Forest Governance in Federal Systems: An Overview of Experiences and Implications for Decentralization

Abstract

The role of government has been the focus of great debate in recent years. Much of this debate has focused on the reality of reduced government, increased reliance on markets and on private initiative, as well as on the important contributions of civil society and the private sector in providing public services. At the same time, there has been widespread and active debate on the optimal roles of different levels of government: how government authorities and responsibilities should be distributed among different levels of government. A World Bank study in 1999 found that more than 80 per cent of all developing countries and countries with economies in transition are currently experimenting with some form of decentralization (Manor, 1999).