Advancing Sustainable Forest Governance
AFF harnesses evidence, capacity building, and multi-stakeholder partnerships to transform African forestry livelihoods.
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Context
Forest-related policies and legislation in many African countries are out-dated and often also weakly enforced. There is a pressing need to adapt policies to the challenges and opportunities of rapid global environmental and economic changes. Social and economic changes are as important to sustainable development as the environmental changes already under way. Good governance within and beyond the forest sector is an imperative to improving the livelihoods of forest-dependent populations as well as in ensuring the sector’s contribution to national economies, and to reducing illegal logging, forest degradation and deforestation. This also implies providing secure tenure to communities and other local stakeholders who use and manage forest and tree resources. Public sector forestry institutions need to become facilitators rather than just exercising command and control. New and innovative instruments for financing sustainable forest management that increase access to capital markets, value environmental services and mitigate risks can support emerging forest policies.
Examples of subjects, challenges and opportunities to be addressed
National and regional policies; e.g. assess forestry linkages to national, sub-regional (e.g. RECs) and regional policies, plans and initiatives (e.g. GGWSSI); analyse evolution, implementation and potential for improvement of forestry activities related to them..
International macroeconomic and environmental policies; e.g. assess how such policies Agenda 2030 and the SDGs, IAF, MEAs and others) can be facilitated and mainstreamed into sub-regional and national forest policies and plans; strengthen the capacity of Africa to contribute effectively to these global processes (e.g. in UNFF, UNFCCC, UNCCD).
Local forest management and tenure; e.g. evaluate adequacy of forest management and law enforcement approaches employed by the public and private sectors and by local communities and partnerships by the three; enhance good forest governance and trade in forest products and enforcement of laws and regulations (e.g. through FLEGT); examine ways for strengthening professionalism and ethics in the sector; examine what land and resource tenure and user rights policies are required to ensure SFM