Policies and Incentives for Managing the Miombo Woodlands

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Activity Type: 
Activities Related to Forest Livelihoods

CHALLENGE 

The Miombo woodlands cover 2.4 million km2 in Southern Africa, stretching from Angola to Mozambique. They are the most extensive tropical seasonal woodland and dry forest in Africa. Because they cover such a large area, the miombo woodlands hold large amounts of carbon. And although they are less diverse than moist tropical forests, they are home to elephant, rhino, and other animals and to thousands of species of plants, a high proportion of which are endemic. But just as important, for around 100 million residents the woodlands offer resources such as firewood, building material, wild foods, medicine, and fertilizer and places for grazing and beekeeping.

For the poorest of these residents, these multiple resources are a safety net, providing the necessities of life. Many factors hamper the woodlands’ management: the technical complexity of providing for multiple uses, the economics of low margins and weak markets, irrelevant institutions, and poorly crafted policies and laws.

APPROACH

In 2007-2008, PROFOR supported a study exploring policies, incentives and options for the rural poor.

RESULTS

Ths study identied four necessary components of reform: 
 

  • Policies and institutions must embrace decentralization and devolution.
  • To encourage good management, governments must foster markets for the local products and services that good management can produce.
  • Forestry organizations must switch their emphasis from regulation of use to delivery of services, empowering local people to become better woodland users and managers.
  • Planners must keep in mind the cost of deforestation and degradation to rural populations.

 Last updated 06/29/2010