Developing multi-resource forest management plans for the Congo Basin forests

15 November 2012   |   Permalink   [1]

Postcards from the field - CIFOR blog

Many Masters students and interns with CIFOR  [2] have spent six months in several villages bordering six logging concession in  Cameroon, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo and have been measuring the extent to which people rely on forest products for their livelihood.

One of them shares their experience in this blog post  [3] from CIFOR Forests News Blog.

In the meantime, a team of nutritionists and foresters from Bioversity International have been analyzing the importance of forest products in people's diets, and the impact of logging on the availability of key species.

Increasing pressures from logging, agriculture, population growth and mining are accelerating land-use change and forest degradation in the Congo Basin region, and threatening the livelihoods of over 50 million people whose shelter and well-being depend on these forests. The Congo Basin forest that constitutes the second largest rainforest in the world, is also a vital economic resource in the region: over 40 percent of its 200 million hectares are allocated to commercial logging leases.

Since 2011, in partnership with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR  [2]), Bioversity International's Forest Genetic Resources Programme has been leading a project in the Congo Basin to examine how commercial logging can be carried out in a way that does not jeopardize the livelihoods of local forest-dependent people.

The objective of the project, 'Reconciling the needs of forest-dependent people with those of the logging industry'  [4] is to enhance the multi-functionality of the Congo Basin forests (the simultaneous production of timber and non-timber products) while maintaining the viability of tree populations and sustaining the livelihoods of forest-dependent people.

Congolese girl on her way from the Reserve Village of Masako to Kinsagani. Photo: CIFOR\Ollivier Girard

Congolese girl on her way from the Reserve Village of Masako to Kinsagani. Photo: CIFOR\Ollivier Girard

Bioversity International’s Forest Genetic Resources Programme staff are working on the nutrition, genetics and ecology components of the project. This project underlines the link between forests and food security - a fundamental aspect of forest management that has so far received little attention. Forest fruits and other tree-dependent food species (like caterpillars) are important for local diets.

Currently the nutrition team is completing surveys of household nutrition status as well as collecting anthropometric data documenting the nutrition status of children under the age of five. A special focus of the project are tree species that are critical to local communities for food and/or income, so that management practices can be devised to minimize the potential for conflict over resources between concessionaires and local communities.

Forest scientists from Bioversity International and CIFOR will develop operational guidelines that incorporate local knowledge and integrate the management of timber and non-timber forest resources. These will be validated in selected sites in Cameroon, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Similar posts:

Filed under: Conservation  [10], Announcements  [11]See also: Africa  [12], Agroforestry  [13], CGIAR  [14], CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry  [15], CIFOR  [16], Congo  [17], Conservation  [18], CRP 6.0  [19], Forest Genetic Resources  [20], Forest restoration  [21], Forests and Trees  [22], Judy Loo  [23], Laura Snook  [24]

Web Address of the page:

http://www.bioversityinternational.org/announcements/developing_multi_resource_forest_management_plans_for_the_congo_basin_forests.html

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