A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1988

Rural ecosystems cannot be enriched merely by injecting resources from outside. Village development has to be autonomous or self- reliant, i.e., it ought to be achieved by the people. The focus of this research was on exploring the potential for local participation in implementing forestation on a decentralized and self- help basis. Compatible sets of data were collected from a control group of population that had been party to an earlier social forestry program, thereby facilitating project evaluation among the experimental or target group of a current project. The findings revealed that the initial identification of eligible locations had not been done systematically by the social forestry program. The vast majority of the rural masses who lacked the requisite subsistence resource base, i.e., fuelwood, fodder and timber, were not enticed to involve themselves in project implementation under the social forestry program which had adopted a "top- down" planning and i mpl eme nta ti on approach. The study further revealed that villagers' attitudes were conducive to and supportive of forestation, their perceptions of and limitations were sound, and their expectations of socio- economic changes as a consequence of rural development programs were realistic. The results underline the necessity of a major thrust on local participation in implementing forestation. Recommendations for implementing social forestry include planning towards better farming systems, strengthening the social emphasis of the forestry program on the part of the concerned line agency personnel, and exploring the viability of transferring institutional patterns evident among farmer managed resource utilization, notably in traditional irrigation.