The sub-regional directives for NWFP legislation in Central Africa
The directives form the mutual base for the Governments of Central African countries and propose how national policies and legal, fiscal and institutional frameworks could integrate NWFP of plant origin to allow a sustainable use of forest resources.
A key to a thriving non-wood forest product sector that can contribute to enhanced food security and income generation for forest dependent people in Central Africa is to have appropriate legislation available and implemented. Guidelines to improve legislation in this respect (called “Sub-regional directives for a sustainable use of NWFP of plant origin in Central Africa”) has been developed by the project “Enhancing food security through sustainable use of non-wood forest products in Central Africa” (GCP/RAF/398/GER), executed by FAO and financed by the German Government in order to ensure that forestry and related food/agricultural laws can provide the rights based enabling legal framework for the promotion of a more sustainable use and commercialization of edible NWFP in Central Africa.
The COMIFAC has endorsed the sub-regional directives and recommended them to its member countries as guidance for developing/improving their related legislation at the national level. These directives (downloadable as FAO document or as COMIFAC document) provide the COMIFAC member countries with specific guidelines for adjusting their existing national legal frameworks to stimulate a participatory management of NWFP, enable small and medium enterprises to derive more benefits from NWFP value chains, improve regional trade of NWFP and increase their contribution to the economies of Central Africa.
In the ongoing process of the 1994 forest law revision, the Ministry of Forests and Wildlife (MINFOF) of Cameroon already embrace FAO’s support (through the ongoing project GCP/RAF/408/EC, financed by the European Union) for the implementation of the sub-regional directives at the national level.
The project GCP/RAF/441/GER defined an approach for the Republic of Congo, the Republic of Gabon and the Central African Republic in order to support the internalization of the sub-regional directives in these three countries.
