THE BENEFITS OF INVOLVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITY IN FORESTRY EXTENSION

A harmonious and collaborative relationship between forestry extension services and the local community is a major factor in the success of an extension program. The community should be invited to participate in the planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of activities, as well as sourcing of funds and other resources. Involving the local community in forestry extension has the following benefits:

i) Community participation stimulates the interests of the community members. The active participation by the community memebers make them feel part of the

ii) Community involvement should be used to generate not only ideas for revitalization projects and their implementation, but also ideas to further improve existing project features. Revitalization can be facilitated and enhanced by finding out what the community needs, what will benefit the community, what has been tried in the past, and what could be done to improve past ideas. Community members, when given an opportunity to be informed and involved in the revitalization process, are or can be a critical factor to a project’s success.

iii) Community members may have special issues or concerns that, if incorporated into a project at the outset, may help to reduce the likelihood of challenges to risk assessment results, and potential remediation or revitalization plans.

iv) Improves information flow. This applies when information is passed by the extension officers to the community members, those who cannot get the information directly from the extension officers are reached by their counterparts who have the information. This easens the work of the extension officers in terms of reaching the entire community with the information

v) Improves community understanding of local government. During the extension services, the local government also plays part, giving them a chance to interact with the community and in the process to understand each other.

vi) Allows for community advocacy

vii) Fosters collaboration between the community and the forest managers.

viii) Minimizes conflicts. This is due to the understanding that exists among the different forest managers. During the forest extension services, these different players get to know each other better and

ix) May promote environmental justice

Community involvement in forest extension is a very important aspect of revitalization for any community, no matter what size. Without community buy-in, a project may never get off the ground or will not be accepted once it is completed. Members of the community should be seen as equal partners in the dialogue that takes place during forest extension activities. Community members need to understand the details of a forestry venture to evaluate its importance, costs, and benefits. Failure to adequately inform and involve the public can cause significant delays as a result of public reluctance or outright opposition to the venture. The communication process should include site-specific technical information about the project before it is implemented and should continue without interruption. To make progress, a high level of patience and willingness to listen with an open mind are important to all stakeholders and participants in the process. I may summarize the pre-requisites for a balanced and successful community involvement as entailing:

➢ Clear objectives

➢ Performance indicators

➢ Structures for communications and reporting

➢ Commitment to the participation process

➢ Dialogue with communities

➢ Time to undertake dialogue.

REFERENCES

1. Forest Department, Gujarat. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.gujaratforest.org/benefits-detail.htm

2. http://www.preservearticles.com/2012032829046/what-is-the-meaning-and-aim-of-social-forestry.html

3. Muhammad S. A et al. (2011) 2(1), 16-22. External Factors that Inhibit Community Participation in Development. University Technology. Malaysia Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development, Malaysia. Retrieved from: http://www.ijeronline.com/documents/volumes/vol2issue1/ijer2011020102.pdf