The growing phenomena of linking natural resource management with social services has been predicated upon rapidly degrading forest environments due to social needs. Population pressures alone have significantly changed the need to reorganize how forests can be effectively managed. Forest management agencies, globally, are expanding their mission to oversee national forest lands to include environmental protection through alleviating rural poverty.
Currently there are 1.2 billion persons living in poverty in developing countries, of which 300 million are living in forest communities. These people are termed as indigenous, hill tribes, minority nationals, aboriginal tribes, or recent settlers, but they are all forest resource dependent communities.