Learning for Sustainability through Community Forest Management

Abstract

Community forestry is considered a collaborative governance approach that notionally provides local communities with some decision-making authority about forest management, as well as being promoted as a promising approach for ensuring forest sustainability and encouraging social learning among participants. Based on these potential benefits, this research investigated how collaboration and learning can help in managing community forests sustainably. The research involved a qualitative case study, focused on the Wetzinkwa Community Forest Corporation (WCFC) located in Smithers, British Columbia. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with WCFC participants, forest tours, participant observation, and document review. The results indicate that individual and social learning did occur through collaborating on forest management issues such as sustainable forest management and benefit distribution. Further, the data shows the WCFC was making progress in sustainably managing the forest through efforts such as protecting forest under-story and embarking on a project to ensure forest health and resiliency.