Partnerships in Sustainable Forest Resource Management: Learning from Latin America

This book brings together experiences with a rich variety of sustainable forest and tree resource management partnerships in various countries in Latin America – Trinidad, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guyana, Brazil and Ecuador. The authors reflect on the scope, objectives, institutional organisation and benefits of partnerships, on the actors involved and excluded, and on the hindrances associated with overcoming cultural differences, institutional barriers, power imbalances and diverging interests. The question that runs as a common thread through this book is whether, and under what conditions, partnerships for sustainable forest and resource management can contribute to pro-poor, socially just and environmentally-friendly forest governance. By presenting the lessons learned from a wide range of partnerships, this book is a valuable resource for students, scholars and practitioners dealing with new governance forms in forest and natural resource management.

Mirjam A.F. Ros-Tonen is a Human Geographer with a Ph.D. degree in policy sciences. She is affiliated to the Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDSt) of the Universiteit van Amsterdam as senior researcher and coordinator of the (Netherlands) Development Policy Review Network (DPRN). Recent publications include African Forests between Nature and Livelihood Resource(with Ton Dietz), published by The Edwin Mellen Press (2005), and ‘The Scope for Improving Rural Livelihoods through Non-Timber Forest Products: An Evolving Research Agenda' (with Freerk Wiersum), published in Forests, Trees and Livelihoods (2005). Mirjam Ros-Tonen is currently engaged in research into forest use and governance in the Brazilian Amazon.