At its core, community forestry is about local control over and enjoyment of the benefits offered by local forest resources.
A community forest can be described as any forestry operation managed by a local government, community group, First Nation or community-held corporation for the benefit of the entire community. Community forestry involves the three pillars of sustainable development: social, ecological, and economic sustainability.
Ecosystem-based planning is a system that may be effectively applied in unmodified to highly modified landscapes; and may be used for a wide range of purposes from conservation area design to resource development, settlement design, and urban planning.
Ecosystem-based planning is also based on the understanding that ecological landscapes and patches are not static and unchanging and they contain a variety of ecosystem types and successional patterns through time that are tied to natural disturbance regimes. Natural changes diversify and maintain ecosystem composition, structures, and functions at all scales; are unpredictable in frequency and character; and focus on sustaining the whole, not on producing any one part. In other words, change due to succession and natural disturbance is part of natural ecosystem functioning. Natural patterns of ecological succession and disturbance interact in unpredictable ways that sustain ecosystem functioning and provide a diverse range of habitat for plants, animals, and other wild organisms.
For more information on community forests and ecosystem-based planning, feel free to read the following documents:
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