The Forestry Strategic Plan has identified and described the main national issues in forestry development categorized under the three main issues of Production, Protection and Participation. These three issues in order to tackle them require appropriately trained Namibian personnel in an institutional framework relevant to today’s development objectives. The Strategic Plan of 1996 describes these as challenges to Sustainable Forestry Development.
The links between the forestry strategy, the current forest policy and new forest bill
The strategic plan produced at the end of 1996, is the most powerful instrument in the implementation of the current policy of 1992 and a revised one. Since it was prepared at a time when the review of forest legislation was underway, it was drafted with full consideration of the, then major provisions of the forest bill. So far, there are no contradictions in the underlying philosophies and directions of the two documents. It should be noted that the drafting of the forest bill started in the last quarter of 1995, a draft bill was produced after several months of consultations and comments in 1997, when the Ministry adopted it. It was approved in principle by cabinet in late 1998, before it went to the Ministry of Justice for legal drafting in early 1999. A legal draft was produced in 1999 and it was presented in Parliament in 2000.
Furthermore the plan has embraced all the major issues of forestry development today, sustainable management, community participation, conservation of biological diversity, increasing the value of forest resources, environmental protection and contribution to the national economy. It has also called for strategic linkages with other partner sectors such as agriculture, lands, tourism, regional and local government, through a steering committee, which is similar to the National Forestry Council contained in the forest bill.
It gives a general direction and approaches to forest management but allows flexibility in operational strategies to achieve. It is highly unlikely that a new forestry policy will heavily conflict with the plan. This is because the very issues that were important to the plan appear to be important to the policy review process.
Production on the Namibian scene revolves around the management of natural forests which is quite constrained at the moment by factors such as the lack of appropriate silvicultural technology, skimpy inventory data on the growing stock, under exploited potential for income generation in recreational use and eco-tourism. Furthermore, the status of forestry on farmlands is hindered by a lack of culture of tree growing and undeveloped product processing and markets. Plantation forestry though there is some potential in the moister Eastern Part of the country is largely constrained by short planting seasons and higher than normal evapo-transpiration rates.
With respect to the supply of environmental benefits, poverty and low income levels is a major constraint, since poor farmers will expectedly ignore values such as bio-diversity and watershed conservation if faced with no alternative options but to clear forests and woodlands for food production.
Linked to production is the processing of forest products. Despite the scarce timber resources of Namibia, the saw-milling sector does not use appropriately trained people and equipment, hence the rates of recovery after saw milling is barely above 40%. Even then, marketing channels need to be improved for groups of carvers and other craftsmen to get better prices for their crafts. There are also possibilities in the production or manufacturing of non-wood forest products. In this regard, the fruit and kernel of Marula (Sclerocarya birrea) and the nuts of Schinzophyton rautanenii (mangeti) have market potential as industrial oils. Other indigenous fruits and nuts also have potentially significant domestic markets if propagation, storage, promotion and marketing are properly done.
The issues under protection have to do with population pressure, forest fires, deforestation and inadequate participation of stakeholders and policy failures outside the forest sectors. Some mitigation activities are discussed here.
The occurrence and severity of uncontrolled and accidental forest fires has to be reduced, and the policy of burning off patches of woodlands to improve hunting grounds should be changed to one of using fire only as a controlled tool under specific circumstances. To pre-empt the negative impacts of population pressure on forest resources according to the strategic plan, will require two measures: a) increased investment in health and education services to accelerate the democratic transition. b) containment of large-scale migration into environmentally fragile areas by carefully planning investment in infrastructure, and by reasserting the land and resource use rights of local populations in return for co-operation in forest protection. The reservation of land for state forest management should take place only when communal and private ownership: a) is unwilling or economically unable to give the land continuing and productive forest management and b) cannot conserve special public interests like watershed and bio-diversity conservation, which are important in many forest areas.
The topical nature of participatory forest management is simply an aspiration by society to have a greater say in how forest resources are managed and the sharing of the benefits of a managed forest resource. Some people have however misunderstood it in their endeavor to realize their own feeling of importance, to suggest that traditional foresters can no longer manage forests and yet there is no evidence that without the technical know-how it requires to manage forests, there has been any success story of forestry management with expertise from outside the sector. The issues of participation have to do with formation and formulation of policy and inter-sectoral co-ordination. In Namibia, we have identified the major stakeholders in forestry and their interests or expectations depicted in Table 6 below. The role of the government is to design policies and relevant legislation that promote sustainable management of forests; enhance and protect the environmental roles of forests and to stimulate and increase the role of forestry in the country=s socio-economic and cultural development
|
Stakeholder |
Expectations |
|
Farmers (particularly women) |
C Firewood as a source of energy for cooking C Food collected from forests as a source of nutrition for good health C Basketry and wood tools for domestic chores |
|
Local communities |
C Poles and posts for building and fencing C Medicine for good health C Fodder for livestock C Beverages |
|
Non-governmental organizations |
C Local communities participation in forestry management C Women empowerment through participation in forestry activities |
|
Private enterprises |
C Raw materials for industry C Income generation opportunities from environmental services of forests |
|
Government |
C Contribution to rural economic development through job creation and income generating activities C Environmental conservation |
|
International community |
C Contribution to rural economic development by complementing Government development programmes C Conservation of bio-diversity and restriction of potential climate change |
Since the protective roles of forests often require investments, which do not bring obvious and direct benefits to rural communities, the Government has to fill this gap. The same is true of education and basic and long- term research, which do not often appeal to private sector funding. It is clear that the state still has a major role to play in forestry.
The responsibility of the Non-Governmental Organizations in strengthening community organizations and channeling aid directly is necessary and gaining currency, provided the NGO=s are not perceived or do not conduct themselves in a manner akin to usurping the powers of Central Government. The role of the private sector in developing markets and processing capacity will go along way in stimulating income generation from both timber and non-timber forest products.
The private sector is important in promoting the value of tree and other non-timber forest products through processing, distribution and marketing. In Namibia, the potential for oils from nuts and medicines have yet to be realized. The same can be realized in the development of arts and crafts markets, the marketing and promotion of indigenous fruits and even small-scale plantations in East Caprivi.
Rural communities have a direct stake in the indigenous woodlands by way of direct involvement in the management of community forest reserves, the rational use and management of fire, the adoption and other activities such as the implementation of farm or agro-forestry programmes.
The International community as much as they are still keen on carbon sinks, oxygen sources and bio-diversity should support sustainable management of forests by directly funding forestry development projects consistent with these objectives and also press upon their governments to be more responsive and sensitive to trade policies in the developed world which directly and indirectly contribute to deforestation or degradation.
The four programme areas of the strategy are: Public sector capacity building; Community level management of natural forests, Farm forestry and State management of environmental forestry are depicted in the following four tables (Tables 7-10) of the forestry strategic plan of 1996.
|
Component |
Principal results |
|
Policy revision and preparation of legislation |
Government approved forest policy and legislation |
|
Design and implementation of DoF organizational structure |
Efficient organizational structure implemented |
|
Development of competent human resource base |
Adequate qualified local staff available |
|
Development of sector-wide management information systems |
Availability of information for forestry planning and operational management |
|
Revive research division |
Availability of an ideas base for implementation forestry programmes |
|
Component |
Principal results |
|
Communal forest land zoning |
Decentralized forest land use plans |
|
Formulation of forest management agreements |
Demarcation of sharing of natural forests management responsibilities |
|
Design of participatory forest incentive scheme |
Increased local involvement in forestry activities |
|
Implementation of community-level forest management pilot projects |
Lessons for future implementation |
|
Component |
Principal results |
|
Design of farm forestry incentive scheme |
Expansion of tree stocks on agricultural land |
|
Institutionalization of farm forestry coordination and collaboration mechanisms |
Effective tree growing on agricultural land |
|
Development of national tree seed center |
Supply of high quality seed for farmers seedling production |
|
Employment of well trained extension field officers |
Effective tree growing on agricultural land |
|
Component |
Principal results |
|
Demarcation of national strategic forests |
Watershed, biodiversity and nature conservation forests established |
|
Undertake strategic research |
Information on management of strategic forests available |
|
Development of silvicultural management regimes |
Proven management techniques established |
|
Determination of local communities participation in environmental forestry |
Partnership with local communities |
