B7-6201/97-09/VIII/FOR "Management of Miombo Woodlands" by Cifor

Objective : To improve the productivity of the forestry sector and enhance the role of miombo ecozone and woodland resources on the welfare of both men and women.

Result : Increased understanding of the management and use of the miombo woodlands based on the ways different policies influence interactions between man and woodlands.

Activities : Assess the role of local community institutions in managing woodlands. Assess tenurial arrangements for local communities. Identify values of woodlands. Explore the relationship between commercialisation and reform. Assess the adequacy of sectoral and extra-sectoral macroeconomic policies relevant to forest conservation and use. Evaluate impact of these policies on woodland resource management. Establish indicators for tracking the effects of these policies. Propose policy reform measures. Assess the productivity of conventional harvesting methods. Develop strategies for industrial and non-industrial harvesting practices. Conduct workshops, impact assessments, reconnaissance survey and participatory rural appraisal activities. Data collection, compilation and analysis.

Sub-project no.1: Institutional arrangements governing the management of woodlands in Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Malawi.

• To assess the role and potential of local community institutions to manage woodlands.
• To assess tenurial arrangements for local community and household control of woodlands.
• To identify values of woodlands that stimulate the promotion of private and local community-based systems of management and control of woodlands.
• To explore the relationship between commercialisation and institutional change and reform.
• various examples of locally-based institutions for woodland management;
• various factors which drive and promote institutional change towards more local-level management and control;
• policies which need to be put in place to facilitate the process of institutional reforms;
• the characteristics of the resource which are a precondition for such a change;
• the nature, extent and potentials for local capability for integrated woodland management;
• whether local-based institutions could survive and persist modernisation pressures;
• where, when and how private-based management systems could be sustainable.

Sub-project no. 2: Impact of sectoral, inter-sectoral and macroeconomic policies on miombo woodland management and use in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique.

• To assess the adequacy of some sectoral, extra-sectoral and macroeconomic policies relevant to forest resource development, use and conservation.
• To evaluate how these policies are impacting on local communities/local population and the industry how their responses are impacting on woodland resource management, use and conservation.
• To establish indicators for tracking the effects of these policies.
• To propose policy reform measures for improving sustainable management of the woodlands.
• the way local communities and local population perceive and respond to these policies;
• whether policies provide adequate or inadequate guidance to local communities and local population on land and woodland use and management; whether policies are adequately implemented at all organisational levels, especially at the local level;
• the influence of sectoral, extra-sectoral and macroeconomic policies on patterns of land use in the miombo woodlands;
• changes which need to be made to these policies so as to bring closer to the mainstream of the economy those people in rural areas where they are very dependent on forest resources in the informal sector of the economy which often escapes national plans.

Sub-project no. 3: Environmentally sound harvesting in miombo woodlands of Zambia and Tanzania.

• To assess the productivity of conventional harvesting methods, the production of wood residues, and environmental impact of harvesting operations in woodlands.
• To develop strategies for both industrial and non-industrial harvesting practices to improve the management and use of the woodlands on a sustainable basis.