Forestry and the environment : an assessment of USAID"s support for forest stewardship

In most of the projects, forest stewardship has contributed directly to getting trees into the ground and keeping them there. In Costa Rica, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Philippines, newly forested areas now stand in several project sites. Programs have been less successful in The Gambia and Mali, where climatic conditions have often been more harsh, and government organizations less capable of providing services and support. USAID projects have increased government commitment to local forest stewardship, but farm and community forestry requires an extended time frame to reach a significant number of participants. In only a few of the countries studied has farm and community forestry spread much beyond project sites to attain significant national effect. At fault have been shortages of suitable planting materials (Costa Rica, The Gambia, Mali, and the Philippines) and limited cadres of government forestry staffs (The Gambia, Mali, and the Philippines). Moreover, participating national and international NGOs have often lacked necessary forestry and community organization skills (Mali, Nepal, the Philippines). Government control over tree cutting in The Gambia, Nepal, and Mali, and restrictions on log exports and timber markets in Costa Rica, Pakistan, and the Philippines continue to inhibit local involvement in farm and community forestry. Many of the benefits of forest stewardship (e.g., conservation of biological resources) are long-term and global, while most costs (e.g., loss of opportunities to log for immediate income) are immediate and local. Farm and community forestry programs work best when they align costs and benefits at both local and national levels. To help generate more immediate economic benefits for local forest users, USAID has supported enterprises such as private tree nurseries (Pakistan and Costa Rica) and community stewardship contracts and agreements (The Gambia, Nepal, and the Philippines). USAID has also funded endowments to finance initiatives in local forest stewardship (Costa Rica, the Philippines). Transferring forest stewardship responsibilities from public agencies to local organizations requires extensive retraining and reorienting of government forestry staffs and local NGOs. A sense of trust is critical, but difficult to establish when foresters are required to both police and promote farm and community forestry at one and the same time. Some of the most important interventions have approached the dual goals of enforcement and extension by setting up separate social forestry agencies (Pakistan and the Philippines) or by turning forestry extension functions over to NGOs (Costa Rica and Mali). Regrettably, some USAID projects ended before this process was sufficiently advanced to ensure sustainability of the reforms. USAID projects in Costa Rica, Mali, Nepal, and the Philippines have helped to increase the capacity of local NGOs to assume greater roles in forest stewardship; these NGOs are now finding ways to mobilize outside funding to continue and expand these efforts. In The Gambia, Nepal, and the Philippines, forest stewardship contracts give local groups access to forests on public land for long-term management and use. In Costa Rica, a regional NGO manages contracts for forest harvesting and planting services to encourage good management practices in natural forests. In Mali, a foundation has been building village-level ownership of woodland resources through training in management, literacy, numeracy, and social organization. Includes recommendations and a bibliography. (Author abstract, modified)