour connaitre (i) quels objectifs (formels) poursuivent les agences responsables de la gestion des forets publiques de nos jours et (ii) et dans quelle mesure elles atteignent ces objectifs, nous avons evalue l'implantation des objectifs de la politique forestiere en Serbie, en Croatie, dans l'ex-Republique yougoslave de Macedoine et dans la Republika Srpska en utilisant les indicateurs et criteres existants ainsi que le modele 3L comme base theorique. L'inventaire et l'analyse des documents ont mis l'accent sur les effets observables dans les forets privees et publiques. Dans les forets publiques, toutes les entreprises forestieres publiques ou d'Etat ont ete capables d'atteindre les objectifs d'etre multifonctionnelles et rentables en priorisant les biens commercialisables. La perennite des peuplements forestiers est importante mais cela est accompli de differentes facons en pratique. La performance est beaucoup moins bonne dans les forets privees et l'influence des departements ou secteurs ministeriels est faible. En conclusion, les agences responsables de la gestion des forets publiques pourraient jouer un role nouveau et plus important: (i) l'offre de biens commercialisables et non- commercialisables pourrait etre augmentee tandis que la perennite des peuplements forestiers demeure un defi permanent; (ii) les profits et l'efficacite pourraient etre ameliores si les pressions internes et externes augmentaient; (iii) l'union des forces des acteurs du milieu forestier pourrait renforcer leur poids politique presentement faible et permettre l'emergence d'une forte representation forestiere dans l'avenir. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: modele 3L, Balkans occidentaux, gestion des forets publiques, politiques forestieres, criteres et indicateurs., 1. Introduction The territory of the Western Balkans (1) (WB) is mainly known for its turbulent past (Lampe 2000; Veselica and Vojnic 2000; Bartlett 2008), but contemporary information about this [...]