January 06, 2016 at 05:18PM Congo Basin: managing forests in line with stakeholders' resquirements

Maintaining the natural wealth of forests and enabling people to use their resources fairly... this is the admirable idea behind multiple-use forest management. However, since its inclusion in the legislation of Congo Basin countries in the mid-1990s, this type of management has not been widely applied, if at all. There are several reasons for this: the planned uses do not meet the needs of local communities, there have been numerous disputes, and funding has been insufficient.

To remedy this situation, CIRAD researchers and their partners have come up with an approach centring on the practical benefits obtained by the various stakeholders rather than on major global issues such as biodiversity protection or carbon sequestration. It is based on solutions developed jointly by logging firms, the authorities and local people. By virtue of a series of realistic compromises, concessions would no longer solely be devoted to timber production, but would be seen as one of the elements in a vast whole: a sustainable, fair forest landscape. Logging firms could fund local development of activities such as agroforestry or individual enterprise, in return for tax relief. Local communities, the main beneficiaries of those new activities, would in turn be expected to curb their illegal activities.

However, if stakeholders are to be convinced to change their behaviour, the State has to introduce financial incentives to foster local socioeconomic development, at the expense of tax revenue paid to the central authorities.

via CIRAD - Actualités / News http://ift.tt/1PSp1Z6