This volume makes a significant contribution to international debates about recent reforms to tropical forest governance, in particular the shift towards decentralization. Complementing an earlier volume on Asia and the Pacific (Colfer et al., Reference Colfer, Dahal and Capistrano2008), the present collection focuses on African experiences, bringing together nineteen chapters by a diverse group of researchers and practitioners that cover large parts of the continent and a range of different aspects of forest governance today. It is divided into three sections: the first discussing themes and concerns in forest decentralization in Africa more generally; the second examining individual country experiences with decentralization; and the last focusing on international timber trade and global regulatory initiatives.

The rich material assembled here demonstrates how advanced decentralization reforms are in many African countries, but also how their aims – namely to improve sustainability, rural livelihoods and democracy – have frequently not been met. Decentralized management has not necessarily led to improved forest protection (e.g. Jagger), and forest revenue often still fails to reach the rural poor, as the case studies in Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Central Africa and elsewhere show. A key theme throughout the book is that decentralization has either been incomplete, with central government or other sectors blocking genuine transfers of power (e.g. Kassibo), or that where powers have been devolved to local levels, they have often been captured by local elites. Consequently, the majority of rural communities, including women (Bandiaky and Tiani), are still often excluded not only from decision making, but also from access to forest revenue. Overall, it becomes apparent that decentralization does not in itself improve governance, and that many of the problems associated with centralized management continue to shape decentralized and community management. Attempts to improve the regulation of the international timber trade have also had mixed results: whilst illegal logging continues to be widespread, Roda points out that business networks do respond to the regulatory environment of the countries they operate in. This refutes concerns about the weakening of international regulatory initiatives through the expansion of Chinese influence in Africa, as discussed by Karsenty.

The collection as a whole is strong in identifying and analysing current failures in policy implementation, but this focus is, arguably, also its weakness. Whilst the editors, and again Ribot, stress the importance of understanding current developments in their larger historical and contemporary context, hardly any contributions actually provide much contextualization (one exception is Mapedza's chapter on Zimbabwe). A discussion of the longer term institutional history of African forestry – including various experiments with decentralization already in the colonial period (Wardell & Lund, Reference Wardell and Lund2006) – would help to better understand the shortcomings of current reforms. Forest governance also needs to be related more systematically to other government sectors, notably agriculture; as Jagger mentions, the demand for agricultural land in Uganda is much stronger than forest governance capabilities. At the same time, many contributions ignore existing, local traditions of conservation or governance. Yet these local traditions, often outside the formal reach of the state, not only significantly shape the decentralization process, as Diaw points out, they can also form the basis for true community forest conservation and more radical reform. Focusing on the decentralization of formal forest governance, most contributors here do not question established ideas of what actually constitutes democracy, sustainability or good management, even though, as Ribot points out, these are by no means given. Instead, several chapters stress how the transferral of ‘values’ is an essential part of successful decentralization. In this respect, they themselves reflect the incomplete nature of current reforms.

Whilst the present volume therefore does not present a radical critique that would question the assumptions behind, as well as the implementation of, conservation policies, it nevertheless provides an excellent overview of the main challenges in forest governance in contemporary Africa as they are perceived by those involved in seeking to improve it. It is particularly timely now that climate change has made tropical forest management once again a topic of international concern.