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SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter summarises options that can enhance the contribution of the forestry sector to sustainable development in Zimbabwe. This is achieved by addressing the internal and external pressures being brought to bear on the sector during the next twenty years.

Depletion of indigenous forests

About sixty percent of Zimbabwe is under various forest types while some heavily populated districts have less than 30% cover. It is estimated that some 0.6% of the country’s indigenous forests are lost to agricultural expansion and other household uses such as energy supply, construction and food. In fact the current demand for commercial indigenous hardwoods cannot be met from the local resource alone. To address the problem of indigenous forest depletion the following recommendations are made:

Increasing the role and contribution of exotic plantations: Exotic plantations will increasingly become important ion future as timber processing companies thrive to complement the declining indigenous timber resource for their operations. However, since the area available for expanding large scale exotic timber production is limited, there is tremendous scope to engage communal and resettlement area farmers in exotic timber productions contract to large timber processing companies through outgrower schemes. This process has already started.

Recognising and supporting the increasing importance of trees outside forests: With the expansion of the agricultural frontier into traditional forest areas, trees outside forests are increasingly becoming important for the provision of timber and non-timber forest products and services at the local level. To address this problem, there is need to aggressively promote agroforestry and afforestation initiatives with emphasis on protected niches such as areas around the homestead, gardens and fields. The success of such moves will largely depend on adding value to non timber forest products and on improving their marketability in order to improve their competitive edge as a profitable land use system. It must, however, be noted that there is very limited data on the extent and state of these forests due to lack of information. Developing such a data base should be an important entry point.

Development of alternative energy sources: Sizable portions of indigenous forest areas are cut to meet household energy needs especially in the communal and resettlement areas. To reduce this over dependance on woodfuels there is need to intensify research into the development of alternative and appropriate technologies such as solar energy which has largely remained untapped.

The communal land tenure system

The communal land tenure system that operates in communal and resettlement areas is a disincentive to long term investment in natural resources such as forests largely due to lack of individual accountability on the resource. The situation has been exacerbated by the erosion of powers of the traditional leaders who used to oversee the observance of certain environmentally friendly resource management and utilisation regimes.

As a way of addressing the communal land tenure problem, emphasis should be placed on building and capacitating local level institutions so that the community as a whole can take collective responsibility over the communally owned resources. In this regard, the concept of Resource User Groups will have to be strengthened and expanded. Once established, such groups are trained in leadership skills, by-law information and technical aspects of forestry. Such skills and instruments are then locally used to manage, protect and sustainably utilise the forest resource for the benefit of both the community and ecosystem. The concept of Resource User Groups is already being implemented in some districts. This is going a long way into strengthening the enforcement of existing legislation which has hitherto been rather weak.

Reduced government support for sustainable forest management

The economic reform programmes being implemented by government have led to a reduction in the financial and human resources being allocated to statutory agencies who regulate and advise on the management and utilisation of natural resources. Such a trend is likely to persist.

To address this problem, the following recommendations are made:

The Forestry Commission, the state forest authority, should be restructured into a leaner and more efficient regulator and advisor in the forestry sector. This aspect is addressed later.

Communities, especially those in the communal and resettlement areas should be given incentives for effective participation in the protection and management of forest resources. This can be achieved by promoting activities that increase rural incomes from forest resources. These include the establishment of pole treatment tanks, beekeeping, craft production and the processing and commercialisation of indigenous fruits. Communities can be enticed into these ventures by the provision of a low interest revolving fund which can be administered at the village or district levels. The revolving fund concept is already being developed as a substitute to the support fund that used to be given to communities in earlier reafforestation programmes. However, in order to legally operationalise this recommendation, there is need to revisit and amend the Communal Lands Forest Produce Act that restricts the exploitation of forest produce by communal and resettlement area inhabitants to "own use" and prohibits the sale or supply of any forest produce to any other person. The Resource User Group concept highlighted earlier can then be used as a vehicle to protect and sustainably utilise the resource.

The private sector should be asked to fund specific aspects of plantation forestry development in which it derives a direct benefit. This has already started in research but needs strengthening.

The Forestry Commission should forge strategic alliances with relevant government and non government organisations operating at various levels in order to minimise duplication and reduce costs.

The forestry sector should develop a strategy for accessing financial resources from forestry related international conventions and agreements to which Zimbabwe is a signatory.

Shifting from the protectionist approach to gazetted forest area management

Biodiversity conservation in the 800,000 ha of gazetted indigenous forest areas in the country is being threatened by neighbouring communal area inhabitants who illegally occupy or obtain timber and non timber forest products from them. To address this problem, plans are under way to replace the colonial protectionist approach to conserving these forests to one which considers communities living on the "forest edge" as partners in their conservation, management and utilisation. This is being pursued through the development of resource and benefit sharing models and a new policy that reflects this positive shift is being finalised. In addition to benefiting communities such a policy, once implemented, will reduce the cost of protecting and managing gazetted forest areas as such responsibilities will be eventually shared with the beneficiaries.

Forest resource assessment and evaluation

The forestry industry contributes 3% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product. However, this does not include benefits derived by the nation and communities from various timber and non timber forest products and services that are not captured in the national accounts despite their increasing importance in rural welfare. This is exacerbated by the lack of comprehensive information on the indigenous forest resource base. For example, no information exists on timber volumes by species and age class. Furthermore, the forests are not classified by the dominant species. Such information is critical for the identification and subsequent economic evaluation of various timber and non timber products and services that flow from the forests.

In view of the above, the following is recommended:

An evaluation of the biophysical status and economic value of forest resources. The latter helps to establish the true contribution of forests to the national economy and can be used to lobby for more public sector support into the sector in future. On the other hand, biophysical assessments can assist in establishing the relative contribution of the country’s forests to carbon sequestration and to the ecosystem in general.

Given the increasing importance of non timber forest products and services, there is need to raise their profile and improve their contribution to rural incomes through value addition and the commercialisation of the resultant products.

Expanding the formal timber market

The local timber market for exotics is likely to remain depressed for the foreseeable future. Consequently, in order to improve viability in this sector there is need to place emphasis on value addition for the export market to generate the much needed foreign exchange. To achieve this there is need to invest in new product development and to upgrade the manufacturing and processing capacities of timber companies. The export market drive will also promote sustainable forest management by entrenching the certification process which has already been initiated in some indigenous forest areas and exotic plantation estates.

Capacity enhancement in the forestry sector

Given the increasing demands that will come to bear on the forestry sector during the next 20 years, there is need to enhance the resource base and product quality through appropriate research and human resource development initiatives as follows:

Given the long gestation period and large fixed costs associated with most tree related research initiatives, there is need to forge strategic alliances with other regional and international research institutions and networks. Furthermore, there is need to establish criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management at various operational levels as a basis for monitoring progress.

In the area of formal training, it is recognised that the country’s forestry colleges cannot survive from the local market alone given the small related size of the country’s forestry industry. To this end, there will be need to aggressively market these excellent training facilities throughout the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Getting an affiliate status with a renowned university can greatly improve the attractiveness of the training offered at these colleges regionally.

Apart from the formal training offered by the colleges, there is need for capacity building, through in service training, in order to tackle the new challenges facing the forestry sector. These include the current thinking to consider communities as partners in forestry development (through the devolution of authority and management responsibilities) as opposed to the "command and control approach".

 

Creation of an enabling institutional framework for forestry development

The hiving off of trading activities from the regulatory and developmental functions of the state forest authority will enable the new Zimbabwe Forestry Commission to become only a referee and not a player in the forestry sector. Such a development, which is nearing completion, will help the Commission concentrate on vision setting and (through a National Forest Programme) the creation of a conducive environment for the forestry sector to thrive. Furthermore, a streamlined state forest authority with a broadened revenue base will be able to competently translate and implement provisions of forestry related international conventions to which Zimbabwe is a signatory. The leaner organisation will have to work very closely with local level institutions such as Resource User Groups (described earlier) and relevant government and non governmental organisations reduce transaction costs and duplication.

With respect to wildlife, the imminent conversion of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management into a Statutory Fund will help to boost revenue receipts for wildlife conservation, management and sustainable use. In addition, it will help the department to recruit and retain experienced and qualified personnel.

 

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