Mark Appiah

CO-PARTNERSHIP IN FOREST MANAGEMENT: THE GWIRA-BANSO JOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT PROJECT IN GHANA

The involvement of local communities, as well as the private sector and the government in forest management is now an important principle of tropical forestry policy and practice and a major component of most international forestry aid programmes. This paper present an analysis on the Joint Forest Management Project initiated by two timber companies (Ghana Primewood Products Ltd and Dalhoff Larsen & Horneman) in collaboration with local people in Gwira-Banso of Ghana. Conditions required for enhancing responsibility for and commitment to local forest management, and for an effective local participatory process were also analysed. The study began with the premise that incentives and good communication will enhance participation in joint forest management.The assumption was valid and the results from the survey showed that five broad issues prioritised by respondents to be essential for co-partnership in forest management are communication, financial support, tree planting, multiple land use and benefit sharing. The Project enjoys a great deal of support from the local community, but a number of factors make the continued support of local people a challenging task, including questions of immediate livelihood sources and tenure arrangements. Although this participatory forest management has been implemented over a relatively short period, there is evidence that government and private sectors can successfully involve local people in sustainable management of the forests.

Farm Forestry Prospects Among Some Local Communities in Rachuonyo District, Kenya

Deforestation and degradation of productive lands are serious threats to the sustainability of forestry/agricultural practices in Kenya. In the last two decades farm forestry (FF) has been promoted through pilot projects among local communities as an example of sustainable land use. However adoption of FF is limited outside the project locations because FF improvement measures focused mainly on biological (e.g. succession, biodiversity and traditional industrial timber production) and technical concerns (e.g. material input delivery such as providing free tree seedlings for field planting) rather than local values, and interests and the constraints facing farmers. This study examined the local farm priorities and constraints and the prospects for the wider implementation of farm-level tree planting in four communities in Rachuonyo District. Using interviews with 597 randomly selected household heads, the study assessed farmer’s production assets and activities, land tenure, priority tree species and the constraints to growing trees on farms. Results show that farm labour is represented by a young population, 56.3% under the age of forty. They are mainly engaged in small-scale mixed cropping integrated with multipurpose trees and some livestock. Tree products contribute about 32% to household cash income, more than any other source (agricultural products, labour sales, etc). Females were more often household heads and had considerable influence over productive activities, making them an important target group in FF development. Farmers preferred exotic tree species due to their ability to provide short-term cash income, fuel and shade. Farmers’ concerns included population pressure on limited farmlands and the problem of credit for agricultural inputs. Given the feeling of secured tenure arrangement and influence of tree products on the household economy, farmers are likely to invest more in efficient land uses such as FF if consideration is given to local priorities.