Regional Consultation on Sustainable Forest Management held in Maputo-Mozambique

07 July 2017, Maputo- Currently Mozambique has 176 forest concessions covering an area of about 7 million hectares, but still face challenges, mainly the non-compliance with the established Forest Management plans in the country.

In this context, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Bank Forestry Programme (PROFOR) and the Government of Mozambique, through the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (MITADER) are developing Guidelines for the sustainable management of productive forests in tropical forests through forest concessions in the context of Agenda 2030, as follow-up to the conclusions of the global seminar held in Brazil in September 2016 under the slogan "What is the Future of Forest Concessions and Alternative Models for Public Forest Management".

During her intervention at the Regional Consultation on Sustainable Forest Management in the context of the Agenda 2030 held in Maputo-Mozambique (06-07 July), the FAO Programme Assistant Cláudia Pereira stressed that "the importance of forests to reach the major development goals was widely recognized in the Millennium Development Goals and the Paris Agreement, but "although some progress, the overall proportion of land covered by forest is still declining. The loss of forest was mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. "

Forest resources as a source of income production

The consultation held in Mozambique aimed to disseminate good forest management practices, to provide a global perspective on forest concessions and to contribute for the discussion on the role of forests and the Agenda 2030, and also to strengthen debate and implementation of strategies to reconcile the environmental, economic and social aspects of forests.

For FAO, "a better understanding of practices that effectively reconcile the environmental, economic and social aspects of forest production can contribute to an increase in the provision of timber and non-timber forest products, with a major impact on income, employment and Climate change mitigation and can also be an important vector of poverty reduction, unfortunately still so prevalent in our region".

Cláudia Pereira also added that "forest concessions, if properly implemented, can be an effective instrument in promoting good practices in sustainable forest management, contributing to reduce deforestation, forest degradation and greater socio-economic benefits of forests."

The development of the "Guidelines" and consultations are activities carried out under the Forest Concessions Initiative (FCI), led by FAO in collaboration with the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD), the World Bank's Forestry Programme (PROFOR) and the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB).

For MITADER Permanent Secretary, Sheila Afonso, "these guidelines still in grounding, include the challenges that this specific sector still faces, grouped into themes such as governance, socio-economic aspects, forest management practices and relationships with local communities".

In turn, World Bank representative, Muino Taquidir, emphasized that "forest concessions can be good tools for implementing sustainable resource utilization rules in productive forest areas."

This Regional Consultation was attended by members of government, the private sector, civil society organizations, donors and international organizations and experts from the area of countries such as Gambia, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and the FAO Headquarters in Rome.