Secondary forests - defined as forests which have developed after significant disturbance (see chapter II) - are increasingly prominent features in tropical landscapes, and in many countries the surface area covered by them is far greater than that of primary forests. In Africa there may be as much as 90 million1 to 313.3 million2 ha of secondary forest, depending on the definition used. This represents between 6.4 % and 22.3 %3 of the world's tropical forest. Secondary forests provide a variety of products and services that can contribute to improving socio-economic conditions particularly in rural areas, watershed protection, combating soil run-off and erosion, and commercial timber and NWFP production. If secondary forests are managed well they may - under favourable framework conditions - relieve the pressure on remaining primary forests, thereby effectively conserving biodiversity and genetic resources. More recently, the potential of this resource to sequester carbon from the atmosphere has become an important topic, and is discussed at international fora around the world.
In order to realize the potential of secondary forests we need to manage them in a sustainable manner. Unfortunately the management of this resource has received insufficient attention at local, national and international levels. More focus is needed on the socio-economic factors responsible for secondary forest formation, the interactions of secondary forests with other land-use types (farmers' crop and livestock production systems), and the environmental benefits this resource can provide. Particularly the translation to well formulated policies backed by adequate legal regulations and a supportive institutional framework is needed. It is within this context that a series of regional workshops (Tropical America, Asia and Africa) were developed.
The Nairobi Proposal is the result of the joint effort of the participants in the international workshop on "Tropical Secondary Forest Management in Africa: realities and perspectives" held at the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi, Kenya (9 - 13 December 2002). The workshop was organized by FAO, GTZ and EC-LNV, in collaboration with CIFOR and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).
The workshop in Nairobi focussed on secondary forest management in Anglophone Africa, and was the first of two workshops in the region. The second workshop will be directed at the Francophone African countries and will be held in Douala, Cameroon (17-21 November 2003). Both international workshops in Africa are part of a larger series of regional workshops, including those held in Pucallpa, Peru (June1997), for Tropical America4 and in Samarinda, Indonesia (April 2000) for Tropical Asia5. After completion of the 4 workshops, the end result will be a comprehensive overview of the state and importance of the world's tropical secondary forests, the priorities and strategies recommended to sustainably manage this resource, and the national and international support that is needed.
The workshop in Nairobi was attended by 30 participants from 15 countries in Anglophone Africa: Botswana, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Furthermore there were participants from Finland, Germany and the Netherlands and representatives from international development organizations, such as ATO, CIFOR, FAO, ICRAF and IPGRI. Participants included scientists and field experts, both from governmental and non-governmental (forest) organizations, with different disciplinary backgrounds.
Prior to the workshop, nationals of each of the sponsored countries prepared a country paper and selected experts wrote and presented thematic papers on the policy/institutional, social/economic and ecological/technical issues of secondary forest management. These papers can be found in the proceedings of the workshop6.
The workshop had the following objectives:
The observations and issues in this proposal are relevant to Anglophone African countries. They are based on the experiences and views of the participants from these countries during the workshop. The relevance and applicability of these findings have not been assessed yet for the whole of tropical Africa, thus the status of this proposal must be viewed from that perspective. After the second meeting for Francophone countries in Cameroon in November 2003, a more comprehensive elucidation can be given which will be summarized in an overall proposal for action for Africa.
1 Depending on the definition of "secondary forests", the estimated potential areas of this resource in Asia and Latin America were 87, 5 and 165 million ha respectively (FAO 1996).
2 Emrich, A., Benno Pokorny and Cornelia Sepp. 2000. The Significance of Secondary Forest Management for Development Policy. Published by GTZ/TOB/TWRP. TOB Series No.: FTWF-18e. Eschborn.
3 Iremonger, S., C. Ravilious, T. Quinton, 1997. "A statistical analysis of global forest conservation", Data Provider: World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC).
4 "International workshop on the current and potential state of management and development of secondary tropical forests in Latin America", by Amazon Cooperation Treaty (TCA), the Central American Commission on Forests (CCAB) , GTZ, & EC-LNV. Pucallpa, Peru. June 1997.
5 "International workshop on tropical secondary forests in Asia - Reality & perspectives", By CIFOR, GTZ, & EC-LNV. Samarinda, Indonesia. April 2000.
6 FAO - EC NLV - GTZ - CIFOR - ICRAF. 2003. Proceedings of the Workshop on Tropical Secondary Forest Management in Africa: reality and perspectives; Nairobi, Kenya; 09 - 13 December 2002 (in press).
