Forests and forestry continue to be very much profiled on the global agenda and their relevance to other sectors of national economies is increasingly been recognized and appreciated. This progress report is developed within the framework of the overarching communications and knowledge management strategies designed to communicate the identity and value of AFF’s mandated role in providing a platform for the networking and interchange of forest related information among the many stakeholders in African forestry. This report is on progress made on implementing activities in the year 2017 by the Communications and Knowledge Management Unit of AFF.

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In many African countries, the private sector in forestry is almost non-existent as an organized entity that one can dialogue with. This is also true in Tanzania, the country this study reports on, and where the sector is at its infancy, and needs to be nurtured to become stronger and better organized for it to significantly contribute to the national economy. In this regard, it has to be organized and coordinated as an entity and the many diverse actors who largely operate informally have to be strengthened. This study was conducted with this in mind; that is to facilitate the development of an organized private sector in forestry in Tanzania.

Cameroon's land area covers about 46 million ha with 16.8 million ha as dense tropical forests and 29.8 million ha as degraded humid forests. The almost double proportion of degraded forests to dense forests is a good indication of human induced disturbance of the forest ecosystem in Cameroon. History has its role to play in the current state of Cameroonian forests but the contemporary influences are governed by the legal and regulatory texts in place. Today, total surface area of Cameroon's forests is 23 035 630 ha representing 48.73% of the national territory. The forests are classified as production and protection forests or remain unclassified. Production forests are exploited and managed under four forest management regimes, and in keeping with several management conventions, standards or multi-lateral environmental agreements (MEAs) such as the UN Forest Principles/Agenda 21 and also with several partnerships. This study seeks to identify, promote promising public private partnership (PPP) models or approaches for forest compatible sustainable livelihoods development and strengthen the capacity of the industry to address both social and environmental concerns in ways that can contribute to more sustainable, equitable and effective private sector development.

Background Climate change is now known to be a key threat to achieving sustainable development and poverty reduction targets, as well as attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in Africa. Climate change is altering rainfall patterns, water availability, and sea levels; it is increasing droughts and the frequency of bushfires, and increasingly impacting on human health, agricultural productivity, forests and biodiversity. In this way, climate change will negatively affect the social, economic and environmental dimensions of human livelihoods in Africa. While forests are negatively impacted by climate change, forests, in turn, have the potential to play a pivotal role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, and in providing ecosystem services that increase the resilience of rural communities who depend on them. To provide a framework for addressing these issues, the African Forest Forum has initiated a Climate Change Programme that comprises several projects, including the “Africa forests, people and climate change project”. Objectives The main objectives of the present study were to: Evaluate the implementation challenges and opportunities of policies, strategies and plans by SADC and COMESA on forestry and climate change; Assess the role and extent of participation of women, youth and vulnerable groups in forest-based climate change programmes and plans of SADC and COMESA; and Identify and describe measures, approaches and incentives to increase the role of and benefit to women, youth and vulnerable groups in forest- based climate change programmes and plans of SADC and COMESA. Methodology The above objectives were achieved through a literature study that reviewed official documents on policies, strategies and plans of COMESA and SADC. Secondly, primary data were collected through an empirical study that involved face to face interviews with relevant SADC and COMESA officials. For the data collection a trip to SADC in Gaborone, Botswana and another to COMESA in Lusaka, Zambia were undertaken, spending three days in each country. Furthermore, data for objectives 2 and 3 were collected through a questionnaire emailed to all COMESA and SADC member states. The qualitative data were analyzed by synthesis of documents and responses were presented into three sections according to specific objectives. Findings The COMESA Climate Initiative of 2008 has made marked progress in the following areas: political commitment, Africa Climate Change Solution, an Africa position on climate change, search for scientific evidence on climate change, partnership with AMCEN, advocacy and mobilization, special focus on CSOs, support to Climate Smart Agriculture, CA Study tours, support to women in up-scaling Climate Smart Agriculture, COMESA Carbon Fund, Forest Strategy, promotion of renewable energy, and support beyond COMESA. On the Forestry Strategy, which was approved in 2009, an action plan to implement the strategy was developed for the period of 2010 to 2012, but things have not gone according to plan; as a result, little has been achieved. Bottlenecks include poor technical capacity and lack of financial resources for implementation. As a result, there is no functional coordinating mechanism for the COMESA Forestry Strategy yet. The SADC secretariat launched the SADC Forest Protocol in 2002, and subsequently a SADC Forestry Strategy (2010-2020) which captures a reasonable number of Articles in the protocol. Significant progress has been made in strategy implementation, so far, including the following programmes: A SADC Support Programme on REDD+ (Approved, 2010); A SADC Regional Fire Management Programme (Approved, 2010, no regional project yet); FLEGT (still under development, yet to go for approval); TFC (under development, no regional projects yet);and regional Project on forests and carbon monitoring systems (based at the SADC Secretariat-4 Pilot countries-Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique). A monitoring tool for national level programmes has been designed and circulated to member states, though responses are not forthcoming, probably due to lack of capacity and funding for research. Conclusions Comprehensive policies, strategies, action plans, programmes and projects have been initiated by the SADC and COMESA Secretariats. Corresponding national programmes and projects are already underway in some member states. However the following conclusions can be drawn: There are numerous challenges to implementation of forest and climate change policies and programmes in the SADC and COMESA regions; there is a lack of emphasis on integration for decision making towards the common goals of sustainable forest management, climate change mitigation and adaptation for sustainable livelihoods; there are contradictions and conflicts, as well as incompatibilities and unrealised synergies between national forest and climate change related policies and programmes in the SADC and COMESA regions; there is a lack of adequate and effective integrated national institutional frameworks for policy and strategy implementation in the member states; implementation is mainly sectoral rather than multi-sectoral or multidisciplinary. Poor technical capacities to direct policy and programme implementation have slowed down progress; stakeholders lack capacity to effectively participate in forest and climate change programmes; involvement of women, youth and vulnerable groups in forest-based climate change programmes and projects at local, national and regional levels remains a major challenge in the region, and lack of sustained financing for the effective implementation of forest and climate change policies, strategies and programmes is a major constraint. Furthermore, collaboration and regional integration in forest and climate change programmes are still at their infancy and this has resulted in poor exchange programmes in terms of expertise. There is a gap between the SADC and COMESA Secretariats yet they are implementing similar regional programmes. But the COMESA-SADC-EAC Tripartite is expected to drastically improve the situation. In addition there is a tendency for member states to invest more resources and time in the implementation of national policies as compared to SADC and COMESA regional forest and climate change policies and programmes. Key recommendations Seeing that there are multiple implementation challenges in SADC and COMESA forest and climate change programmes, AFF at the strategy level may assist SADC and COMESA Secretariats through the following strategic actions: Providing assistance on innovative ways for involving stakeholders in all the stages of development and implementation of forest and climate change programmes. Designing suitable programmes and projects that would enhance the capacity of forestry and climate change stakeholders in participating in the relevant forest based climate change programmes. Contributing to guide policy and programme reviews, analysis, harmonization and alignment. This would enhance the strategic planning processes, so as to enable national forest and climate change focal points to integrate regional programmes in national priorities. Ultimately, this would bridge the gap that currently exists between the SADC and COMESA Secretariats in terms of collaboration at the strategy level. Helping to develop, solicit funding for, and implement specific programmes and projects geared towards improvement of national and regional institutional frameworks. Furthermore, AFF may advise SADC and COMESA Secretariats on contemporary and innovative sustainable financing mechanisms for successful national and regional forest and climate change programmes. Facilitating seminars, workshops and conferences where strategic partners and alliances meet to share development lessons on forest and climate change issues, in order to strengthen capacity building and skills development, as well as learning, knowledge generation and information management among stakeholders. Providing guidelines for promoting gender mainstreaming and youth participation in forest-based climate change programmes. Direct use of the existing AFF Gender Policy should facilitate this process.

This study provides information to support catalysing the emergence of organized private sector in forestry in Kenya, through promotion of promising public private partnership (PPP) approaches for sustainable forest management and enhanced livelihoods including gender considerations. The projection on supply and demand of products in the country indicates that the demand for various forest products is fast growing as compared to supply potential from the various sector actors. MENR (2013) study found that Kenya has a wood supply potential of 31.4 million m3 against a national demand of 41.7 million m3 hence a current deficit of 10.3 million m3. Timber, poles, fire wood and charcoal supply stands at 7,363,414m3, 3,028,907m3, 13,654,022m3 and 7,358,717m3 while demand stands at 5,262,624m3, 1,409,482m3, 18,702,748m3 and 16,325,810m3 respectively. MENR (2013) forecast for a 20 year period 2010-2032 indicates that the total forest product supplies will increase by 20% and overall demand by 21.6% which signifies a gradually increasing deficit. Therefore entry of private sector with desired financial capital and operational efficiency expertise will compliment public and smallholder actors in expansion of the sector forest product supply capacity and contribution to overall national economic development

Southern African forest ecosystems (both natural and exotic) provide a wide range of economic, social and ecological services and are under threat from various causes, hence the need to implement sustainable forest management (SFM) practices. SFM calls for the use of the National Forest Programme (nfp) process to develop, implement and monitor nfps. The latter are a mutually agreed portfolio of forest sector initiatives, and the nfp approach focuses on the involvement of key stakeholders in the process. Several Southern African countries are participating in the nfp process through the NFP Facility housed by FAO. However, progress made in implementing nfp driven plans varies with country. The objective of this study was therefore to understand constraints and opportunities in implementing nfp processes and plans; to facilitate the sharing of lessons among countries; and to produce policy briefs that advocate for improved nfp implementation. This paper focuses on Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe and is based on literature reviews; visits undertaken to the three countries; and feedback from a regional workshop attended by key stakeholders from southern and eastern African countries. Conclusions and recommendations are made in the areas of national forest programmes; forestry sector legislative and institutional reforms; profile of the forestry sector; and forestry resource use. The nfp process emphasizes inclusivity which has been achieved through support from the NFP Facility to study countries. The process has however been constrained by the absence of full time coordinating units within forestry departments; and lack of jurisdiction of the coordinating units and their multi-stakeholder committees over emerging global issues such as green economies and monitoring of nfp implementation. The following is therefore recommended: establishment of well-resourced and institutionalized nfp coordinating units within forestry departments; alignment of nfps with other national and regional planning processes; and design and implementation of a robust M&E tool that addresses both process and conservation impact delivery.