Resource information
The First International Workshop on Community Forestry in Africa was held in the Gambia in February 1999. It began the process of bringing together all of the African experiences in community-based natural resource management. Until the Gambia workshop, those looking for documentation of existing initiatives would have looked towards Asia for information about best practices and experience in participatory forest management. The Gambia workshop began the process of bringing together the body of work of the knowledge gleaned from African projects, to show the breadth and depth of the African efforts, and to find out if those efforts were working. However, many African governments still have doubts about the devolution of rights, of giving land tenure and access to local people. Yet it is obvious on examining recent developments and existing projects that participatory forest management, which recognizes that local people can develop the capacity to accept responsibility and deserve the associated rights needed for managing their tree and forest reserves, has many benefits beyond sustainable land management. While in recent years considerable progress has been made in Africa in establishing preliminary institutional frameworks that permit the local population’s participation in the management of natural resources, there is still a need to increase the confidence of policy-makers and forest administrations towards the capacity of local stakeholders.
