Reducing deforestation and forest degradation and enhancing environmental services from
forests have become central to the global debates on climate change, conservation of
biological diversity and sustainable forest management. Towards this end, this project aimed
to contribute to ITTO’s Thematic Program on REDDES (Reducing Deforestation and Forest
Degradation and Enhancing Environmental Services from Tropical Forests). This was
achieved through scientific analysis of specific REDDES pilot areas in four ITTO member
countries in Africa and capacity building in the dissemination of scientific information and
effective interactions with policy makers at national and regional levels. In addition, the
project supported the organisation of a regional forest science congress, including a special
event organised by the African Forest Forum and ITTO.
The focus of the project’s work was on four REDDES pilot sites located in Cameroon,
Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria, and was clearly related to ITTO’s mandate, contributing directly
to ITTO’s Objective No. 2 as provided for in the ITTA, 2006. Furthermore, the project was
designed as a contribution to ITTO’s Thematic Programme on REDDES, pursuing specific
REDDES objectives such as (a) reducing unplanned deforestation; (b) reducing forest
degradation; and (c) contributing to the social and economic sustainability and well-being of
forest-dependent communities by increasing forest values through forest restoration and
rehabilitation. In addition, the project addressed three of the four strategic areas of the
Thematic Programme on REDDES including (a) assessment and diagnosis, by enhancing
availability and accuracy of data and information on the state of and threats to forest
resources; (b) enabling conditions and capacity-building, by supporting the formulation of
national forest policies including legislation as well as expanding the necessary national
capacity through training; and (c) scaling up and dissemination, through sharing information
and lessons learned locally, nationally, and internationally.
The project derived from the realisation that deforestation and forest degradation are driven
by a multitude of factors from outside and inside the forest sector. Population growth,
expansion of agriculture land for food and biofuels and poverty are factors external to the
forest sector, while commercial harvesting, firewood collection, excessive grazing and
uncontrolled forest fire are directly related to forest governance. Experiences in the past have
shown that successfully reversing deforestation and rehabilitating forests require work on a
complex mix of underlying causes that vary from country to country. In order to reduce
deforestation resulting in long-lasting expansion of the forest area and improvement in forest
conditions, site-specific solutions, reconciled with local communities, need to be designed
taking into account a wide range of ecological, socio-economic, cultural and institutional
aspects.
In many African countries adequate site-specific scientific information on REDDES
implementation is largely absent. Therefore the key problem was defined as “Insufficient
generation and dissemination of scientific information on REDDES for policy and
management”. This key problem was addressed through this project by working with the
forest science community in Africa towards strengthening the capacity in scientific analysis
and evaluation of REDDES implementation projects, and dissemination of the scientific
information to policy makers, forest managers, and local communities. The thrust of this
project was, therefore, to actively engage the forest science community in the development of
successful reforestation and forest rehabilitation programs in ITTO member countries in
Africa.
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Successfully reducing deforestation and expanding the area of rehabilitated forests (i.e. the
main focus of REDDES) requires a wide range of measures at national and local levels.
Besides appropriate national policies related to land tenure, expansion of agriculture land,
rural services (e.g. education, health, transport, etc.), biodiversity conservation, and subsidies
in the forestry sector, concrete examples of forest rehabilitation, so-called pilot areas, need to
be established. Based on a thorough participatory analysis of the ecological, social and
economic situation in these pilot areas, site-specific measures supported by local
communities can be designed. Once the process of REDDES has been successfully
introduced in some pilot areas, their number can gradually be increased to further expand the
area of declining deforestation and successful forest rehabilitation.
There is a strong link between the availability of adequate site-specific information and the
success of REDDES implementation. Experiences from many African countries show that
such site-specific information covering the whole range of ecological, socio-economic and
institutional environment is rarely available. The project addressed this shortcoming by
promoting the generation and dissemination of scientific information on REDDES for policy
and management. Towards this end, the forest science community played a vital role in
collecting, assessing and evaluating the necessary information and assist in designing specific
projects and interventions that could lead to successful establishment of REDDES activities
in the pilot areas.
The approach adopted for achieving the expected outputs were:
Output 1: REDDES pilot areas assessed. Groups of forest scientists were formed in each of
the participating countries with the task to conduct a comprehensive assessment and
evaluation of a potential REDDES pilot area (one pilot area in Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia and
Nigeria, respectively). The assessment was based on standard approaches including
ecological surveys, land use mapping, rural appraisal methods, and evaluations of the legal,
regulatory and institutional framework responsible for deforestation and forest degradation.
These types of information assisted in developing site-specific measures to be implemented
in the pilot areas.
Output 2: Scientific information on REDDES disseminated to and shared with policy
makers and forest stakeholders. It is commonly accepted that reducing deforestation in the
long term requires changes in local economies (e.g. energy consumption, land-use, income
generation, employment etc.) and thus support by policy-makers and society at large. In this
component the project sought to disseminate the results obtained in REDDES pilot areas to
national and regional policy makers and forest stakeholders such as local communities,
farmer’s associations, and environmental NGOs. Main avenues for communicating scientific
information on REDDES included the online FORNESSA Information Service
(www.fornis.net), existing communication channels between the local research institutions
and national policy-makers in the four participating countries, and closer cooperation and
exchange of information with the African Forest Forum at the regional level.
Output 3: Research and networking capacity of African forest scientists expanded.
Forest research institutions in Africa are continuously faced with problems related to human
resources capacity, research facilities and funding. One way of addressing these problems is
by intensifying collaboration in regional networks such as FORNESSA. The project,
therefore, contributed to capacity building as follows:
• As the regional coordinator of project activities, FORNESSA provided guidance to the
groups of forest scientists working on the REDDES pilot areas in the four participating
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countries. In this way, scientists learnt from each other across borders on methods and
approaches for assessment and evaluation of specific forest rehabilitation projects.
• Dissemination of scientific information will be published as policy briefs and summaries
for policy-makers, both nationally and globally on FORNIS, under the guidance of
IUFRO, thus expanding the capacities of the forest science community in the target
countries in science-policy interfacing.
• A regional forest congress was organised by IUFRO and FORNESSA in close
cooperation with ITTO and AFF in Nairobi, Kenya from 26 to 30 June 2012, primarily
involving forest scientists from Sub-Saharan African countries. In addition, IUFRO
scientists from other regions participated and contributed latest scientific results on
current issues related to climate change, biodiversity conservation, forests and water,
forests for people, and sustainable natural resources management. Within the framework
of the congress, a special one-day event for policy makers and forest practitioners was
organised by AFF and ITTO, aiming at enhancing interactions between forest science and
regional/national policy-makers and forest managers as well as enlarging ITTO’s
constituency in Eastern Africa.
While the three main outputs above were largely achieved, in this report we present
highlights of Output 1 for each of the participating countries, focusing on the problems
related to deforestation and forest degradation in each pilot site, the proposed strategies for
REDDES implementation and the associated activities to guide policy makers for successful
implementation.
In the pilot area of Cameroon (the Dimako district), the main drivers of deforestation and
forest degradation were proposed REDDES strategies were: (1) expansion of farmlands and
road construction; (2) illegal logging and overexploitation of the forest; (3) soil compaction
by heavy machinery retarding regeneration; (4) corrupt forest guards; (5) unsustainable
agricultural practices including shifting cultivation and forest burning; (6) unsustainable
collection of non-timber forest products (NTFPs); (7) and (8) illiteracy.
The key strategies developed in consultation with the relevant forest stakeholders are (i)
addressing overexploitation and illegal logging; (2) Enhancing sustainable NTFP collection
and diversification of livelihood activities; (3) reducing deforestation and degradation by
controlling expansion of farmlands; (4) improved fire management; and (5) enhancement of
the social and developmental facilities such as schools, health facilities, etc.
The drivers identified as responsible for deforestation and forest degradation in the Offinso
district, which was selected as the REDDES pilot site in Ghana, are: (1) population pressure
resulting in increasing demand for agricultural lands; (2) unsustainable agricultural practices
through shifting cultivation and forest fires; (3) unsustainable timber harvesting practices and
overexploitation; (4) land use changes; (5) corruption; (6) inadequate capacity of the forest
service to control illegal activities; (7) lack of involvement of traditional authorities (chiefs)
and local communities in forest management planning and decision-making; (8) weak law
enforcement.
To address these, the REDDES strategies developed with the stakeholders were: (1)
community-based fire prevention and management; (2) establishment of plantations
(afforestation, reforestation and forest restoration) and community woodlots; (3) sustainable
community-based enterprises and alternative livelihood schemes; (4) adopting sustainable
agroforestry and on-farm practices; (5) awareness creation and building the capacity of public
institutions, local communities, media and other identifiable groups on linkages between
sustainable forest management, environmental services and livelihoods and also to effectively
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engage in conservation mechanisms such as REDD+ and PES; and (6) community-based
sustainable forest management.
In Liberia, the REDDES pilot site was the Gola Yorma National Forest and its surrounding
Bopolu Statutory District. Here, deforestation and forest degradation are attributed to: (1)
slash and burn agriculture; (2) illegal logging and chain sawing; (3) heavy charcoal
production; (4) fuelwood extraction; (5) mining; (6) tree and cash crops establishment and
production; (7) illegal human settlement and pressure; (8) forest abandonment and neglect by
the Forestry Development Authority, Forestry Training Institute (FTI) and the University of
Liberia (UL); (9) unsustainable hunting and fishing; (10) poverty; and (11) unsustainable
harvesting of Non-timber forest products.
The proposed REDDES strategies are: (1) protection of forest lands from shifting cultivation;
(2) prevention of clearing primary forests for cash and tree crops establishment; (3)
increasing tree cover in farming systems (agroforestry); (4) afforestation, reforestation and
forest restoration in rural landscapes and cities; (5) formulating and implementing strategies
to curtail heavy charcoal burning and fuelwood extraction; (6) formulation and strengthening
of local community forest management committees to protect the forest; and (7) enforcement
of forest laws and regulations; (8) public education and awareness creation on REDDES; and
(9) creation of adequate employment opportunities and empowerment of more local
community youths.
The drivers identified as responsible for deforestation and forest degradation in Akure Forest
Reserve pilot site in the Ondo State of Nigeria are: (1) poverty; (2) illegal logging; (3)
unemployment; (4) lack of awareness and education; (5) population growth; (6) exclusion of
chiefs from forest decision-making process and no incentives to farmers; (7) development of
settlements/settlement (land use change); (8) ineffective forest guards (monitoring,
supervision, corruption); (9) ineffective government policies; (10) hunting; (11) bush
burning; (12) unsustainable farming practices; (13) NTFP collection; (14) lack of policy
enforcement and discipline.
Forest stakeholders in this pilot site agreed on the following strategies: (1) enforcing
discipline; (2) cooperation with government Policy; (3) tree plantations by individuals; (4)
reporting illegal tree fellers; (5) banning the setting of fires in the forest; (6) discouraging
people from participating in deforestation activities; (7) employment creation; (8) ensuring
equitable sharing of benefits from forest produce by giving the community 50% share of the
forest produce; (9) employing more forest guards; (10) providing fertilizers to farmers to
boost their produce; and (11) fulfilling promise of development by the government.
By and large, it is obvious that the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are similar
in the four pilot sites. The proposed strategies also have a great deal in common, not varying
much among countries.
On the whole, the implementation of this project was very successful, given that it involved
coordination of activities in four countries with diverse internal limitations. Notwithstanding
the challenges associated with the coordination of a project of this nature with limited
physical meetings between implementing institutions and scientists, the expected outputs
were achieved successfully within the limits of time and resources available.
The following lessons were learnt from project design and implementation:
• From a perspective of a global network such as IUFRO, the involvement of local research
institutions (IUFRO members) and a regional coordinator allowed adequate design and
steering of the project. The regional inception meeting to plan the work and adopt a
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uniform but flexible approach to meet the exigencies of locality-specific peculiarities in
each pilot area was very effective for successful implementation.
• With regard to local stakeholder engagement, the project should have had more resources
and time to organise additional working sessions, workshops and joint field visits, in
order to better promote REDDES strategies into local land planning and management.
• Joint learning processes with local stakeholders should be supported by experimental
field plots, demonstration areas and or test sites for novel approaches to land
management. These additional components require adequate additional funding to be
included in the project budget. Such demonstrational aspects in pilot sites augur well for
practical acceptance of the strategies developed, and could facilitate scaling up of
REDDES activities beyond the pilot areas.
• Future projects of this kind would need at least a three-year period of implementation.
Alternatively, an initial two year period should be subject to extension for another two
years. This will lead to higher impact of project results both at the decision-making levels
of government, as well as field-level testing and piloting.
From the perspective of operational aspects of project implementation the lessons learnt are
these:
• The REDDES expert groups consisted mainly of scientists from research institutions.
However, a thorough analysis of the complex problems of forest degradation would
require a more interdisciplinary group of experts from various specialised institutions
including universities, NGOs, relevant district level implementation agencies and other
interest groups.
• Close cooperation between the coordinators at the global, regional and country levels
worked very well. However, more opportunities for face-to-face meetings, at least once a
year, would be beneficial for information flow among project partners, discussions on
urgent project amendments and overall project steering.
• The flow of funds between ITTO and IUFRO, as well as between IUFRO and the country
partner institutions went well. ITTO provided the funds as planned; likewise IUFRO
mobilized additional resources to supplement the budget as agreed in the project
document.
All in all, the conclusions are summarized as follows:
• Identification: Addressing issues related to Deforestation and Forest Degradation and
Enhancing Environmental Services from Forests (REDDES) is particularly relevant in the
four West African countries that participated in the project.
• Design: The approach adopted for the project, namely working with local forest research
institutions which bring on board long-term experience in addressing land management
issues in the pilot sites, turned out to be an excellent way of mobilising available
scientific information and bringing these insights to the attention of local stakeholders.
However, the initial project period of two years has proven to be too short to sufficiently
disseminate the information effectively to relevant stakeholders.
• Implementation: Mobilising available scientific information has been successful, though
the composition of the expert team could have been broader in terms of scientific
specialisation and affiliation. In effect, there was insufficient time to arrange for wider
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local inter-agency cooperation. Te dissemination component of the project suffered from
the short duration of the project and inadequate funds. Additional face-to-face meetings
with stakeholders would have helped in better integrating REDDES information into local
decision-making processes.
• Organisation and Management: The decentralised nature of the project organisation
proved to be successful. Each national project partner (national research institution)
independently organised the work in their respective pilot site. IUFRO and FORNESSA,
as global and regional partners, facilitated the work in terms of coordination, financial
management and reporting.
The important outputs from this project are the REDDES strategies developed across pilot
sites. For these to be impactful it is recommended that these be implemented on a
demonstrational scale to allow replication and scaling up. Since relevant government
agencies were involved in the entire processes it is expected that the strategies would be
integrated into district level climate change mitigation activities. If this is done, then scaling
up would be facilitated. As an effective precursor action, however, it is recommended that
additional support should be provided for the project to be carried into a second phase for
demonstration of selected priority REDDES activities in each pilot site to facilitate
replication and effective up-scaling.