Community-Based Forest Management Within the Context of Institutional Decentralization in Honduras ANJA NYGREN * University of Helsinki, Finland Summary. — Many developing countries are increasingly shifting responsibility for natural re- source management from central to local government authorities. This essay analyzes a case study towarddecentralizedforestgovernanceandcommunity-basedforestmanagementinthemunicipal- ity 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 institutionaldemocratizationandpoliticalaccountabilityofforestauthoritiesandcommunityrep- resentatives to local populations are essential if decentralized forest governance is to succeed in integratingthepotentiallyconflictingresourceinterestsandinachievingamoreequitabledistribu- tion of powers and benefits. Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Key words — Honduras, Central America, decentralization, community forestry, actors, institu- tions 1. INTRODUCTION There is a popular trend in many developing countries toward increasing decentralization of natural resource management from central to local government authorities. In theory, decen- tralizationcanincreasedemocratizationofnat- ural resource management by allowing local populations to make decisions on the control anduseoflocalresources.Developmentofnat- ural resource management to local govern- ments may also provide local communities with new revenues and contribute to the more equitable distribution of benefits. With decen- tralized natural resource management, local people may feel a greater sense of ownership of rules for resource use and be more engaged in their implementation, monitoring, and enforcement. Decentralized resource manage- ment is also considered to make it easier for marginalizedgroupstoinfluenceenvironmental policies. On the other hand, local governments may be more subject to bribery and political pressure from local resource users, or they may be captured by political elites who pro- mote hierarchical relations instead of demo- cratic participation and political account- ability (Kaimowitz, Vallejos, Pacheco, & Lo ´pez, 1998; Larson & Ribot, 2004; Pacheco, 2004; Ribot, 1999; Smoke, 2003). Beyond these general arguments, there is, however, little empirical evidence on ‘‘whether decentralizationisgoodforforestsandthepeo- ple who depend on them’’ (Kaimowitz et al., 1998, p. 45). As noted by Andersson (2003, pp. 5–6), relatively little is known about the * ThisessaydrawsonresearchfinancedbytheAcademy ofFinlandandtheUniversityofHelsinki.Iamgrateful tothepeopleofLepateriqueandtomanygovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, development projects, and research institutions in Honduras that cooperatedwithmyresearch.IamalsogratefultoFTP- Internationalforlogisticalsupport.Iwouldliketothank Marı ´a Mercedes Canales, Rube ´n Darı ´o Giro ´n, Jean- Pierre Olivier de Sardan, Lasse Peltonen, Noe ´Pe ´rez,K. Shivaramakrishnan, Anita Varsa, and the three anony- mous reviewers of this journal for their valuable com- ments. Of course, I remain solely responsible for any errorsoffactsorinterpretation.Finalrevisionaccepted: November 24, 2004. World Development Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 639–655, 2005 Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0305-750X/$ - see front matter doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2004.11.002 www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev 639