Facilitating forests of learning: Enabling an adaptive collaborative approach in community forestry user groups
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This guidebook is intended to support community forest user groups (CFUGs) in making their governance and management processes, practices and outcomes more successful and equitable. As such it is part of the growing response to the challenges of equity and livelihoods, which have gained wide recognition over the past several years. The ideas in the guidebook have emerged from a 6-year research partnership that focused on creating governance and management practice innovations to strengthen equity and increase livelihood security in community forestry in Nepal.
This guidebook is a resource for (English speaking) community forestry practitioners, e.g., staff of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), bilateral projects, district forest offices and networks. It will be of particular interest both to practitioners who work directly with or facilitate CFUGs and to ‘team leaders’ who shape community forestry facilitation and support programmes and coordinate, support and train facilitators. All users of the guidebook should be committed to being a force for positive change in the processes and outcomes of community forestry.
While this guidebook is oriented towards established CFUGs, the approach can also be readily adapted to CFUG formation and Operational Plan and Constitution development. Facilitators in other settings may want to draw on the concepts and ideas, adjusting them to their own contexts.
PART I: Key concepts
- Introduction
- The adaptive collaborative approach
- Facilitation, teamwork and challenges
PART II: Stages and steps for facilitating the approach
- Overview of stages and steps
- Stage One: Laying the groundwork
- Stage Two: Making the transition in CFUG planning
- Stage Three: Using the approach in undertaking activities and innovations
- Stage Four: Continuing the approach into the future
PART III: Annexes
- Annex A. Supporting information
- Annex B. Experiential activities and games
- Annex C. Resources
McDougall, C., Pandit, B.H., Banjade, M.R., Paudel, K.P. Ojha, H., Maharjan, M., Rana, S., Bhattarai, T. and Dangol, S. 2009. Facilitating forests of learning: Enabling an adaptive collaborative approach in community forestry user groups. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia.
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