"Community-based woodland resources management and improvement in Serowe District, Botswana" by COSV (1998)

Objectives:

The goal is to assist local communities in the sustainable management and improvement of their woodland resources through facilitating community identification, designation and allocation from the Land Board of 15 management sites in the three villages of Serowe, Paje and Mogorosi. The maximum land allocation from the Land Board for forest purposes can be 20 hectares. After the third year the communities will manage 300 hectares of forest areas.

The project will assist the formation of 5 groups/year of 10 people each. These groups will manage the sites and will be constituted by people with the same interests in the management and sustainable exploitation of the forest and non-timber forest products (homogeneous groups).

This will contribute to increased fuelwood, timber and fodder resources, facilitating the conservation of biodiversity, improving people’s knowledge on management techniques of woodland areas, tree planting techniques, in marketing of forest and non-timber forest products, and introducing culturally based methods and devices for wood saving energy to women

Results:

The expected outputs are:

• 15 management sites established in the three years with and by 15 groups of people (homogeneous groups of 10 people each, 5 sites of 20 hectares each per year) in Serowe, Paje and Mogorosi
• 15 management plans developed, one for each management area
• 150 community members in the three years trained and organised in management of 300 hectares of woodland areas, in planting techniques, in marketing of forest and non timber forest products
• 360 women trained on wood saving energy devices, their construction, use and maintenance
• 24,475 trees/year planted for different purposes: 18,225/year in 5 management sites and 6,250 tree/year plus 1,000 trees given as incentive for "Around the Home Tree Planting" activity in 1,250 households/year.