Community Forest Management in Peru: Research in the last 10 years

Abstract

Community forestry management is a model that proposes sustainable management of forests inhabited by indigenous communities, peasants or local populations, where the sustainable use of natural resources can generate economic and social development. Despite the fact that it is considered an efficient tool for rural development, there has been no bibliographical collection, analysis or systematization. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to analyze the research conducted on community forest management in Peru over the past 10 years, and at the same time to contribute through identification of the panorama of the development of projects related to the sustainable management of natural resources, in forests located within indigenous communities. The reviewing of documentation involved the systematization of 30 bibliographic sources and their processing, where the title, author(s), type and year of publication, geographic reference, community or social group responsible for forest management, the natural resources harvested, and the origin of the natural resources harvested, were identified. The results indicated that the most frequently mentioned topics related to community forest management were forest ecosystem management, ecosystem services, governance and management of forest products, and that the research conducted by researchers, non-governmental organizations and public institutions, among others, was mostly applied to community forestry.