Participatory Monitoring in Tropical Forest Management: A Review of Tools, Concepts and Lessons Learned

background

This report reviews the impacts, challenges, and shortcomings of well-documented cases of successful as well as unsuccessful participatory monitoring programs in tropical forests across the globe.

Conclusions & Takeaways

The review summarizes participatory monitoring, explains the value of monitoring, how to plan and implement participatory monitoring (determing who participates and how), and provides considerations for developing a participatory monitoring program. It also provides insights into how to scale up and create nested networks of participatory monitoring programs across landscapes, and how to ensure long-term sustainability of the program by integrating scientific research with local knowledge and expertise, building social capital and empowering local people, strengthening local institutions and facilitating decision-making, while lowering cost of data collection for scientists and institutions.