Managing the Miombo Woodlands of Southern Africa - PROFOR

delivery mechanisms set up by CAMPFIRE to channel donor resources. Delivery mechanisms for
integrated conservation and rural development activities were superimposed on CAMPFIRE’s PESlike
structures. As fi nancial benefi ts often ended up with district councils rather than with participating
communities, the incentives to participate were weakened.
In Mozambique, a similar effort has been launched in Sofala Province that seeks to link PES with
local community conservation and rural development efforts (Hegde and Bull, technical annex 2).
Participating communities receive conditional payments for carbon sequestration if they adopt various
tree-planting measures and agree to limit woodland clearance activities. In the medium run this is
likely to raise incomes and diversify livelihoods, but in the short run households have been reluctant to
adopt these measures owing to liquidity shortages and risk aversion. The bulk of payments to farmers
are front-loaded—disbursed in the fi rst years after planting. Therefore carbon buyers (represented
by the company Envirotrade, which is handling the deal) have relatively little leverage on carbon
outcomes because they are unable to determine what the farmers do with the trees at a later stage.
To improve the incentives for participation in the PES scheme, the project also provides support for
various activities that add local value to woodland management through, for example, carpentry.
The miombo region has yet to see the development of a “pure,” fully commercially-oriented
PES initiative. Particular preconditions, weak local governance structures, and poor prospects for
developing environmental service markets suggest that mixed PES/rural development initiatives
stand the best chance of success in terms of both conservation and poverty-alleviation impacts.
While PES activities can be implemented in a community context, sustainability will be limited if the
preconditions and governance structures are not enabling. More pure PES arrangements should
be tested, as these may be more attractive to commercial partners in future carbon markets. More
conventional markets offer perhaps a greater opportunity to people living in miombo regions.
2.5 MARKETS ARE DEVELOPING AND EXPANDING
Indeed, in addition to emerging markets for environmental services, there are new niche markets for
forest products, rapidly expanding urban markets, new buyers of old products, and new communication
technologies that can help to improve market access for the poor. These emerging market trends offer
promising opportunities. However, growing markets are not necessarily going to enhance sustainable
extraction—indeed, market opportunities may result in the demise of resources (see section 3.1.2).
New niche markets
Globalization is creating niche markets for miombo woodland products. Consumer demand
for “green” and “fair trade” products can improve the competitiveness of small-scale producers
(Shackleton 2007). Export markets for wild natural product derivatives such as fruit oils (e.g., marula
oil and melon seed oil), which are also often tied to fair trade initiatives, are increasingly demonstrated
high potential. PhytoTrade, a natural products trade organization based in southern Africa (box 2.1),
has estimated that the potential regional market for eight oil-producing wild fruit species is on the
order of around US$3 billion, provided, of course, that reliable markets can be established. The
opportunities presented by potential markets for these and other products, such as organic teas and
food additives, are believed to be nowhere near fully exploited (Mander and Le Breton 2006). An
increasingly aware market for green, clean products is emerging for art products (such as carvings
28 MANAGING THE MIOMBO WOODLANDS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA