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INTERDEPENDENT
RELATIONSHIPS
Community-based forestry encompasses the notion
that there is an interdependent relationship between
healthy ecosystems and community well being. In
other words, to have one you must also have the
other. Implied in that idea is that all those
who influence or who are affected by decisions
concerning a region’s natural resources
should participate in the management discussions
about those resources and the ecosystems from
which they are derived. Inherent in the idea of
community-based forestry is that local residents
work to implement these management practices.
This inclusion indicates a fundamental shift away
from the historical model of forest management
– corporate and special interests contending
with the federal government for control of land,
resources and profits – to a more democratic
method of management, one that gives local citizens
more of a say in how their surrounding ecosystems
are managed. Community-based forestry relies on
a diverse group of users working together on common
interests and goals, which they themselves establish.
The aim of community-based forestry is to empower
those who work, live and recreate in the woods
to organize and strive towards these goals:
- Improve the overall health of an ecosystem
through sustainable management practices,
updated forestry techniques and forest and
watershed restoration projects.
- Collaborate with a diversity of community
members to establish common goals.
- Increase the number and quality of jobs
that are based on the natural resources at
hand without overusing or abusing those resources.
- Ensure that economic and ecological practices
are socially just.
- Improve inter-community communication and
communication between a diversity of community
members and interests and state and federal
agencies.
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