South Africa is faced with persistently high levels of poverty and unemployment. Forestry being a rurally based activity is ideally placed to contribute towards wealth generation and job creation in neighbouring communities. Commercial timber growing is highly regulated for environment and water conservation reasons. The forest estate currently covers 1 265 811 hectares of highly productive exotic plantations. The resource is currently being underutilized with a reported annual harvest of 18.5 million m3 in 2012/13 compared to a sustainable annual yield of 26 .4 million m3. Pulp, paper and board manufacture dominate the industry, accounting for 70% of the roundwood intake in 2012/13. This sector however is currently only operating at 81% capacity. The forest products industry is export based and in nominal terms earned the country US$ 1.67 billion. Imports amounted to US$ 1.24 billion resulting in a positive balance of payments of US$ 0.43 billion. The Forestry Sector Charter initiative undertaken in terms of the government’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment legislation has been negotiated and implemented with the objective of bringing about greater participation of black people, and particularly women, in the forestry value chain. The result of this initiative is that opportunities are being created for the rural poor who border on forest plantation estates. The development is discussed and a model that is evolving is presented. An additional 140 000 hectares of land has been identified for further new afforestation. This land is communally owned and both licencing and community involvement is required in order for this afforestation to take place. A successful project in southern KwaZulu-Natal serves as a model for such an undertaking. However, further expansion of the area requires that a co-ordinated effort be made by companies, government, non-government organisations, rivals, and communities in order to capture the economic benefits on offer. Individual private timber growers in South Africa are well organised and successfully market their timber co-operatively. This co-operative model and its achievements are well documented. The initiative affords members the ability to achieve economies of scale and access to down-stream processing. A similar arrangement is evolving in the non-timber forest products sector where a micro-franchising model is discussed, and a broader application proposed. Processor growers keen to secure further raw material are entering into out-growers’ agreements with small timber growers. This relationship is regulated in terms of a code of conduct negotiated and agreed within the Forestry Sector Charter.

The African Forest Forum (AFF) commissioned this study in four of the ten countries in Central Africa (Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and the Republic of Congo) as part of its activities funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) through a project entitled “Strengthening Sustainable Forest Management in Africa”. The project seeks to generate and share knowledge and information through partnerships in ways that will provide inputs into policy options and capacity building for improved forest management in order to better addresses poverty eradication and environmental protection in Africa. Central Africa is well-endowed with forests, covering 48% of the total land area of 530 million ha. Four countries (Cameroon, Congo, DRC and Gabon) were purposefully selected for this study because together they constitute about 87% of the forest in Central Africa and representing all biophysical landscapes. The methodology for data collection included focus group discussions, interviews with key informants and desk reviews of relevant reports including draft reports that were prepared by national consultants from the 4 selected countries, policy and legislative information related to the sector from various websites and scientific articles. Timber-based and NTFP-based enterprises were targeted to identify stakeholders and beneficiaries, the challenges and the probable future for value addition to forest products and their marketing. Based on the study results some recommendations are proffered to policy makers (specific to forest/product type) and others for further research on public/private partnerships for both processed wood and NTFPs in Central Africa. The results indicate that in Central Africa, six forest management models exist and have their merits and demerits depending on the primary beneficiary (private sector, councils, communities or private individuals) and the socioeconomic focus of national governments to increase stakeholder participation in sustainable forest management or to ensure an increased financial contribution of the forestry sector to the country's GDP. It was observed that forest concessions form the dominant forest management model in Central Africa, with total surface of 7 058 958 ha in Cameroon, 13 685 971 ha in the Republic of Congo, 12 215 659 ha in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 14 272 630 ha in Gabon. Emphasis is also given on other evolving models of forest management such as community forests, council forests, sale of standing volumes and special permits based on mutual understanding between the public and the private individual or enterprises. In addition to PPPs under production forests in Central Africa, other forms are evolving in protected areas (mostly World Heritage Biospheres sites) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo and Chad but with yet immeasurable positive attributes. However, one qualitative positive attribute in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park in DRC is linked to deliberate involvement of other stakeholders such as local communities in the development of ecotourism activities. Also examined is the contribution of the forestry sector to national income and employment as well as national trade balances associated with the export and importation of key wood products. Further analyses are made on trade aspects, in terms of efficiency in flows to various continents, the types of products exported; and finally some recommendations are proffered, including on the need for increased value addition within the countries and further research support for the generation of scientific evidence to support policy decision making.

Forest resources are of prime importance to the people and economy of Uganda owing to the range of ecological, economic, social and cultural products and services they provide for a multitude of stakeholders. However, forests in the country have declined from 4.9 million hectares in 1990 to an estimated 2.08 million hectares in 2015, although there was a marked increase in the area of planted forests since the early 2000s. Traditionally, forest management in Uganda has been the preserve of government with the private sector predominantly engaged in secondary production and trade in forest products, particularly timber. However, over the past decade, there has been increased participation of the private sector in primary forest production. The national forest policy envisages the private sector to play a central role in managing forests on private land, developing and managing commercial forest plantations, and developing and managing forest products processing industries. This country report is the result of a study conducted in 2015 and 2016 aimed at identifying and promoting public private partnership (PPP) approaches for forest compatible sustainable livelihoods development with the view to strengthen understanding of the key actors in both primary and secondary forestry production in Uganda. The study was conducted through desk review of extant literature, key informant interviews, and field surveys in selected districts across the country. It involved mapping of key actors in primary and secondary forest production and ascertaining information relating to key products and production, employment, policies and regulations, gender issues, marketing and trade, contribution of private forest sector activities, linkages among actors and the scope of public private partnerships in Uganda’s forest sector. Findings of the study indicate that there are multiple actors in the sector with the private sector playing an increasingly dominant role in both primary and secondary forest production as government focuses on creating an enabling environment. A variety of tree species are managed in natural forests but P. caribaea and E. grandis are the major species managed in plantations. The planted forest estate approached 90,000ha with an estimated 7 million cubic metres of growing stock. Secondary forest production involved production of various forest products ranging from fuelwood to non-timber forest products. While the primary production sector exhibited appreciable performance, the secondary sector was curtailed by limited supply of round wood. Vertical and horizontal linkages were generally weak with relationships being more informal than formal but emerging players seemed to be pursuing strategies for vertical integration while a section of players in the primary sector made efforts to integrate horizontally. However collaborative arrangements between the public and private sectors have been successfully implemented with appreciable achievements and there is potential for further collaboration for the benefit of the forestry sector. This will help consolidate the achievements so far made, particularly contributions of the private forestry sector such as advocacy, employment generation, social services and value addition to forest produce.

This issue provides a broad overview of some of the most pressing concerns in the forestry sector, with the intention that subsequent issues of this publication will dwell on other equally important concerns that could not be accommodated in this issue. AFF plans to produce, with potential partners, such issues once every 2-4 years, resources permitting. The first chapter explores ways through which SFM can be facilitated to grow on the continent. The actual state of forest resources on the continent is an area that FAO has covered well in its regular publications on the same, so this report does not delve into this. Chapter 2 then looks at how the continent can increase the supply of industrial round wood outside its natural forests by examining the current state, management and supply of germ plasm or planting stock. Following investments in forest and tree establishment in various landscapes is the necessity to protect such investments from pests and diseases, among other vagaries. That is the subject of Chapter 3 that examines the current state, management and control of pests and diseases that afflict forests and tree resources on the continent. Climate change is increasingly bringing another dimension in managing forests and trees outside forests in the sense that a new commercial product, forest carbon, has been introduced to the forestry sector. In addition, climate change is affecting these resources while at the same time these resources affect climate change. This is the focus of Chapter 4. Biofuel development and use on the continent is growing, and this is in tandem with global efforts to develop clean energy through renewable resources. These and other issues are explored in Chapter 5.