Many rural Africans remain mired in poverty, falling behind the rest of the world, even after 20 years of natural resource-based development.
Natural resources, land, minerals, forests, wildlife and water are central to the livelihoods of 70 percent of the African population. They are a major source of wealth and power in Africa. But natural resources are often mismanaged, rural people are often largely disenfranchised, and growth has not always benefited the rural poor.
Progammes that integrate nature (sound natural resource management), wealth (economic growth and poverty alleviation) and power (good governance, empowerment and enfranchisement) have proven to be successful. Taken together, these three linked elements can increase the productivity of the resource base and conserve biodiversity, generate economic growth for local communities and national accounts and, most importantly, empower people and lead the way towards a more democratic and decentralized management.
These are the conclusions Jon Anderson of USAID presented to an international workshop in Ouagadougou on the theme "Nature, Wealth and Power". He was quoting from a discussion paper that he, along with other staff from USAID's Africa Bureau, CIFOR and other partners, had compiled. "This document presents principles and action steps that can serve as a guide to investment that could revitalize rural Africa," said Anderson. "We are building on lessons learned from more than 20 years of natural resource-based development in rural Africa."
CIFOR organized the meeting in Burkina Faso in February 2004 in partnership with USAID and with the participation of researchers from Asia, America and Africa. "We should not accept poverty as an inevitable situation," said Basile Guissou, Director General of the National Centre for Scientific and Technological Research, in his opening comments. "Sound economic management must be taken into account by all countries concerned, especially Burkina Faso, in fighting poverty."
Dry lands and dry forest play a major role in the national economies of countries like Botswana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. Across Africa, drylands occupy 43 percent of the continent. They are home to 268 million people, some 40 percent of the total population. Lack of investment in this sector could easily slow the countries' rates of economic growth.
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Principles to guide NRM investments in Africa
Nature
- Improve information and knowledge management systems
- Promote local land use planning and appropriate resource tenure systems
- Foster innovation, social learning, and adaptive management
- Build capacity and invest in human resources
- Promote cost-effective technical advisory and intermediary services
Wealth
- Be strategic about the economics of natural resource management
- Strengthen markets and NRM market incentives
- Invest in rural organizations
- Create a framework for better NRM choices
- Assure local resource managers have secure access to NRM means and benefits
Power
- Strengthen environmental procedural rights for rural people
- Improve rural input into public decisions and policy
- Redistribute natural resource authority and functions
- Transfer powers, rights, and responsibilities to representative and accountable authorities
- Explore a minimum environmental standards approach
- Promote platforms that allow for continuous and inclusive consultations.
Box reproduced, with permission, from "Nature, Wealth, and Power. Emerging Best Practice for Revitalizing Rural Africa," a discussion paper prepared by Jon Anderson and the Environment and Natural Resources Team of the Sustainable Development Office in USAID's Africa Bureau. |
During the workshop three particular subsectors important to drylands countries were considered: fuel wood, non-timber forest products and farming, and conservation and rehabilitation. "Identifying drivers of and approaches to sustainable natural resource management needs constant reconsideration and refinement," said Anderson. "The nature, wealth and power framework may be useful in developing a more realistic and field-oriented approach."
Daniel Tiveau, who runs CIFOR's drylands project in Burkina Faso, summed up the Burkina Faso meeting by saying nature wealth and power raise a number of challenges. "These need to be addressed with an appropriate land tenure policy, an effective partnership between the State and the communities, empowerment of the rural populations, good governance and transparent management of natural resources."
CIFOR complemented the Burkina Faso workshops by participating in national dialogues on natural resources, poverty and governance in Mali in February 2004. Working with partner organizations USAID and World Resources International, CIFOR staff organised a series of seminars on Nature, Wealth and Power: Emerging Best Practice for Revitalizing Rural Africa with a wide range of audiences at the regional and national levels. Each of the seminars targeted a particular constituency, like NGOs, technical staff, the USAID mission, researchers, elected officials and the Prime Minister's staff. The workshops successfully stressed the links between resources, economic performance and governance and identified key policy and research issues. "There is great potential benefit to undertaking workshops like this in other countries of West Africa and in the Congo Basin in partnership with CARPE (Central African Regional Program for the Environment) and other institutions involved in the Congo Basin Forest Partnership," said Ousseynou Ndoye of CIFOR Cameroon.
Progress on rural poverty in Africa is not a luxury - the fate of Africa's economic and development future cannot be separated from the management of its natural resources.