Geography, Environment and Population, School of Social Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Oct 1;319:115698. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115698. Epub 2022 Jul 15.
There are only limited policy levers that governments can use to facilitate sustainable development within remote rural communities. Often marginalised communities are almost uniquely dependent on the exploitation of local natural resources to generate livelihoods. We examine how formal education, both of household heads and more broadly across households, influences perceived opportunities for the conception, management and utilisation of community forests in the mid-hills of Nepal. As societies transition, more sophisticated economies will require education to facilitate effective natural resource management. New challenges are emerging for community forestry as a result. The quantitative socio-ecological data analysis suggests that while the roles of community forests are evolving, education is key to household participation in commercial opportunities. Formal education in the household is shown to be associated with a greater recognition of the importance of the commercialisation of forest timber and food products, and the desire to participate in further commercial forest activities. Education in the household also provides respondents with a more sophisticated understanding of new opportunities, ecosystem services and risks associated with the forest, and the abilities to actively manage the forest and influence planning. Formal education empowers people to become local experts in forest management and participate in new opportunities that forests provide. Any failure to examine household education levels may be neglecting key sociological data on the importance of education for sustainable development outcomes. In the rural margins of the mid-hills of Nepal there are opportunities for further aligning formal education with forestry policy.
政府能够用来促进偏远农村社区可持续发展的政策手段有限。边缘化社区往往几乎完全依赖于当地自然资源的开发来维持生计。我们研究了正规教育（包括户主和更广泛的家庭层面的教育）如何影响尼泊尔中山区社区森林的构想、管理和利用的感知机会。随着社会的转型，更复杂的经济将需要教育来促进有效的自然资源管理。由此，社区林业也面临新的挑战。定量的社会生态数据分析表明，尽管社区森林的作用在不断演变，但教育是家庭参与商业机会的关键。家庭中的正规教育与对森林木材和食品商业化的重要性的认识以及参与更多商业森林活动的愿望有关。家庭中的正规教育还使受访者更深入地了解与森林相关的新机会、生态系统服务和风险，以及积极管理森林和影响规划的能力。正规教育使人们能够成为森林管理方面的本地专家，并参与森林提供的新机会。任何忽视家庭教育水平的行为都可能忽视了教育对可持续发展成果的重要性的关键社会学数据。在尼泊尔中山区的农村边缘地区，有机会将正规教育与林业政策进一步结合。
