Forest and tree resources. Best practices for managing forest resources in Africa‪.‬ Hanns Seidel Foundation

PURPOSE OF THE PODCAST

The purpose of this podcast is twofold: to facilitate a good and focused conversation on African forests, and on their roles and benefits to society. We hope to raise awareness for proper management, use and conservation of forests. We will talk about some best practices used in managing forest resources, including participatory forest management, and highlight existing capacity within the African Continent to manage these resources.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PODCAST

● To enhance community engagement in forest management,

● To reduce rural poverty, and

● To promote better forest resources management, use and conservation.

SYNOPSIS

Governments, private sector and local communities are the three main players in managing forest resources in Africa. National governments are key players, especially in developing policies and regulations that guide the development, management, and use of such resources. Governments own and manage most of the natural forests in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and they regulate how some of these forests can be exploited and how others remain under complete protection, for example, as water towers. The private sector is now emerging as another key sector in owning and managing forest plantations, as well as in harvesting forest products, processing wood and non-timber products, marketing and trade in forest products. The local communities are essentially part of the private sector, but they, in most cases, operate differently as compared to big private sector companies. 

Over the years, Africa has seen a considerable increase in central governments placing ownership and management of some natural forests in the hands of local communities who have evolved what are commonly known as Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) entities.

Together with national governments and the private sector, the CBFM frameworks contribute to selected sustainable development goals relevant to the forestry sector. We at AFF have examined five Sub Sahara African countries, namely: Ethiopia, Kenya, Cameroon, Uganda, and Tanzania on their long-term engagement in CBFM. The analysis was based on desk review of literature from Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, and interviews with individuals representing institutions leading CBFM implementation in the selected countries. We found that these countries were strong in devising policy and legal provisions and articulating formalities for establishing CBFM. 

The following three major weaknesses were observed (i) monitoring CBFM performance, (ii) benefit sharing, and (iii) product management. The analysis of CBFM schemes’ contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was largely positive, though with several cases of no considerable impact and few reports of negative impacts. The contributions of CBFM schemes to SDGs were constrained by weaknesses in the CBFM frameworks. Enhancing CBFM schemes contribution to SDGs requires addressing the major weaknesses observed in the CBFM frameworks.


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