P.K. Nair ([email protected])
About 600 representatives of 82 countries participated in the first World Congress of Agroforestry, held on 27 June - 2 July 2004 in Orlando, Florida, USA. The participants adopted the "Orlando Declaration," a document outlining the roles of the different sectors in enhancing the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The Orlando Declaration states:
"We, the participants from 82 countries who gathered in Orlando, Florida for the 1st World Congress of Agroforestry, declare that over the past 25 years significant progress has been made in building a scientific foundation for the design, installation, and management of agroforestry systems. This progress has allowed farmers to increase crop yields under resource-poor conditions. The resultant gains in crop production and diversification, economic performance, and environmental benefits serve to illustrate the value of agroforestry research and technology development efforts and argue for the need to expand our gains to better meet societal demands.
Agroforestry is a dynamic, ecologically-based, natural resources management system that, through the integration of trees on farms, ranches and in other landscapes, diversifies and increases production and promotes social, economic, and environmental benefits for land users. Unfortunately, to date, insufficient emphasis has been given to raising the awareness of many policymakers, natural resource professionals and farmers regarding the potential of agroforestry.
This Congress declares that the adoption of agroforestry systems and technologies during the next decade will greatly enhance the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Advances will be achieved by building on past research accomplishments and the expanded stakeholder base of agroforestry, which now includes private/public partnerships, communities, ecologists, conservationists, foresters, farmers, indigenous peoples and policy makers in both temperate and tropical countries. Agroforestry will:
Increase household income by diversifying farming and forestry systems to generate profits from the sale of high-value trees and associated products, and creating options to lift millions in the developing world out of poverty;
Promote gender equity and empower women, who often are responsible for the use of agricultural and forest resources and marketing their products in developing countries;
Improve the health and welfare of people, especially mothers, children, and HIV/AIDS sufferers, by increasing the food and nutritional security of households through the domestication and cultivation of trees and associated companion crops for their nutritious and medicinal products; and
Promote environmental sustainability for improved crop production, natural resource management and biodiversity conservation by restoring ecological processes that increase soil fertility, sequester carbon, create native species habitat, and maintain hydrological processes and other ecological services on degraded agricultural lands and in watersheds.
The Congress calls upon the:
International community that supports and implements international agreements and commitments of the Conventions related to Biodiversity, Desertification and Climate Change, as well as the United Nations Forum on Forests, to endorse the significant role of and the enormous potentials afforded by agroforestry in accomplishing their targeted objectives and goals;
International organizations, agencies, and institutions to foster synergies and collaboration on dryland management and the special needs of the countries of low forest cover, within the context of the Tehran Process;
International donor community to increase its support for research, development and education to accelerate progress in agroforestry science, to foster effective transfers of agroforestry technology options, and to assist developing countries in formulating related agroforestry policies;
Developed nations to fully utilize agroforestry as a tool to improve landscape functioning, on-farm profitability and environmental quality domestically, and to support the efforts of developing nations to build capacity and to mainstream agroforestry to help alleviate hunger and poverty and improve the environment to enhance human health;
Developing nations to integrate agroforestry into their poverty-reduction strategies by formulating and adopting appropriate policies;
Private enterprise sector to join in existing and emerging private and public partnerships to help incorporate agroforestry into a sustainable future for people and societies;
Non-government organizations to promote agroforestry nationally and internationally for local development and conservation efforts;
Global conservation community to utilize the science and practice of agroforestry as a powerful ally in the effort to reduce species extinction risks and strengthen the viability of protected area networks;
Scientific community to recognize the value of agroforestry and include it in its efforts to advance the generation of knowledge that can benefit human welfare; and
Educational community to vigorously integrate agroforestry into its training and educational efforts to build the capacity of natural resource professionals and land users.
There is a global need for increased investments to support research, technology development and extension to improve the integration of agroforestry with broader natural resource and watershed management efforts. We urge governments to highlight the role of agroforestry in their poverty eradication strategies, provide funding and develop policies that promote agroforestry adoption to spark an agroforestry revolution. - Orlando, Florida, USA, 2 July 2004"
The Orlando Declaration is hoped to guide and encourage the collective action of all stakeholders in globally advancing the science and practice of agroforestry. For more details, please visit http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/wca/.
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EU-UNDP expands small grants program for community forestry in South and Southeast Asia Mark Sandiford ([email protected]) The European Union (EU)-funded, and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-managed Small Grants Programme for Promoting Tropical Forests (SGP PTF) in South and Southeast Asia has been the subject of increased grant-making activities since the first call for proposals was announced in January 2003. The SGP PTF provides small grants (from Euro20 000 to Euro150 000), on a competitive basis, for community-led initiatives that promote the sustainable management of tropical forests. It has received 724 formal proposals from community groups in Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, of which 69 have received funding. The SGP PTF is mandated to conduct grant-making activities until December 2007. It has a total budget of Euro15 132 497. The program has been expanded to include Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. A total of 171 formal applications were received from Malaysia and Sri Lanka, and a lot more are expected when the formal call for proposals is announced in Indonesia in January 2005. Efforts are underway to expand the SGP PTF activities into Cambodia and Lao PDR. If successful, formal calls for proposals in these two countries will be made by the first quarter of 2005. A unique funding facility, SGP PTF focuses on the rural poor who live in and from forests. It works on the principle that individual country programs are country-led both in terms of their overall strategy and project selection. Instead of a centralized handling of grant proposals, voluntary national steering committees (NSCs) are entirely responsible for the selection and approval of grants. NSCs mainly consist of senior experts from civil society; however, they also include representatives from the national government, EC and UNDP. The application procedure for grants takes the generally low capacity of community groups to prepare proposals into consideration, and thus encourages short concept papers in local languages. These concept papers are then transformed into full proposals. Processing the applications takes from three to six months due to the enormous demand for small grants. The SGP PTF concept fits in well with the current trend of many governments in South and Southeast Asia towards the decentralization of natural resource management. The increasing awareness of the failure of centralized state control to adequately manage natural resources, and in particular forests, has led to a plethora of initiatives, policies and laws that increasingly recognize the rights, roles and obligations of communities in the sustainable management of their natural resources. Implementation of these new community-centred policies and laws is promising, as is the increasing ability of rural communities to engage the local government in these new-found rights and responsibilities. Forest-dependent communities in the region, who form the central focus of the SGP PTF funding, often represent the most marginalized of civil society, live in miserable poverty and have little awareness of or access to either state or donor resources. The focus on forest-dependent communities has enabled SGP PTF to actively engage indigenous peoples and the rural poor in developing alternative sustainable livelihoods and bringing to the fore indigenous forest management practices, to ensure the sustainable use of their forest resources. By engaging in such initiatives, the SGP PTF recognizes the need for active coalitions involving a broad range of local stakeholders to ensure project sustainability after grant funding. Furthermore, the SGP PTF has sought to increase the immediate impacts of country programs through joint funding initiatives with other small grant donors, local government funding and the private sector. The most important co-financing initiatives to date have been established with the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded small grants program. A total of nine joint projects have been approved to date. The SGP PTF is currently subject to an independent midterm review. For further information on this unique funding facility, please visit the SGP PTF web site at www.sgpptf.org or contact the Regional Programme Coordinator directly at [email protected] |
Rameshwar Singh Pande ([email protected])
Nepal is among the pioneers of community based forest management. About 20 percent of its natural forests have been handed over to community forest user groups (FUGs) comprising 1 422 301 households (CFD 2004). These community forests have significantly improved the supply of timber, fuelwood, leaf litter and other forest by-products. Afforestation has also transformed denuded land into a green landscape.
However, the wide use of Pinus species (at high stocking rates) has drastically reduced the growth of the herbaceous undergrowth, thereby affecting the availability of forest fodder. Forage production, using high-yielding perennial species inside the community forestlands, was considered an option for diversifying community forest products to meet fodder requirements and provide income-generating activities to the FUGs.
NACRMLP for sustainable forage production
The Nepal-Australia Community Resource Management and Livelihood Improvement Project (NACRMLP) has been active in Nepal’s Kabhre Palanchok and Sindhu Palchok districts for the last 30 years. The sixth phase (2003 - 2009) of the Australian Aid for International Development (AusAID) project is currently being implemented. The project aims to develop and institutionalize equitable and sustainable community-based natural resource management systems, to improve the rural livelihood and reduce poverty among the FUGs.
Women forest user groups cultivating forage in Nepal’s community forests.
The project is collaborating with 800 FUGs, comprising 73 915 households that are managing 44 589 ha of community forestlands, in the Kabhre and Sindhu Palchok districts. About 19 percent of the community forestlands are degraded, barren and underutilized (Kanel and Kanel 2004). Sparsely planted community forest areas, dominated by unwanted bushes and weeds, offer ample opportunities for forage development.
Aside from the FUGs, the landless poor and disadvantaged groups also rely on communal resources for fodder. Compared to the land-rich FUG members, they have insufficient land for on-farm fodder production. To address this problem, NCRMLP has enabled the landless poor, women and disadvantaged groups to pilot and facilitate forage development activities in community forestlands. The project has also been helping FUG members to enhance fodder supply through on-farm forage development programs, school forage programs and landslide/roadside forage production.
Forage development in community forestlands
To address equity issues in resource sharing, the project has assisted in the formation of forage subgroups within the FUGs. These subgroups comprise the relatively poor and the disadvantaged community and/or women groups. After rigorous meetings and discussions, blocks of land for forage production were allocated to the forage subgroups. Policies and guidelines on forage development/management were also formulated.
The project has provided technical know-how, seeds and vegetative planting materials. Different forage species, including stylo, joint vetch, molasses, ipil-ipil, and Wynn cassia, have been planted together. Mixed planting diversifies the forage species (legumes vs. non-legumes, shrubs, herbaceous and climbers, etc.) and maximizes land use.
The subgroups have implemented minimal tillage operations. To date, some 58 FUGs have been formed and about 80 ha of community forests have been developed as forage blocks.
On-farm forage production
A separate on-farm forage production program was initiated for the land-rich FUG members to improve fodder supply on terrace risers. Each FUG member received a packet of seed mixture weighing 200 g, estimated to be sufficient for 500 m2. Over 5 000 households have established forage blocks in their backyards.
Forage development along roadsides and landslide areas
The roadsides and landslide areas were considered potential sites for fodder production. In these areas, NACRMLP was jointly initiated with the respective Department of Soil Conservation district offices.
School forage development program
Every household engaged in the raising of livestock should have easy access to fodder supply. But since it was not possible to include all FUG members due to time and resource constraints, the NCRMLP, in collaboration with the District Education Offices, established forage blocks in schools.
Through the school forage development program, the youth were made aware of the importance of improved forage crops, and were also provided opportunities to widen the scale of the forage cultivation program. Each child was provided with a small packet of forage mixture containing 10 g of seeds. Simple planting instructions were printed on the bags.
Production of forage planting stock and establishment of seed production centers
The seeds and vegetative materials were imported from other districts and/or from Australia. However, this practice could not be sustained to meet the growing demand. Hence, private and community-managed forage resource centers were established at various strategic sites.
Project outcomes
Although being implemented on a pilot scale, the overwhelming response from the FUGs, especially the women, indicated the success of the project. FUGs in Bhedigoth, Thulo sirubari and Sindhu, for example, were already using their fodder income to venture into vegetable production. Similarly, other FUG members were also earning income and planning to venture into other livelihood and production schemes. The forage subgroup of the FUG in Goisakund, Kabhre district decided to conserve its forage in situ, as its allocated forage block was too small to meet the needs of all its members.
The subgroup decided to harvest its forage during "Tiz" - - a special Hindu festival for women that occurs during September/October.
(1) Woman farmer harvests Mott napier in Kabhre, Nepal.
(2) Goats feeding on Mott napier in Kabhre, Nepal.
The women harvested the forage as they sang and danced their sorrows, anxieties and happiness on the eve of the festival.
References:
(1) Community Forest Division (CFD). 2004. Nepal: CFD, Department of Forestry, HMG.
(2) Kanel, K.R. and B.R. Kanel. 2004. Community forestry in Nepal: achievements and challenges. Journal of Forest and Livelihood, 4(1).
The author can be contacted at the Nepal-Australia Community Resource Management and Livelihood Improvement Project (NCRMLP), Satdobato Lalitpur, PO 208 Kathmandu, Nepal
