La gestion communautaire : une alternative pour la foret de Tiogo au Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso, forest is an imperfect public good : non-exclusion in the use of derived goods and services and rivalry in wood exploitation and the non-woody forest product consumption. The free access characterizing it and the free-riding behaviour lead to the forest resources an over-exploitation. This situation is a source of negative externalities, which leads to sub-optimal allocation of these natural resources. These externalities impose costs on the whole society (social cost) and policy interventions are needed to avoid « tragedy of the commons ». In the related literature, two solutions are traditionally recommended : privatisation or public intervention regulating collective use of the resource. However another solution, a community-based management may be an alternative to the observed State mismanagement. This study analyses the required conditions to the implementation of a community-based natural resource management for the Tiogo forest in Burkina Faso. JEL classification : Q01, Q15, Q23.