East Africa is known for the predominance of drylands, recurrent droughts, floods and food insecurity crises. However, little attention is paid to the development of forestry sector. Yet, the forest resources of the sub-region have huge potential to contribute to solving these issues.
Forests and trees, as components of natural resources, provide products and services such as logs, fuelwood, poles, food, fodder, medicines, spices, habitat to flora and fauna, which are economically important to individuals, families and nations. It also provides crucial environmental and social services, which may not be well captured within the central economy.
According to recent data, forestry sector contributes between four and six percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) in countries of Eastern Africa from forest products alone, and about 60pc to 75pc of its population depends on forests as the main source of energy and wood biomass.
The forest sector provides jobs and employment, both formal and informal. It ranks high in being an essential source of income to rural families and communities. In 2015 the total forested area in the subregion was estimated around 45 million hectares, representing an average proportion of 10pc of the entire land area.
However, forested areas in the region have been rapidly declining because of a complex combination of factors, such as population pressure, high demand for wood forest products, poor forest management, high dependence on wood fuel, rural poverty and lack of other income generating activities, expansion of agricultural lands and many others.
Most of these challenges are external to the forestry sector and could be a result of poor environmental policy-making, competing government policies, low priority given to forestry against land uses and other economic sectors in countries. For instance, deforestation and forest degradation have a compounded effect, whereby they can contribute to crises such as droughts, erosion and loss of biodiversity, and soil nutrients. This may result to a loss in agriculture and land production and productivity, increase food insecurity, loss of income and livelihoods; hence, more land area would be needed every year to expand farming and cultivation under expenses of clearing more forest lands.
Sectoral policies and strategies are set taking into account the dependency of a country on its natural resources and the environment including forests. Therefore, it is evident that there is a high degree of overlapping between sector policies that deal with the environment in countries. However, there are a number of sectoral policies and strategies having direct and indirect impacts on forestry and affect the direction of forestry development and capacity of the sector to achieve its objectives.
These may include conservation strategies, rural and agricultural development policies and strategies, rural land use and administration regulations and laws, environmental protection policy, national agricultural policy, national energy policy, water resource management policy, domestic policy on biodiversity conservation and research, and population policy.
Action plans and programmes such as those for accelerated and sustainable development to end poverty, the national action plan to combat desertification, national action plans for adaptation and mitigation to climate change, biodiversity conservation and development action plans and strategies, sustainable land management programme and other climate change-related programmes, all influence forestry and forest management. The institutions on land use and the environment, their mandates and responsibilities – especially those, which influence land use – have both negative and positive impacts on forestry.
Over the years, key players such as the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) have supported many countries in Eastern Africa to deal with the complex issue of managing forest resources in conflicting and competing policy environments. FAO has developed tools, guidelines, and generated data and assembled information on good policy practices and approaches.
It has supported government experts, forest practitioners and managers with training on how to formulate sound policies that have an impact on the economy, people’s livelihood, food security and poverty alleviation, which take into account other sector’s priorities, plans and actions.
FAO has also assisted countries to operationalise approaches for integration of cross-cutting and other emerging issues such as climate change, gender, governance, tenure and environmental aspects consistently into forest management practices. It has trained institutions and individuals on cross-sectoral coordination and on implementation of good policy practice actions at the field level. However, there are existing gaps in policy and its implementation at field level among the key economic sectors. It should, therefore, be noted that the sustainability of forests and that of other natural resources can be affected by decisions made outside that sector.
What should be done?
Sector policies and strategies developed need to be aligned with national development objectives, and they will require an effective institutional arrangement that can foresee potential conflicts and problems. A greater inter-sectoral coordination in policy and development of initiatives is required to ensure the sustainable use and management of resources.
Collaborative mechanisms and participatory approach in the formulation and implementation of related policies are the best options to produce policy documents that deliver the required services. There should be collaboration among sectors to bring all stakeholders together including affected populations. The space for dialogue and coordination mechanisms have to be established between natural resources sector to follow up their implementation and the impacts made towards people’s livelihoods, economy and environment.
Policy decisions and management objectives related to forest, land and other natural resource sectors should consider landscape approaches, social, economic and environmental changes, and values and the importance placed by the society on these resources.
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