TY - JOUR

T1 - Toward improved impact evaluation of community forest management in Indonesia

AU - Meijaard , Erik

AU - Santika, Truly

AU - Wilson, Kerrie A

AU - Budiharta , Sugeng

AU - Kusworo , Ahmad

AU - Law, Elizabeth A.

AU - Friedman, Rachel

AU - Hutabarat, Joseph A.

AU - Indrawan, Tito P.

AU - St John, Freya A. V.

AU - Struebig, Matthew

N1 - Research Funding: Arcus Foundation, ARC Future Fellowship and Discovery programs, Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Woodspring Trust, UK Darwin Initiative

PY - 2021/1

Y1 - 2021/1

N2 - Many tropical countries continue to devolve forest management to forest-dwelling communities. The assumption is that local knowledge of forests and communityengagement in forest management will attain multiple social and environmentalco-benefits, such as poverty alleviation and reduced deforestation and fires.Evidence for this, however, is scant, commonly hampered by data availabilityand a lack of technical capacity for implementing statistically robust impactevaluations. Based on a practice-based review of policy implementation,impact evaluation of case studies and examples of counterfactual analysesfrom Indonesia, we demonstrate that it is increasingly feasible to determinethe conditions under which community forest management will most likelyachieve its social and environmental objectives. Adapting community forestmanagement implementation based on feedback from accurate impact evaluation could lead to positive outcomes for people and environment in Indonesia, and across the tropical realm

AB - Many tropical countries continue to devolve forest management to forest-dwelling communities. The assumption is that local knowledge of forests and communityengagement in forest management will attain multiple social and environmentalco-benefits, such as poverty alleviation and reduced deforestation and fires.Evidence for this, however, is scant, commonly hampered by data availabilityand a lack of technical capacity for implementing statistically robust impactevaluations. Based on a practice-based review of policy implementation,impact evaluation of case studies and examples of counterfactual analysesfrom Indonesia, we demonstrate that it is increasingly feasible to determinethe conditions under which community forest management will most likelyachieve its social and environmental objectives. Adapting community forestmanagement implementation based on feedback from accurate impact evaluation could lead to positive outcomes for people and environment in Indonesia, and across the tropical realm

KW - biodiversity

KW - conservation

KW - deforestation

KW - forest

KW - impact evaluation

KW - poverty

KW - tropical forest management

KW - welfare

U2 - 10.1111/csp2.189

DO - 10.1111/csp2.189

M3 - Review article

VL - 3

JO - Conservation Science and Practice

JF - Conservation Science and Practice

SN - 2578-4854

IS - 1

M1 - e2189

ER -