A broad term used to describe models of forest management that give local people the majority say in making decisions. Similar terms include participatory forest management, collaborative forest management, social forestry, and community-based forest management. With an aim to reduce poverty, community forestry is participatory and should serve all community members equitably.

A group of people who inhabit or perform ongoing activities in a shared geographic space, who interact with one another, share similar values, identity, and heritage that form a basis for communal rules regulating collective behavior.

An assemblage of populations of at least two different species which coexist, and to various degrees interact directly and indirectly within a defined local geographic area and in a particular time; it is characterized in terms of taxonomic and functional.

“A two-way process aimed at mutual understanding, sharing of values and action”.

A concept whereby some forms of wealth belong to all, and that these community resources must be actively protected and managed for the good of all. It consists of land and services of common property (forests, rivers, fields and arable land) used and managed by a given community (mainly traditional, local or indigenous). The commons also consist of gifts of nature such as air, oceans and wildlife (global commons) as well as shared social creations such as libraries, public spaces, scientific research and creative works. See also Common Pool Resources” and Tragedy of the commons”.

Common property theory (CPT) refers to a body of cross-disciplinary literature that deals with the historical and contemporary institutional governance and management of valued resources ranging from fisheries and forests to atmospheric sinks, oceans, and genetic materials. CPT was originally developed to understand the problems of managing what are termed common-pool resources.

Resources for which the exclusion of users is difficult (referred to as excludability), and the use of such a resource by one user decreases resource benefits for other users (referred to as subtractability). Common CPR examples include fisheries, forests, irrigation systems, and pastures. Global CPR examples include the earth’s oceans and atmosphere. Difficulty in excluding users, combined with a CPR’s subtractability, create management vulnerabilities that can result in resource degradation, often referred to as the tragedy of the commons. See also Tragedy of commons” and Commons”.

The action of reducing a material, especially a mineral ore, to minute particles or fragments.

See “Gathering”.

The rapid and durable loss of a defined socio-ecological system as such, resulting in substantial loss of social-ecological capital (e.g. biomass).