South-South Cooperation
Flows of Official Development Assistance (ODA) are often couched in terms of donor and recipient countries with the implicit assumption that donors are Northern countries and recipients are Southern countries. Whilst the major financial flows are indeed from North to South this view ignores the fact that Southern countries cooperate with other Southern countries through financial, technical, intellectual and personnel exchanges. Southern countries that have common problems may seek to find common solutions and to exchange ideas and experiences to achieve common goals.
There are numerous examples of South-South cooperation in relation to SFM and it is a form of cooperation that holds promise in achieving common goals. The recent developments in trans-boundary protected areas and the emphasis on international collaboration in African forestry research by organizations, such as African Forestry Research Network (AFORNET), attest to this.
An other example of coordinated South-South Cooperation, of direct relevance to SFM, is the UNESCO South-South Cooperation Programme's "Environmentally Sound Socio-Economic Development in the Humid Tropics". This programme uses the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) biosphere reserves as the basis of a cooperation programme to strengthen the reserve network in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The MAB programme seeks to strengthen the MAB biosphere reserves through the rehabilitation of degraded lands and improved agroforestry, forest ecology and sustainable land use.
Further information on the MAB South-South Cooperation programme can be found on theUNESCO website.