Common property forest management and community forestry

Pierre-Marie AUBERT, Maya LEROY, Laurent AUCLAIR, Didier GENIN, Bruno ROMAGNY

AgroParisTech-ENGREF / IRD

Case study from Morocco

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INTRODUCTION

• From common property theory to community forestry : analytical and normative dimensions

• The case of Moroccan forestry : degradations explained by :

- the “poverty-environment nexus” and people’s inability to manage forest

- people’s dispossession of forest by the state and disappearance of traditional forest management

• A change in Moroccan forest policy ? An analysis through the example of the Aït Bougmez valley

CONTENTS

What’s the respective role of analytical and normative dimensions of the “common property model” to account for forest policy and local forest management system transformation ?

1 The Aït Bougmez case study

2 The Moroccan forest policy transformation

3 The local forestry management system transformation

I THE AÏT BOUGMEZ CASE STUDY

Local forestry management, local rules and its implementation

Access and use rules

A common property theory model to analyse the situation

• The Aït Bougmez forest as a typical “Common Pool Resources System”

• The institutional design principles considered as important (Ostrom, 1990) :

Group and resource system well defined

Rules appropriate to the local context

Individuals allowed to participate in rules negotiations

Self monitoring system

Graduated sanctions exist

Low cost conflict-resolution mechanism

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Source : Aubert, 2010, d’après Hammi, 2007

A model with two dimensions

• An analytical dimension, which helps us to analyse and make intelligible the situation…

• from which has derived a normative model : community forestry

II THE MOROCCAN FORESTRY POLICY TRANSFORMATION

• The spread of the community forestry model in international institutions : World Bank, FAO, PNUD…

• Its appearance in Moroccan forestry : the role of international environmental conventions and international donors — participative forestry more than “community forestry”

• Few legislative evolutions and weak enforcement…

• … except through the creation of a new tool

A key hypothesis “revisited”…

Hypothesis 1970 Current hypothesis

Local populations are unable to manage forests; the forestry administration needs thus to educate them and manage itself the forest

Local populations were able to manage their forests through customary organisation, which no longer exist : the forestry administration has to revivify and empower these organisations and contract with forest management rules

Source : Aubert, 2010

… however : both still coexist inside of the forestry administration

III Local forestry management and forestry policy : hybridisation and

recomposition ?

- a relative loss of legitimacy of the village assemblies, due to several factors

- the importance of informal regulation and negotiation

• A need to shift from common property theory to a more strategic analytical framework :

- conflict regulation through the forester intervention

The implementation of a new policy tool (1)

• Objective : exclude sheep and goats from reforestation perimeters

• The creation of an association to contract with the forestry administration

• A process still ongoing

• A financial compensation of 250 Dh / ha (around 25 € / ha)

The implementation of a new policy tool (2)

• Participation through financial compensation…

• … but a de facto territorial exclusion…

• … and a contract of which neither the terms nor the objective can be discussed

• Negotiated between rural elites and forestry administration supervisor

CONCLUSION

• An analytical model which had led the forestry administration to recognise the existence of common property forest management

• A normative model “imposed” to the Moroccan forestry administration by the international context…

• … but a selective reappropriation

• A theoretical perspective insufficient to understand forest management system transformations: the need for a more strategic and political approach