Mention “Africa” and “forests” in the same breath and many of us conjure up the clichéd Hollywood image of a misty, steaming jungle crammed with exotic shrubs and giant trees.
As is usually the case, the real picture is quite different to the one seen on the silver screen.
Unquestionably, Africa’s tropical, moist rainforests are extremely important for their livelihood and biodiversity value. But Africa’s dry forests cover a much larger area and support many more people. They are also home to some of the world’s most exotic and cherished animals, such as lions, elephants, zebras and giraffes.
Africa’s dry forests refer to any type of woodlands outside the Sahara desert and the humid tropical forests of the Congo basin (see box). Over 270 million people – 40 percent of the continent’s population – live and depend on dry forests for their livelihoods.
Because most of the dry forests are classified as “open access”, their sustainable management is greatly influenced by complex issues surrounding tenure governance, decentralization and benefit sharing.
Exacerbating their unsustainable management is their inherent low biological endowment and erratic rainfall.
Crispen Marunda, a scientist with CIFOR’s Dry Forest Project puts it this way. “The governance, livelihood and environmental factors surrounding Africa’s dry forest are a complex web of interlocking issues that still bedevil the minds of scientists, donors and governments.”
The dry forests of Africa have been cited in scientific literature as vital to reducing the continent’s poverty. They provide a frontier for agricultural expansion, the manure needed to nourish crops, and grazing areas for livestock and wildlife.
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Where are Africa’s dry forests?
Africa’s dry forests include the very dry Acacia, Boschia, Combretum Commiphora scrublands of Burkina Faso and Mali, the dry deciduous woodlands with their Acacias, Mopanes and Baobabs in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia and Tanzania, and the moist to dry savannas of the Miombo woodlands typical of Zambia and Tanzania.
Africa’s dry forests cover much of the continent and provide livelihood assistance to some 250 million people.
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“Dry forests also play a crucial livelihood role for many communities,” Marunda said.
“At the household level, the forests supply timber for construction, firewood, fruits, and medicines. Some 20 to 35 percent of household income derives from forests and other environmental resources. And let’s not forget that during times of economic hardship or natural disaster, people rely on these forests as a kind of ‘natural welfare system’ or ‘social safety net’,” Marunda said.
These are all good arguments for ensuring the dry forest’s long term viability. Achieving this will require research to better understand how dry forests can be managed sustainably to reduce poverty, create wealth and continue their important role in the global environment.
Sadly, dry forests are overlooked. Waning investment in research by national governments and international donors means dry forests are not getting the helping hand they and their 250 million people need.
This decline has mainly been due to the false perception that dry forests house little more than slow growing trees and produce low agricultural yields. Another factor has been the diversion of attention towards the biodiversity-rich humid tropical forests following the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
“We are caught in a paradox. The potential of dry forests is widely acknowledged but publicly-funded budgets for the dry forest sector are shrinking,” Marunda said.
“Even more alarming, many of the countries in Africa’s dry regions have internationally assisted Poverty Reduction Strategic Papers (PRSP), yet few of the schemes look at how forests combat hunger.”
Fortunately, dry forests are starting to get the attention they deserve. With the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), CIFOR is engaging forestry policy makers and donor communities in policy discussions that focus on the links between human well-being and dry forests.
“We are telling donors and policy makers that forest science can help communities manage their forests, accumulate assets and cash, and overcome poverty through helping local people to help themselves. All they need is a fair chance,” Marunda said.
One of the key areas CIFOR is researching is the linkages between dry forests and other sectors. For example, dry forests provide livelihood opportunities for locals who make wooden implements and earn cash, which is in turn injected in to the agricultural sector. Dry forests also serve the energy sector by providing water for hydropower generation. In Burkina Faso, dry forests are vital to domestic energy needs, providing fuelwood for 75 percent of people in the nation's capital, Ouagadougou, and over 90 percent of rural dwellers.
CIFOR has identified a number of products that could form the basis of small-scale industries. These include honey and bees wax, rattan, tree oils, the monkey bread tree (Piliostigma thonningii) for fattening cattle and goats and wood carvings. However, to get the small-scale industries going, there is a need to review policies that affect access to forest resources, set up networks for producers, and establish market channels.
“CIFOR’s dry forest research is looking at these and many more issues. It’s very pleasing that in the countries where CIFOR is working, the link between dry forests and agriculture, water, livestock, eco-tourism and poverty alleviation is featuring more often in developmental discussions. This is excellent news. Science clearly shows dry forests have intrinsic but untapped hidden harvests that, with a little investment, can improve the livelihoods of millions of Africa’s rural poor,” Marunda said. CM, GC.
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Sweeping up in Zimbabwe
Using grass to make brooms provides a significant income for many communities around Zimbabwe’s Mafungautsi State Forest. The grass is especially important to the most vulnerable groups, including widows, abandoned women, and women without access to fertile soils. To be sustainable, the grass must be cut rather than uprooted. Unfortunately, people are fussy about the sort of brooms they buy and often favour brooms made from uprooted grass. But this stops the grass from germinating the following year. This is one of many difficult issues facing Zimbabwe’s forest communities and forest managers. CIFOR is exploring ways for local communities to devise strategies that reduce conflict and safeguard natural resources. Work has focused on user groups in three locations. In each location, one user group is involved with the collection of broom grass, one with the collection of thatch grass, and another with beekeeping. Each group has examined current levels of exploitation and worked out what they would like to happen in the future. With CIFOR’s help, the groups have developed action plans to help them realise their goals. |