In the last two decades, there has been increasing interest in the potential of small-scale non-timber forest product collection and other low-impact uses of the forest for achieving forest conservation. Experience suggests however that such uses do not guarantee conservation and economic outcomes. This book documents and compares methods to assess options for forest-based livelihoods and their outcomes.

In a year marked by several formal expert-level meetings on certification of forest management and criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management (C&I), most of which were related to the mandate of the Inter-governmental Panel on Forests (IPF), CIFOR and CATIE decided to lead off by hosting an informal meeting of experts from a cross-section of important certification and C&I initiatives.

To understand the potential role of forest products in household livelihoods, a study of the woodcraft industry in Zimbabwe was initiated. The woodcraft industry has increased steadily since the late 1980s. The factors driving the upsurge in the woodcraft industry are: (1) the increased demand by tourists; and (2) the need by rural households to find cash income sources. The structural adjustment programme, with one of its emphases being the decontrol of the currency, has probably played a key role in driving the rise in woodcraft production.

CGIAR system-wide meeting on integrated natural resource management (INRM). The second was held from 20-25 August 2000, at the new headquarters of ICLARM in Penang, Malaysia. Convened by the Centre Directors Natural Resouce Managemnet Task Force, four dozen scientists from 13 of the 16 CGIAR centres and their partner institutions discussed integrated natural resource management in relation to the CGIAR's research program. This report summarises some of the issues discussed at that meeting.

Fires are considered a potential threat to sustainable development for their direct impacts on ecosystems, their contribution to carbon emissions, and impacts on biodiversity. In 1997/98, Indonesia had the most severe fires worldwide, and smoke haze pollution recurs yearly. The fire-related policy problems are defined as smoke haze pollution, forest degradation and deforestation, and impacts on the rural sector. Some of the apparent major causes of the problems are identified. The estimate of area affected by fires in 1997/98 is revised from 9.7 million hectares to 11.7 million hectares.

Community managed forest systems embody a considerable portion of the wisdom, knowledge, and practical skills and management necessary for the sustainability of forest resources globally. These systems, however, are under threat in many ways, including from the rapid rate of change of their political, socio-economic, and biophysical contexts. Adapting forest management sufficiently quickly and effectively to meet these changes is both urgent and very challenging.

This document is a report on the implementation of an initial project of Bulungan Research Forest in East Kalimantan, Indonesia 1997-2001 with financial support from International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). It contains an executive summary, the main text of the project objectives and outputs, brief report on technical and scientific aspects, lessons learned and recommendations for future projects.

This note is part of an on-going effort to gain insights to impact assessment and research uptake literature of relevance to natural resource management-related research. It is provided more for the reference list than for the merit of the associated text that is still at an early stage. Many more references have been collected but have yet to be screened for their potential relevance.

Problems with governance of forests are closely linked to incompatible interests between different stakeholders. Having a clearer understanding of the relative importance of forest landscape functions among stakeholders can bring much clarity about why governance problems persist. The voice of the weakest actors is often insufficiently heard in decision-making processes that affect how stakeholders can use forests.

Total Factor Productivity (TFP) measures the growth in output which is not accounted for by inputs. Data Envelopment Analysis which forms the basis for the computation of Malmquist TFP index is used in this paper to study the performance of different river basins in Andhra Pradesh state, India. The results indicated that average technical efficiency of all the basins is only 66%. In all the basins there was a decline in growth of agricultural output during the first two decades, viz., 1979-1980 to 1988-1989 and it had picked in the last decade (1999-2000).