Participation of local communities in management and utilization of forest resources through collective action has become widely accepted as a possible solution to failure of centralized, top-down approaches to forest conservation. Developing countries have thus resorted to devolution of forest management through initiatives such as Participatory Forest Management (PFM) and Joint Forest Management (JFM). In Kenya, under such initiatives, communities have been able to self-organize into community forest associations (CFAs).

This study reviewed the forestry policy evolution in China as of the reform and opening-up, and concluded the three basic evolution tendencies in the forestry policies, i.e., 1) The Pareto improvement has become the core principle of policy adjustments; 2) The forest tenure owned by peasants has been expanded and strengthened in practices; 3) The forest protection is an essential part included in the forestry development
strategy. Based on the review and analysis, the authors came up with the new thoughts on the future

The paper provides an overview of the papers included in this special issue, and presents thoughts about New Frontiers of Forest Economics. The paper argues that science does not mean analysis alone; it should be complemented by synthesis and forest economics is a promising field to rediscover synthesis as a methodology of science.

Village democratization in rural China is found to have profound impacts on many socio-economic aspects, but little is understood as to how welfare impacts may occur through farmers' principal production activities. This study helps to fill this gap by investigating how village democracy affects rural household welfare through these channels, using a unique household survey. The authors first establish a theoretical framework that links democracy to household welfare through changes in production efficiency.

This paper empirically analyzes adoption and fuel savings efficiency of improved biomass cookstove technology using survey data from a cross-section of 200 farm households from the highlands of Tigrai, northern Ethiopia. Results indicate that these farm households are willing to adopt improved biomass cookstove innovations if this leads to economic savings. Moreover, results suggest significant positive environmental externalities. On a per household basis, we found that adopters collect about 70 kg less wood and about 20 kg less dung each month.

This paper analyzes the factors affecting adoption of sustainable land management and climate smart agricultural (SLM-CSA) practices (in particular tree planting, soil conservation and intercropping) and the effects of adoption on crop net revenue. We use two rounds of household and parcel level survey data collected from the East Gojjam and South Wollo Zones in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, in combination with spatially explicit climate data (rainfall and temperature).

This paper analyzes empirically the determinants of fuel choices and intensity of fuelwood use for residential heating and cooking in central-southern Chile.

This article estimates the visitation demand function for Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP) in
order to determine the scope for raising fees charged to international tourists in order to fund
revenue-sharing schemes for local communities. International and Southern African Development
Community tourists account for approximately 25% and 2% of the total number of visitors to
South African national parks, with domestic visitors making up the remaining portion. Although