With the adoption of a new strategy in which MAN plays a major role in the planned use of forest areas, forest planners and managers have felt the need for guidelines to enable them to increase their chances of success when tackling the problems of coordinated rural development in the upland watershed management. To achieve this development not only is the effective material and physical participation of the people directly concerned required, but their total commitment.
The problems are particularly varied and complex. They are all the more urgent since, in these areas which were originally wooded, population growth has exerted increasing pressure not only on the forest, but also on the soil and water. Indeed, to survive in these areas where agriculture and pastoralism appear to be the only resources, peasants and grazers are forced to clear the land and to abuse the natural renewable resources.
The threat is serious, especially in developing countries, and suitable policies will have to be drawn up, approved and put into practice to avert it.
Over the past century, the countries that are now developed also went through this stage. The problem, however, was largely solved through industrialization, which reduced the pressure exerted by population in the rural and the mountain areas, and through increased crop yields obtained by the use of more intensive methods.
Very strict legislation put a stop to clearing, without jeopardizing supplies of basic essentials.
A small increase in wooded areas has even been noted in some of these countries.
This guide does not claim to provide "formulae" which are applicable in all circumstances. Indeed, the aspects of the problem are numerous and the infinite number of possible combinations create conditions that differ greatly from one watershed to another.
A certain number of common denominators can be determined however and these are the ones which will be analyzed in this guide in order to help planners, managers, foresters or soil and water conservation experts and all those who are expected to play a part in preparing and implementing development programmes in mountain areas.
This guide aims at clarity and avoids over-complicated or theoretical technical details. The drafting team worked on the assumption that each partner and each expert working on this type of programme must look beyond his own discipline.
A number of papers, reports, studies and other documents on forests and soil and water conservation deal with various points set out in the table of contents of this guide. The special feature of the guide, however, is to condense information concerning the role of the mountain communities in the design and implementation of watershed development programmes; in short, it deals with their moral commitment to those programmes as well as their material and physical participation.
Conditions prevailing in the upstream areas from the watersheds usually differ greatly from those downstream, not only geomorphologically, but also economically and socially. The balance between Man and the other elements of Nature is extremely delicate in these regions. When the elements can be controlled upstream, the downstream areas also benefit. This is why priority will have to be given to efforts in the mountain areas.
The World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development was concerned about community control of natural resources, especially forests, range-lands and water. It recommended that governments should consider action to:
However, the communities directly concerned must play an active part in the implementation of these measures, especially when the new strategy recommended by the Forestry Division of FAO is implemented.
This strategy is set out in a practical manner in FAO Forestry Paper No. 7: "Forestry for Local Community Development", and Paper No. 26: "Forestry and Rural Development".
The world over, press campaigns emphasize the range and gravity of the problems in an attempt to awaken the people's awareness. Indeed, FAO's publication "Agriculture: Toward 2000" states: "Tropical forests are expected to be reduced by about 12 percent by 2000 due largely to clearance for agriculture". The Andean and Himalayan foothills, South-East Asia and tropical Africa are the regions which are most seriously threatened.
The combining and coordination of efforts are essential first of all to check the destruction being wrought on these areas and afterwards enable rehabilitation work to be started on lands which can still be saved.
As regards mountain watershed management where the soil is best suited for forest cultivation, foresters must coordinate the actions of all the other experts that will be needed to play a part in rural development. This is why they must have some basic knowledge of the various aspects of the development of mountain people.
Experience has shown that it is useless to undertake management work without the support of the people who are going to be affected by the measures and without their active participation. This guide deals with the various components of the human factor affecting upland watershed management. If it is successful in convincing foresters and management experts of the importance of the people living in their areas of activity and in persuading them to take an interest in these people's problems, it will have achieved its purpose.
The local people have to be involved in programmes which concern them, from the design phase through to implementation, i.e. in identification of requirements, definition of targets, planning and preparation of plans of operation, right up to participation in the implementation of these plans.
Utopia?
The experts who prepared this guide do not think so. They are, however, aware of the effort and patience that will be required to achieve the desired end.
Publications on the subject, some of which are referred to in Annex IV, will provide more detailed information on the various subjects which are summarized in this guide.
So as to be essentially practical, the guide was based largely on experience acquired from management and development projects and programmes in upland watershed areas. The choice of examples (summarized in Annex II) was governed by the wish to take into consideration geographical distribution and different environmental conditions.
Integrated rural development - for this is in fact what it is - involves a very wide variety of factors. This is why, after the problem in its entirety and the objectives to be achieved are briefly set out, the guide covers the steps to be taken to reach the final objective.
In the first part, the problem will be analyzed and the various aspects of planning, government policies and the strategy to be adopted will be reviewed, special attention being paid to the impact of the programmes on the different socio-economic groups directly concerned.
The second part will deal with the preparatory work: anticipating and setting up administrative structures, planning, programming, adapting laws and regulations, obtaining the opinions of the people concerned, preparing the measures to be taken in the field.
Finally, in the third part, which is vital, implementation of the programmes will be dealt with, and special emphasis will be laid on: the role of the communities directly concerned and the most effective ways of obtaining their participation. All aspects will be dealt with as practically and pragmatically as possible.
Activities and key operations will be summarized in Annex I. N.H. The macroeconomics aspects of watershed management and the cost-benefit analysis will be the subject of another guide.
Approved by the Eighth World Forestry Congress (Djakarta, October 1978 and recommended by the Fifth Session of the FAO Forestry Committee (Rome, May 1980). (Return)
WCARRD (REP). July 1979-Report-Programme of Action, II.E. (Return)
