Overview
Local communities can now gain new rights to control access and use of their surrounding forests. Through the Forests Act, 2015, the Director of Forestry may recognise, with the consent of the Chief of the area, persons living in close proximity to or having strong traditional or livelihood ties to an area of forest. The Director may enter into an Agreement with the community group to transfer authority to control access, use and management of a designated forest area following consultation with the Chief and the local authority.
The Agreement covers rights to harvest and trade in forest products, including: collection of medicinal herbs; harvesting of honey, grass and grazing of animals; collection of forest produce for community based industries; operating eco-tourism and recreational activities; establishing plantations; harvesting of timber or fuel wood; and many others as set out in the Agreement.
Introduction
The forests in Zambia upon which rural households depend for their livelihoods are disappearing at an alarming rate, 275,000ha per annum (ILUA II, 2016). The immediate drivers of deforestation in Zambia have been identified as agricultural expansion, unsustainable charcoal and wood production practices, unmanaged fires and uncontrolled livestock grazing. However, the underlying drivers include insecure forest tenure and insufficient legal forest use rights for forest communities, which has often created de facto open access and a lack of incentives for sustainable forest management.
The National Forestry Policy, 2014, the Forests Act, 2015 (specifically sections 29 to 35) and the Regulations on Community Forest Management, 2018, combined with the Government policy of promoting decentralisation, provide the policy, legal and institutional basis for greater community involvement in forest management. Strengthening the forest rights and responsibilities of local communities, is intended to achieve the parallel goals of ending open access, promoting enhanced forest management, whilst unlocking the full potential of sustainable forest use for economic development in the forest communities. The National Forestry Policy recognises the need to empower local communities and traditional leaders in order to ensure adequate protection and management of forests. It has been recognised that forest dependent communities are the best stewards of their local forest resources if their forest rights are secure. They have both the most to lose from its destruction and most to gain from its good management. The Community Forestry approach provides an incentive mechanism and capacity development process to make this a reality.
A community forest as defined in the Forests Act, 2015, means a forest controlled, used and managed under an agreement between a community forest management group and the Forestry Department. Community Forestry can be applied on land that falls under customary authority as well as in Local Forests and National Forests (refer to sections 15 (1) and 21 (1) of the Forests Act and according to The Forest (Community Forest Management) Regulation, 2018 section 4, Open areas, Game Management Areas and any other type of forest at the discretion of the Director of Forestry.
Successful and self-sustaining community forestry requires an attractive incentives balance that is sufficient to motivate communities to invest time, effort and resources in forest protection, maintenance and management in the long term. These incentives include devolved tenure control over a forest and new use rights.
Source: https://ziflp.org.zm/cfm/
