Rome, 18 February 2002 - Forest conditions improve when local communities are involved and have rights and capacities to participate in management of their forest resources and get some benefits back, studies have shown. But participation of local communities in forest management, even when recognized in national forest management legislation, is seldom put into practice on a large scale. How to help policy makers improve and implement local participation in forest management is one of the main topics to be discussed at the Second International Workshop on Participatory Forestry in Africa, starting in Arusha, Tanzania today.

The five-day workshop, held at the Arusha International Conference Centre, is organized by the Tanzanian Forestry and Beekeeping Division, in conjunction with the German Technical Agency for Cooperation (GTZ), and with the close technical support of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Over 150 participants from governments, non-government and community-based organizations from more than 30 African countries, as well as donors and international organizations will review the status of implementation of participatory forestry in Africa, share experiences and identify essential elements for promoting participatory forestry. The workshop will prepare a set of recommendations for the use of governments and donor organizations in implementing participatory forestry further.

"We need to identify the realities and facts about the achievements made so far, and we need to assess the factors that favour or hinder local initiatives in participatory forestry. These are important issues if we want to define a way forward for participatory forestry that will actually work," says Dominique Reeb, Forestry Officer, Participatory Forestry, from FAO's Forestry Policy and Institutions Branch.

The keynote speakers will be: Mr Said Iddi, Director of Forestry and Beekeeping, Tanzania, Ms Liz AldenWily, Independent Land Tenure and Community Forest Management Adviser, Kenya and Ms Katherine Warner, Managing Director, Forestry and Natural Resource Unit, Winrock International, USA.

Detailed case studies illustrating both successful experiences and lessons learned from eight participatory forestry management projects throughout Africa will serve as basis for the discussion. In addition will be shown two video portraits of participatory forestry management projects in Tanzania: "Joint forest management in Lushoto", and "Community-based Forest Management in Babati". Clip from video with villagers talking about the changes participatry forestry has brought to the community is available in english at this URL: http://www.fao.org/news/2002/img/forest.mov

Staff and villagers featured in the videos will be at the Workshop and available for discussions and interviews. The videos are available in Betacam SP format from FAO's Video Unit tel +39 06 5705 2062.

A topic touched upon during the workshop will be bush meat and food security. A web story is available at this URL: http://www.fao.org/news/2002/020203-e.htm

For further information on the Second International Workshop on Participatory Forestry in Africa, please contact:
Dominique Reeb, Participatory Forestry, Forestry Policy and Institutions Branch
c/o Novotel-Mount-Meru in Arusha
Tel: (255) 27 - 250 2711 / 250 2728 / 250 8804
Fax: (255) 27 - 250 8503 / 250 8221
E-mail: dominique.reeb@fao.org

Klaus Sarrazin, the German Technical Agency for Cooperation (GTZ), Arusha
Mobile phone: + 255 0744 - 784032

Workshop Web site
http://www.fao.org/forestry/fon/fonp/cfu/cfinfo/en/tanz-e.stm