Sold down the river - Salva le Foreste

CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS 67Conclusions andRecommendationsTHE RAINFORESTS OF Central Africa provide food and livelihoods for millions offorest-dependent peoples and contain unqiue biodiversity; but they are seen increasinglysimply in terms of industrial timber production. Corporations, predominantlytransnational corporations, control most of the forests in the region. Multilateral and bilateralcreditors are encouraging the industrial exploitation of these forests with little thought for thecapacity of national governments to enforce forestry legislation, the timber industry’s response toweak enforcement of legislation, and the lack of transparency and democracy in governments. As aresult, private companies are logging illegally on a significant scale and national governments areusing logging concessions to develop and maintain their various patronage networks, a processwhich perpetuates the lack of transparency and democracy, particularly when it involves seniorpolitical and military figures.Within this context, forest-dependent peoples become even more marginalised; they areexcluded from decision-making about how forests should be used and managed; in the process,their rights are undermined and their needs ignored. Industrial forestry removes many of the treesupon which local communities depend for food, medicines and building materials. The commercialhunting of bushmeat, which is directly and indirectly facilitated by logging, has decimated wildlife,undermined subsistence hunting and increased food insecurity. The commercial hunting ofendangered species, such as primates and elephants, threatens their continued existence.If these forest industrialisation policies continue in Central Africa and these issues gounaddressed, the buyers of timber will continue to generate poverty and environmentaldegradation. Ensuring that the forests of Central Africa are managed so that they are not degradedor destroyed but provide sustainable long-term livelihoods for local people should be the primarygoal of all stakeholders. To this end, national governments, assisted by multilateral and bilateralcreditors, must provide a fundamentally improved and enforced regulatory framework withinwhich forestry companies can operate. Such a framework should address social issues, forestindustrialisation policies and environmental issues.Social issuesEnsuring that all local peoples are equally represented at the heart of decision-making and policydevelopment would be a first step towards sustainable forest management. This step would also bemore likely to ensure socially-just development that respects forest ecosystems. This would involve:§ recognising and respecting traditional tenure and use rights, including within national laws;§ recognising the right of all local communities to meaningful and equitable participation inidentifying the kind of forest management they want, including alternatives to industrial timberproduction;§ providing culturally-appropriate opportunities for local communities to identify their needs andto be involved in planning and managing development strategies and social infrastructure;§ assisting local communities and domestic civil society NGOs to build their capacity to deal withthe other, more powerful, stakeholders in forest management;§ ensuring that all members of communities, including women, the elderly and children, areinvolved in management and decision-making in ways which they feel are appropriate.Forest Industrialisation PolicyOne of the main justifications given for pursuing industrial forestry policies is poverty alleviation.The evidence presented in this report suggests that the timber industry does not contribute to thisgoal; on the contrary, the prevalence of illegal logging and inequitable income distribution meansthat industrial timber exploitation exacerbates the poverty of forest-dependent peoples.Multilateral and bilateral institutions, and national governments consistently demonstrate a lackof long-term planning and an inability to learn from experience elsewhere, both in the region andin the forestry sector, when pursuing forestry policies. For example, the wave of deforestation nowrolling across West and Central Africa is similar to that induced by forest policies in South-EastAsia, where many former timber-producing countries are now net timber importers. The lack oftransparency within governments and the industry inhibits making progress towards long-termsustainable development. The following steps would go some way towards addressing the concernsassociated with industrial forestry policy: