13. Legislation, Policy, Training, Institutional Framework and Cooperation

In addition to the country reports, there is a detailed review of forest policies and legislation in SADC countries by Kohler (2001) and Alden Wily and Mbaya (2001). Most of the SADC countries have had some form of legislation relating to the management of forest genetic resources that dates back to the beginning of the 20^th century. These policies and legislation are either directly on forestry or indirectly relate to forestry resources. Most of the legislation relating to forestry in most of the SADC countries was recently reviewed and improved (Table 9).

Table 9: Legislation and policies related to forestry in individual SADC countries*

Country	Forest Legislation	Related legislation	Forest policies
Botswana	Forest Act (chapter 38:04) and Herbage Preservation (prevention of fires) Act (1992)	Wildlife Conservation and National Parks Act (1992), Seed Act (1976)
Lesotho	Forest Act (1998)	Land Act (1979)	National Forestry Policy of 1997
Malawi	Forest Act no. 11 of 1997		National Forestry Policy of 1996
Mauritius	Forest and Reserve Act (1983)	The Wildlife and National Parks Act (1991), Environmental Protection Act (1991)
Mozambique	Forest and wildlife Act (1999)	Reform Land Law, no. 19 of 1997	National Forestry Policy 1997
Namibia	Preservation of trees (forest ordinance No. 37 of 1952, Forest Act (1968) Draft Forest Bill, (2001)	Communal land reform bill 2000	Draft National forestry Policy of 2001
South Africa	Nation Forest Act, no. 84 of 1998	South African Veld and Forest Fire Act, 1998	National Forestry Policy of 1996
Swaziland	Private Forests Act, no. 3 of 1951, Forests Preservation Act, no. 14 of 1910, Private Forests act 1961.	Natural resources act, no. 71of 1951	Draft National Forestry Policy 2000,
Tanzania	The Forests (reserved trees) order 1995; Draft Forest Bill 2000	Land Act 1999 and Village Land Act 1999	National Forestry Policy 1998
Zambia	The Forests Act (1999)	Lands act (1995)	National Forestry Policy 1998
Zimbabwe	Forest Act (Chapter 19:05 revised in 1996) and Communal Land Forest Produce Act (1987)	Communal Land Act (chapter 20:04), Natural Resources Act (chapter 20:13), National Parks and Wildlife Act (chapter 20:14), Land Acquisition Act 1992	Draft National forestry Policy of 2001

* Sources: Individual Country Reports; Alden Wily and Mbaya (2001); Kohler (2001);

The legislation directly related to forest genetic resources has been the main instrument used in the conservation and sustainable utilization of forest genetic resources. Besides their national legislations and policies on forests, all the 11 members countries of the SADC (with the exception of Lesotho for the CITES) have ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), the Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The management of forest genetic resources falls under forest departments or quasi government departments in most of the SADC countries. Table 10 shows the forest authorities in the 11 SADC countries. In addition to the official public institutions directly involved in forestry, there are other government departments as well as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) that are also involved in the management of forest genetic resources. The management of forest reserves and forests in national parks is the responsibility of the forestry and national parks departments respectively. NGOs usually complement the work of these official departments.

Table 10: Forest authorities in 11 SADC countries

Country	Forestry Authority
Botswana	Division of Forestry and Range Ecology (Min. of Agriculture)
Lesotho	Forestry Department
Malawi	Forestry Department (Min. of Natural Resources)
Mauritius	Forest Service
Mozambique	Forestry and Wildlife Department (Min. of Agriculture)
Namibia	Directorate of Forestry (Min. of Environment and Tourism)
South Africa	Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
Swaziland	Forestry Section (Min. of Agriculture and Cooperatives)
Tanzania	Forestry and Beekeeping Division (Min. of Environment, Natural resources and Tourism
Zambia	Forestry Department (Min. of Environment and Natural Resources)
Zimbabwe	Forestry Commission (parastatal).

* Sources: Country reports; Alden Wily and Mbaya (2001).

A number of universities and colleges in the SADC offer training from certificate to degree level in forestry. Degree level training is offered in Mozambique (University of Eduardo Modlane), Tanzania (Sokoine University) and in South Africa (University of Stellenbosch, University of Natal, University of Pretoria and the Port Elizabeth Technikon). Diploma level training is offered in South Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Botswana is in the process of establishing diploma level training at its agricultural college.

The SADC forestry Sector Technical Cooperation Unit (FSTCU) previously based in Malawi and, at the time of writing this report, was being transferred to Botswana, is responsible for the regional coordination on all matters pertaining to the forestry. The SADC provides a framework for cooperation among its member countries. The community’s forestry sector policy aims to develop and implement regional projects. The six components of this policy are (i) forestry training and education, (ii) improved knowledge of the forest resource base (forest resources assessment and monitoring), (iii) forestry research, (iv) natural and exotic forest resources management, (v) forest industries, markets and marketing and (vi) environmental protection. The current SADC-FSTCU initiatives include the establishment of a forest resource data bank, development of a forestry protocol for SADC support to a regional programme on biological diversity and project on domestication, genetic improvement and marketing of indigenous fruits.

Already there are regional activities such as the evaluation of agroforestry trees species and indigenous fruit tree species, coordinated by ICRAF. The new project on domestication of indigenous fruit tree species of the SADC countries will also be a regional project. Other notable regional initiatives include, (i) the establishment of a regional forest training centre, the Forest Industries Training Centre (FITC) in Mutare, Zimbabwe which offers certificate and diploma level training in wood technology and saw doctoring, (ii) the recently concluded project that saw the successful establishment of tree seed centres 12 SADC countries, (iii) the Southern African Network of BioNET-International (SAFRINET) a sub-regional taxonomic network for the identification of organisms and access to information on these organism and (iv) the establishment of a SADC gene bank in Lusaka Zambia.