Landscapes Forest and Global Change - ESA - Escola Superior ...

D. Geni et al. 2010. A framework for characterizing convergence and discrepancy in rural forest management
722
Classes 1 and 3 are characteristics of group 4 (Corsica, the Cevennes, Argan forest).
They correspond to rural forests based on the use of a single tree species (chestnut or Argan) for
which the knowledge related to control and the domestication of the individuals are important,
as well as the practices of transformation and product valorization.
Class 2 represents the reactive variables with the group 5 (Gascogne, truffle, ash tree)
which represents the French small-scale forests integrated to traditional farming systems, very
weakly influenced by the forest public policies and managed at the family level to meet various
needs and amenities (timber and firewood, mushrooms, hunting places, etc).
Class 5 gathers the major variables characterizing tropical rural forests (groups 2 and 3),
it said the importance of timbering, an important biodiversity, the use of various non woody
forest products (resins, fruits, medicinal plants, etc).
Class 7 reflects the variables for which the State is very present, at the same time in the
management of the forests and its relations with the local populations (High Atlas and India
reserved forest).
Class 6 gathers the significant variables linked with the traditional rural forests found in
developing Countries (groups 1, 2 and 3) where the influence of diversified collective
institutions (being customary or more or less legally formalized) is critical in the management
of forest areas and where these areas have important functions reserve/safety for the livelihood
systems.
Conclusion
In this first attempt to put evidence of what could be the specificities of rural forests, we can
advance that they are, in essence, multi functional areas, of long term usefulness both for
extracting goods, accommodating livelihoods to local environment, taking control of landscapes
and territories, and building a representation’s world intimately linked to local culture and
knowledge. Diversity logically characterizes rural forests which are an on-going result of this
multifaceted shaping; it has then to be undertaken in the light of the functioning of rural
societies. As Michon et al. (2007) argued, rural forests present two universal features that could
characterise them. The first one concerns the local managers who are usually farmers.
Management practices are closely related to agriculture (sensus lato) and range from local
interventions in the forest ecosystem, to more intensive types of forest cultivation, and
ultimately to permanent forest plantation showing high similitude with classical agricultural
practices. The second one concerns the continuum of planted forests with the natural forest, in
matters of vegetation’s structure and composition, as well as economical traits and ecosystems
services. Arnold (1977) claimed that uses-oriented forest management by local people and tree
planting can be explained as being one or more of four categories of response to dynamics of
rural change: to maintain supplies of tree products as production from off-farm tree stocks
decline; to meet growing demand for tree products; to help maintain agricultural productivity in
face of declining soil quality; and to contribute to risk management and securization of the
overall functioning of farming systems. We would like to add: an early perception by local
people of specific forest resources’ potentialities to enhance their livelihoods, the demand for a
local land control both for extraction and long term management, and a fundamental structural
element of the way local societies perceive their surrounding world and their humanity. Hence,
rural forests constitute also a critical element of the biocultural sphere of local societies which
determine in a significant part, both structure of ecosystems and the ways rural societies evolve.
Far from being strictly geographically determined, they usually are the result of a deep shaping
of the natural forest, and enter in complex domestication processes in order to satisfy changing
rural livelihood requirements. In this sense, a better understanding of their characteristics and
functions is required for developing renewed integrated strategies for sustainable development
of rural and forest management systems.
References are available upon request to didier.genin@univ-provence.fr
Forest Landscapes and Global Change-New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology
Working Group International Conference, September 21-27, 2010, Bragança, Portugal. J.C. Azevedo, M. Feliciano, J. Castro & M.A. Pinto (eds.)
2010, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.