CHAPTER 3
 COMMUNITY BASED CARPENTRIES IN THREE ASHANINKA VILLAGES

 Community Forest Enterprises

 Community forest enterprises appear to provide a promising way for forest

dependent people to fight poverty while sustainably exploiting natural resources. Scherr

et al. (2002), after analyzing several case studies with forest dependent people in the

tropics, concluded that these enterprises have the potential to provide households

significant opportunities for poverty alleviation. For indigenous people, they are

considered one of the most promising alternatives for balancing forest conservation and

economic development (Forster 1995).

 However, several studies have shown that under certain conditions, community

forest enterprises have negative effects on the population and on the forest. As indigenous

communities became more involved in the market economy, villagers begin to extract

more timber from the village common to sell to outsiders (Godoy 2001). Increased

market dependency may also undercut food security by diverting energies from

subsistence activities to activities subject to changes outside of community control

(Godoy 2001). Many communities lack market access, good forest resources and other

prerequisites to compete successfully with large industrial enterprises (Wunder 2001).

 Community forest enterprises and subsequent market integration can exacerbate

inequities within communities, favoring those directly involved over others (Schmink in

press). Villagers who specialize in extracting may be the only ones who gain, while the

others are negatively affected with the accompanying increase in purchased goods and