Community-Based Forest Management in Southeast Asia

Community-based forest management (CBFM) in Southeast Asia has evolved over the past three decades as a response to widespread deforestation, rural poverty and demands for more equitable natural resource governance. By devolving responsibility for conservation, timber harvesting and non-timber forest product use to local communities, CBFM aims to align ecological sustainability with rural livelihoods. In practice, this model integrates customary land-use practices, local knowledge of forest ecology and communal decision-making structures. It has been promoted as a means of enhancing social capital, securing tenure rights and generating diversified income streams through agroforestry, ecotourism and sustainable timber enterprises. Despite many success stories, CBFM faces challenges including tenure insecurity, uneven capacity for collective management, regulatory complexity and pressures from commercial interests. The region’s status as a global biodiversity hotspot and its vulnerability to climate change have lent international significance to CBFM as a tool for both conservation and community development.

Research from Nature Portfolio

A recent study examined the carbon balance of plywood production under a social reforestation programme in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Researchers conducted a life-cycle assessment of laminated veneer lumber, finding that current practices yield near carbon-neutral outcomes over the product’s lifetime. By adopting lignin-based resins and renewable electricity, the system could become climate positive, sequestering more greenhouse gases than it emits. The study highlights the dual social and environmental benefits of community-driven agroforestry and its potential entry into carbon-offset markets, reinforcing the role of local initiatives in global mitigation strategies.

Community-Based Forest Management in Southeast Asia publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in community-based forest management in southeast asia across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Community-based forest management: A participatory approach in which local communities hold rights and responsibilities for sustainable forest governance and resource use.

Tenure rights: Legal or customary entitlements to access, manage and benefit from forest lands and resources.

Agroforestry: Integrated land-use systems combining cultivation of trees with crops or livestock to diversify production and enhance ecosystem services.

Greenhouse gas emissions: Release of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that contribute to atmospheric warming and climate change.

References

1. Carbon balance of plywood from a social reforestation program in Indonesia. Scientific Reports (2023).
2. Heterogeneous impacts of community forestry on forest conservation and poverty alleviation: Evidence from Indonesia. People and Nature (2019).
3. Social forestry in Southeast Asia: Evolving interests, discourses and the many notions of equity. Geoforum (2020).
4. Why do greater forest tenure rights not enthuse local communities? An early observation on the new community forestry scheme in state forests in Indonesia. Forest and Society (2021).
5. A review of biodiversity-related issues and challenges in megadiverse Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries. Research Ideas and Outcomes (2017).