Chimere Diaw of the African Model Forest Network talks about the challenges and issues that motivate African Landscapes, and how the Model Forest Network and other initiatives like it are helping, at the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature in Africa Conference

1. Integrated Landscape
Initiatives in Africa and the
Model Forests experience
Mariteuw Chimère Diaw
African Model Forests Network

2. What challenges and
issues motivate and face ILIs?
 One or two issues are paramount in shaping 2/3
(64 %) of the initiatives
 On avge, initiatives with one or two primary motivations
had lower outcome scores even in their primary domain
 Multi-objective ILIs seem to be achieving a larger
number of positive outcomes
 Pay off within just a few years of ILIs investments in
landscape planning and coordination, institutional
capacity and co-dependencies
African ILIs can:
- bolster agriculture in ways that can be immediately effective and scaled up;
- provide crucial ecosystem services, conserve biodiversity and increase resilience
- demonstrate grounded alternatives to conventional Green revolution narratives
BUT
 They don’t yet invest enough in critical livelihood and impact areas
 They are more top-down than in Latin America
 We don’t yet know enough of the design and effectiveness of landscape institutions
and mechanisms to meet these challenges
 Shifting trends in foreign and climate finance can help move the process forward

3. A social map of landscapes
Initiatives (beyond a single landscape)
Great Green Wall TerrAfrica
Model Forests Network African Heartland
GPFLR
Landcare COMDEKS Climate/REDD+
Ecoregional Conservation
The biophysical space
Multiple ecosystems
All Land uses
high
low
high
The socialscape : Inclusiveness & robustness
of social organization & coordination
Local ownership
All actors &
stakeholders
Need to discuss & share the design
principles that can help getting there

4. African Model Forests
Searching for for ‘self-sustaining CBNRM systems’
In Africa, Model Forests came out of research
Adaptive Collaborative
Management
CIFOR
~
background with
Devolution, ASB (ILM
‘trade-offs’), Social
Science Methods, Tenure,
Social learning,
complexity and resilience
~
International Model
Forests Network
Flat network of networks
Robust set of principles
for building a change
vehicle of ‘7 generations’

5. What is a Model Forest?
A place, a partnership and a
process.
– The place is a landscape or
ecosystem scale area;
– The partnership is voluntary and
inclusive, from policy makers,
private companies, universities
and enterprises to local farmers;
– The process is a journey of
dialogue, experimentation, and
innovation designed to understand
what "sustainability" means in a
given landscape and then use the
partnership to work toward it.

6. Model Forests as hardware
 A Long-lasting change vehicles that can:
− outlive any single project
− absorb the shocks of erratic funding fashions
− invest in the long-term development of smallholders
and local value chains
Policy feedback loops: a deliberate process of
making government the co-owner of a local platform
innovating in transformational national policies
• Not a project but a life project, and a process owned by local actors
• Not just forests, but also cities, farms, fisheries, concessions, parks and the
interconnected web of activities in a landscape
• Not just communities, but an equal partnerships of all actors, big and small,
with their diverse sets of interests and values
• A method of pluralist gouvernance and
territorial dialogue

7. A non-profit panafrican organization
established in 2009 with support from the
governments of Cameroon and Canada.
Secretariat based in Yaoundé, Cameroon
We develop of local economic value chains
through social entrepreneurship, green
innovations and participatory governance
of African landscapes
The AMFN fosters public-private
partnerships and works with governments
research, indigenous and local people, the
private sector, NGOs, as well as regional
and international organizations

8. • Democratic Republic of Congo
• Republic of Congo,
• Central African Republic
• Rwanda
• Cameroon
• Ethiopia, Senegal
Governments are our partners
9 Model Forests have been launched over 16 millions hectares
in Central Africa – interest from 20 african countries

9. From structure to
infrastructure
SpatialWidth
Social Width
Time
Social Infrastructure
Critical mass + Critical
connections = sustainability
Structure
The social
landscape has
structure and
identity and is
represented by
a core group of
supra local
actors and
platforms
across land
uses
Yet …
Depth
Density
Connectivity
high
high
high
high
All Bio-social High
Emergenc
e

10. in understanding
and transforming
African landscapes
Overview of An African Model
Forest journey
1o years of investing

11. AMFN’s One Programme
The unified framework of economic intervention of the African Model Forest
Network in partnership with countries and organizations that support ILM
The AMFN’s vision is to see the african
private sector emerge and valorises
natural resources with the ability to
undertake sustainable transformation
that will give rise to a green and
solid economy .

12. 158 community
leaders trained as LEFs
and to create and conduct
businesses
An educational and business tool that links
local business ideas with markets
integration in a sustainable
environment, democratic
governance and ethical values in
Model Forests productions
2700 farmers trained
Innovative extension system
A business school for rural people
the Practical Itinerant School. Started in Dja and Mpomo and Campo
Ma'an Model Forests in Cameroon
Model Forest Focal Points
Farm schools
microfinance

13. • Ecological agriculture
• Agroforestry
• African natural plants (oil,foods,
nutriceuticals)
• Bio-fertilizer
• Wood processing
• NTFPs (collect, process, market)
• Eco-museum, parks
• Landscape restoration tree-planting
Our green innovations

14. Our Start up Social Entreprise
ALL
Model Forests’ social business umbrella
for organic products
Never Die
Moringa Center
ALL-Bio
mycorrhizae
center

15. Our social business model
Training, Capacity
Building,
Department of
Business
Development
Access to factors
of production,
innovation and
technology
Access to markets
and value chains
reinforcement
Smallholder
access to
financial services
and banking

16. Create local wealth
Markets
Resources
Non profit
(ASBL)
ASBL + AGR
Socially connected local
enterprises
CSR
Business as usual
maximum profit
Network of enterprises
Socially responsible
Business

17. The Model Forest
Green Business
label is developed
to support quality
production and
facilitate access to
local market
Our Green Social Business tools

18. A policy on access and benefit-sharing to
protect traditional knowledge and
intellectual property rights of
stakeholders and indigenous people of
Model Forest landscapes .
The Intellectual Property Program and Access to
Benefit Sharing

19. Multi-stakeholder Participatory, Monitoring
and Evaluation
An evaluation and
self-correcting
system based on
indicators of
changes

20. Restore landscapes through massive tree
planting and integrated agroforest stands
for food security and carbon markets
A transformation plan for 2024
Core
$50M
$300 M
~ . 11% GD
2024
Local output
2034
$ 1-3 Billions
2034
Local economic growth
&
$ 100 M
Design, test & deploy Investment Ready –
Climate Aware Landscapes with coalition of
private-public partners

21. Thank you
Let’s connect and join forces