The Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) is providing financial support to the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) on an initiative aimed at stimulating dialogue on Africa’s dry forests that are important to over 268 million people. The main goal of this initiative is to stimulate dialogue amongst forest practitioners, policy makers and the international community. To achieve this goal, the initiative has an immediate objective of strengthening the research and analytical capacity within selected countries, presently Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia in ways that promote sustainable management of the forests and enhance livelihoods of rural people.

The Dry Forests

Cover 43% of the land surface in Africa

The forests comprise of :

• Tropical moist dystrophic savannas e.g. the miombo woodlands of Southern Africa

• The dry eutrophic savannas, e.g. the Sahelian wooded grasslands and Kalahari thornveld

In simple terms, the dry forests are any type of vegetation outside the rainforest and the deserts of Africa.

Project Themes

1. Understanding the contributions of forests and trees to local livelihoods and national economies.
2. Tailoring sustainable management approaches for dry forests to social and economic and technological capacities in Africa.
3. Understanding the major trends that impact on the status and management of the dry forests.

Project description

A short project description was published in the journal Currents No 34 (2004). Currents is published by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden and financed by Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency). The journal is available at: http://www.info.slu.se/Currents/   and the article is available in English (original version) and French.

New Emerging Issues

• All Countries
  Landscape approaches to reflect the woodland values and contributions to livelihoods

• Tanzania
  Village forest reserves: new forest and woodland management practices empowering people to manage woodlands

• Zambia
  A ton of honey is worth more than a ton of copper!- creating favourable policy framework and strategies for increased honey production and marketing

• Burkina Faso
  Charcoal supply dynamics: increased demand due to urbanisation and the economic implications of distance to urban centers and charcoal producing areas

• Nature Power and Wealth
  In collaboration with USAID: promoting dialogue amongst development practitioners to hone on the emerging best practices for revitalizing rural Africa

Other publications regarding the project:

• Stimulating policy dialogue about Africa's dry forests
• Nature, wealth and power to defeat poverty in Africa