INVESTING IN TREES AND LANDSCAPE ... - PROFOR

average annual income of a farming household. In Zinder, each baobab tree can bring in $20 a year from
the sale of its edible leaves. Large-scale revegetation with native trees has benefited watershed functions
and wild biodiversity.
The most important catalyst for restoration was the regulatory revision under the Niger Rural Code. The
previous code disincentivized sustainable management of trees because they were federally owned. Local
action catalyzed by an NGO modified the application of the law; this modification spread and eventually
resulted in a new rural code that transferred tree ownership to farmers. Signed in 1993 and fully
implemented in 2004, it provided the needed confidence for farmers to invest in tree management without
fear of breaking the law. The past two decades have been a period of innovation in FMNR, supported
by international donors and NGOs. The World Bank, IFAD, and the U.S., French, German, and Dutch
governments have provided assistance in research and dissemination. NGOs (e.g., CARE and Serving In
Mission) have played the role of intermediaries and promoters in the field. Farmers have shown that FMNR
can be implemented at little cost and can yield significant benefits. Landscape restoration benefited from
cooperation among government agencies, NGOs, and donors. With most trees regenerated, there was little
need for tree nursery stock, and little role for markets.
International Investment and Land Acquisition
Rising prices for commodities of all types, especially food and bioenergy, has stimulated both
external and internal investment in African agriculture and agricultural land. International private
investment in agriculture, trees, and forestry over the past decade has been most attracted to
areas with significant underutilized cropland that has potential for improved productivity through
intensification of land management; for example, in Sudan, the DRC, Angola, Zambia, Mozambique,
the Central African Republic, and Tanzania (Roxburgh et al. 2010).
A rapidly growing form of investment has been through direct land acquisition (often referred to
by critics as “land grabs”), which occur in the majority of Africa countries, on tens of millions of
hectares. While the practice offers potential for raising the value of rural resources by guaranteeing
market outlets, employment, investment in infrastructure, and increases in agricultural productivity,
some question whether it is more than an extended outlet for industrialized food and biofuel
production systems with, in many instances, minimal consideration paid to fairness and equity
issues for the populations and environment where the acquisitions are occurring. A study by the
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) on behalf of IFAD and FAO (Cotula
et al. 2009) suggests that acquisitions in Africa—if they are not made properly—are increasing the
risk that poor people will be evicted or lose access to land, water, and other resources. The process
often involves speculators who acquire land at extremely low rates, hold it for a period, and then
sell it off at a higher rate. The study revealed that investor interest is focused on countries with
weak land governance and that investors often fail to follow through with their plans, in some cases
after inflicting serious damage on the local resource base. Land acquisition directed at “underused”
lands, such as protected areas and communal rangelands, can undermine ecosystem services in
landscapes by devegetating ecologically sensitive areas or undermining fallow systems essential to
sustainable agriculture.
66 INVESTING IN TREES AND LANDSCAPE RESTORATION IN AFRICA