The experiences reviewed point to a number of positive lessons applicable to community forestry programs and more broadly to the many other programs related to sustainable development throughout the world.

Local people can be an asset to conservation.

In the search for ways to protect the environment, some strategies emphasize excluding people from ecologically sensitive areas. Indeed, such exclusion was the basis of longstanding policies throughout Asia that declared forest lands off-limits to people. The experience reviewed here indicates that local people can be an important resource in conserving and restoring forest lands. In country after country, when given the opportunity, local people, many of them extremely poor, have been willing to invest tremendous amounts of their scarce time and resources to conserve forests and restore degraded lands.

Community organizations are essential.

In every program examined in this report, the formation of local community organizations was critical to the program's success. In some cases, the organization was formed by the villagers themselves; in most cases, an outside agent, an NGO or a government agency, played a catalytic role. The community organization enabled villagers to negotiate with government officials and provided a forum for airing the many and often conflicting needs of the people dependent upon the natural resource. As new rules and plans developed, it was the community organization that enforced agreements and provided members with the information, guidance, and coordination to implement the plans.