Presentation from IUFRO World congress 2014: People and forests trajectory. Forestry researchers are taking serious notice of the impacts of forests on people, and people on forests. Encouraging examples include attention to human well-being, attempts to work collaboratively with communities and their subgroups, a focus on power relations (devolution, ethnic and gender studies), and attention to people’s knowledge about forests. More controversial topics like swidden agriculture, human health, nutrition, human rights and population have also been addressed. But much remains to be done.

2. Overview
 Early days of attention to people in forests
 Rare but encouraging recent examples –
toward sustainability
 Importance of addressing gender
 Some methodological considerations
 Concluding with ‘why bother?’
[Photos by Colfer & Anastasia Widyaningsih]

3. World Forestry Congress Trajectory
 1978 – 8th World Forestry Congress in Jakarta, Indonesia –
‘Forests for People’ – a first
 1985 – 9th WFC, youth added
 1991 - 10th WFC, ‘forest heritage’ added

4. A New Era:
Aiming for
Broader Sustainability
By 2003 - 12th WFC, included three
main themes:
• Forests for people
• Forests for the planet
• People and forests in harmony
 For 2015: Forests and People:
Investing in a Sustainable Future

5. CIFOR Trajectory:
Sadly, an Atypical Example
Started in 1993, CIFOR began with several important
commitments:
• Policy-oriented
• Interdisciplinary teamwork
• Research at all scales (int’l to field-based)
• Addressing both human and ecological, as well as strictly
forest concerns

6. Sample ‘People-Forests Research’
from CIFOR & its Partners (1)
Attention to human well being
• criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management
• poverty and environment network
Working collaboratively with communities and their
subgroups
 adaptive collaborative management of forests
 Some REDD+ work

7. Working with Women

8. Sample ‘People-Forests Research’
from CIFOR & its Partners (2)
Attention to people’s knowledge about forests
 indigenous knowledge (IK, ITK, IEK, etc.)
 non timber forest products
A focus on power relations
 ethnic and gender studies
 decentralization and devolution studies

9. Involving Officials

10. A More Controversial Set
From CIFOR & Partners
Swidden agriculture – as a complex and sometimes
sustainable system
Human health – looking at the interactions with forests and
their management
Nutrition – identifying nutritional implications of forest use
and management
Population – Recognizing the key roles birth control can play
in life chances

11. But attention to these issues
has NOT been typical
Most forestry
institutions still have:
 Little or no community
experience or training
 Single-minded
concentration on timber
(no NTFPs or biodiversity)
 No social scientists
 Even antagonism to local
people (‘poachers’, ‘slash
and burn farmers’, ‘illegal
loggers’)

12. And What Results
Have we Attained?
 Forests remain in decline
 Human well being has hardly
improved
 Benefits continue to be
inequitably distributed
Truly sustainable forest
management remains
a chimera

13. Women and Forests
Despite evidence of women’s
involvement in forests,
women remain relatively
invisible to the forestry world
(despite encouraging signs).
We have been ignoring
the potential contribution
of half the world’s
population.

14. Versus Gender and Forests
Looking at women alone is
not enough
(cf. little success integrating
new findings)
We need to look at
• the relations between
men and women
And
 topics that have seemed
taboo

15. Elephant in the Room No. 1
Population
 Local population
growth is a big
problem for forests
 women without access
to birth control, have
limited options
[A rare win-win issue]

16. Elephant in the Room No. 2
“Engaging men in
care-giving …
is nothing less than a
fundamental
reworking of our
work–life balance
and our beliefs in the
purpose of our lives
and
relationships.”
[Gary Barker 2014]
The ‘Domestic’
(Reproductive)
If women
enter new fields
their existing
work must be
reduced by
men’s greater
involvement at
home

17. Elephant in the Room No. 3
Violence against women
 Women who are
routinely subjected to
violence --- or even who
witness such violence ---
dare not move outside
their (and their spouses’)
comfort zones.

18. So How do we
Incorporate Gender
considerations in our
Work?

19. Methodologically Complex Topics
Not subject to conventional experimental designs, but they
are studied by social scientists:
• Culture – a complex whole (knowledge, belief, art,
morals, law, custom and other learned capabilities and
habits, Tylor 1871)
• Norms - a standard or pattern, especially of social
behavior, that is typical or expected of a group.
• Values - a person's principles or standards of behavior;
one's judgment of what is important in life.

20. Examples 1 & 2
A variety of site-specific and intangible, but powerful cultural
topics (e.g., from ongoing governance work in Sulawesi):
• Bugis-Makassar: concept of ‘honor’ has powerful inhibiting
effects on behaviour…
Δ Reducing women’s forest options.
• Makassar & Tolaki: women, rather than men, are accepted
as the legitimate managers of household income.
Δ Women have cash to invest (in forests?).

21. Examples 3 & 4
• Women speak up publicly to varying degrees, but some
groups report near gender equality.
Δ Women may have unrecognized power.
 Tolaki: These ‘primitive’ people manifest a strong sense of
everyone’s right to be involved in decision-making.
Δ The people could provide a more gender-equitable
example for managing forests democratically.

22. Why should forest researchers
venture into such topics?
To Enhance Sustainability

23. By What Means? In What Ways?
 Ensuring that we ‘do no
harm’
 Strengthening people’s
motivation to
maintain/improve forests
by ensuring more equitable
distribution of benefits
 Catalyzing the creativity
(‘power to’) of all affected
people in better forest
management

24. Useful Approaches to Add (1)
 Conventional academic studies – though reliable, often couched
in alien jargon and requiring more time
 Participatory Rural Appraisal – though good for exposing
policymakers to rural realities, can provide misleading results

25. Useful Approaches to add (2)
 Ethnographic approaches---by those trained in the method---
allow researchers to gain holistic, reliable information on such
topics
 Participatory approaches---by those so trained---allow
researchers to learn and build on the goals, interests, knowledge
and capabilities of community partners

26. In Conclusion –
In Search of Sustainability
We have much work to do
 Assumptions about men
and women to overcome
 Information to gather
and analyze (focused and
holistic)
 Thinking about how to
integrate what we learn
into our ongoing forest
management

27. Where now arbitrary and culturally prescribed gender roles
have inordinate power to
determine---and preclude---life chances
for both men and women.

28. We can and should work toward a forest world in which women’s
and men’s strengths, interests and voices can
structure their own lives and
their interactions with forest landscapes.

29. The result should be worth the effort!