Africa is endowed with many forests that have proved to be a source of income for countries, families, and many informal small scale entrepreneurs. Besides the economic benefits emanating from the forests, they also provide many other ecosystem services such as protection of water catchments, climate mitigation, food and medicines, construction materials, and wood energy.
The forests also provide habitat to several mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects, which support SADC’s ever-growing nature-based tourism. These values form the basis to warrant the management and protection of forests in southern Africa.
The realization of these benefits prompted the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) to convene a virtual webinar dubbed “Achieving sustainable forest management through research and development in the SADC region” from 17th to 18th November 2021
The main objectives of the webinar were to share information on the status of forest resource and management in the region; share information on the state of forestry research in the region; identify areas of synergy and potential regional focus areas; identify potential lead institutions (the equivalent of centres of excellence) for different research focus areas and develop a mechanism to integrate forestry research coordination into the CCARDESA programmes implementation model.
The CCARDESA Executive Director, Dr Cliff .S. Dlamini, told participants that sustainable agriculture could not be sustainable without sustainable forests. He also said that the webinar was the culmination of the realization that the SADC region and Africa have many instruments supporting the sustainable management of forests. He noted that there is also a clear recognition of the forest’s transboundary nature, which calls for a regional approach in finding solutions for sustainable resource use and management.
Dr Dlamini further informed the participants that CCARDESA and SADC were simply responding to the sustainable development goals and other UN agreements on forestry to trigger some action on sustainable forestry management. CCARDESA thus recognizes the implementation of the different instruments at country and regional levels. He highlighted the role of the forestry sector in supporting the achievement of the SDGs.
Mr Mafa Chipeta, a seasoned expert in forestry and food security, called upon the participants to focus on solutions and not problems. He further urged participants to look at indigenous trees instead of foreign species that may not adapt well. He also stressed the need to look at the forests in relation with the agricuture interface.
In his keynote address, Professor Godwin Kowero, the Executive Secretary of the African Forest Forum, refocused the participants’ attention on strengthening industrialization and regional integration of the African private sector. He called for an urgent need to legalize the production of charcoal by small scale farmers. He intimated that people need to change their mindset from seeing charcoal burning as a retrogressive activity and relook and address it as a progressive and income-generating activity. He called for a paradigm shift from the participants to boost industrialization. He also advocated for the formalization of small scale forests farms.
Professor Kowero also addressed regional integration among countries where new trade routes will allow for a smooth transition of forestry products from one country to another at minimal costs. He also lamented the attitude of crossborder authorities who unnecessarily illegalize the export/import of forestry products, but governments should instead see opportunities in the trade and legalize it to improve formal economic returns in the countries’ economies. He also noted an increase in consumption patterns of forestry products. He encouraged a mindset change by promoting reduced wastage during the production process to create a zero-emission to reduce greenhouse gases.
Prof. Yemi Katerere rationalized research and development in forestry and why people need to package the subject differently. He shared the need for a just transition for the energy sector. He cited the many people who are employed in the wood fuel sector. He noted a dissonance with the zero-deforestation pledges at COP26 and the heavy impact on jobs and livelihoods after the pledges were implemented. He steered the participants to explore the issue of a just energy transition from biomass to cleaner, renewable and affordable energy through research. At the academic level, Prof. August Temu highlighted the need for critical joint initiatives, including capacitating youths and the young generation in forests. He highlighted the need for a regional approach to capacity building, especially at the postgraduate level
Peter Gondo of the UNFF and Prof Paul Desank of UNFCCC shared with the participants the numerous funding opportunities available for countries. However, it was stated that countries fail to demonstrate global climate change, which is worsened by a lack of data to show the socio-economic development impact. They highlighted the availability of funds for community-based projects. However, the main challenge was how to build bigger programmes and projects, including what partnership and collaborative implementation course to pursue?. They highlighted the absence of experts in the region to develop winning proposals for funding and the unavailability of a resource mobilization committee to look for viable funding.
It was recommended that participants must establish funding committees where they will have cross-sectoral approaches to fundraising. In addition, countries were encouraged to form regional and transboundary initiatives and partnerships and strengthen the countries capacities in proposal design.
It was also stressed that participants should look into indigenous knowledge for solutions. For example, it was indicated that the adaptation agenda favours more existing indigenous practices, as opposed to the mitigation interventions that relate more to global imperatives. Hence, planting trees without a purpose could be replaced with planting important tree species such as fruits that bring economic value to the local communities and the countries.
In his closing remarks, the Executive Director of CCARDESA, Dr Dalmini, thanked the participants for attending the symposium. He intimated that despite their busy schedules, they still spared time to participate in the webinar. He encouraged participants to constantly keep in touch and urged them to share the information which could further enrich the CCARDESA report. Lastly, he stated that it was important that CCARDESA fill the regional gap in forestry. He also cited the critical role of academia and public, private partnerships, including the farmers. He resounded his optimism of a possible CCARDESA symposium to further the work which has just been borne. He assured the participants that the webinar is envisaged to give birth to a lot of progressive programmes.
The symposium attracted about 80 participants from the government, private sector, academia, UN agencies, regional forestry bodies, forestry networks, civil society and students.
