LIMBE CONFERENCE RECOMMENDATIONS

WORKING GROUP THREE

INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORKS FOR FOREST CONSERVATION

Working Group Three considered conference recommendations under three subject frameworks:

• Institutional
• Legal
• Financial.

INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

The Working Group recognised that effective forest conservation can only be achieved by strengthening the linkages, and improving the flow of information between:

1. State and civil society
2. The international community, nation states and local communities

1. INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS

   The Working Group called on:

   • all nation states to ratify and implement international and regional treaties and conventions that support the conservation of forest biodiversity in Africa
   • governments to develop regional initiatives (such as the Brazzaville Accord), which can be integrated into the international policy development processes
   • bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors to implement aid and loan conditionalities that actively support national conservation and environmental management efforts

2. NATIONAL INTERVENTIONS

   The Working Group noted that international support for conservation efforts will be encouraged where national governments show commitment to conservation through the production of National Environmental Action Plans, Tropical Forestry Action Plans, and other policy documents. The Working Group therefore recommended that national governments ensure that such national conservation action plans are:

   • formulated and publicised
   • supported with laws and decrees of application that are issued and respected.

3. LOCAL MANAGEMENT AGENCIES AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES

   The Working Group agreed that national policy documents could only be effective if they were translated into provincial and local land management plans. The Group resolved that local land management would only incorporate sustainable development and conservation if all stakeholders were involved in the planning and implementation of land use plans, especially local communities.

4. MULTI-SECTORAL/MULTI-AGENCY FRAMEWORK

   In all African rainforest countries there are many agencies with responsibilities for land use activities that affect biodiversity; a multi-sectoral and multi-agency approach to conservation is thus required. The Working Group recommended that:

   1. closer and more effective partnerships be forged between the public sector, industry and commerce, Non-Governmental Organisations and local communities and interest groups;

   2. this multi-partner approach to conservation planning and implementation should include all stakeholders and enhance local participation;

   3. governments and local authorities should institutionalise the co-ordinating mechanisms which will allow these partnerships to function effectively, such as:
      • establishing statutory bodies to facilitate dialogue
      • supporting commissions and public hearing to resolve conflicts
      • encouraging workshops and meetings to disseminate information and debate issues
      • conducting Environmental Impact Assessments which incorporate social, biological and economic considerations.

   4. NETWORKING ACTIVITIES

      For the effective and efficient functioning of all parties contributing to rainforest conservation and management, the links between them must be enhanced at all levels:

      • local; inter-project; national; sub-regional/regional; international.

      Local and sub-regional must have key linkages to donor processes

   5. CAPACITY BUILDING

      The Working Group recognised the need for capacity building before effective multi-partner approaches to rainforest conservation can be achieved, and emphasised that this capacity building had to be a multi-level process which they recognised would be slow to achieve. The Group recommended that:

      • agencies involved in forest conservation should support local institutional development and strengthen the links between institutions
      • institutional growth should be facilitated by the strengthening of "focal points" (e.g. wildlife societies, botanic gardens, research field stations, etc)
      • training programmes need to be multi-level.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The Working Group noted that the legal framework often contradicts the requirements of sustainable forest management and full stakeholder participation in forest conservation. Two specific short-comings which frequently undermine forest conservation efforts are:

1. the weakness, or lack of, legal instruments that secure land tenure and user rights, which in turn discourages long-term approaches to land uses that are the foundation for conservation management;

2. a group of other common weaknesses in legal systems include:
   • lack of recognition of non-forest areas (e.g. fallows) in forest management systems;
   • forest pricing, licensing and rent charges which inhibit long-term or legal use;
   • the duration of cutting cycles, concession lengths and transfers which discourage long-term investment and management.

   The Working Group recommended:

   1. an imaginative interpretation of the legal regulations governing use and management of different forms of gazetted land (e.g. National Parks, Forest Reserves, Community Forests, etc) to maximise local participation in management and use.

   2. indigenous knowledge of forest use, and long-term research findings, must be incorporated into local forestry regulations;

   3. user rights must be given secure legal support.

FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK

1. Long Term Financing of Conservation Work

   Recognising that in many rainforest countries, conservation initiatives are assisted by contributions from the international community, whether through bi-lateral/multi-lateral aid or through NGOs and international agencies, the Working Group observed that conservation projects are an essential tool in facilitating conservation activities, but frequently are constrained in their effectiveness by being too short term and too weakly linked to policy development.

   The Working Group recommended that:

   1. international donor agencies take a longer term view in funding conservation efforts, and committed funds for a longer project cycle;

   2. more support be given to international agencies who have a policy of providing low-level but long-term support for projects and local NGOs.

2. Benefits from Conservation

   Recognising that local community forest management and conservation is constrained by the minimal flow of material benefits and financial assets to local communities in return for the conversion of their biological capital, the Working Group recommended that:

   1. conservation agencies make thorough investigations into the commercial value of biological resources held by local communities, to ensure that more benefits can accrue from a given use of forest resources;

   2. local communities are educated as to the financial value of forest products and the effect of market chains and systems in constraining the benefits that accrue at a local level.

   The Working Group views these as areas of considerable potential for development education. Indeed, the Working Group would regard them as often more promising than conventional environmental education activities (aiming at broad 'environmental creation').

LINKS BETWEEN CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT

1. The long-term success of conservation policies depend on benefits accruing to stakeholders whose behaviours influence the survival and quality of rain forests. It is therefore important to investigate the links between conservation and development.

2. The Working Group noted the need to investigate whether conservation or development priorities should determine conservation actions, and what sequences of cause and effect lead to improved forest conservation or improved development.

3. The Working Group further noted that the inter-face between conservation and development (and therefore an entry point for development interventions that support forest conservation) was the sustainable use of forest resources.

4. Finally, the conference emphasised the need for rigorous and empirical evaluations of the effectiveness of different development activities, through long-term monitoring programmes, to test what interventions contribute most to conservation in African rainforests.