African forests
between nature and
livelihood resources
Balancing between conservation anddevelopment needs
The dilemma
Africa has lost 5.3 million hectares of forest between
1990-2000 (FAO 2001) – an area about the size of France
315 million people – half of the people in Sub-
Saharan Africa – survive on less than one dollar per day (World Bank 2003)
> 70% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa is
Forests need to be conserved for ecological
reasons, because they…
play a mitigating role in climate change through carbon
sequestration
are gene pools and a source of biodiversity protect the soils
are important watersheds and regulate water flows
BUT:
Forests are also an important source of livelihood for
Can conservation and forest-related
livelihoods go together?
Livelihoods and deforestation: no uniform relationship
Forest-expanding livelihood components (LCs):
agroforestry, sylvo-pastoralism, forest enrichment
Forest-stabilising LCs: collection of forest produce
Forest-transforming LCs: monoculture commercial tree
plantations (for timber, oil, cocoa, etc.)
Forest-threatening LCs: overexploitation of NTFPs and
fuelwood, uncontrolled fires, unsustainable tourism
Forest-destroying LCs: crop cultivation, mixed farming
Forest tolerant or destructive livelihoods?
Depends on:
Type of LCs (c.f. hunting/gathering vs. farming)
Combination of LCs (e.g. hunting/gathering + logging) Degree of integration into commercial networks
Population pressure
Environmental shocks (prolonged droughts, crop
failures)
Matching conservation & development
Several approaches:
Transition zone management
Integrated Conservation and Development Projects
(ICDPs)
Community-based conservation
Lessons learned (1)
Prior to establishing conservation areas:
- know how local people use natural resources - know their role in shaping the ecosystem
Sustainable resource use requires:
- secure tenure arrangements
- recognition of customary land rights
Pro-poor conservation is about rights and obligations
This requires negotiation between stakeholders - about land-use planning
Lessons learned (2)
A fair distribution of costs & benefits requires:
- a careful stakeholder analysis
- awareness that communities are not homogenous
Integrating conservation & development requires
effective coordination between conservation programmes & pro-poor policy actions
Formal/modern and informal/traditional governance
forms should be recognised and integrated (‘neo-African governance’)
Promising trends (1)
Multi-sector/multi-scale partnerships for conservation & Sustainable forest use. Examples:
Central African Regional Programme for the Environment
(CARPE)
Forest Coffee Conservation and Business Development
Promising trends (2):
Neo-African governance Example:
Policy recommendations
National sovereignty; global watch dogs
Decentralised forest governance (but central government
remaining responsible for law enforcement)
Better coordination between various institutions dealing
with conservation and natural resource management
Promoting local platforms
Stakeholder analysis & entitlement approach
Capacity building, empowerment, awareness raising at
local level
Conclusions
In addition to ecological services Africa’s forests play an
important role as resources for people’s livelihoods
There will be growing pressure on African forests
(HIV/AIDS, population pressure, increasing urbanisation, growing demand for forest products, climate change)
New institutional arrangements are needed for pro-poor
conservation strategies, based on:
- multi-sector / multi-scale partnerships
- amalgation of traditional and modern governance forms
There are promising examples but claims that a lot has
