Participation in social forestry re-examined: a case-study from Bangladesh

Bangladesh has enthusiastically launched social forestry projects that make grandiose promises of seeking local community involvement and participation in the management of forest resources. This study examines the functioning of the Chandra Agroforestry Research and Demonstration Project to evaluate the actual extent and nature of popular participation it entails. After discussing the project and its locale, the methodology of the study is described as an analysis of qualitative and quantitative data collected in the period February-August 1994. The theoretical framework was based on a modified version of Zaman's framework that uses prevalence and opportunity as the indicators of participation. Analysis of prevalence indicators reveals that professional foresters make all major decisions for the project without consulting the farmers involved. The government also has sole responsibility for monitoring and evaluating the project, and the farmers are skeptical that the government will allow them to profit from the benefits arising from the project. Analysis of opportunity indicators shows that the project is not decentralized, cooperative and collaborative linkages have not been made, project flexibility has been sacrificed to bureaucracy, and the incentives promised to the farmers have not materialized. It is concluded that the participation of local residents in the Chandra project has been insignificant but that the project has succeeded in reducing 1) the historical distrust and conflict between forestry officials and local farmers, 2) encroachment on government lands, and 3) the rate of deforestation. In addition, the project has given participating farmers a sense of security.     

Shaping Innovative Development

正The role of innovation in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals and guaranteeing qualitative growth is vital. The gap between developed and developing economies or rich and poor countries can only close as long as it is the driving force of national economies. In shaping their partnership, China and the EU could have not ignored this.     

A review of rejected police candidates.

This paper reviews the activities of a Civil Service Medical Review Board which has reviewed the appeals of civil service applicants, particularly for police work, who have been rejected for psychiatric reasons by the hiring authority on the grounds of "mental unfitness." In a 1-1/2-year period, 98 cases have been reviewed. The Board has upheld the applicant in 65% of the cases and the hiring authority in 35% of the cases. Some of the factors resulting in the reversal of the decision of the hiring authority have been discussed. These include insufficient and superficial examination, inappropriate use of test material, attitudinal biases by the examiner, and inadequate reports which do not provide the adequate documentation required by law. It has been the hope of the Board that this review of professional judgment will ultimately impress both hiring authorities and examiners with the defects of the procedures utilized and will encourage them to provide higher quality screening which will be upheld on appeal. To a degree this has been accomplished. Hiring authorities were upheld in only 25% of the cases from September 1973 to March 1974 and 18% from March 1974 to September 1974. This changed radically in the September 1974 to December 1974 period, when hiring authorities were upheld in 60% of the appeals. As has been pointed out, such screening primarily involves review of personality disorders which, by their nature, require thoroughness of knowledge and delicacy of judgment for the formulation of a reasonable conclusion. It is hoped that these lessons will ultimately result in the selection of police officers likely to be successful at their tasks, without arbitrary rejection of those who reasonably merit a trial at work so essential to our society.