Community Forestry Management Implementation in Burkina Faso: Gendered Dynamics and Customary Complexity

Abstract

This article pays attention to the implementation processes and gendered dynamics of Community Forest Management (CFM) in Burkina Faso and how this impacts everyday forest practices. This is done by exploring how implementation processes shape and are shaped by gendered inequities, exclusions, and resource struggles. Theoretically, this article draws on work from feminist political ecology (FPE) and critical institutionalism (CI) readings to investigate the gendered dynamics in outcomes and institutional processes of the CFM. Empirically, this is explored through ethnographic fieldwork in the village of Tonogo, Burkina Faso. The exploration of the CFM implementation was incited by observations made during the fieldwork around the contrasting environmental conditions of two forested areas: Kungin and Tangin. Although these forest areas are located in proximity to the same village and are governed within the same customary authority, their ecological status differs significantly. The analysis sheds light on the particularities in the gendered power dynamics and complexities of CFM implementation through local customary authorities. The study contributes to showing how the project initiation itself changes social relations and reinforces gendered marginalization. This study, moreover, contributes with empirical insights on how struggles over the right to the forests continue, although the CFM projects have been closed. This knowledge can contribute to forest development and restoration projects taking historical and gendered power relations seriously.

Keywords

• community forest management
• gender
• project implementation
• forest commons
• burkina faso
• critical institutionalism