Unseen Foresters: An assessment of approaches for wider recognition and spread of sustainable forest management by local communities

This report explores the point of view of ‘unseen foresters’ - the forest managers among the 1.3 billion forest-dependent people who live in forests as Indigenous Peoples or local communities (IPLCs) who, if better recognised, could spread their forest management systems for local and global benefit. Good evidence suggests that when granted local control, IPLCs generally protect forests better than industrial scale companies do, and even better than many protected areas have. The report presents our analysis of approaches that could help achieve wider recognition and spread of sustainable forest management by IPLCs.