4 MANAGING THE MIOMBO WOODLANDS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY <strong>Miombo</strong> woodlands stretch across Sou<strong>the</strong>rn <strong>Africa</strong> in a belt from Angola and <strong>the</strong> Democratic Republic <strong>of</strong> Congo in <strong>the</strong> west to Mozambique in <strong>the</strong> east. The miombo region covers an area <strong>of</strong> around 2.4 million km 2 . In some areas, miombo has been highly degraded as a result <strong>of</strong> human use (sou<strong>the</strong>rn Malawi and parts <strong>of</strong> Zimbabwe), while in o<strong>the</strong>rs, it remains relatively intact (such as in parts <strong>of</strong> nor<strong>the</strong>rn Mozambique, and in isolated areas <strong>of</strong> Angola and <strong>the</strong> Democratic Republic <strong>of</strong> Congo). From a conventional forester’s perspective, miombo is fundamentally uninteresting. It supports relatively few good commercial timber species, and <strong>the</strong> management <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se species has been problematic. The best areas were logged over long ago. Except in a few areas, <strong>the</strong> remaining commercially viable stocks are relatively small and diffi cult to access. Public forestry institutions have, for <strong>the</strong> most part, failed to establish effective management systems for forests, preferring instead to limit <strong>the</strong>ir role to regulation and revenue collection, ra<strong>the</strong>r than to management per se. Despite <strong>the</strong> failure <strong>of</strong> public institutions to set up good forest management practices, miombo’s global environmental values are not trivial. They have between 10 and 30 percent <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> aboveground carbon found in an equivalent area <strong>of</strong> tropical moist forests (Keith et al. 2009; Munishi et al. 2010), but because <strong>the</strong>y are so extensive, <strong>the</strong>y account for a large proportion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> carbon sequestered in sou<strong>the</strong>rn <strong>Africa</strong>. Compared with tropical moist forests, miombo has low faunal biodiversity and species endemism, though it does provide <strong>the</strong> habitat for a number <strong>of</strong> large herbivores—elephant, rhino, and various ungulates. These mega-herbivores have been central to some successful community-based wildlife management schemes. Plant biodiversity is signifi cant. Around 8,500 plant species are found in <strong>the</strong> miombo region. More than 300 are trees, and around 54 percent are endemic. Mittermeier et al. (2003) suggest that <strong>the</strong> miombo-mopane woodlands are one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fi ve global ecozones that need to be prioritized for biodiversity conservation because <strong>the</strong>y are irreplaceable in terms <strong>of</strong> species endemism. <strong>Miombo</strong> woodland actually regenerates fairly easily and prolifi cally, provided that regeneration is not inhibited by late dry season fi res or by cultivation. Permanent forest loss is an issue when woodlands are cleared for agricultural production. Reasonably good miombo can produce about <strong>the</strong> same increment <strong>of</strong> timber as <strong>the</strong> coniferous boreal forests <strong>of</strong> Russia or <strong>the</strong> deciduous temperate forests <strong>of</strong> middle-Europe. What is different between <strong>the</strong> temperate and boreal forests <strong>of</strong> Europe and <strong>the</strong> miombo <strong>of</strong> sou<strong>the</strong>rn <strong>Africa</strong> is that <strong>the</strong> former produce commodities that are immensely valuable on domestically and internationally traded markets, and can be managed with <strong>the</strong>se outcomes in mind, while <strong>the</strong> latter produces limited high-value products for which management is extremely diffi cult. In fact, local value-added comes from miombo’s multiple uses, which may not involve harvesting large-dimensioned industrial roundwood at all. Indeed, it has proven to be <strong>of</strong> immense value to rural people, providing sources <strong>of</strong> fi rewood and building material, as well as extensive supplies <strong>of</strong> wild foods and medicinal plants. It plays a critical role in <strong>the</strong> management <strong>of</strong> livestock throughout POLICIES, INCENTIVES, AND OPTIONS FOR THE RURAL POOR 5
- Page 1 and 2: MANAGING THE MIOMBO WOODLANDS OF SO
- Page 3 and 4: NOVEMBER 2011 MANAGING THE MIOMBO W
- Page 5: TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- Page 9 and 10: Low margins and shallow markets for
- Page 11 and 12: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report was pre
- Page 13 and 14: 1 INTRODUCTION Miombo woodlands are
- Page 15 and 16: TABLE 1.1. DEFORESTATION RATES IN C
- Page 17 and 18: TABLE 1.3. INDICATORS OF POVERTY FO
- Page 19 and 20: BOX 1.1. POVERTY TRAPS AND THE MIOM
- Page 21 and 22: 2 CONTEXT: EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES F
- Page 23 and 24: growing on scarce, clay-rich soils
- Page 25 and 26: These studies all record high level
- Page 27 and 28: project-driven, and interest was ca
- Page 29 and 30: forest-dwelling communities. PES sc
- Page 31 and 32: BOX 2.1. TAPPING NEW MARKETS: PHYTO
- Page 33 and 34: Urbanization rates are high for mos
- Page 35 and 36: 2.6 SUMMARY We have attempted to sh
- Page 37 and 38: 3 DIAGNOSIS: WHY IS MIOMBO NOT BETT
- Page 39 and 40: a few, high-value resources. They h
- Page 41 and 42: and getting timber through checkpoi
- Page 43 and 44: environmental policies) are seldom
- Page 45 and 46: Moving beyond the level of househol
- Page 47 and 48: has a number of negative consequenc
- Page 49 and 50: of beeswax annually (Nhantumbo and
- Page 51 and 52: Forest policies have not been condu
- Page 53 and 54: 4 SOLUTIONS: HOW CAN THE MANAGEMENT
- Page 55 and 56: FIGURE 4.1. FORESTRY AND POVERTY RE
- Page 57 and 58:
particularly if carbon markets deve
- Page 59 and 60:
4.4 FOUR IMMEDIATE ENTRY POINTS FOR
- Page 61 and 62:
the right instrument for achieving
- Page 63 and 64:
health services and weak political
- Page 65 and 66:
5 REFERENCES Abbot, J.I.O. and K.A.
- Page 67 and 68:
Chidumayo, E.N., J. Gambiza, and I.
- Page 69 and 70:
Kambewa, P.S., B.F. Mataya, W.K. Si
- Page 71 and 72:
Moore, K. and J.E. Hall. 1987. “R
- Page 73 and 74:
Shackleton, S., B.M. Campbell, H. L
- Page 75 and 76:
Wunder, S. Forthcoming. “Payments
- Page 77:
THE MIOMBO WOODLANDS ARE THE MOST E