European Tropical Forest Research Network

• Dead or alive? The uncertain future of the Arabian juniper woodlands
• Conservation and sustainable use of Mediterranean forest in Israel
• Low forest cover in the Philippines: Forcing issues and responses at the country level
• Low forest cover in the Philippines: Issues and responses at the community level
• Institutions and natural resources in the Miombo region
• Trees outside forest
• A food for all seasons
• Baobab: The tree that hides the scrub
• Regional partnership for Albertine rift montane forests
• Forest management in Uganda
• Important bird areas in Kenya
• Strategic private efforts for the conservation of Paraguyan biodiversity
• Plantas do nordeste: Brejos and caatingas research on the biodiversity of forest ecosystems of the semi-arid region of northeast Brazil
• The caatingas of northeast Brazil: Is a governement conservation policy for the area now in sight?
• Plantas do nordeste: Subprogramme for information, dissemination and training (SIDT)

DEAD OR ALIVE? THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE OF THE ARABIAN JUNIPER WOODLANDS

by Martin Fisher

When one thinks of forests or woodlands the Arabian Peninsula is not an area that springs immediately to mind, though in fact the region is a land of many varied botanical landscapes (Ghazanfar & Fisher 1998), a number of which are wooded. On the great desert plains low density woodlands of Acacia, Prosopis and associated species can be found, but the most spectacular Arabian woodlands are those dominated by species of Juniperus. These can be seen at the higher altitudes of the northern mountains of Oman and atop the great mountain spine that runs from the southern Jordanian border to Aden's doorstep.

From the border with Jordan at about 29° latitude to Taif at about 22°, Juniperus phoenicea can be found, and it overlaps along about 30 km of the Taif escarpment with Juniperus procera, which occurs southwards into the mountains of Yemen. In the northern mountains of Oman only one species is found, Juniperus excelsa subsp. polycarpos. Though these juniper woodlands can be found at altitudes as low as 1200 m they generally occur above 2000 m. There is no upper tree line since the maximum altitude of the Arabian mountains is 3700 m. Elsewhere within their range these junipers grow as high as 4500 m. The density of the woodlands varies from a maximum of about 200 trees per hectare, in the very open juniper woodlands of Oman, to as high as 4000 per hectare in Saudi Arabia. The latter have the 'feel' of a forest, though the canopy is still relatively open, with good light penetration and a rich development of undergrowth.

Despite their differing densities and species compositions and the fact that in Saudi Arabia and Yemen the woodlands have been heavily impacted by human activities, juniper woodlands throughout the Peninsula have one thing in common: at the lower altitudes they are all exhibiting extensive dieback and there are few signs of regeneration. In some areas this is so extreme that the woodlands look like a bone-yard for trees.

Concern for this problem stimulated Drew Gardner and myself to carry out a detailed survey of the condition of the juniper woodlands in northern Oman. We mapped the distribution of the woodlands, noted the extent of dieback and carried out a detailed survey of one small area of woodland as a permanent monitoring site (Fisher & Gardner 1995; Gardner & Fisher 1996). I was also able to use the same techniques to survey the condition of the juniper woodland of Raydah Reserve in south-western Saudi Arabia (Fisher 1997).

The figure below speaks for itself - woodland condition declines with decreasing altitude in a similar way on the densely wooded slopes of Raydah Reserve and in the relatively more open woodlands of the northern mountains of Oman. Whatever is causing woodland dieback, its effects are reduced above an altitude of 2400-2500 m in both areas. There are also similarities between the two areas in the decline in the proportion of trees bearing berries and male cones, and the increase in the proportion of dead trees, with decreasing altitude, with marked changes at 2400-2500 m. There is a similar pattern of poor tree condition, dieback, and low fruit production at lower altitudes on both sides of the Peninsula. The foliose lichens in Raydah, which give the forest an elfin-like appearance, are dependent for their existence on cloud moisture. The coincidence of the transition zone between healthy and unhealthy woodland with the lower altitudinal limit of the lichens suggests that woodland decline may be related in some way to climate.

What is causing this dieback? Could it be remedied or reversed? The answer to the second question will depend on the answer to the first. I have proposed four hypotheses for the decline of the Arabian juniper woodlands (Fisher 1997), all involving climate changes in one way or the other, but operative at different spatial and temporal scales. The four hypotheses are not necessarily mutually exclusive:

• (1) Overgrazing by domestic and/or feral livestock has altered local vegetation structure, causing woodland decline at lower altitudes through effects on microclimate.
• (2) The global temperature rise of the twentieth century is causing woodland decline through temperature-induced dieback at the lower juniper ecotone.
• (3) Dieback is caused by periodic droughts combined with long regeneration cycles, the effects of which are more marked at the lower, hotter elevations.
• (4) The present arid phase in the climate of Arabia, which began between 4000 and 6500 years ago, is still developing, causing woodland dieback through a long-term increase in aridity.

Long-term monitoring of tree growth and temperature along an altitudinal gradient across the dieback zone, ecological surveys of areas protected from grazing, and climate reconstruction using dendrochronology (Fisher 1994; Fisher & Gardner 1998) will all be required for satisfactory hypothesis testing.

Finally, is this dieback similar to that which is occurring in the juniper woodlands around the Mediterranean, in the Near East and in the beautiful woodlands of Baluchistan, or in these areas are anthropogenic influences the key factor? There is a need to take a broader geographical view of this widespread problem, and I invite all those who are working with Eurasian juniper woodlands to contact me. Perhaps we need to set up a working group to look into the problem - a good place to meet would be at the Second International Colloquium on Juniperus thurifera, being held over 17 - 22 April 2001 in Marrakesh (contact M. Mohammed Alifriqui, alifriqui@cybernet.net.ma, or see http://www.multimania.com/thurifere/symposium.htm for details) - let us see what we can do together.

For further information please contact:
Martin Fisher
Department of Biology
University of the South Pacific
PO Box 1168, Suva, Fiji
Tel: +679 212559, Fax: +679 315601
Email: martin.fisher@usp.ac.fj

References

Fisher M. (1994) Is it possible to construct a tree-ring chronology for Juniperus excelsa subsp. polycarpos from the northern mountains of Oman? Dendrochronologia, 12, 113-121

Fisher M. (1997) Decline in the juniper woodlands of Raydah reserve in southwestern Saudi Arabia: a response to climate changes? Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters, 6, 379-386

Fisher M. & Gardner A.S. (1995) The status and ecology of a Juniperus excelsa subsp polycarpos woodland in the northern mountains of Oman. Vegetatio, 119, 33-51

Fisher M. & Gardner A.S. (1998) The potential of a montane juniper tree-ring chronology for the reconstruction of recent climate in Arabia. In: Quaternary Deserts and Climatic Change (eds. Alsharhan AS, Glennie KW, Whittle GL & Kendall CGSC), pp. 273-278. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam

Gardner A.S. & Fisher M. (1996) The distribution and status of the montane juniper woodlands of Oman. Journal of Biogeography, 23, 791-803

Ghazanfar S.A. & Fisher M. (1998) Vegetation of the Arabian Peninsula. Kluwer Academic, the Netherlands.

Figure Legend

Variation with altitude of (A) mean tree condition, (B) proportion of trees with berries and/or male cones, (C) proportion of trees dead, and (D) proportion of trees bearing foliose lichens in Raydah Reserve in the Asir Highlands of Saudi Arabia (closed dots and lines) and in the northern mountains of Oman (open dots and lines, extracted from Fig. 5 of Gardner & Fisher (1996)). Foliose lichens do not occur in the northern Oman mountains. The altitude axis is in descending order to emphasise the decline in tree condition with decreasing altitude. The shaded area indicates the zone of transition from a healthy to an unhealthy woodland.

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CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF MEDITERRANEAN FOREST IN ISRAEL

By M. Walczak

When Israel began its history as an independent state in 1948, the country had been nearly completely deforested as a result of extremely intensive use of land for agriculture and grazing. Most of the remaining small patches of forest had been planted during the British Mandate on Palestine, but a few were of unknown origin and were presumably remnants of natural forest. During the British Mandate most existing forest areas were declared reserves and protected by law.

The country experienced major changes during the first years after declaration of the State of Israel. Nearly all land became state-owned, the population density declined in previously densely populated areas, and breeding of black goats was made illegal. The resulting reduction of grazing and other pressures led to favourable conditions for vegetation regeneration throughout the country. Natural vegetation succession on the areas previously used as fields and pastures created a diverse and dynamic landscape where different vegetation formations, such as batha, garrigue and maquis and different plant communities developed according to climatic and edaphic conditions.

According to commonly accepted geobotanical classification, local maquis and forests in Israel can be grouped into four major types:

• Pine forest (Pinion halepensis alliance)
• Deciduous tabor oak forest (Quercion ithaburensis alliance)
• Evergreen oak maquis and forests (Quercion calliprini alliance)
• Carob-lentisk maquis (Ceratonia - Pistacion alliance)

Natural and semi-natural forests and woodlands cover a total area of approximately 80,000 ha, which constitutes more than 9% of the Mediterranean part of the country.

Changes in nature conservation policy - passive vs. active conservation

The first nature reserves were established in the late 1950's to protect the most valuable natural habitats and populations. At the beginning conservation was 'passive'; the protected areas were left without human interference to undergo spontaneous natural processes.

Scientific research on the resulting vegetation changes showed that the growing density of woody vegetation, particularly in the Mediterranean part of Israel, influenced not only the landscape, but also the biodiversity of plant communities. Earlier stages of vegetation succession, such as batha, were found to be more species-rich than dense garrigue or maquis. It became obvious that most of the species richness in Israel was related to disturbed areas rather than to spontaneously developed woodlands, and that active and controlled management is needed to halt biodiversity deterioration. Decisions to encourage grazing in open areas and in large parts of nature reserves followed. Despite the encouragement of grazing, the area of dense maquis is constantly growing. The accumulation of woody biomass increases the probability of wild fires.

As the time during which natural vegetation regeneration has occurred in Israel is rather short, it remains to be seen whether spontaneous regeneration of diversified, multi-storeyed, self-sustaining forest can actually take place under current conditions.

Forestry in the State of Israel

Forestry began to develop dynamically immediately after the establishment of the State of Israel. Afforestation programmes were based mainly on experiences in Central and Eastern Europe. Their declared purposes were mainly landscape modification, which remains relevant at present, and timber production, which proved to be unrealistic in the Israeli climate. Now the main use of forest is for recreation and leisure.

Planted forests in Israel cover about 90,000 ha, which is more than 10% of the Mediterranean part of the country.

Nature conservation problems caused by afforestation

Massive afforestation brought about many problems in the field of nature conservation, of which the most important are:

• Cultivation techniques, including the use of herbicides and other pest control agents, burning and ploughing reduce biodiversity and especially threaten rare species;
• Introduction of alien species, such as Acacia saligna, which can become invasive and threaten the local flora and vegetation;
• Widespread introduction of Pinus halepensis, a native species that had a limited distribution until 1948 and has since become invasive;
• Propagation for forest plantations of Pinus halepensis from seeds of foreign provenance threatens the local, remnant genotypes with extinction;
• Pinus halepensis, being a typical pioneer species dominates most areas of disturbance by fire and human activity and prevents the establishment of other woody species;
• Large areas of densely planted pine forests are highly flammable and increase the probability and intensity of wildfires, which threaten both planted forests and natural vegetation;
• Dense plantation in sub-optimal conditions results in weak trees that are vulnerable to pests and diseases. For example, Pinus halepensis is widely infested by an aphid, Matsucoccus josephi, which causes massive mortality;
• Growing use of native woody species for afforestation involves translocation of reproductive material around the country, and influences natural differences between populations growing in different conditions;
• Most pine forests deteriorate at the age of 30-40 years, and thus the goal of self-sustaining forests for leisure and recreation has not been achieved.

Administration, management and legal protection of forests and woodlands in Israel

The main administrative bodies involved in forestry and forest protection in Israel are:

The Jewish National Fund, responsible for afforestation and forest management;

Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority, manages nature reserves and National Parks and is responsible for nature protection all over the country.

The National masterplan for Forests and Afforestation, approved in 1996, grants certain areas a legal status as forested areas, including planted forests, natural woodlands and other open areas. Over 162,000 ha are designated by this plan for forest development. The Jewish National Fund is assigned to manage these areas as well as other planted forests.

Two main reasons cause the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority to be involved in forestry policy and practice. The first reason is its general responsibility for nature conservation in the country, and the second is the fact that many National Parks include planted and natural forests where management policy depends on INNPPA decisions.

Close professional collaboration between these two institutions has developed over the last two years. A joint team discusses mutual problems and conflicts. Joint scientific projects are undertaken to find answers to common questions and optimal solutions to shared problems.

For further information, please contact:

Dr Margareta Walczak
Nature and National Parks Protection Authority
Division of Science and Conservation
3 Am Ve'Olamo St.
95463 Jerusalem
ISRAEL
Tel: + 972-2-5005444 Fax: + 972-2-5005409

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LOW FOREST COVER IN THE PHILIPPINES: FORCING ISSUES AND RESPONSES AT THE COUNTRY LEVEL

By Mark Mulligan

The Philippines is a country with low forest cover which has seen extensive deforestation in the last 100 years (see Walpole, this issue). As the ESSC study points out, these changes in forest cover have led to significant environmental and social impacts at the local, regional and country scales. A recent project (Monitoring Environmental Change In The Philippines, MAN/992/15, Dr. John Pitman), funded by the UK DFID through their Higher Education Links programme, has enabled long term field investigations on the hydrological impacts of land use change in the Philippine uplands at the plot and catchment scale. The project also employed GIS-based modelling approaches to analyse the dynamics of landscape sensitivity to land use change in the transition from high to low forest cover and in a changing climate.

Climate change and the Philippines

1998 was the warmest year this century in the Philippines (Hulme and Sheard, 1999) and, as in many countries, temperatures have been rising throughout the Philippines. Warming has occurred through all seasons, but particularly from June to August. The Philippines has also become drier with a 6% decline in rainfall this century (Hulme and Sheard, 1999). As a generally low lying country with more than 7000 islands, most of which are smaller than 1km, the Philippines is also very vulnerable to the 20-40 cm rise in sea level that has occurred since the 1960s.

According to their analysis of the MAGICC model, Hulme and Sheard (1999) indicate that, by 2080, temperature in the Philippines is expected to rise (relative to the 1961-90 average) by between 1.2 and 3.9 C depending on the CO₂ emissions scenario used and the model sensitivity. Under all scenarios warming is stronger in the north of the country, as is winter (Dec-Feb) drying whilst summer wetting (June-Aug) is highest in the south of the country.

Our own analysis of the results of greenhouse-sulphate integrations of three General Circulation Models (GCMs)⁽¹⁾, HADCM2, ECHAM and GFDL, indicates that annual average warming between the periods 1990-1999 and 2040-2049 ranges from 0.97 to 1.54C with rainfall reductions ranging from 43 168.5 mm/year.

Table 1 Temperature and rainfall change for the Mindanao grid cell of three GCMs between 1990-1999 and 2040-2049

Model	Temperature change (°C)	Rainfall change (mm/month)
ECHAM	+0.97	-11.6 (-139.6 mm/year)
HADCM2	+1.54	-14.0 (-168.5 mm/year)
GFDL	+1.25	-14.0 (-168.5 mm/year)

Hydrological Impacts of Climate Change

This climatic change is significant in its own right, but in combination with large scale forest loss which has rendered large areas hydrologically degraded, the impacts may be still more significant. Increased temperature and reduced rainfall will, almost certainly, reduce water resource availability for agriculture, river navigation and urban/industrial use whilst increasing the pollution load of the remaining water. At the same time, relatively inaccessible upland areas harbour the sparse remnants of the Philippine tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) which is now threatened by the mining and agricultural frontier. Because of the unique ability of TMCF to scavenge water from passing cloud (Zadroga, 1981; Hamilton et al., 1995), further damage to this forest will almost certainly combine with climate change to reduce water resource quantity and quality in the lowlands both seasonally and annually.

Landscape Sensitivity to Land Use Change in Tropical Montane Forests

Moreover it is clear from model experiments carried out with a distributed hydrological model developed within the context of this project, that the hydrological sensitivity to deforestation increases exponentially as catchments lose forest. In other words the hydrological impact of losing a unit (eg. hectare) of forest is much higher in a catchment with low forest cover than in a more heavily forested catchment. A series of experiments were carried out with a distributed hydrological model in a GIS environment calculating vertical and lateral fluxes of water at 25m spatial resolution on an hourly basis. The model was integrated for a full year using a scenario for land use change that totally deforested the catchment in 25 iterations. Catchment-scale totals of runoff and erosion were analysed for each iteration of the land use change model, and the hydrological sensitivities (change in runoff or in erosion per unit change in land use) were calculated.

The results were clear (Figure 1) , whether one went from forest to bare soil or forest to pasture, in the preliminary stages of deforestation the hydrological sensitivity to forest removal is low. However, once forest cover falls below 25% - connecting the network of deforested areas along flow paths - there is an exponential increase in the hydrological response to each unit of forest removed. In real terms this means an increase in hydrological extremes (flooding, drought), increased soil erosion, and hydrological and land degradation. Since the modelled catchments are composed of a number of smaller catchments and landscapes are constructed of inter-linking catchments, it is reasonable to suggest that this principle may hold at greater and lesser scales and that, as countries lose forest cover, their hydrological sensitivity to deforestation increases exponentially. The exact form of this relation will differ with catchment structure, geology and climate but the general principle: that connectivity of deforested areas along flow paths leads to increased sensitivity with deforestation is likely to hold throughout these environments. In the example shown sensitivity begins to increase sharply at 75% deforestation. According to the figures quoted by Walpole this issue, by 1999 the Philippines had only 18.3% forest cover remaining, placing the country very firmly in the zone of exponentially increasing hydrological impact. Will we see the exponential increase in hydrological response indicated by the models? We must hope not.

⁽¹⁾ The models were integrated with the IS92a emissions scenario - equivalent to 1% compound increase in CO2 emissions from 1990-2049 (Mulligan, 2000) and results extracted for the grid cell covering the large southern island of Mindanao.

For further information please contact:

Dr. Mark Mulligan
Environmental Monitoring and Modelling Research Group, Dept. of Geography
King's College London, Strand
London WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 78482280 Fax: +44 20 7848 2287
Email: mark.mulligan@kcl.ac.uk
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/geography
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/herb

References

Hamilton, L.S., Juvik, J.O. & Scatena, F.N. eds. (1995) Tropical Montane Cloud Forests. Ecological Studies 110, Springer Verlag, New York, 407 pp.

Hulme, M. and Sheard,N. (1999) Climate Change Scenarios for the Philippines. Climatic Research Unit, Norwich, UK, 6pp.

Mulligan, M. (2000) Downscaled Climate Change Scenaria for Colombia and their Hydrological Consequences. Advances in Environmental Monitoring and Modelling. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/advances

Zadroga, F. (1981) The hydrological importance of a montane cloud forest area of Costa Rica. In: R. Lal & E.W. Russell, eds., Tropical Agricultural Hydrology. J. Wiley, New York, pp. 59-73.

Figure 1. Hydrological sensitivity to deforestation

A: Number of cells deforested
B: Land use model Iteration
C: Runoff sensitivity (% chance in runoff/unit area deforested)

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LOW FOREST COVER IN THE PHILIPPINES : ISSUES AND RESPONSES AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL

By Peter Walpole

The Philippines is one of the most severely deforested countries in the tropics and most deforestation has happened in the last 40 years.

Estimates place forest cover in the Philippines in the year 1900 at 21 million hectares, covering 70 % of the total land area. By 1999, forests covered 5.5 million hectares; only 800,000 hectares of this was primary forest. As illegal logging continues, the remaining forest is endangered.

The destruction of the Philippine forest was the subject of a recent study (1999), Decline of the Philippine Forest, by the Institute of Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC). This study traces the history of the decline, examines the causes and effects of deforestation, and discusses emerging perspectives. The study considers two possible Philippine scenarios for the year 2010. One assumes that meaningful steps will be taken to reverse the decline and offers some hope; the other scenario assumes that things will continue as in the past, and the outcome will be a continued national degradation of resources.

The Philippines is paying a high price for the destruction of its forests and a number of major problems confronting the nation can be traced directly to deforestation. Today, the country faces food insecurity due to soil erosion, which means depleted nutrients and low crop yield. In many provinces, at least 50% of the topsoil has been lost, and 70% of all croplands are vulnerable to erosion. The country's climatic conditions are such that typhoons sweep the country an average of 19 times a year. The topography is mainly uplands with a slope equal to or greater than 18% and these areas make up 52% of total land area. In the absence of forest cover and with frequent heavy typhoon rains, soil erosion, mass wasting, and landslides are induced.

The Philippines is facing water insecurity because of degraded and poorly managed watersheds. More than 57 % of the major watersheds are critically denuded, which means loss of water infiltration and slow recharging of water tables. Nationwide, water quality has deteriorated and cities like Manila, Cebu, Davao, and Baguio, are constantly facing water shortages. A country that once exported some of the finest woods in the world is now a net wood importer.

The decimation of the forest is a tragedy for indigenous peoples. Ethnic groups become forced to retreat into the interior and further impoverished. Government is doing little to raise these people above their subsistence level. Some have left their lands, and the sight of indigenous peoples begging in city streets is not uncommon. They have lost their lands, and their culture has been degraded. With the destruction of indigenous cultures, the nation is losing a treasure that should be nurtured to enrich national cultural diversity.

This loss of cultural communities is closely linked to the loss of biodiversity. Tropical forests are rich in herbs, woody plants, birds, insects, and animal life. Destroying the forests means destroying the myriad creatures and flora on which the indigenous communities depend. Forest loss also means loss of forest products such as, rattan, resins, and gums, a source of livelihood for indigenous people. Wildlife is quickly disappearing and to date, the destruction of the ecosystems is taking a heavy toll on biodiversity: 18 species of fauna are already rare and endangered, while 43 species of birds are threatened with extinction.

The ESSC's response to these problems is multifaceted and flexible. However, in any approach, community management is central. This approach was discussed at such international conferences as the 1996 FAO Conference in Bangkok, the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests in New York in February 2000 (through the Working Group on Community Involvement in Forest Management), and at the World Bank Forest Policy Implementation Review and Strategy in Singapore in April 2000. A presentation on the role of indigenous peoples in watershed management was delivered to the House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress in December 1999.

ESSC is the Secretariat of the Philippine Working Group (PWG) for national resource management. PWG activities are documented in the ESSC publication, Forest People Facing Change. This monograph gives a history of the PWG, discusses the philosophy guiding its approach, examines PWG strengths and weaknesses, documents field visits, and critiques PWG findings. PWG members represent a wide variety of disciplines and backgrounds; expertise is drawn from the academe, government, NGOs, and funding agencies. Each member is there in his/her own capacity and not as a representative of an agency. Members feel free to discuss, question, and examine any problem without being held responsible for what others have said in the past or the present limitations of policy. Starting in the outlying sitios, where marginalised communities live, the group works its way up through the municipal to the provincial level. The PWG, after witnessing how government policies are being implemented, has been effective in having the national government modify its policies.

To promote community based forest and resource management, ESSC developed community mapping to ensure community participation and the articulation of community views and concerns. How this works is explained in the book Community Mapping Manual for Resource Management, published in conjunction with the DENR. Apart from enabling communities to present their own views, it introduces indigenous communities to modern technology and basic scientific knowledge. Another manual for trainers is being prepared.

For ESSC, the relationship between culture and ecosystems is of critical importance and this relationship is discussed in three publications: Philippine Culture and Ecosystems, Resource Conflict and Cultural Management in Southern Sierra Madre, and Mindoro in the Balance.

ESSC promotes community based forest management (CBFM) and assisted natural regeneration (ANR). While CBFM has been successful over the past years, the present leadership of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) seems more interested in experimenting with timber corridors. However, it does not make much sense to cut regenerating scrublands and then to replant the area with alien species when the condition of the scrublands can be improved by ANR.

In the Philippines, the promotion of CBFM, especially in degraded watershed areas, is imperative. People living in watersheds have a stake in improving them, and by so doing, contribute significantly to solving the water problem of the agricultural lowland communities and of our cities.

For further information please contact:

Peter Walpole (Environmental Science for Social Change)
1/F Manila Observatory Building
Ateneo University Campus
Loyola Heights, Quezon City
Philippines
Fax: +63-2 426-5958
Email: essc@pusit.admu.edu.ph

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INSTITUTIONS AND NATURAL RESOURCES IN THE MIOMBO REGION

Adapted from CIFOR/EC/SADC Miombo Woodlands Research Briefs, Issue 5

Where to with institutional arrangements and governance structures?

This project brief is largely the result of work on the project "Management of Miombo Woodland" funded by the European Union's Action in Favour of Tropical Forests, and facilitated by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Institute of Environmental Studies, University of Zimbabwe, the Faculty of Forestry, Sokoine University of Agriculture, the Forestry Commission (Zimbabwe) and the Forestry Research Institute of Malawi. Bruce Campbell and Frank Matose prepared the text, with assistance from Dennis Kayambazinthu and George Kajembe. Additional support, for work in a case study area in southern Zimbabwe, is acknowledged from the U.K. Department for International Development through its support to the Zimbabwe: Micro-catchment and Common Property Resources project, and from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation for its support to the project Stakeholders and Biodiversity in the Forests of the Future.

Moving to community-based management

These are exciting times for natural resource management in Africa, as more and more emphasis is placed on community-based approaches. This emphasis is sometimes supported by national policy shifts and changes in legislation, as with the forest policy changes in Tanzania and Malawi, the wildlife policy changes in Zimbabwe and Namibia, and the water policy changes in Zimbabwe. In other cases, there may be on-the-ground experimentation with community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) even when national policies are not necessarily supportive (e.g. the experimentation with 'resource sharing' in the State Forests of Zimbabwe).

Success stories

Emerging results from Babati in Tanzania, suggest that the shift of control from central government to local communities has seen a turn around in the resource base, from degraded and overused woodland to regenerating woodland with a set of rules governing use.

From Zimbabwe, much has been heard of CAMPFIRE, and of the many CAMPFIRE schemes that exist today there are some clear success stories, where communities manage animal populations sustainably for the benefit of the households in the community. Money derived from management has been ploughed back into the development of schools, clinics and roads.

Are we being too accepting of the new approaches?

The number of success stories to date is very limited. But the wave of enthusiasm for CBNRM is immense. We contend that the CBNRM concept is being uncritically accepted. Our recent research has shown that it is extraordinarily difficult to implement management systems based on common pool resources ⁽¹⁾ in the miombo region. Most CBNRM schemes are based on common pool resources. the institutional/governance barriers to CBNRM include: lack of an enabling policy environment; absence or weakness of legitimate local institutions; power struggles at the local level.

There are also economic and biophysical barriers to CBNRM that need attention, including the low value of many resources and the low growth rates, but these are not dealt with further here.

The institutional component of CBNRM

Institutional factors are arguably the most important factors in determining the success or failure of CBNRM schemes. We believe that all too often development practitioners assume the existence of functioning local institutions, and assume that all that is required is for the state to change its policies, by devolving power to communities.

Supportive policies

The degree of policy support for CBNRM varies widely amongst southern African countries. In addition, within a country some policies may be supportive of local control while others may not (e.g. compare the wildlife and forestry policies in Zimbabwe). For effective CBNRM, it is believed that most rights should be devolved to the lowest level. However, government should retain the right to intervene in cases where the actions of local stakeholders impinge negatively on external stakeholders (e.g. downstream impacts, impacts on unique ecosystems of national interest). In addition, it may not be possible to resolve all conflicts or problems at a local level, thus higher level governance systems are needed that provide protection to marginalised groups, provide a forum for conflict resolution, etc.

Questioning the strength of local institutions

In Tanzania and Zimbabwe, post-independence local structures were designed to represent a bottom-up approach to development, but were in essence conduits for channelling propaganda and development ideas from the state to the local level. Village Development Committees (VIDCOs), as they were called in Zimbabwe, largely failed in most parts of the country as a result of lack of local legitimacy and institutional overlap with the persisting traditional structures.

While local traditional structures have been important in regulating resource use in many countries, the fabric of rural society is undergoing rapid change, much of which is impinging negatively on traditional structures. The rapid changes have also seen a rise in individualism and reduced community-related activities (reciprocity, communal work parties). Such changes do not bode well for community-based institutions.

With the withdrawal of the state from local resource management (largely for financial reasons), local institutions do not have the necessary external support to mitigate future conflict and implement various development tasks.

We argue that the formal rule-based systems which form the cornerstones of the proposed common property systems are far removed from the current institutional systems, which are based on a complex of norm-based controls, the formulation and enforcement of which are steeped in subtle and elaborate processes. Formalisation comes with costs (e.g. negotiating time to set up a formal system, costly monitoring systems, etc.) that may be too high relative to the benefits. If the state cannot afford the cost of resource management, why do we so readily assume that local communities are any better able to do so, or that the costs will be lower?

Power struggles at the local level

Despite the policy commitment to 'community-based' natural resource management, there is accumulating evidence that many of the so-called CBNRM programmes are not community-based at all, but represent instead a shift in the site of community-state conflicts to a more local level.

For example, in Zimbabwe there is growing concern over the effectiveness of the Rural District Councils in ensuring the participation of resource users in decision-making on resource utilisation and management issues, and, more especially, in returning benefits to local communities. In Zambia, local beneficiaries often fail to see any of the revenue flowing from natural resource management programmes, because traditional authorities continue to intercept and use these funds for their own agendas without any real opposition. Furthermore, in many countries there are still on-going power struggles between the traditional authorities and the structures of local government. A lack of clarity regarding the roles of these institutions in a range of issues, including land allocation and natural resource management, complicates and politicises the implementation of CBNRM, and results in competition for power, recognition and control that deflects the focus away from the real target of CBNRM initiatives, the local community itself.

What we presently call institutions are largely isolated practices by 'individual actors' whose concern for the larger community is rather questionable. Thus, sacred woodlands are often dominated by the desires of the 'traditional' elites; rich cattle owners dominate grazing schemes; and many CAMPFIRE schemes are dominated by the officials of the local councils.

Where to from here - social change?

Taking devolution further

There is the tendency, in the devolution thrust that is sweeping the region, to empower local councils rather than communities themselves. It is likely that natural resource management will be more effective if it takes place at a lower level. Lower level structures should have the authority from local councils to implement and enforce rules, and to manage resources.

Working with existing organisations

The literature is replete with examples of projects that establish committees to run projects, but which disappear subsequent to the closing of the project. A challenge is to work with local organisations, many of which may have agendas that are different from the task at hand.

Strengthening village and local governance

Implementation of a suite of organisation-building tools is needed to strengthen existing organisations, from financial skills to facilitation skills.

Promoting collaboration

Given the multiple stakeholders at the local level, it is necessary to promote collaboration, through holding joint workshops, developing joint visions, identifying and streamlining the roles and responsibilities of different organisations etc. In the Zimbabwean context it is particularly important to develop a working relationship between the traditional and administrative structures.

Recognising diversity and multiple interest groups

The "communities" in "community-based natural resource management" seldom exist in any simplistic sense. Internal differentiation in resource endowment within communities is the rule; thus it is necessary from the outset to use tools to identify the various groupings within communities. There are also numerous overlaps in membership of interest groups, often with conflicting and competing interests. Considerable effort needs to be made to understand the context of CBNRM schemes, as context is likely to determine the success or failure of particular schemes. A range of different institutional models for resource management is necessary to cater for the diversity of contexts.

Having effective facilitation

There are illustrative examples of cases where facilitation by external persons has made a significant and progressive change to how local people manage and use natural resources. However, it is widely recognised that the local community itself must take the lead in defining the local institutional arrangements.

Codification of local rules

There are many arguments for and against codifying local 'traditional' rules, but where there is justification for more intense management of resources, then codification could be initiated through stimulating local-level dialogue to identify relevant controls that may need to be "formalised". The tendency of formalisation to curtail dynamism needs to be guarded against.

Resource sharing and conflict management at the local level

A key challenge to managing common pool resources is the problem of defining boundaries among different user groups. It has been argued that it may well be better to accept 'diffuse and soft' boundaries as a 'given' and set out from there. Thus management may be better undertaken in a context of resource sharing and conflict resolution, rather than exclusion management. Dialogue should be initiated on resources to be included in inter-village charters of access.

Prospects

The challenge in the years to come will be to take the promise of CBNRM and turn it into reality. Success stories are emerging, but their numbers are equalled or outweighed by failures. The rhetoric of CBNRM is likely to fall foul of an uncritical approach. Through detailed understanding of particular CBNRM schemes we hope to identify the way forward for ensuring success.

⁽¹⁾ Common pool resources that are jointly used by a number of people - they include grazing, wildlife, woodland products such as fuelwood, mushrooms etc, boreholes, springs and rivers.

For further information please contact:

Dr. Godwin Kowero, Regional Coordinator
CIFOR Regional Office
c/o Institute of Environmental Studies
University of Zimbabwe
P.O. Box MP 167
Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel:+263-4-334835/335301/333077
Fax: +263-4-334834
E-mail: g.kowero@cgiar.org
http://www.cgiar.org/cifor

References:

Campbell, B., Byron, N., Hobane, P., Madzudzo, E., Matose, F. and Wily, L. 1999. Moving to local control of woodland resources - can campfire go beyond the mega-fauna? Society and Natural Resources 12, 501-509.

Campbell, B., de Jong, W., Luckert, M., Mandondo, A., Matose, F., Nemarundwe, N. and Sithole, B. Challenges to proponents of CPR systems - despairing voices from the social forests of Zimbabwe. Submitted.

Chafota, J., Kwesha, D., Mapedza, E., Mukwekwerere, M. and Nemarundwe, N. 1999. Inter-institutional forum on policy relevant to forestry: governance issues, property rights and rules for woodland and wildlife management. Forestry Commission, Zimbabwe.

Guijt, I. and Shah, M.K. 1998. The myth of community. Intermediate Technology Publications, London.

Kajembe, G.C., Mvena, Z.S.K. and Monela, G.C. 1999. The role of community-based institutions in mediating relationships between miombo woodlands and local communities in Tanzania. Manuscript.

Matose, F. and Wily, L. 1996. Institutional arrangements governing the use and management of miombo woodlands. In: Campbell, B.M. The Miombo in Transition: Woodlands and Welfare in Africa, pp. 195-219. Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia.

Masangano, C.M., Kayambazinthu, D., and Mwabumba, L. 1999. Institutional factors influencing community based management of miombo woodlands: the case of Malawi. Manuscript.

Mukamuri, B.B., Matose, F. and Campbell, B.M. Rural institutions: contextualising community-based management of natural resources in Zimbabwe. Manuscript.

Nemarundwe, N. 2000. Institutional collaboration and shared learning for forest management in Chivi District, Zimbabwe. In: Wollenberg, E., Edmunds, D., Buck, L., Fox, J. and Brodt, S. Social learning in community forest management: linking concepts and practise (in press)

Wily, L. 1999. Moving forward in African community forestry: trading power, not use rights. Society and Natural Resources. 12: 49-61.

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TREES OUTSIDE FOREST

Since 1980, the FAO has published a report on the state of global forest resources every 10 years. The FAO inventories provide statistical data on the forest cover according to the FAO forest definition. At the present time, a Forest Resources Assessment, named FRA 2000, is being done. This project gives particular attention to forest resources situated outside the forests (TOF). This interest comes from the statement that the role and the products of trees situated outside the forest have been neglected in inventories until today. Trees outside forest include all trees on agricultural lands, on pasture lands, in orchards, in agroforestry systems, in windbreaks, in hedges, trees in urban areas or wood-lots of small areas, etc. Little information about trees outside forest is available. However, they are important in terms of rural development. Trees outside forest provide food and financial resources to people who manage them and harvest their products. Consequently, FAO and CIRAD have undertaken a general study on this subject to show the importance of trees outside forest, what is at stake, how they are managed and how they can be inventoried. The ecological, technical but also, legal, social and economical aspects will be detailed. Quantitative and qualitative data about trees outside forest will be analysed through numerous local situations in the world. This study will be published at the end of the year.

If you have some relevant information, please contact:

Mr Ronald Bellefontaine
CIRAD-Forêt, Programme Forêts Naturelles
BP 5035
34032 Montpellier Cedex 1, France
Tel: +33 4 67593789, Fax: +33 4 67593733
Email: ronald.bellefontaine@cirad.fr

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A FOOD FOR ALL SEASONS

By Eileen M. O'Brien

'Marula' (Sclerocarya birrea) is a keystone tree species of Africa's semi-arid woodlands. Its edible vitamin-rich fruit and storable nut- like seed kernels, rich in proteins & lipids, have made it a traditional African 'wild' food for all seasons (probably throughout the course of human evolution). This, coupled with its medicinal value and its potential for economic development and domestication, have prompted a DFID-funded project at the University of Wales-Bangor, in collaboration with ICRAF and the University of Swaziland, to produce:

a monograph on Sclerocarya birrea synthesising all published data on the species (biological, ecological, economic, etc.); a distribution map; extension materials.

For further details please contact:

John B. Hall or Eileen M. O'Brien
SAFS
UWB
Bangor
Gwynedd LL57 2UW
Wales, United Kingdom
Email: j.b.hall@bangor.ac.uk
Email: e.m.obrien@bangor.ac.uk

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BAOBAB : THE TREE THAT HIDES THE SCRUB

Adapted from Coraf Action no. 15

The Senegalese are falling back on wild plants, such as fruit from forest-tree species like the baobab (Adansonia digitata), because of the cereal deficit. As a result, the Centre National de Recherches Forestières (CNRF) of the Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA) is planning to carry out research into the domestic production and development of certain fruit-bearing trees. The aims are to:

• make an inventory of available resources;
• create high-yielding hybrid varieties;
• put together technical itineraries;
• develop conservation and processing techniques for wild produce;
• disseminate research results.

These activities should encourage the development of products and by-products, and the creation of small and large-scale processing units.

Although the baobab is resistant to drought and strong winds, it does not grow in the desert or in humid forest zones. It flourishes in the scrub of semi-arid zones in Africa. In Senegal, this multipurpose species grows on light, sandy or calcareous soil and reaches a height of 30 meters or more.

It is eaten by humans and animals, and is used for medicinal and craft purposes and fishing, as well as in and around the home. It can be grafted and grown from stem cuttings. It also grows from seed that germinates 3-5 weeks after direct sowing. There are on average 2,200 seeds/kg. The seed contains more protein than groundnuts, and more lysine (an essential amino acid for growth) than leguminous plants. Seed is boiled in water for twenty-four hours then soaked in cold water for about twenty minutes.

Daily calcium requirements

The fruit pulp (breadfruit ripening between January and April in the Sahel zone) is very rich in glucides, calcium, phosphorous, potassium, glucose, vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin PP (niacin), Vitamin B1 (thiamin), and even contains more vitamin C (ascorbic acid) than an orange.

The dried leaves are eaten or sold as they are, or as powder. They are rich in calcium, iron, protein, lipids, and vitamin A (see Coraf Action no. 14). An adult's daily calcium requirements can be provided by 33 g of dry matter. Young leaves are an important source of fodder.

For further information please contact:

Samba Arona Ndiaye Samba
CNRF
BP2312,
Dakar
Senegal
Fax: +221 832 9617
Email: bathie@syfed.refer.sn

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REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP FOR ALBERTINE RIFT MONTANE FORESTS

Albertine Rift Montane Forests: a hotspot particularly threatened

by S Kanyamibwa and O Chantereau

The Albertine Rift (defined as the biogeographic region along the western branch of the African rift, covering western Uganda, eastern D.R. Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, western Tanzania to northern Zambia) covers one of the most important biogeographic regions of Africa as it combines a rich biodiversity and a backbone position in the biological and geological history of the continent. The Albertine Rift Montane Forests (ARMF) are recognised to be important in terms of biodiversity conservation mainly due to the abundance of endemic plants and animals. Furthermore the forests of the Albertine Rift play an important role in local and regional climate regulation and erosion control, as well as providing various resources to local communities. However, ARMF face serious threats resulting mainly from a high population pressure, political instability, limited knowledge on their status, and the lack of sound public awareness on the conservation and sustainable use of these forests.

ARCOS Special Focus: Albertine Rift Montane forests

Following the recognised need for a regional organisation, the Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) was founded in 1995. ARCOS is the only regional conservation initiative with a focus on biodiversity conservation in the Albertine Rift. Its overall mission is to enhance biodiversity conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources of the Albertine Rift ecoregion through the promotion of collaborative conservation action, awareness raising and biodiversity information exchange in the region. Since 1999, a special focus was given to Albertine Rift montane forests, using important funding from the Tropical Rainforest Programme of the Netherlands Committee for IUCN. A pilot project on "Networking and awareness raising for the conservation and sustainable use of Albertine Rift montane forests" was implemented by ARCOS to: assess the status of these forests; enhance awareness and conservation values of montane forests in the Albertine Rift region; and build a regional mechanism for information exchange on the status and sustainable use of montane forests in the region.

The project achieved the following:

• initiation of a regional network of institutions and individuals interested in Albertine Rift montane forest conservation;
• production of key materials - Special issues of ARCOS newsletter ("Backbone" in Engish and "Le Pilier" in French), fact sheets and a Technical Report entitled "Conservation Status of Albertine Rift Montane Forests: Preliminary Review";
• increased awareness of the conservation and sustainable use montane forests;
• networking, information exchange and communication among individuals and institutions involved in Albertine Rift montane forest.

Promoting networking, information exchange, capacity-building and public awareness

The above project, ARCOS promoted the development of a network of individuals and institutions interested in ARMF conservation and strengthened the dialogue and collaboration among local conservation initiatives. This was particularly achieved through a regional priority-setting workshop on "Promoting community-based conservation and regional information exchange in support of Albertine Rift montane forests" facilitated by ARCOS from 13th to 15th July 1999.

The workshop was attended by over 40 participants, including representatives of key conservation institutions (NGOs, government, universities, research institutions, etc.) from each country of the region and of regional and international organisations operating in the region. It reviewed current regional and international initiatives as well as national initiatives including specific selected site-based conservation case studies. It also carried out an analysis of the current conservation status of the Albertine Rift montane forests, identified problems, constraints, opportunities and threats, and identified potential responses and actions. A bi-annual forum on Albertine Rift montane forests was set up by the participants, with a plan to meet every 2 years. The next Albertine Rift montane forest forum is planned for mid-2001.

ARCOS works closely with local NGOs, through technical assistance or helping them to access seed funding. The workshop budget for example provided a small grant to 3 local NGOs, for the implementation of micro-projects aimed at the integration of local communities in the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in the region.

From regional priority-setting to site action

One of the recommendations from the July 1999 regional priority-setting workshop for ARMF was to explore possibilities for integrated conservation and development actions in sites which need most urgent actions such as Itombwe Montane forest. In collaboration with the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN), local NGOs and experts interested in the future of Itombwe, ARCOS agreed to set up an integrated conservation and development programme with the objective of maintaining the biological integrity of the Itombwe Mountains and a balance between human uses and ecosystems productivity. A feasibility study has been initiated to review and synthesise the findings and recommendations of previous studies and, most importantly, to update the knowledge of the status of this important but threatened forest through the discussion with local communities.

Needs for regional biodiversity assessment and monitoring

While the importance of the Albertine Rift montane forests and the threats facing them have been mentioned at various occasions, the exact status of these forests remain unknown.

ARCOS is planning to conduct a long-term programme aimed at the following:

• to review the knowledge on biodiversity and socio-economic aspects;
• to review biodiversity monitoring activities and information exchange and gaps;
• to review/build on priorities identified at the last July Workshop and identify or initiate specific priority actions (depending on funding); and
• to build an effective regional framework in terms of networking, capacity building, information exchange, etc.

For further information, please contact:

Principal Co-ordination:
c/o World Conservation Monitoring Centre,
219 Huntingdon Road,
Cambridge CB3 0DL
United Kingdom
Tel: + 44 1223 277314
Fax: + 44 1223 277136
Email: samk@wcmc.org.uk or

Regional Co-ordination:
c/o NatureUganda
83 Turfnell Drive
P.O. Box 27034
Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256-41-530 700
Fax: +256 41 533 528/530134
Email: arcos.rc@imul.com
http://www.wcmc.org.uk/arcos

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FOREST MANAGEMENT IN UGANDA

By Brian Kerr and Henry Osmaston

The Commonwealth Secretariat has in the recent past co-operated with the Uganda Forestry Department in the publication of two major texts. In 1997, The Uganda Timber Users' Handbook by Patrick Kityo and Robert Plumptre was published, followed in 1998 by A Nature Conservation Handbook for Forestry Professionals by Simon Grove. Following this co-operation it was suggested that there was an urgent need to collect and preserve some of the forestry publications from before independence, notably the working plans for individual forests and the Commonwealth Secretariat could assist in the reproduction of this material.

By the end of the 1960s Working Plans and Management Plans had been prepared for all gazetted forest reserves in Uganda, and in some cases these had passed through a series of revisions, usually after 5-10 year intervals. Each plan provided in Part I summary information about the forest such as the legal status, soils, present vegetation, and the management history. Part II outlined the future management and set down operational guidelines. Such plans range from a few pages to volumes in excess of 100 pages. These documents were normally duplicated and occasionally printed and distributed widely in Uganda. In many cases copies were lodged in the then Commonwealth Forestry Institute in Oxford.

These working plans are primary sources for the forest managers today and provide important information for researchers and conservationists. They are also interesting documents providing an insight into the vision of an earlier generation of forest officers. Unfortunately these working plan documents suffered badly in the period of civil unrest in Uganda and in one incident the entire head office stock of reports was stolen. There was also an erosion of reference material from the district offices.

Current management and research, both by the Forestry Department and others, are hampered by the lack of information embodied in these planning documents. In recent years a priority task for the Department has been to prepare revised plans for all the working forests in the country and these older documents provide an essential basis for this work.

Following a request from the Commissioner for Forestry, in 1998 a number of these plans were collected from sources in the UK, and eight of these have now been reprinted in facsimile form directly from the old copies. The eight plans reproduced in this series, which are listed below, range from the foolscap sized type and unbound material dated 1934 to plans printed by the Government Printers, Uganda in 1950. All the documents have been brought to a standard size and given a common cover. The original authors have been acknowledged on the title page.

List of Working Plans reprinted

• Budongo and Siba Forests, 1945-1954
• South Mengo Forests, 1948-1957
• Impenetrable Central Forest Reserve, Kigezi District, 1961-1971
• The Bugoma Forest, First Revision, 1960-70
• Bunyoro Forests, 1934
• South Mengo Forests, Mengo District, First Revision, 1961-1971
• Kalinzu Forest reserve, 1970-1980
• Ruwenzori Central Forest Reserves, First Revision, 1961-1971

There has been a limited print run.

For more information please contact:

Brian Kerr
Commonwealth Secretariat
Marlborough House, Pall Mall
London SW1Y 5HX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7747 6373 Fax: +44 20 7747 6307
Email: B.Kerr@commonwealth.int

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IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS IN KENYA

By Leon Bennun

The first phase of the Kenyan Important Bird Areas programme is now complete with the publication of Important Bird Areas in Kenya (by Leon Bennun and Peter Njoroge; published by Nature Kenya, Nairobi, 1999; available in the UK from Natural History Book Services). IBAs are places of global importance for bird conservation (and usually for the conservation of other biodiversity too). They are identified by standard criteria based on the presence of species that are threatened, endemic, characteristic of particular biomes, or (for congregatory birds) occur in very large numbers.

Sixty IBAs have been identified in Kenya of which more than a third (22) are forests - demonstrating the biodiversity significance of forested areas in this low forest-cover country. Almost all of these IBAs (20/22) are gazetted as protected areas, mainly Forest Reserves, but 77% (17/22) are nonetheless classed as severely or critically threatened. Clearly, formal gazettement does not guarantee adequate protection: most of these sites are threatened by encroachment, illegal logging and unsustainable use of forest products.

For each site the directory provides details of geography, biodiversity and conservation issues. It also presents the results of an analysis to set priorities for conservation action. Forest IBAs classed as 'Critical' include the montane forests of Mt. Kenya, Mt. Elgon and the Aberdares, Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, the tiny fragmented forests of the Taita Hills, the riparian forests of the lower Tana River, Kakamega and South Nandi Forests, and the forest remnants of the south Kenya coast.

For more information please contact:

Leon Bennun
Ornithology Department
National Museums of Kenya
P O Box 40658
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: + 254 2 749986
Fax: +254 2 741049
http://www.museums.or.ke
Email: leon@africaonline.co.ke

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STRATEGIC PRIVATE EFFORTS FOR THE CONSERVATION OF PARAGUYAN BIODIVERSITY

By J.L. Cartes

Paraguay is a landlocked republic, divided by the large Paraguay River into two distinct regions. The country is located in a transition zone among the important ecoregions of the Chaco, Cerrado, Pantanal and the Interior Atlantic Forest. Biological, cultural and landscape approaches to conservation strategies were adopted in the 1980s. Before that, protected areas were established for historical reasons, or according to the availability of state lands and decision-makers' interests.

In 1989, to complement the design of the protected system, and because 95% of the national territory is privately owned, a Program on Private Nature Reserves was begun as an initiative of a Paraguayan NGO, the Moisés Bertoni Foundation (FMB). The Interior Atlantic Forest, one the Paraguayan main ecosystem of humid subtropical forests, has been subject to strong deforestation pressure, and today only ca.2,000,000 hectares (Bozzano & Weik 1992) remain. The Program focused its efforts in the establishment of protected Areas in this ecosystem, but is also supporting private initiatives in other parts of the country.

In 1990, the first organised study for the effective conservation of biodiversity identified 23 high-priority areas in the Eastern Oriental Region of the country (Acevedo et al. 1990). Of these, three corresponded to Private Nature Reserves and one to a National Park. Six others belonged to other categories of protected area, and one of these was repealed by legal action of the people affected (Cerro Sarambí).

In co-operation with the Directorate of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPVS; the institution for the management of public protected areas), the National System of Protected Wild Areas (SINASIP) was finished in 1993. This was the first strategy for conservation areas at national level (DNPVS-FMB 1993). SINASIP had determined three subsystems of protected areas administration: (a) public administration; (b) areas under the administration of Itaipú Bi-national (hydroelectric dam); and (c) private administration. Within SINASIP, there are six Private Nature Reserves and 16 potential areas for conservation to be implemented by the DNPVS.

Until 1993, private nature reserves had developed quickly, with the incorporation of numerous private properties into the Program. These properties are evenly distributed both in the eastern as in the western regions of the country, and they are of high biological importance.

In 1994, law number 352 on Protected Wild Areas officially recognised all the subsystems of administration of protected areas considered in the SINASIP. However, it also established that the State could administer any one of them (including the private areas). This caused landowners to be very cautious, in some cases stopping implementation of protected areas on their lands. A new Resolution (079/2000) of the DNPVS (still to be validated by decree of the Presidency of the Republic) recognises this effect of law 352, and points to clear the need to declare protected areas under private domain.

Some landowners' interest in conserving their lands continued despite the lack of governmental support for private conservation. Two properties continued actively within FMB's program and facilitated the process of implementation of Private Nature Reserves. Most of the other properties within the system respected the zoning made by FMB and did not exploit the areas reserved for conservation. A few properties were forced to sell or "develop" (deforest) their areas.

This paper evaluates the general situation of these Private Nature Reserves and their contribution to the SINASIP in order to assess the strategic importance of Private Nature Reserves in Paraguay.

Analysis and Criteria

The three subsystems of the SINASIP were compared by, evaluating size, design, land tenure and legal situation, geographical location, ecosystems under protection, and infrastructure for each subsystem. Special consideration was given to Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve (RNBM), which is officially in the SINASIP Private Subsystem (the area belongs to Mbaracayú Foundation and is managed and operated by FMB). The RNBM is a unique case of administration where The Paraguayan State, The Nature Conservancy, the FMB and the World Bank are all involved (Gauto 1989). For this analysis the RNBM was considered as part of the Autarchic Subsystem, due to its perpetual protective status, conferred by its own law (112/91), which ratifies an International Agreement. This perpetuity distinguishes it from Private Nature Reserves, which by definition are neither perpetual nor created by law. The study was confined to the eastern region of the country, which holds the most threatened biodiversity at a global level (Dinerstein et al. 1995).

Details of the protected areas analysed are available from the authors.

Contribution of Private Nature Reserves to the Design of SINASIP.

The main criticisms of the Private Subsystem are, firstly, that these protected areas are restricted to the supposedly small size of private properties and, secondly, that their continuity is insecure. The total land areas in each subsystem are comparable (Table 1). Although it is true that landowners cannot protect such very large areas as some National Parks, their advantage resides in the unquestionable legal situation of land tenure. Landowners possess inalienable rights in the administration of their property. The same applies to areas managed by autarchic entities, and this is radically different from the Public Subsystem, where several areas are still in conflict with private ownership due to poorly defined limits, juridical litigation, incomplete expropriation, and other factors.

A real challenge for Private Nature Reserves(PNRs) is to guarantee their continuity through time. Of the 248,000 hectares proposed as PNRs, 20.5% have sofar been implemented in such a way that there are nolegal or technical constraints to their management. In this sense, the Private Subsystem has performed better than the Public Subsystem, which has only implemented 8.3% of the 408,270 hectares declared as protected areas (Table 1). However, this situation is expected to change due to the resources now available for public land administration. The only subsystem able to manage all its protected areas so far has been the Autarchic one.

Another important role of the Private Subsystem is in improving the geographical design of the SINASIP in relation to ecosystem fragmentation, especially in the Interior Atlantic Forest (IAF). The Private Subsystem decreases distances among neighbouring protected areas, and thus increases potential connections between them. If the average distance of each protected area from its four nearest neighbouring protected areas (one for each geographical quadrant) is calculated, the overall average for the whole system decreases from 65 km to 45 km when the private subsystem is included. This is of great importance to many of the most critical areas for conservation. For example, the proposed areas for San Rafael National Park and Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve are 47% closer to other protected areas when private reserves are included.

The so-called Autarchic Subsystem possesses the best resources and means for the administration of its areas. In the Public Subsystem, there is a serious lack of personnel and maintenance equipment. The National Report (DNPVS) mentions the need to hire at least 250 new officials and also points out that numerous public areas lack basic infrastructure. The Private Subsystem has the advantage of effective land management, although mechanisms to guarantee the existence of these reserves are still fragile, principally because of invasions by "landless" people. Many landowners maintain basic infrastructure in their properties and have personnel assigned to the protected area. Control measures in these private lands lack a legal framework, and therefore it is necessary to co-ordinate actions with forces of public order (e.g. police).

Contribution of Private Nature Reserves to biodiversity conservation.

Biodiversity and its conservation can be analysed based on the representation of both natural ecosystems and fauna inside the protected area network. Existing data on flora are inadequate in their coverage of protected areas and are thus not included in this analysis.

Eastern Paraguay has three main dominant landscapes: the Interior Atlantic Forest (originally of 80,000 km²); the wetlands (originally ca. 61,000 km²); and the Cerrado (originally ca 18,000 km²).

Based on both nominally protected area and effective protection, the Autarchic Subsystem protects mainly IAF and a small area of wetlands (corresponding to Yacyretá). The Public Subsystem nominally protects an excellent representation, due to the careful prioritisation of areas, but has a low effectiveprotection in the IAF and the Cerrado, and no effectively protected wetlands. The Private Subsystem protects substantial amounts of IAF and wetlands, both nominally and effectively, but completely lacks effective protection of Cerrado, due to the desertion of the Pitanohaga PNR (Table 2).

Even the nominally protected areas contain a poor representation of the original extent of these ecosystems, except for Cerrado, where 15% of the original extent is nominally protected. This is drastically reduced when only the areas under effective protection are considered. The Private Subsystem together with the Autarchic one represents the largest effort in the protection of IAF, the most threatened ecosystem.

Scientific studies of the fauna protected in the different subsystems are still incomplete, but some studies comparing the subsystems do exist. Yanosky (1998) reported that Private Areas (in this case including the RNBM) have the highest degree of vertebrate representation at the national level (Table 3). Lowen et al. (1996) proposed the designation of 30 priority areas for the conservation of birds, of which 7 are PNRs. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of nationally threatened and 66% of globally threatened mammal species in Paraguay are represented in PNRs (Cartes et al 1998).

Conclusions

This analysis has demonstrated the advantages of developing private conservation models in Paraguay. It is difficult to see how else a country where 95% of the land is privately owned could implement a protected areas system strong enough to adequately conserve its natural heritage.

Adequate conservation of the country's biodiversity will only be achieved when the SINASIP is implemented in an effective way, including all the components planned in 1994. The Public Subsystem areas should focus its efforts in the consolidation of those areas already legally established but not effectively implemented, and should strengthen the management of, at least, the largest protected areas (Ypoa, Paso Bravo and San Rafael National Parks).

The inclusion of the Private conservation Subsystem within the SINASIP appears to have a high positive impact in the general design of the protected areas network. The precarious situation of the Public Subsystem and the lack of state resources point to the need to strengthen the private sector. The Private Subsystem has not really been supported within government initiatives, principally because of ambiguity in the interpretation of laws and decrees concerning protected areas. There is an evident need for the development of mechanisms and extra-governmental incentives to motivate landowners to conserve nature. The new conservation easements based on the opportunities given by the legal code help to develop these incentives.

There is also an urgent need for the National Authority for protected areas management and administration (DPNVS, Law 352/94) to be more open to current initiatives. It took six years for this Authority to recognise the importance of the implementation of the Private Reserve System. An update of the Strategic Plan of the SINASIP was recently presented (Ferreiro 1999), wherein the importance of these private PNRs is recognised. The same Strategic Plan highlights the need to include the protected areas of the country within sustainable development models, which is in turn hard to achieve due to the inadequacy of Wildlife Law 96/92. The modification of this law will help the development of incentives and models of alternative uses of biodiversity, either for local communities or for private conservation areas.

In terms of costs and opportunities, the development of private models of conservation is strategic and of high-priority. Private conservation is a valid way to improve the design of the reserve network, to conserving biodiversity of national and global importance, and to develop models within the sustainable use framework.

Acknowledgements

This programme was funded by the W. Alton Jones Foundation; McArthur Foundation; the United States Agency for the International Development and the Homeland Foundation. I would also like to thank the Nature Conservancy for support. I especially thank the landowners who trusted us and worked together for biodiversity conservation. I thank Ana M Macedo, L Bartrina and R Villalba for their contributions and Alberto Yanosky, who translated this paper into English.

For further information please contact:

Jose L Cartes
Programa de Apoyo a Inciativas Privadas
Fundación Moisés Bertoni
C.C. 714
Asunción
Paraguay
Tel: +595 21 608740/600855 Fax: +595 21 608741
Email: paip@pla.net.py

Literature Cited

Acevedo, C., J. Fox, R. Gauto, T. Granizo, S. Keel, J. Pinazzo, L. Spinzi, W. Sosa and V. Vera 1990. Areas prioritarias para la conservación en la Región Oriental del Paraguay. CDC/DNPVS. Asunción. 99 pp

Bozzano, B. and J.H. Weik. 1992. El avance de la deforestación y el impacto económico. Proyecto de Planificación del Manejo de los Recursos Naturales (MAG/GT - GTZ). Asunción. 62 pp

Cartes, J.L., R. Villaba and L. Bartrina. 1998. Inventario de los mamíferos amenazados de las Reservas Naturales Privadas del Paraguay. XIII Jornadas Argentinas de Mastozoología. Pto. Iguazú. 174 pp.

Dinerstein, E., D.M. Olson., D.J. Graham., A.L. Webster., S.A. Primm., M.P. Bookbinder. and G. Ledec. 1995. Una Evaluación del Estado de Conservación de las Ecoregiones Terrestres de América Latina y el Caribe. WWF/ Banco Mundial. Washigton, D.C. 135 pp

DNPVS-FMB. 1993. SINASIP- Plan Estratégico del Sistema Nacional de Areas Silvestres Protegidas. DNPVS/SSERNMA/MAG - FMB. Asunción. 314 pp.

DNPVS 1998. Informe Nacional. Sistema Nacional de Aras Silvestres Protegidas del Paraguay - SINASIP. DNPVS/SSERNMA/MAG. Asunción. 41 pp

Ferreiro, O.E. 1999. Actualización del Plan Estratégico del Sistema Nacional de Areas Silvestres Protegidas (SINASIP) 1999 - 2004. Informe de la Consultoría de Apoyo NPUD - ONU. Asunción. 29 pp.

Gauto, R. 1989. Private conservation programs in Paraguay. Conservation Biology (3)2:120

Lowen, J.C., L. Bartrina, R.P. Clay & J.A. Tobias. 1996. Biological surveys and conservation priorities in eastern Paraguay. Cambridge, U.K.:CSB Publications. 155 pp.

Plan de Manejo RNBM 1997. Reserva Natural del Bosque Mbaracayú, Plan de Manejo 1997 - 2001. Taller de Elaboración, 21 al 25 de Octubre de 1996. Villa Ygatimí. 126 pp

Yanosky, A.A. 1998. Las reservas naturales privadas del Paraguay: Asistencia al mantenimiento de la diversidad biológica paraguaya. M.Sc. Thesis, National University of Entre Ríos, Paraná. 115 pp

Table 1. Land area (ha) included within the three SINASIP subsystems in Eastern Paraguay. Nominal Land Area is the total area designated as protected in each category, and effective protection is the protected land area in which land tenure and administration lack technical/legal constraints.

Table 2. Ecosystem representation (in hectares) in the three subsystems of protected areas analysed.

Table 3. Vertebrate species richness in the different subsystems at the national level (Yanosky 1998)

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PLANTAS DO NORDESTE: BREJOS AND CAATINGAS

RESEARCH ON THE BIODIVERSITY OF FOREST ECOSYSTEMS OF THE SEMI-ARID REGION OF NORTHEAST BRAZIL

by S Mayo

Since 1993, the Plantas do Nordeste Programme, based in Recife, Brazil, has been carrying out biodiversity inventory work on forests of Northeast Brazil, focussing on two of the major ecosystems of the region, the Brejo forests and the Caatingas.

The Brejos of Northeast Brazil

Brejo forests are moist, mainly evergreen, tropical forests which occur on the windward slopes of plateaux within the semi-arid interior, the so-called "Drought Polygon". Vegetationally they are considered to be part of the Atlantic Forest biome of Brazil, but until the PNE project of 1993-1998, no systematic survey of their composition had been made and little was known of their flora.

Brejo forests occur in many parts of NE Brazil, mainly in the states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Paraíba and Ceará, forming a scattered mosaic of forest islands that are thought to represent relicts of more widespread moist evergreen forest during mesic periods of the past million years or so.

Although their total area is tiny in comparison to the caatingas (see below) the Brejo forests are very significant socio-economically and have played a crucial role in the history and agricultural economy of NE Brazil. Their favourable microclimate and permanent water courses favoured the cultivation of cash and export crops such as coffee and sugar cane, their tall forests provided valuable timber for construction, and these factors promoted the growth of towns that became politically and economically important, e.g. Areia in the state of Paraíba. During the periodic catastrophic droughts that have characterized the history of NE Brazil, the Brejos became temporary refuges for the people of the caatingas, who were forced from their homes by hunger. Some of these migrations had far-reaching effects in other parts of Brazil; terrible droughts around the end of the nineteenth century in the state of Ceará swelled the population of rubber tappers in Amazonia. More recently the same factors contributed to the mass migration of northeasterners to the major cities elsewhere in Brazil, such as Sao Paulo and Brasilia.

The Brejo forest project undertaken by PNE focussed on the state of Pernambuco. It was financed by the UK government's Darwin Initiative, with training grants from Brazil's National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), and implemented by the Botany Department of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, in collaboration with the Botany Department of the Federal University of Pernambuco, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Empresa Pernambucana de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (IPA).

The aims of this project were threefold:

• to locate more precisely the remaining areas of Brejo forest;
• to make an inventory of their vascular plant species;
• to produce a report which highlights the present condition of, and threats to the survival of the forests.

The field programme took place over a period of four years. During this time it was possible to survey relatively comprehensively three areas (Buique, Serra Negra de Floresta and Brejo dos Cavalos), and make less complete surveys of 7 others (Taquaritinga do Norte, São Vicente Ferrer, Pesqueira, Serra Negra de Bezerros, Bonito, Brejo Madre de Deus, Ibimirim).

A total of 956 species of vascular plants were recorded and identified by taxonomic specialists during the period of the project. Many other collections made still await more complete identification, so the eventual inventory total will certainly be higher.

The species identifications in the published checklist were prepared with the help of 105 specialist taxonomists, and the identification process was also supported in various ways by the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. These measures helped to ensure reliability of the species identifications, which is very important in biodiversity projects.

Besides the new inventory data, the project also provided a large amount of training for botanists in Pernambuco at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The botany departments of the two federal universities of Pernambuco were actively involved in the field programme, and many students received training in field techniques and plant identification. The project provided an important support for postgraduate students and made possible a range of thesis research on forest composition and taxonomy of the Brejo forest flora.

The report on the current conservation status of the forests found that the current level of protection of most areas is precarious at best and often lacking. Follow-on studies are urgently needed to establish more clearly how local communities interact with and impact on the forest ecosystem and what kinds of sustainable use could be developed to help protect them more effectively. There is a growing consciousness in the region of the importance of preserving Brejo forests as resources for tourism, leisure, biodiversity and education. With the first major baseline study now complete, Plantas do Nordeste aims to promote follow-up action which can turn these aspirations into more concrete measures, in collaboration with local NGOs and government agencies.

Contacts:

Plantas do Nordeste Biodiversity Subprogramme:

Dr. Simon Mayo
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Richmond
Surrey TW9 3AE
United Kingdom
Email: s.mayo@rbgkew.org.uk

or Dr. Regina Barbosa,
Email mregina@dse.ufpb.br

Brejos Project:

Dr. Margaret Sales
Dept de Biologia
Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco
Email: mfsales@zaz.com.br

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THE CAATINGAS OF NORTHEAST BRAZIL: IS A GOVERNMENT CONSERVATION POLICY FOR THE AREA NOW IN SIGHT?

By R Allkin, M Rodal, A Figuereido and J Virginio

Biologists are showing increasing interest in the deciduous thorn forests of semi-arid Northeastern Brazil, known as Caatinga. The Caatingas occupy about 834,666 km² in an area known as the Drought Polygon, which includes ten of the northeastern States of Brazil from Northern Minas Gerais to Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte. It is the predominant vegetation type in at least five of these states: Pernambuco, Paraiba, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Bahia. The area, which contains over 40 million inhabitants, is of considerable economic importance for Brazil. The unstable long-term climatic patterns in the area, which produce unpredictable rainfall, combined with lack of co-ordinated land management and wholesale destruction of native vegetation have resulted in severe problems of erosion for local farmers. This has produced a drought economy, relying more on disaster funding from Federal sources to ameliorate the worst of the effects of drought, than on enlightened control and management of land-use.

Biologists familiar with the area have long argued, with little response from official quarters, that inappropriate land use, aggravated by removal of the native vegetation, is largely responsible for the present problems. Native caatinga vegetation shows considerable diversity both in physiognomy and species composition, ranging over a wide diversity of soil types. Dominant plant species include spiny Acacias, Mimosas and other Leguminosae, Anacardiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and a great variety of cacti and spiny Bromeliaceae. There are also many species that are of potential and actual economic importance for local communities, providing a wide range of products, including:

• timber for building, fenceposts and firewood;
• commercially exploited fruits such as the Umbú, Spondias tuberosa;
• many valuable nectar sources for honey;
• fibres;
• a wide range of proven or potentially valuable medicines.

However, for many years the caatinga has been largely neglected by biologists, many of whom have been more interested in the richer humid rainforests of the Amazon and Atlantic Brazil. Some biologists have viewed the caatinga as a secondary vegetation, resulting from human settlement and disturbance. Recent studies, however are providing increasing evidence of the caatinga as a centre of biodiversity with many endemic species and even genera of plants and animals.

To date Plantas do Nordeste (PNE) has provided students and funds for two projects studying the Biodiversity of Caatinga: one in Pernambuco run by Dr. Mari Rodal of the Federal Rural University in Recife (Email: rodal@truenet.com.br) and the other run by Prof. Angelica Figuereido, from the Federal University of Ceará in Fortaleza, (Email: angelica@ufc.br) which ultimately aims to cover the States of Ceará, Rio Grande de Norte e Piauí. The latter project ("Caatingas and Carrasco") received funding from Souza Cruz, and in addition to producing systematic and ecological information has provided environmental education materials for use in the municipalities where the studies were carried out.

At a recent workshop on the Caatinga held in Petrolina, Pernambuco, scientists and others with an interest in the Caatinga, from many parts of Brazil, assembled to propose a list of priority areas for conservation. The meeting was organised by Biodiversitas jointly with Conservation International and the Federal University of Pernambuco, under the aegis of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment. A strong botanical contingent was co-ordinated by Plantas do Nordeste with the participation of more than 25 of the more senior and active botanists in the region, representing at least six of the nine states. This group, collaborating and sharing data through the PNE program, was able to provide a firm foundation of data to support the conservation proposals, with preliminary evidence showing that over 300 species and 18 genera of plants are endemic to the caatinga and in danger of extinction.

The starting point for each botanist involved was a draft species checklist provided by PNE through its Information Centre (CNIP - the Northeast Centre of Plant Information, based at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife - see next article). All new data being gathered on the plant species of the caatinga, their distribution and utilisation, is also being accumulated and co-ordinated by CNIP, thus helping botanists over a wide region share their data, avoid duplication and present their information in a comparable manner.

PNE is also actively involved in disseminating information and developing projects in the area, both to demonstrate the importance of the caatinga flora as a rich source of biological diversity, and to investigate the appropriate and sustainable use of caatinga species. Projects include such topics as medicinal plants, forage plants of the caatinga, field guides for identification of caatinga species, floristic survey and conservation of caatinga species. A new study on the sustainable use of caatinga species as fuelwood, in relation to annual growth rates, is also being planned by PNE, in collaboration with the Jodrell Laboratory at the U.K.´s Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.

The workshop showed the benefits of collaboration among the botanists of the region and the benefits from co-ordinating and sharing information. CNIP will further ensure maximum benefits are obtained from the analysis and dissemination of this information, to help maintain the diversity of caatinga vegetation and better provide for the beleaguered communities who strive to maintain a livelihood in the area.

For further details of the results of the Petrolina Workshop please contact:

Jair Virginio, Coordinator,
Association Plantas do Nordeste
Av. General San Martin
1371 - Bloco 7 - Sala 5 - Bongi
50761-000 Recife PE
Brazil
Tel/Fax: +55 81 446 1486
Email: jair@elogica.com.br

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PLANTAS DO NORDESTE: SUBPROGRAMME FOR INFORMATION, DISSEMINATION AND TRAINING (SIDT)

by Dr R Allkin and Dr E Sampaio

Plantas do Nordeste (PNE) - see previous article on Brejos and Caatinga forests - is taking an innovative approach to the organisation, exchange and delivery of information about plant biodiversity. Scientists that are generating new information about the plants of the region and their use and management are in partnership with those dealing directly with local communities and striving to benefit them through alternative and more sustainable use of their plant resources.

SIDT currently has a five-year project (1998 - 2002), funded by the UK Government's Department for International Development, which has created three new units to implement the programme:

• A plant information centre (Centro Nordestino de Informações sobre Plantas - CNIP) in the Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife.

CNIP is creating a regional documentation centre serving scientists, foresters and agronomists. It is further responsible for gathering and cataloguing available knowledge, in a series of databases, and then disseminating this to intermediate or technical audiences. It is also helping those working in PNE projects that are generating new knowledge to manage the results of their research more effectively through adopting good data management practises.

CNIP's website at: http://www.cnip.org.br has publicised PNE and its work, published databases in a searchable format and improved communication among those working in the project and yet who are spread widely.

• A community extension unit ("Plantas Nativas"') in the Recife Headquarters of AS-PTA (a Brazilian national development NGO) in collaboration with other partner NGOs.

The most critical role for ASPTA during the initial stages was to come to understand and document the most urgent needs of rural communities for information about the plants to which they have access: What would have most impact on their quality of life? Which trees are seen to be of most importance? They have approached this using participatory methodologies to provide a diagnostic rural appraisal of the information needs and priorities. The objective is to ensure the demand-led nature of the information services provided by SIDT. In the longer term, having the answers to these questions will facilitate the design of new information services better fitted to meeting real needs and of new research or development projects designed to fill gaps in our knowledge and address the communities priorities.

ASPTA have established pilot projects working directly with farmers to promote and assess the farmers' use of the results from previous PNE initiatives. These include promoting medicinal plant gardens and field visits involving exchanges with researchers or community members that have implemented forage development schemes.

ASPTA is disseminating information about plants to PNE's priority target users in poor rural communities and intermediary agencies who work with them through radio programs, leaflets, newsletters and broad sheets using simple language and presenting relevant information.

• An information repatriation unit in the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London is:

• collating information and documents about the plants of Northeast Brazil from the library, collections, experts and databases within Kew Gardens and other European institutes. This includes electronically stored data and images.
• supporting Brazilian visitors and staff at Kew that work with data about the plants of Northeast Brazil.

One of the Information Dissemination programme's roles is to multiply up successful experiences from PNE projects (which may affect directly only a few communities close to the research institute involved) so that many more communities benefit throughout NE Brazil.

An example PNE project developed techniques for improving meat and milk yields for small holders through more sustainable and effective use of caatinga. Brazilian development officers have shown that, farmers can use a combination of techniques to manage the caatinga (e.g. the re-introduction of species, coppicing, pruning and pollarding). This management can make subtle but sustainable changes to its species composition, thereby improving the quality of the fodder available and the continuity of supply during the dry season. They have also identified herb species of high potential for use as ground cover during the wet season.

In another PNE project many of the 600 species recorded as being used for medicinal purposes locally have been tested in the laboratory for genuine pharmacological activity and been checked for deleterious side effects. Prof. Matos, a Brazilian chemist, has built up a store of knowledge, which has provided the basis for books, web publications (through CNIP) and leaflets (in collaboration with ASPTA). These promote and describe the appropriate use of 50 of these species that have been shown to be effective and safe. Prof. Matos has also worked to promote the safe use of medicinal plant remedies through establishing "living pharmacies" in those communities for whom medicines from the chemist's shop are simply too expensive. Medicinal plant gardens with selected and approved plants are established and members of the community taught how to care for these plants and how to produce teas, lotions and pills of greater efficacy. In some "favela" (slum) communities, children and adults are trained to grow the plants and produce remedies, and have been able to generate some income by selling products in wealthier neighbourhoods. Pharmacists working in hospices that care for malnourished mothers and run on shoestring budgets are using living pharmacies with success and significantly reducing the sums spent on medicines.

Until recently, the results from these and other successful PNE projects have had impact only in those communities participating in the trials. There are obviously many more people that could be benefiting. ASPTA are selecting and adapting the accumulated knowledge for wider application within rural poor communities within the region. AS-PTA benefits from having partners in an extensive network of NGOs and grass-roots organisations (farmer co-operatives, church representatives' etc.) and can thus ultimately reach many more communities.

Other NGOs are testing PNE leaflets and publications, adapting ideas, from PNE projects and from other people's experiences working with native plants elsewhere, for use in the communities in which they work. Exchange visits between active communities have been arranged, initiatives from within those communities recognised and disseminated through simple newsletters. Radio is also being explored as a medium to promote techniques such as those employed in "living pharmacies" or forest management.

The partnership between those generating scientific and technical knowledge and those applying such information in practical development projects is already proving highly rewarding both in terms of well-targeted products and of innovative approaches to handling and presenting information. Whilst data on the rich biodiversity of the caatinga is being collated for the benefit of future generations, poor rural communities are already benefiting from knowledge gathered elsewhere, within the region or beyond, to unlock the potential of at least a few of the plants growing in the region.

For more details of the Information subprogramme please contact:

Coordinator:

Dr. Everardo Sampaio
DEN-UFPE
Av. Prof. Luis Freire 1000
Refice, PE
Brazil 50740-540
Tel: +81 271 8252 Fax: +81 2718250
Email: esampaio@npd.ufpe.br

or

Dr. Bob Allkin
Centro Nordestino de Informacoes sobre Plantas
SIDT/PNE
Dep. Botânica, CCB
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
Recife, PE, Brazil CEP 50.670-420
Tel/Fax: +55 81 271 4451 or +55 81 453 2782
Email: tco@cnip.org.br
http://www.cnip.org.br

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