Research of development model for community forestry in aboriginal tribes

Forest ecosystem management includes ecological, economic, and social dimensions. Currently, a good interaction and relationship between forestry management and local community has not been established, which has brought about many social problems. These problems include the environmental groups’ opposing all forest management practices and the National Reforestation Campaign, aborigines’ claiming ownership of the land, declining local economy in mountain areas, and increasing confrontations and standoffs between local farmers and forestry organizations.
The objective of this research is to study the potential community forestry of Liu-Kuei experimental forest and design a development model in order to enhance public participation and establish partnership, as well as to improve economic benefits for the aboriginal tribes for stabilizing their lives, and to obtain win-win between the local communities and the forest institutions.
The research has conducted 125 household in-person interviews in three aboriginal villages: Mau-lin (44 households), and Wan-san (25 households), Dou-na (56 households).
Several important results have been achieved. First, “providing employment opportunities to the communities/ tribes” solicits most votes, which reflects real life demand of the aborigines and is worth taking into consideration for forestry policy making. Second, as for the issue on how to manage the forest around the communities in order to help community development, the option, “developing ecotourism,” has gained the highest assessment. Third, the community development association has received the highest evaluation as the most suitable group to participate in the community forestry program. However, the discrepancies on “household’s monthly income” are significantly different among the three villages at the level of 0.01. Fourth, as to the forest functions—“forest recreation/ health protection,” “culture promotion,” and “academic research,” all socio-economic variables are not significantly different among the three studied villages at the level of 0.05. Also, except for the wildlife protection, age variables on the importance of the other forest functions significantly differ among the three interviewed villages. Finally, the interaction between aborigines and forestry organizations still has a lot of room to be improved, and the expertise of researchers at Taiwan Forestry Research Institute has been approved by most of the aborigines.