Community forestry and sustainability research at The New York Botanical Garden

Research focused on community forestry and the sustainable use of tropical forest resources has been conducted at The New York Botanical Garden for over 30 years. Five of the projects are located in the Neotropics, six are in Southeast Asia, and three are in Tropical Africa; project sites include so...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brittonia 2016-09, Vol.68 (3), p.290-298
Main Author: Peters, Charles M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Botanical gardens
Botany
Communities
Data acquisition
Ecological effects
Economic Botany
Forest management
Forest resources
Forestry
Life Sciences
Management planning
Natural resources
Plant Anatomy/Development
Plant Ecology
Plant Physiology
Plant Sciences
Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography
Resource management
Social factors
Sustainability
Sustainable use
Training
Tropical forests
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Research focused on community forestry and the sustainable use of tropical forest resources has been conducted at The New York Botanical Garden for over 30 years. Five of the projects are located in the Neotropics, six are in Southeast Asia, and three are in Tropical Africa; project sites include some of the largest remaining areas of tropical forest in the world, e.g. Amazonia, Borneo, northern Myanmar, and Papua New Guinea. All of the projects have had a training component, several have incorporated both training and the collection of baseline data, and much of the recent work has included training, baseline data collection, and community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). The CBNRM initiatives at NYBG are unique because (1) they are based on quantitative inventory and growth data, (2) they are conducted in intact forests as a conservation incentive, and (3) the data collection, management planning, and monitoring activities are conducted by the villagers themselves. Although a variety of different ecological, economic, and social factors can influence the success of a community forestry project, one of the major lessons learned from the NYBG interventions is that management programs specifically tailored to a given community and forest based on a preliminary assessment of the actual supply and demand of forest resources are most effective.
ISSN:0007-196X
1938-436X
DOI:10.1007/s12228-016-9420-x