Twenty years ago the government of Burkina Faso opted for participatory managementof natural forests in both protected areas and state forests. This was a major step towardssustainable management among the different stakeholders and eventually led to the creationof “Forest management areas" (FMA).
The FMA concept is a technical and administrative entity that allows local stakeholders to manage and benefit from a forest under a management plan with technical support from the forest service. The revenues generated are shared among the wood cutters, the community and the State and also benefit the forest itself in the form of regeneration and other initiatives.
According to CIFOR‘s Mathurin Zida, the FMA results are encouraging, but one major question remains unanswered: Is the FMA system sustainable? Considering the globally important livelihood and environmental value of forests, and how rapidly the world’s forests are disappearing, it’s a crucial question.
In an attempt to show the potential of dry forests for local livelihoods, the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) funded CIFOR in 2003 to undertake a project to stimulate dialogue on African dry forests. It was decided to use Criteria and Indicators (C&I) as a tool in helping to ensure sustainable forest management is a part of the project. CIFOR, its scientists and its research partners embraced the 3-year project with enormous enthusiasm.
But before it could begin, a number of practical measures had to be completed first. For example, which C&I toolkit to use? Not surprisingly, it was decided to use the generic C&I toolkit developed by CIFOR and partners in 1999. Next, a multidisciplinary team was formed by choosing national experts with different backgrounds.
An appropriate forest area was also needed. This ended up being the Cassou forest in south-central Burkina Faso, which was regarded as a suitable dry forest pilot site for testing the toolkit. Finally, a C & I workshop was held in Ouagadougou in August 2006 to validate the toolkit among a larger group of participants, including forest managers, the forest service, and appropriate and NGOs and researchers.
Mathurin Zida said the quality and enthusiasm of the discussions clearly indicated the participants’ strong interest in using a potentially efficient tool for enhancing sustainable forest management. Their exhortations to CIFOR to carry on with the project were extremely encouraging and their recommendations clearly showed their strong interest. Some of their suggestion included:
- Assessing the sustainability of forest management in areas that use validated C&I
- Developing additional criteria and indicators specifically for wildlife protection
- Extending the work to include other administrative land units to better assess ecosystem diversity
- Exploring whether linking the toolkit to certifying dry forests or their products would increase its uptake.
The development of C&I is not an end in itself. The success in developing C&I begins when people actually start using them, and it continues when they keep using them. The challenge for CIFOR in Burkina Faso is that very first step: getting stakeholders to actually start using the C&I. CIFOR is exploring various ways to achieve this through reinforced partnerships with forest agencies, NGOs, private traders, as well as the community and individuals. CIFOR is now working with the government of Burkina Faso to extend C&I’s use to wildlife and protected areas under a funding arrangement with the European Union.