In the last twenty years, practitioners have come to appreciate that governance is often the weak link in addressing unsustainable use of forests and trees. Technical knowledge alone is insufficient, and no natural forest management, protected area, plantation, or agro-forestry project will succeed if the resources are poorly governed.
The concept of “forest governance” is often difficult to grasp because many laws, rules, policies, actions, and interactions shape forests. This also makes it difficult to be clear about what the major governance impediments are and what to do about them. Thus, an essential first step towards improving forest governance is to define its most relevant core elements in a coherent framework.