Managing the Miombo Woodlands of Southern Africa - PROFOR

the right instrument for achieving sweeping stroke-of-the-pen reforms in the forestry sector, with its
many social, economic, and environmental complexities.
Miombo woodlands are crucial for poverty mitigation for tens of millions of households. There is a
need for greater emphasis on forestry in development planning at both local and national levels, and
a need to safeguard the safety net value of the miombo for the poorest. Getting forestry into PRSPs
isn’t necessarily about getting forest policies and strategies into macro-planning but making sure that
the policies and processes that are in the PRSPs work together to eliminate the barriers for forestry
to work for the poor. We need to make sure miombo is recognized as a safety net and managed as
such and incorporated into risk and vulnerability planning through social welfare departments and
economic planning departments. Health departments should be fully aware of the safety net value
of miombo medicinal plant use, and should support local management and use. It is more about
mainstreaming forestry than keeping forestry in the forestry department. PRSP monitoring should
include benchmarks/ indicators that monitor key drivers of the vulnerability-forestry relationship.
Redistributing woodlands
Local woodland users facilitate the production of essential products both actively and passively
through selective clearing; highly selective harvesting practices; seasonal, cultural, and spiritual
harvesting controls; and a wide range of demand management measures. Studies have shown
that woodland use and management practices can be highly attenuated to respond to resource
constraints, suggesting that in many areas at least, there is still considerable scope to stay within
sustainable harvesting limits. Modest support for these types of practices, often achieved simply by
making small changes in the ways communities’ local rights and responsibilities are acknowledged
and perceived, can have powerful outcomes.
The advantages of such an approach are that minimal changes in local practices are required and
are therefore more likely to succeed. They can potentially strengthen local capacity for management
through building on existing practices and institutions. A growing body of evidence from success
stories throughout the region shows that communities have been assisted in improving the
management and productivity of their woodlands through small but effective changes to the status
quo. Underlying such an approach is the need to ensure that property rights are clear, and that the
capacity and role of local organizations for woodland management are strengthened.
Reforming land and forest policy
Many countries have made progress in reforming land and forestry policies, but in only a few
(e.g., Tanzania) are both the land and forest policies in place to support full local control and
management of resources. Land and forest policies have to support each other. In some countries,
a progressive land policy fails in the forestry sector because of disenabling forestry policies—and vice
versa. While national forest policy and legislation may need attention, as important in the context of
decentralization will be the need to support the creation and enforcement of management rules at
more local levels.
Getting forestry onto the decentralization agenda
Decentralization—the transfer of authority and responsibility for public functions from the central
government to intermediate and local governments or organizations—is increasingly a theme of
rural development in southern Africa. It has immediate relevance for forest organizations and for
Chapter 4. SOLUTIONS: HOW CAN THE MANAGEMENT OF MIOMBO BE IMPROVED
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