Rainforest Alliance Kleinhans Fellowship

The fellowship provides funds for research that is oriented toward solving real-world problems as defined by community forest enterprises (CFEs). Moreover, the planning, implementation and dissemination of research results will be carried out in participatory manner to ensure that it has practical value for communities and helps to inform their action plans.The Kleinhans Fellowship provides a two-year stipend of US$20,000 per year to support research that addresses one of the following topics:

• Markets for lesser-known species and non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Most community forestry products are unlikely to reach international markets, but domestic markets in many tropical forest countries are being flooded with illegal wood products, making it hard for legitimate operations—especially CFEs—to compete. The absence of markets for lesser-known species and NTFPs further impedes optimal forest management and is a critical hurdle that must be overcome if CFEs are to become economically viable. The fellowship supports research that systematically documents and analyzes the creation and maintenance of domestic markets for diversified forest products, helps determine what drives success and recommends future actions.
• Biodiversity management practices. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest management standard requires practices that conserve biodiversity, such as the protection of High Conservation Value Forests and the creation of riparian buffers. The Kleinhans Fellowship supports research that explores the feasibility of implementing such practices at the community level and their effects on the economic viability of CFEs.
• Social organization and governance. Technical assistance programs are often limited in their ability to invest in organizational capacity building. The fellowship supports research that investigates modes of social organization and highlights both problems and innovative, replicable solutions for CFE governance. Topics of interest include equitable participation and transparency in decision-making and benefit-sharing; human resource management and business training; and governance aspects such as CFE bylaws, compliance and legal status.
• Multi-community enterprises. Without access to financing, CFEs often get mired in debt, are beholden to high-risk, high-cost lenders and cannot invest in developing their businesses. CFEs are often encouraged to work together to aggregate supply, invest collectively and access financing, but it can be difficult to put these strategies into practice. The fellowship supports research that examines multi-community enterprises, documents and analyzes their successes and failures, and makes recommendations for future investment in the development of such ventures.