Investing in tomorrow"s forests : toward an action agenda for revitalizing forestry in West Africa

Findings of the study, which included field visits to Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Benin, and Ghana, confirmed that today"s forests are already evolving toward the dynamic, economic, integrated, diverse, and shared forests of tomorrow. To a large extent, tomorrow"s forests will be those of private and community initiative, forests that complement other rural production, provide economic opportunities for communities and individuals, help alleviate poverty, and respond to market signals. They are forests in which the U.S. Forest Service assumes a new role as a partner to communities and resource users. They are shared forests, where the state and community co-manage resources and share benefits; decentralized forests, where local men and women are empowered to make decisions and investments; and democratic forests, where decisionmaking is transparent, accountable, and participatory. However, tomorrow"s forests will not appear and provide their promise without investment of time, skills, energy, commitment, political will, and money.