How can government strengthen forest lands?

Forests are part of the fragile Kalahari sand areas forming the transition between the savannah and forest ecosystems, at least according to ecologists and foresters.

WISDOM MDZUNGAIRI VIEWPOINT

Interestingly, local communities and private smallholders own or manage a growing proportion of the world’s forests which can play a significant role in tackling deforestation and reducing poverty — especially if they band together in producer organisations.

Precisely, many forest areas across Zimbabwe have from time immemorial been a source of food besides serving as pastures for communities living alongside them. A few of them are Mafungautsi, Sijarira, Chimanimani, Nyanga, Chirinda and the stretch between Lupane and Victoria Falls which have served to support the production of game.

Sadly, the large swaths of forests have been dwindling over the last 20 years to worrying levels. For instance, in 1990 forests covered
222 340 square kilometres (about 58%), but in 2010 it had drastically come down to 156 240 square kilometres (40,4%).

The huge drop is a sad development and obviously, the Environment, Water and Climate ministry should also be worried stiff. In many rural economies globally, the forest enterprises of families and communities are major contributors to local livelihoods.

Unfortunately, the vital role that they play is often overlooked in government policies perhaps explaining why locally vast tracts of forest areas have been destroyed by people shifting cultivation albeit failing to understand the importance of the forests in food production.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and its forest partners last week said that the crucial constraint is their isolation from each other, from markets, information, business services, policymakers, financing and investment opportunities. Foresters and ecologists argue that a better policy environment, coupled with targeted support to help small-scale forest and farm producers organised into forest producer organisations could turn this situation around.

In fact small-scale timber producers could easily compete with large scale corporations that often receive preferential treatment, access to markets, financing and resources. In that regard, government need to provide legal status and services for organisations of small-scale forest and farm producers which will serve their interests and help reduce rural poverty.

It is critical to unleash the potential of locally controlled forestry — reducing poverty and protecting forests — together. The issue is communities living alongside forest areas must buy in and benefit from their resource therefore compelling them to protect the forests rather than destroying this valuable resource.

A new FAO policy brief tabled last week offers six key recommendations to develop effective forest producer organisations, reduce poverty and improve livelihoods of forest-dependent people:

• Encouraging knowledge sharing and increasing the visibility of forest and farm producer organisations in policymaking;
• Developing incentives to strengthen locally controlled forestry and facilitating networking among forest and farm organisations;
• Creating supporting legal frameworks, protecting forest tenure rights of indigenous people, local communities, removing regulatory barriers, securing access to support services, especially extension services;
• Providing forest and farm organisations and their members with greater access to financial services, such as affordable credit and insurance;
• Connecting forest smallholders to markets and services, including negotiation of fair market prices and provision of real-time market information;
• Building a worldwide coalition of forest and farm producer organisations to influence policymaking and generate momentum for greater support.

The fact that forests have dwindled as farmers cured their tobacco speaks to the fact they have little or no idea how the forests could help fight poverty and improve food production. Globally, local communities own or manage more than 30 of the world’s forests. They have a demonstrated capacity to manage their forests sustainably, but have received little policy attention from national governments and agencies that include the likes of the Forestry Commission etc.

A number of factors account for the long-term success of forest management by local communities. In all cases, however, forest organisations have played central roles.

Hence encouraging the establishment and successful development of forests should be a priority for governments wishing to promote sustainable forest management and prosperous rural communities.

There is need to build constructive relationships with government counterparts, and the policy and institutional conditions that encourage or hinder forests development.

According to the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) working paper government should encourage the development of forest producers and organisations because (among other reasons) they can improve policymaking by proposing supportive policies; providing coherent assessments of policy impacts from the perspectives of community forest producers; make services available to forest producers at a lower cost and with more effectiveness than is often possible by government.

So government can facilitate the development and strengthening of forest producers in many ways. For example, it can create a suitable legal and regulatory framework; develop policies that provide a framework for, and create laws and policies that seek to establish a balance between large industrial corporations and locally controlled forest organisations in the marketplace and in access to public incentive programmes and other resources.

Government could also support by working with forest producers to show early tangible results; ensuring that laws allow appropriate forms of legal status for them and having a policy of engagement and a practice of dialogue with communities among others.

Until this is done, forests will continue to deplete to the detriment of the poor communities countrywide.