Understanding Community-Based Forest Ecosystem Management. (Reviews).

Understanding Community-Based Forest Ecosystem Management by Gerald J. Gray, Maia J. Enzer, & Jonathan Kusel (eds)

$49.95. Food Products Press; on imprint of Hawthorn Press, Inc., 2001.

I am not usually a fan of books that are proceedings of conferences or workshops, but this is a distinct exception. Perhaps the old adage that the "medium is the message" best explains how the genesis of the workshop and processes that produced the book reflects its central message: Ecosystem management is fundamentally a community-based collaborative endeavor.

Also, the format and content of the book were shaped by editors who are seasoned forest policy professionals, as are the 50 diverse members of the steering committee and work groups. The impressive list of financial supporters testifies to the collaborative effort of the workshop and book.

Simultaneously co-published in several issues of the Journal of Sustainable Forestry, the book is divided into three parts: a brief editorial synthesis by the editors of the overall topic, a series of seven work group papers that explore the essential components of community-based ecosystem management, and 12 individual papers on community case studies and field research.

The central theme of the book is that "interdependence between healthy ecosystems and community well-being lies at the heart of community-based ecosystem management."

This fundamental conviction, the authors argue, rests on the principle of stewardship, which is sustained in open, democratic communities committed to citizen empowerment, monitoring and learning, and investment in human communities and ecosystems.

These 400 pages of solid theory, practice, and policy analysis enrich the debate about the path to a truly sustainble future for our forests and forest-dependent communities--and reaffirm AMERICAN FORESTS' historic leadership role in shaping national forestry policy from the grassroots to the global village.