User groups as producers in participatory afforestation strategies

This paper's area of analysis is social forestry, particularly under regimes of common property or joint usufruct over natural resources. The paper will argue that sociological analysis brings an increment of professional precision to the thinking about participation in natural resource management by proposing strategies for organizing the individual users of natural resources into user groups and for enabling such user groups to act as producers and managers in order to generate increased benefits through group action. Conversely, the paper contends that when sociological understanding is absent, well intentioned attempts toward participation lack compass and often result, as will be shown, in misguided intervention. (author)