Institutional Learning and Change Initiative

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Local forest users represent significant collective human resources, or social capital, in terms of knowledge of their environment, organizing capabilities, understanding of local institutions, and abilities to develop forest management systems that deal effectively with complexity and surprise. Around the globe, however, their social capital has consistently been underappreciated and underutilized. Government forest departments seem stuck in “command-and-control” forest management regimes. Forest policy makers have been slow to respond to changing circumstances, and their institutional mechanisms often interfere with the goal of achieving sustainable forests and communities. As a result, both forest quality and human well-being have suffered. In Malawi, villagers around the Chimaliro Forest Reserve undertook to monitor sections of the reserve in return for certain usufruct rights. The agreement to cooperate in managing the forest has presented challenges to both the national forest agency and the local communities, but through their collaboration, ongoing improvements in resource management are becoming apparent. The effort hints at the potential of local forest users’ social capital.