This document discusses community forestry in Africa and the development of Model Forests. It outlines the history of community forestry efforts in Africa from the 1950s to present day, noting that while these programs have grown, challenges remain around scale, rights, and commercial potential. The document then introduces Model Forests as a framework aimed to address these challenges through broad local ownership, policy feedback loops, and long-term sustainability. Model Forests are defined as partnerships focused on understanding and working towards sustainability across entire landscapes and ecosystems through an ongoing process of dialogue and experimentation.

1. From community forestry to Model Forests
The search for self-sustaining CBNRM systems in Africa
Mariteuw Chimère Diaw, AMFN
RECOFT 1st WED annual lecture 2012, Sasersat Univ, Bangkok

2. Main points
• Community forestry, Africa, and key processes
and lessons: What we now know
• Pushing the boundaries: collaboration, adaptation
and multi stakeholder landscapes: ACM lessons
• African Model Forests
– The principles
– The process
– Preparing for African emergence and the new world
economy

3. What we know1
• Same global determinants for community forestry in Africa
– 1950s community development abandoned in the 1960s
– Himalayan, Sahelian and fuelwood crises (end of 60s)
– 70s-80s, integrated rural development projects, tree planting on-farm, reforestation,
more forests under state tenure and protection, investments in improved charcoal and
cooking stoves, Tropical Forestry Action Programmes (TFAP), village forestry, village
woodlots, local community forests and peri-urban fuelwood plantations.
– But still worsening forest loss and degradation, Structural Adjustment programs strongly
weaken African states
• Late 80s-early 90s, third generation known as rural forestry programs, social
forestry, and wood fuel - agroforestry programs
• Conceptual mismatch when CF moves from dry to humid forests in the 90s :
planting is fundamentally different from managing common property forests in
embedded tenure systems
• Nevertheless, slow and steady growth of CBFM; 35 countries by 2003 (~16% of Sub-
Saharan Africa)
• Different types and levels of community tenure but the state retains levels of
control and customary systems are only marginally integrated

4. The overlooked modern divide in Africa
Legal pluralism
Civil Rights Blood Rights
Most CBNRM
User groups ‘Tribal’ associations
Village federations
Farmer organizations
Peasant Movements
Collective Action groups
Local NGOs and movements
Urban NGOs
Fully transformed societies Community
Fully disembedded economy Embedded economy
Fully fledged Nation state Blood-based political institutions
Private property Embedded property regimes
Civil Society Embedded Networks
Citizenship Genealogical rights
Full jus soli Jus sanginis & delegated rights
electoral representation Kin-based representation

5. What we know2
• Different levels of tenure and rights but the richness of forests remains
a factor
– Tanzania and Gambia formalized CBFM registration at the District Council,
village by-laws, communities recognized as owner-managers, mandated to
manage the forest in more or less autonomous ways.
– Niger and Mali, fuelwood marketing by associations under sustainable
harvesting of resources, and rehabilitation of degraded forests ; Mozambique,
Uganda, Lesotho and Namibia are close
– In Cameroon, CBFM may only be established in unclassified forests, and is
restricted to a maximum size of 5,000 ha on a 10 years agreement period. By
contrast, Uganda, S. Africa, Ethiopia and Guinea Conakry allow CBFM in forest
reserves, including those with high conservation priority
– DRC has one of the most interesting CF legislation under the 2002 code, but still
not implemented 10 years later
• In practice:
– size remain limited,
– scale is still experimental,
– rights are more easily granted in poor forests than in rich rainforest areas

6. What we know3
The true potential of CBFM for employment and income has not been assessed
– Practice is more of subsistence than commercial nature and restricted to a limited portfolio of livelihood
provisions
• Nevertheless, communities are engaged in
– out-grower contract with multinational commercial companies (South Africa),
– timber-harvesting (Cameroon),
– fuelwood licensing programs and wood marketing (Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso),
– marketing fuelwood, particularly charcoal, selling fibres, including bamboos, rattans, palm leaves and
other plant products, or converting them to crafts and furniture,
– trading honey, bees wax, essential oils, tannin, dyes, gums, resins, latex, spices, balsams, various
extractives, flavors, medicines, mineral bases, etc. Many of the products are harvested, processed and
sold by women and youth.
– The volume of trade in medicinal plants has recently risen to a commercial scale in many countries, with
the sharp fall in public health services and increased cost of medical treatment in private clinics and
hospitals.
– Forests and forest product-based small scale enterprises are emerging as important players in the rural
development sector in SSA. Bottling of drinks based on plant products, sale of honey, bees wax, gums,
resins, oils, bitters and gels from Aloe, bush meat, insects, ethno-medicines, etc., are promising sources of
direct and indirect employment.
– Ecotourism is among the emerging forest-based industries that is growing fast in CBFM forests. A company
that manages a forest in Narok district in Kenya earns about US $ 13,500 p.a. from ecotourism alone
(Emerton, 2001). Another example comes from Kenya’s Arabuko Sokoke Kipepeo project that farms
butterflies. This project raises $30,000 annually

7. ACM Sites
11 countries, 30 research sites
50° 10° 70° 130 °
Kyrgyzstan
#
Nepal
30° # 30°
#
Philippines
#
#
Brazil Ghana #
Malawi
#
#
Indonesia
#
Cameroon #
#
Bolivia Madagascar
30° 30°
Zimbabwe
50° 10° 70° 130 °

8. Conservation
Campo Ma’an
Forest reserves
Ottotomo
Landscape mosaics
Akok-Makak
Council Forests
Dimako
Community Forests
Lomie

9. Model Forests as hardware
3 requirements stand out:
Broad-based local ownership of the
collaborative platform
Policy feedback loops: can be achieved through
a deliberate process that makes policy makers the
co- owners of a local process relevant to national
concerns
Long-lasting change vehicles: Model Forests
− can outlive any single project
− absorb the shocks of erratic funding fashions
− invest in the long-term development of the community
− Post ACM evidence proves that the current structure of R&D and
environmental projects is inadequate. All major institutional actors
have since pulled out from all the former ACM sites – illustrating this
fundamental vulnerability

10. 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 national policy
makers, 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.

11. A Model Forest is …
• Not a project but a life project, and a process owned by local
actors – « a forest for seven generations »
• Not just forests, but cities, as well as farms, fisheries and the
whole interconneted web of activities in a landscape
• Not a community forest; it includes community forests as
well as concessions, parks and the whole land use mosaic
• Not just communities, but communities at the center of an
equal partnerships of all actors, big and small, with all
their diverse sets of interests and values
• A method of pluralist gouvernance and territorial dialogue

12. Some
observations
No formal land authority – an alternative, interest-based
rather than right-based, approach of tenure
A program of work to give substance to the partnership’s
sustainability agenda and to influence broader policies
through learning and innovation
A nested network to help each other, share, learn, create
and innovate
Not two Model Forests are the same
– They share the same general goals and a group of six common principles
– But their cultural, geographic and sociopolitical characteristics make them
unique. Their activities and methods reflect this diversity. Some Model Forests
give high value to biodiversity conservation while others are more focused on
economic diversification.

13. The International Model Forests Network

14. A global horizontal network
A nested network of regional and local networks
Baltic Sea Landscapes
Canadian MFN
Regional
Boreal Forests Network
Asia
IMFNS
African MFN
Mediterranean
MFN
The IMFN

15. The AMFN Secretariat
Mission: To facilitate the establishment and development of a pan-
African network of Model Forests, well governed and representative
of the continent’s wealth and diversity.
2013 Objective
 3-4 new Model Forests in the Congo Basin
 Actual: 8 Model Forests – 6 new
7 strategic axes (Strategic Plan)
 Institutionalizing the AMFN
 Supporting new African Model Forests
 Networking African Model Forests
 Political dialogue and public policies
 Adapting and monitoring the MF concept
Campo-Ma’an Model Forest
 Mobilizing resources and Partnerships Cameroon
 Managing knowledge and communications

16. Cameroun : 2 Model Forests
RDC : 4 Model Forests
Rwanda: 1 (Gishwati)
CAR: 1 (Lobaye)
Algérie, Tunisie, Maroc (3)
Ongoing processes: Congo,
Gabon, Burundi, Sénégal,
Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Sierra
Leone
International
Model Forests
Network Avec le soutien du Gouvernement du Canada

17. - AMFN Business Model -
1. Local Governance
2. A strategy of emergence:
Green, socially green
businesses

18. The AMFN’s One Programme
Heritage and Eco- •Recherche-action sur l'éco-tourisme en rapport avec le développement des communautés locales et
autochtones
•Réaliser l'inventaire du potentiel éco-touristique et culturel et développement de circuit stouristique s
tourisme •La création et l'exploitation des circuits éco-touristiques pouvant mettre en valeur les produits du terroir
•Formation aux métiers du tourisme et conduite et création d'entreprises (CCE) en éco-tourisme
•Établir les bases pour la mise en place d'un Centre de prototypage des PFNL et le développement de filières;
•Mise en place de laboratoires virtuels d'expérimentation des chaînes de valeur (création des unités de
NTFP-based Entreprises transformation, coopérative, transport, commerce, etc.)
•Explorer des opportunités d'affaire au niveau national, sous-régional et international au profit des
asssociation qui en assume la transformation et la commercialisation locale
Wood and wood •Établir un Centre de prototypage et explorer des solutions innovantes de valorisation du bois
•Développer des moyens adéquats pour valoriser la ressource ligneuse (Ex: unité de séchage du bois)
•Optimisation de l'utilisation et de la transformation des sous-produits du bois en objets de haute qualité et à
residues grande valeur ajoutée (parpaings, meubles, supports et objets divers en bois de récupéraiton)
Éco-agriculture and •Maîtrise des techniques d'élevage non traditionnel (apiculture, héliciculture, allaculture, aquaculture, etc.)
•Amélioration et diversification des techniques culturales (agriculture, sylviculture, bio-fertilisant, etc)
•Mise en place de dispositifs de recherche sur l'interface sécurité alimentaire / savoirs endogènes
rural businesses •Prospection des techniques et technologies innovantes alliant la productivité à la gestion environnementale
durable
•Explorations d'énergies alternatives répondant aux besoins énergitiques des populations locales et même
urbaines contribuant à la lutte contre la déforestation (solaire, éolienne, bioénergie, barrage, biomasse, etc.)
Water, energy & Health •Mobilisation de partenaires pour la recherche des solutions technologiquement efficaces à des coûts
compatibles avec les moyens localement supportables (Ex: L'approvionnement en eau potable , la
construction des infrastructures d'hydraulique villageoise, etc)

19. Partnerships for growth and sustainability
Territorial
Dialogue
Locale One Enhancing
biodiversity & its
Gouvernance
Programme business value
Local Eco-
entrepreneurship

20. The Model Forests Practical
Itinerant School

21. Microfinance Programme
Aim: Strengthen the financial autonomy of small and
very small eco-entrepreneurs
Specific objectives:
•Promote local businesses
•Better understand and make use of markets
•Strengthen management and technical capabilities
•Improve access to financial and non financial services
Assumption :
•Microfinance is more effective than conventional
development projects for promoting entrepreneurship,
particularly among wormen
•Women and other rural entrepreneurs need financial and non
financial services adapted to their needs

22. Socially green economy and appropriate technologies
 Ecoagriculture using biofertilisers (Inoculum : mycorhize, bactéries, etc.)
=> experimental Programme with Univ of Yaoundé
 Ecoagriculture project in the periphery of parks in the Cameroon Model
Forests, Ministry of Forests/FAO
 BioChar and UriChar project (to be negotiated with logging companies)

23.  African plants, Non Timber Forest products
 Wood and organic residues

24. Heritage and Indigenous knowledge
VarNast program
 Developing NTTFPs value chains for
nutritional food, cosmetics, aromatics,
pharmaceuticals, and neutraceuticals
 Sacred natural sites and indigenous traditional knowledge project
 Social and community forestry
STEP Project (Stimulating Entrepreneurship through Partnerships)
– Indigenous communities, ecotourism, giant snails and wooden pens

25. Water and Energy (to be developed)
Biomass, éolienne, micro-barrages, solaire,
foyers améliorés haut de gamme à base de charbon écologique, etc.)

26. Ecotourism and parks
The painted trees international initiative

27. Merci !