Managing the Miombo Woodlands of Southern Africa - PROFOR

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Sustainable management is not possible if neither forest management area boundaries nor well-founded rules
for resource management are respected. Despite these high timber values, fire management is also sometimes
poor, and fire-sensitive timber species such as Guibourtia and Baikiaea are in decline in many areas.
Having been marginalized within the budget process, forestry personnel seldom have an adequate
platform for ensuring that forestry issues are considered by other branches of government, be they
in the energy sector, agricultural sector, or local government. Solutions to the charcoal problem
may well lie with the national energy policies (Dewees 1995; Kambewa et al. 2007). Agricultural
policies that favor the expansion of crop production into fragile miombo areas can be a driver of
deforestation (Kowero et al. 2003). Examples of such policies include fertilizer subsidies, promotion
of export crops, and some types of land tenure reform. While forestry policies may declare production
illegal (as in the case of charcoal in Malawi), another ministry (local government) allows sales and
collects revenue from the trade (Kambewa et al. 2007). Forestry offi cers in the fi eld have low
salaries, almost no equipment, no current maps, no transport, and tiny operational budgets, yet are
supposed to be covering huge geographic areas.
3.3 ECONOMIC BARRIERS TO SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF MIOMBO
We have repeatedly made the point that miombo offers limited economic returns to management
because the complexities of managing woodlands for multiple outputs are seldom well understood,
the diffi culty of managing miombo for the production of single high-valued products, and the challenge
of devolving resource use and ownership to the local level. In this section, we examine barriers to
achieving sustainable management, which we broadly characterize as economic barriers. These refl ect
high rates of time preference and thus the lack of investment in longer term initiatives, and the problem
of low margins and what this means for market development and adding local value.
Cash constraints and preferences for rapid exploitation
The absolute income of most rural households in miombo regions is very low. Even the wealthiest
quartile in the Zimbabwe fi eld study sites of Mutangi and Romwe had a mean income of less
than US$1 per person per day (Campbell et al. 2002). While woodlands are quite important for
subsistence products, they are generally less important for cash income, especially for the wealthier
households. In Cavendish’s study in Shindi (Zimbabwe), 9 percent of the total cash income came
from woodlands, and the top quintile showed the least reliance on cash from woodlands (about
4 percent of total cash income) (Cavendish 2000). In one of the few experimental studies of
rates of time preference in the region, conducted in Zimbabwe, rates were very high, indicating
the strong tendency to discount the future (Kundhlande 2000). Luoga et al. (2000) calculated
that charcoal production is profi table only if resource stock decline is discounted. If households
want to secure cash, will they choose to overuse and, if necessary, deforest Or will their desire to
secure subsistence products ensure conservative use And will wealthier households be less likely to
liquidate the woodland assets than poorer households because they are less reliant on woodlands
These are some key questions that need to be explored, and placed in the context of the institutions
that govern resource use.
42 MANAGING THE MIOMBO WOODLANDS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA