Findings and Recommendations V1 Finding Managing tribal forests for forest protection,
Recommendation Tribal forest management should account for, and focus on, stakeholder values, including protection and cultural uses. ■ These values have consistently ranked higher than income from forests and are desired by tribal membership and natural resource managers alike. ■ The gap between native and non-native IFMAT values has decreased since 1993, however the overall decrease in satisfaction in these values over the past decade is a worrying trend. ■ A management challenge for the next decade will be to align management goals more consistently with highly ranked forest- based values.
cultural, and spiritual values, continues to be more important than income for tribal members, tribal council, and natural resource managers.
Reorient “income generation” to “resource generation in support of forest management”.
■ While income generation from forests is the least important value, it is still ranked over 3.0 for all groups. It is also important to support the costs of forest management and to maintain forest management infrastructure (loggers, roads, sawyers, etc.) so that future forest management can be implemented. ■ There is an opportunity to reorient people’s perceptions around income to focus more on the generation of funds to meet more important forest management goals. For example, income generated from timber sales can be viewed as important to foster forest health, climate adaptation activities, and ecosystem restoration.
“The forest is more than a resource. It is part of our identity. It is who we are.” —IFMAT IV focus group participant
32 Assessment of Indian Forests and Forest Management in the United States
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator