A Practical Approach to Sustainable Community Forestry in Anhui Province, China

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• A Practical Approach to Sustainable Community
  Forestry in Anhui Province, China
• Yongjun Zhao Jiaqi Xu
• Center for Environment, Development and Poverty
  Alleviation (CEDPA)

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• Community forestry is a reflection of the
  conceptual transformation of forestry from the
  traditional rural forestry to the new
  participatory forestry in rural areas. It is a
  fundamental enterprise for villagers. In
  community forestry, the traditional
  slash-and-burn method of foresting and the
  governmental-style forestry with large-scale
  exploitation of forest resources have been
  abandoned. It has a strong focus in terms of the
  active participation of stakeholders in
  discussions and communications relating to the
  project, through which the social, economic and
  ecological relations and problems in the
  community are properly coordinated and addressed.
  As a result, it serves the purpose of increasing
  the incomes of the poor, creating employment
  opportunities for them as well as protecting the
  natural resources.

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Challenges for Poverty Alleviation in Mountainous
RegionsIn remote mountainous regions,
challenges for poverty alleviation lie in poor
transportation systems, lack of information, poor
working and living conditions, low productivity,
poor health facilities as well as shortage of
skilled labour. Despite the efforts made by the
government to fight poverty in these areas, more
work still needs to be done!
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Poverty-related Environmental Degradation!
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• Principles of CEDPA
• The following principles have been complied
  with in community forestry
• ? A people-centered participatory approach
• ? Environmental protection awareness
• 3.Gender equality awareness
• In addition, empowerment of villagers is
  emphasized. The local people are entitled to the
  following rights
• ----the rights to know, to speak out, to make
  a decision, to implement, to manage, to use and
  to own.

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The creation of a participatory sustainable
poverty alleviation model

• Household forestryscience technology
  demonstration household systemindependent
  farmers organizations
• The key water and soil conservations measures
  taken
• 1.Laying a foundation for household forestry
• Unique features
• ? for at least one community
• ? people-centered approach to forestry management
• ? households as main participants
• ? household economy based
• ? transparency
• ? clarified property ownership

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•  
• Diagram 1 Participation process for household
  forestry

CEDPA
Project partners
Township forest extension office
Township forest extension office
Township forest extension office
Village project management group
Village project management group
Project monitoring checking
PRA technical Support
household
household
household
Project 1
Project 2
Project 3
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household forestry

• ?household forestry project
• Forests for crops program is implemented on the
  hillsides around farmers homes.

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Difference between community forestry and
conventional forestry

• Community forestry is directly catered for the
  households, while conventional forestry focused
  on large-scale development of forests.

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• Soil and water conservation measures are taken in
  household forestry with view to improving and
  protecting the environment.

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• ? Innovative system of science technology
  demonstration households
• Tripartite participation

farmers
government
technical staff
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• ? Setting up 3-level training network
•  
• Level 1
• 
  
• Level 2
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• Level 3
• 
  
• 
  
• Diagram 2 Training network  

Experts
Trainers
Demo household
Rural skilled people
farmers
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? Designing practical training materials in
forestry
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? Improving technical services

• Forestry engineers are teaching farmers the
  practical skills in forestry.

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? Establishing the system of sci-tech
demonstration households

• Experts interviewing the demo households

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• ? Capacity building for farmers to help
  themselves
• ? independent farmers organizations (IFO)
• ? What can IFO help?
• ? Types of IFO?
• production management and marketing
• eg. Chestnut growers association
• community development funds
• eg. Forest farmers association

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• ?farmers self-help programs
• IFO as a way of increasing farmers incomes
• production managementeg. chestnut growers
  association
• Operation and Maintenance management of the
  project through capacity building is essential
  for its sustainability.

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community development funds eg. forest
farmers association

• Protection and comprehensive utilization of
  secondary growth forest as a ecological
  restoration program

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4. Contributions

• 15 245 beneficial households,over 80 being poor
  households
• Afforestation and upgrading of 3 810.5hm2 of
  trees
• Economic benefits

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5. Conclusions

• 1. The household forestry-science and technology
  demonstration site-independent farmers
  organizations as a sustainable poverty
  alleviation model developed by CEDPA has proved
  to be effective in poverty alleviation and
  environmental protection.
• 2.The independent farmers organization is an
  innovation product of modern rural economic
  cooperation, and is thriving.
• 3.With a unique feature of self-help of farmers,
  the independent farmers organizations play a
  role in uniting people to achieve their common
  objectives, which cannot be done by a single
  household or a community or even the local
  government. These organizations are helpful for
  farmers in terms of helping them learn and grasp
  updated technical skills and knowledge, reducing
  their operation and management cost and
  increasing forestry production and their economic
  incomes.
• 4.Community forestry has managed to avoid the
  influences of the government and set a new
  starting point different from the traditional
  mode of forestry. It tries to avoid the
  influence of the governmental administration
  through the adoption of participatory approaches
  and empowering the poor in poverty alleviation.
• 5.Government needs to integrate community
  forestry into the decision-making process with
  regard to poverty alleviation.

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• Thank You!