Abstract
Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, community forestry (under a variety of different names) has emerged as an important approach to forest management in many Asian countries. At first community forestry was supported mostly as a policy option to achieve better forest management and protection. Increasingly, however, it has been advocated as a means to support sustainable rural livelihoods and, more recently, as a potential contributor to poverty reduction. This paper reviews experiences from a number of Asian countries (focusing on Nepal, India and the Lao PDR) in terms of the progress of community forestry in achieving livelihood and poverty reduction goals. It argues that the achievements have been uneven, although there are promising signs. The main focus of community forestry in terms of livelihoods has been on the promotion of non-timber forest products. The paper argues that, while this has made useful contributions in some cases, the potential for larger contributions has been limited by the reluctance of forest departments to transfer meaningful control of valuable resources (including timber) to communities.