Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Why it is important to invest in locally controlled forests in Tanzania

There has been an increasing level of land-based external investments around large scale agricultural schemes or agri-businesses, biofuel developments and forest plantations largely mediated through government-corporate arrangements that in many cases have led to land and resource conflicts with local land users and rights holders. The returns on investments (economically, socially and environmentally) have been mixed. These evolutions also reflect a new narrative in at least some donor countries and agencies towards trade and market solutions in development aid that focus on the corporate sector itself driving change and delivering on development.
Participatory Forest Management – PFM being an approach adopted by Tanzanian legislation and policy is based on local forest and land rights holders and managers that have significant potential to address forest conservation, production and meet development goals without the risks associated with conflict over land and resource tenure. But it has not been the case with challenges related to commercial rights, benefit rights and facing difficulties where there is no government or donor support. This support over the past decade has provided the basic ‘enabling environment’ but there is now a need for innovative approaches in order to scale up and further evolve, for sustained investment to the local manager-producer entities, based on sound business plans and negotiated agreements with the private sector in processing and marketing. This is what we call ‘investing in locally controlled forests – ILCF.
Currently, this initiative is very much supported by WWF and has been promoting dialogue between local forest managers and others to promote enabling environment for the needed investments for viable forest enterprises that meet economic, environmental and social development objectives.

No comments:

Post a Comment