Community Forestry:
Responding to both Adaptation and Mitigation
Community forestry can and does play an important role in mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Until now, however, the ways it does so have received limited attention. Five community forestry sites across Asia were explored with a view to better understanding this relationship. Specifically, how can mitigation initiatives such as REDD+ enhance synergies with adaptation and how can trade-offs be avoided?
Many countries in the region are developing or revising their national adaptation strategies and it is critical that forest use by communities be considered and included within these plans. At the same time, mitigation activities such as REDD+ have rarely explicitly considered adaptation or the need to develop adaptive capacity (FAO, 2012). This means that valuable opportunities are being missed to ‘couple up’ activities with a goal to achieving results in both areas.
Research is increasingly showing the degree of contribution made by forests to the lives of rural communities. An ongoing, global study shows that on average, forests contribute one-fifth to one-quarter of household income in rural areas (Angelsen, 2011). It is necessary to better understand how local communities rely on forests, and how sustainable forest management strategies can support the resilience of local communities.
Failure to consider mitigation and adaptation in the context of forests and forest based communities may result in an undermining of sustainable forestry practices and a loss of rights and livelihoods among vulnerable communities.
Available from: RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests
P.O. Box 1111, Kasetsart Post Office, Bangkok 10903 THAILAND
Tel: +66(0)2 940 5700 Fax: +66(0)2 561 4880
Email:
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www.recoftc.org
