Study on Current Status of Community Forestry in Surrounding Area of Lancangjiang Nature Reserve and Corresponding Development Strategies

An overall and systematic investigation was carried out by means of participatory rural appraisal methods on land utilization inside the Lancangjiang Nature Reserve and in the surrounding area. The current status of community forestry, the traditional utilization and management approaches of the natural resources, the present institutional system of the nature reserve management and relationship among the reserve management institute, local governments and the communities were also investigated. The results are as follows:The residents in the peripheral area of the nature reserve were heavily dependent on the forest resource by diverse types of utilization, the consumption was intense and the waste of the resources was evident because of the poor utilization efficiency. The capacity of the peripheral communities to participate the management of the nature reserve was quite low. The dependence on forest resources for building materials by the ethnic minority residents living in the surrounding area was gradually decreasing along with the development of technology and local economy. It was proposed that one of the effective approaches for the nature reserve management was to integrate the reserve management objectives with improvement of the living standard of local people by introducing the theories and principles of the community forestry to improve the reserve management and to promote the participatory consciousness of the reserve management.