LEGAL FRAMEWORKS AND LOCAL FOREST MANAGEMENT: EMERGING TRENDS AND PERSISTING DILEMMAS

摘要

The paper reviews briefly some of the central legal issues associated with the recent shift of the responsibilities for natural resource management to local people and rural communities. How do legal frameworks typically impede or support these strategies? What are the common problems that need to be addressed? In many countries, recent significant legal reforms have taken place, for example, in the sectors of forests, land rights and biodiversity conservation, and in decentralisation of authority. Nevertheless critical issues outstanding include: defining the nature, scope and security of rights vested in local people; identifying the holders of the rights. Looking forward, the paper identifies four important foci for attention: the need to understand better the role of legal frameworks and law reforms; the need to improve the way in which laws are made; improving stakeholder capacity to understand, use and apply laws; improving the cross fertilization of ideas and sharing of techniques across resource sectors.