Municipal Forest Management in Latin America

What factors triggered the municipalization of forest management in Latin America? How is this process evolving in reality? Is the decentralization jeopardizing the region’s forests or fostering sustainable development? Are there any concrete municipal forest management schemes we could use as models to develop policies?

The content, scope and conflicting goals of Latin America’s decentralization initiatives in forest management vary to a significant extent upon the context prevailing in each country. The decentralization efforts are spreading across the region and the municipalities may now play a greater role in the management of their natural resources and seize the resulting benefits.

The book was written for three different purposes: (i) better understand the types of powers assigned to municipalities to this day, (ii) better understand the increasingly important role played by municipalities in forest management, (iii) analyze the opportunities that were created and the challenges faced by the decentralization processes in the region.

The book compiles findings from in-depth studies conducted in 6 countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. It uncovers some significant forest management schemes initiated by municipalities on the regional, national and local levels. The book’s authors hope that their research findings appeal to departmental and municipal public servants, decision-makers, project technicians, researchers, international cooperation agencies professionals, municipal technicians, and organization workers and that they help them better understand municipal forest management.

The editor

Lyès Ferroukhi is a PhD candidate at Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology. He holds a Master in Sciences and a Master in Agronomy and Natural Resources Management from the University for Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden. He developed and coordinated numerous projects and publications on decentralized natural resources management in Africa and Latin America. He worked in the Community forestry Unit at the FAO, in Rome, where he led the African programs. He now coordinates the projects called Municipal Forest Management in Latin America – the object of this book – and Local Management of Natural Resources in Central America. Both projects are administered by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

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