Managing the Miombo Woodlands of Southern Africa Policies, incentives and options

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3.4Miombo woodlands have low inherent productivity

At the policy level, there may be little direct response that can be taken to resolve issues of productivity. The dry woodlands exist on some of the poorest soils in Africa, previous attempts at ‘improving’ production, (for example the World Bank wood energy projects of the 1970s that replaced the miombo with wood energy plantations) have often resulted in failure. Obviously there are natural limits to production in a natural system and there is only so much silvicultural management can do to improve productivity (see Shackleton & Clarke 2007 for a comprehensive review of silvicultural options). If a particular plant-based product becomes commercially successful, ex-situ production may be the only viable route for increasing – and securing – production.
The rationale of bringing trees and associated miombo species out of the woodland into the farmland is in many parts of the biome, an oxymoron: the miombo is heavily influenced by man and is part of the agricultural mosaic of southern Africa: miombo trees in farmland will, in all likelihood become trees in woodland fallow at some point, even if only for a short period, and even if regeneration only occurs after continuous cropping of 20 years (Robertson 1984). In farmlands converted to more intensive agricultural production agroforestry, tree crop plantations and scattered trees on farmland can potentially assist with poverty alleviation while conserving forests (World Bank 2007d). As part of the cross-sectoral nature of miombo management, agricultural policy should consider the role of trees on farms (they already do in terms of exotic fruit and nut trees of course). However, there are other ways to measure the forest’s productivity than just its biomass:

The miombo provides multiple benefits of subsistence and income value simultaneously, the profusion of fruits during the early rains is particularly valuable for the poorest as this is usually the time of greatest nutritional stress,
It can be managed during the agricultural slack season so reducing the [opportunity] costs of its management,
Management is simple: fire and grazing control are the two more important prescriptions and the woodland is very resilient,
It is vast in extent, meaning only a small improvement in productivity can have a huge overall impact on total production.

From a policy perspective, management approaches that prescribe scientific management planning approaches usually developed for commercial or plantation-based forestry need to be debated and critiqued.

One can argue that the notion of community-based, or participatory forestry, based on sustainable natural resource management with communities that incorporating their indigenous knowledge into their management practices as largely meaningless. Sustainable NRM principles (as defined by rational and scientific criteria) are by definition seldom, if ever, community-constructed and yet local knowledge is embedded in particular environmental and social conditions and continuously negotiated on-site and face-to-face (Blaikie 2003). How one reconciles this inherent contradiction is key to the approach of community-based miombo management and the policy space to debate and question the established paradigm should be encouraged.

4Conclusions

The paper has explored the conditions that constrain the use and management of miombo by the poor through a review of the debate around the barriers and opportunities identified by Campbell et al (2007). The review only referred to the inter-relatedness of the barriers and opportunities in passing: such an exploration was beyond the scope of this paper. The paper started by acknowledging the exposure of the poor to risks, and the dynamics of their coping responses whilst at the same time recognizing the impact the institutional landscape can have on their ability to cope. This means that:

Policies responses should be flexible enough to be interpreted and deployed appropriately at a local level.
Strategies need to recognise the need for long-term support to build local level capacity and effective local management.
There is need for iterative approaches to supporting the miombo-poverty link that learns from evidence and experience.
It is not necessarily about forestry and its institutions, but rather about how other institutions relate to forestry and its use by the poor.

In returning to the objectives of the review and the question of whether overcoming these barriers will lead to improvements in the sustainable livelihood benefits the poorest households gain from the miombo, we look at the outcomes of the review and analysis from perspectives.

4.1Access, use and management

Securing access will require a clarification of land and resource tenure, policies and processes that secure and formalise that access, institutions that establish regulations and standards for resource use and delivery of appropriate inputs.
Effective management will require that roles and responsibilities of central and local government, and of the poor to be properly articulated and appropriate. The local specificities of access, use and management need the space to be interpreted. The institutions of management need not be forestry constructs where local organisation already exists and cam be used in way that protects the use of miombo by the most vulnerable.
A system of checks and balances maintained by a strong central government function will also contribute to maintaining that social protection function.

4.2Reducing livelihoods risk

The relationship between forestry and poverty is complex and cause-effect is dynamic, not Newtonian. People have dynamic livelihoods, their relationship with the woodlands depends on their relations with sectors other than forestry.

Understanding the important role of forests in reducing risk for poorest needs to be incorporated into the development process. Local livelihoods are context specific, but this some how needs to be brought up to the point that there can be cross-sectoral integration. This may be nationally or sub-nationally but, in a policy context, is at the point where budgets can be allocated and brought together.

At the national level, the PRS-GBS mechanisms can provide the framework and the structure for miombo to reduce the risk of unsustainable livelihoods. That coping strategies are a result of local context and history means that the framework and structure must allow for local interpretation (such as delivering income into a local area through opening market access without specifying what it should be used for).

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