Year of publication 2004

This working paper aims to present and stimulate thinking about some of the constraints imposed when conventional forest management plans (FMPs) are used for participatory forestry. It describes recent approaches to address these constraints, mostly based on a study of forest management plans in 22 countries.The study also focused on some promising experiences in simplifying forest management plans for livelihood-oriented and enterprise-oriented forestry. Traditionally, FMPs were developed primarily for large-scale timber concessions, and thus focus on the requirements of large scale timber and production-oriented forest management. The formats of such FMPs require forest managers to have high levels of technical and financial capacity. This working paper shows that some FMPs are simpler than conventional FMPs although there is much variation in the level of simplification taking place. However, many of these FMPs are still too complicated for CFMs and it remains difficult for CFMs to prepare such FMPs by themselves without receiving significant external professional assistance. A number of relevant policy issues which affect the preparation and implementation of FMPs are also discussed.