Money and meaning in forest management: A case-study from Burkina Faso

This paper focuses on the participatory management of two forest reserves in Burkina Faso, and argues that if sustainability should be treated as more than merely rhetoric, the concept must include social and cultural dimensions. Forest management has until today primarily favoured one activity (woodcutting) for one purpose (urban fuelwood consumption) at the expense of other activities (e.g. fruit gathering, plant medicines) for other purposes (domestic consumption, local markets). Moreover, while the forest reserves are placed under state law, the locally legitimate institution for managing land (earth priest) tends to be ignored in forest management activities. If forest management is to be sustainable, a truly interdisciplinary approach is needed to provide a framework for interactions between ecological, economic, social and cultural perspectives, categories and definitions.