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Institutional Choice and Recognition in Forestry Effects on the Formation and Consolidation of Local Democracy Many developing countries have launched decentralization reforms to establish and democratize local government for the purpose of improving service delivery, resource management and local development. Rather than empowering local government in the name of democracy itself, however, governments, international development agencies and other organizations are transferring power to a wide range of local institutions including private bodies, customary authorities and NGOs. Recognition of these other local institutions means that fledgling local governments are receiving few public powers and face competition for legitimacy. In partnership with WRI, PROFOR is exploring the democratizing effects of 'decentralization' reforms and projects in forestry. The overarching purpose of this work is to help avoid fragmentation and conflict, and to assure establishment of representative and inclusive institutions, by identifying sustainable institutional arrangements for resource management and use under democratic decentralization reforms. To this end, the project will develop 'institutional choice' guidelines for decentralized forestry on the basis of findings from research on the effects of institutional choices by governments, international development agencies and other organizations on three dimensions of democracy: 1) representation, 2) citizenship/belonging, and 3) the public domain. The research will be carried out through a global comparative research program with cases throughout the world in:  |
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