1Introduction
In Sub-Saharan Africa, forest goods and services are extremely important for rural livelihoods, providing food, medicine, shelter, fuel and cash income (Kaimowitz, 2003). It is estimated that more than 15 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa earn their cash income from forest-related enterprises such as fuelwood and charcoal sales, small-scale saw-milling, commercial hunting and handicraft. In addition, between 200,000 and 300,000 people are directly employed in the commercial timber industry (Oksanen and Mersmann, 2003). For some countries, the forestry sector is an important foreign exchange earner. For example, between 1993 and 2002, the value of net exports of various wood-based products from countries in sub-Saharan Africa amounted to more than US$2 billion (FAO, 2003). However, the national statistics on the contribution of forest products to the countries economies are extremely poor (Mabugu and Chitiga, 2002; FAO, 2004; Vincent, 1998) and only in a few countries are there comprehensive government programs of environmental accounting where forestry contributions to the national accounts are captured, e.g. South Africa (FAO, 2004; World Bank, 2006).
The values of goods and services have been partially documented in the extensive miombo woodland region in south central Africa (Clarke et al., 1996), but the statistics are poor and largely based on a few case studies (e.g. Cavendish, 2000; Campbell et al. 2002). The Zambian setting differs from those in other countries in the miombo region in several ways (see Table 1). Zambia is endowed with abundant forest resources and with a relatively small population. It has approximately 3.5 hectares of forest land available per capita, compared to 0.2 in Malawi, 1.7 in Zimbabwe and 1.6 in Mozambique. Furthermore, a quick and massive closing and privatisation of state controlled industries followed the initiation of a series of structural adjustment programmes in 1986. This resulted in massive retrenchments and large numbers of urban unemployed returned to rural areas in recent years. In a rural economy based on natural resources, this implies an increased dependency on forest resources (Mupimpila et al. 1996). The economic liberalisation process has also resulted in a decline in government subsidies for fertilisers. This loss of fertiliser has forced rural households to find alternative sources of income including returning to their traditional shifting cultivation practices (Sprague and Oyama, 1998; Holden, 1993) and selling forest products (Puustjärvy et al. 2005,). Annual rates of deforestation are tenfold higher compared to most of the other miombo countries.
This Annex examines whether or not the dry forest resources are important engines for growth and poverty reduction in Zambia. The work draws on a literature review of specific forest products used in Zambia and a sample of households from eight villages in three provinces to determine the relative contribution on forest products to rural households in various environmental and socio-economic settings. The rest of the chapter is organized as follows: in the next section, we lay out the methods. In section 3, we briefly describe forest resources in Zambia. Section 4 examines some household forest use patterns, using the literature review and survey data. Section 5 explores the role of the forestry sector in the Zambian economy. The main conclusions are presented in Section 6.
Table 1: Characteristics of six miombo countries
|
Country
|
Total population, 1999 (x 1000)
|
Rural 2000 (%)
|
Rural, 2003 (%)
|
Total forest area, 2000 (x1000)
|
% of total land area
|
Forest area per capita, 2000 (ha)
|
Annual rate of change 1999-2000 (%)
|
Angola
|
12,479
|
66.5
|
64.3
|
69,756
|
56.0
|
5.6
|
-0.2
|
Malawi
|
10,640
|
85.1
|
83.7
|
2,562
|
27.2
|
0.2
|
-2.4
|
Mozambique
|
19,286
|
61.1
|
64.4
|
30,601
|
39.0
|
1.6
|
-0.2
|
Tanzania
|
32,793
|
72.9
|
64.6
|
38,811
|
43.9
|
1.2
|
-0.2
|
Zambia
|
8,976
|
55.8
|
64.3
|
31,246
|
42.0
|
3.5
|
-2.4
|
Zimbabwe
|
11,529
|
65.4
|
65.1
|
19,040
|
49.2
|
1.7
|
-1.5
|
Source: FAO, 2000; 2005
| |
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