Promoting tree regeneration in Sahel: why is it so complicated and where do we go from here?

Denis Gautier & Régis Peltier

Land-cover in West Africa(« GLC 2000 » – Mayaux 2004)

Main issuesThe history of Sahelian forestry is strongly linked to dramatic environmental and political eventsThe international organizations have used these events to reform the way to manage forests in SahelAlmost 40 years after the first dramatic droughts, forestry paradigms have changed at least three timesHowever, little progress has been registered in terms of forest and tree regeneration, while the wood demand is increasingHave the participative and integrative approach of community forestry failed?

The co-evolution of the environmentaland political contexts and the forestry reforms

During the colonial period and the first part of the post-colonial period: a centralized, restrictive and coercive forestry70’s:

1973: first huge drought“Green barrier” to “fight” the desertificationState plantations of exotic species with expected high productivityBut also: Creation of the CILSS that try to lead the Central administrations to better involve local people in the forest management

State plantations of exotic species with expected high productivity

The co-evolution of the environmentaland political context and the forestry reforms

Early 80’s:From State plantations to village plantations mainly with exotic species (ex: World Bank and ‘village forests’)Experiments of “participative” approaches that use the “forest side population” as labor force (ex: BIT in Kita, Mali but also ‘chantiers’ in Burkina)

Mid-80’s Beginning of more integrative and individualistic approaches such as agroforestry or promotion of individual plantations

80’s : Beginning of more integrative and individualistic approaches such as agroforestry

The co-evolution of the environmentaland political context and the forestry reforms

End 80’s - Early 90’s:Structural Adjustment plansLess State but not necessarily better State: decreased control on the field and increase of corruptionRural people are seeking more democracy and participative ways of managing forest resourcesBeginning of a ‘revolution’, which lead people to recapture their bush and to ‘plant the seeds’ of decentralization

The co-evolution of the environmentaland political context and the forestry reforms

90’sLaunch of decentralization processesChange of paradigm in forestry with the transfer of forest management to local people(+/- within the framework of decentralization)Household energy projects in Mali and in Niger‘Chantiers’ around the State forests in Burkina‘community forestry’ in Senegal, Gambia, etc.

Household energy projects in Mali and in Niger

Key scholars in paradigms’ change

Thomson’s proposals in 80’sGiving more power to autonomous local governmentPrivatization of tree tenure and common property resource

Key scholars in paradigms’ change

Bertrand et al and Kerkof proposals in mid-80’s

Transfer of management authority to local people (professional organizations)Reform of forest fiscal system to promote sustainable management of the commons (differential taxation)Regulation and control of collective property exploitation

Transfer of management authority to local people (professional organizations or decentralized authorities)

Key scholars in paradigms’ change

Ribot’s proposals in 90’sEmpowerment of local authorities as a conditionality to sustainable management of ‘la brousse’Accountability of the involved institutions to empower local democracy

Few of these changesin Sahelian forest paradigms

has lead local peopleto regenerate trees and forests

Some explanations (1)

Technical points:In a multi-purpose landscape, it is not easy to spare a young tree from livestock or ploughshareSome species are not so easy to regenerate outside a forest (or long fallow) “ambiance”

In a multi-purpose landscape, Not so easy to tree regenerate outside a savanna « ambiance »

Some explanations (2) Social points:

Until farmers and herders perceive resource scarcities and view them as gravely threatening, they manage the forest in a ‘passive’ wayScientists were wrong about the forest resource scarcity in Sahel, and they have maybe discouraged donors

Cf Arnold explanation on the importance of parklands and fallows in wood supplySavannas are more resilient than expected

Some explanations (3) Institutional and Political points:

Sahelian officials have inherited and internalized the French colonial administration’s antipathy to non-government sponsored collective actionThe actual forest administrations ambivalent about resistance to decentralization processes and an attraction for nasty fines

Some explanations (3’)

Institutional and Political points:Local people know the limit of voluntary action in preserving unregulated common property resources and attempt informal privatizationPeople personally know free-riders when investment in resource preservation is promotedThe inflation of institutions governing the commons generate power conflicts that are profitable to free-riders

This has worked!!!!

This has worked!‘Faidherbia operation’ that aims to encourage farmers to identify and protect the growth of naturally regenerating Faidherbia albida trees in their fields (South Niger, Northern Cameroon)

This has worked!

Tree regeneration on erosion control terrace between individual fields in Northern Cameroon

This has worked!Individual small scale plantations of eucalypts around soudanian town

This has worked!Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) in Niger linked to the development of value chains (counters of palm leaves, arabic gum, etc…)

This has worked!Some industrial plantations of gum trees by exporters or transformers (Valdafrique in Sénégal, etc.)….

This has worked!Re-appropriation of woody resource by the villagers through woodcutters’ organizations in Niger and Mali at the detriment of urban traders but with no real commitment in a sustainable management (at least, till now)

Why is this working ?When access to land is secured at least for the gathering of the forest products (which explains that most of the success stories are on individual fields)

When a reliable demand exists for the forest productsWhen an individual or a social group can control all or a part of the forest product chain

Why is this working ?

When the development projects spread an innovation with a clear and explicit objectiveWhen the support is done on long-term, from plantation to commercialization of productsWhen a social group is strong enough to impose its own rules on competing users on the same land; or when a social group finds allies instead of competing users

ConclusionsReforestation in Sahel is mainly due to individual actions linked to well-established chainsCommunity forestry is a failure in term of tree regeneration in Sahel

Will privatization of common pool resource help in a context of multi-uses and multi-actors, where poor people benefit from informal chains ? Will the experience of household energy projects that lead local people to recapture their territories be followed by an investment in forest regeneration in the next 10 years ?What will be the benefit from new tools linked to global agendas on biodiversity and carbon sequestration :

an opportunity (tenure clarification and additionality)a menace (tenure ‘complexification’, struggles and poor exclusion) ?

Thank youfor your attention!