Community-based forest management within the context of institutional decentralization in Honduras

Many developing countries are increasingly shifting responsibility for natural resource management from central to local government authorities. This essay analyzes a case study toward decentralized forest governance and community-based forest management in the municipality of Lepaterique, Honduras, with a special focus on the multiplicity of actors and goals, and the complexity of institutions involved in natural resource management. The study emphasizes that institutional democratization and political accountability of forest authorities and community representatives to local populations are essential if decentralized forest governance is to succeed in integrating the potentially conflicting resource interests and in achieving a more equitable distribution of powers and benefits.