Press release

Rural communities draw up management plans to boost sustainable forest growth

USAID Mission Director Kevin J. Mullally (right), helps charcoal producers in the village of Sita Niaoulé ignite their furnace. Cutting of trees is organized sustainably in managed plots so that that the forest rejuvenates every eight years. Photo: Richard Nyberg, USAID

DAKAR, January 31, 2008 -- Taking charge of their own natural resources, communities surrounding three Senegalese forests have finalized management plans with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that will help local residents reap far greater financial benefit while protecting the environment.

On January 11, the Rural Council of Missirah in the southern Tambacounda region approved a forest management plan for the 18,000-hectare community forest of Sita Niaoulé.

It was the third management plan to be finalized with the assistance of USAID’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Project (USAID/Wula Nafaa) in a month. The Community Forest of Sare Bidji (19,807 hectares) in the neighboring Kolda Region was approved on January 4, and the plan for the community forest of Koulor (39,214 hectares) in Tambacounda Region was approved on December 24, 2007.

“The approval of community forest management plans represents a major breakthrough for the conservation and management of remaining natural forests in Senegal,” said Peter Trenchard, Director of USAID/Senegal’s Economic Growth Office responsible for environmental issues.  “Local residents are now in a much better position to profit from their forest products in a responsible manner.”

Under a new forestry code passed in 1998 and a decentralization law of 1996 transferring power to local communities, rural Senegalese may participate in the planning and implementation of forest management plans that are approved and monitored by the Forestry Department. 

Apart from the ecological benefits of preserving natural forests, local communities are setting up forest-based businesses that generate revenues from the sustainable harvesting of forest products, such as charcoal, baobab fruit, bamboo, and karaya gum. 

Assisted by the USAID/Wula Nafaa team based in Tambacounda, local marketing groups are organized, trained in basic business management, given access to credit, and enabled to export their products directly to Dakar or other markets. 

To date, the total revenues for charcoal alone are close to 40 million F CFA generated from the three forests in a relatively short period of time.  This is a major change from the past when local producers were under the control of middlemen (exploitants) who, for the most part, are not from the same area.  In the case of charcoal, local producers are now earning two to three times more for a 50-kg sack of charcoal than they were when working for the middlemen. 

“I have produced charcoal for 18 years and never earned enough to buy a single donkey,” said Samba Diallo, president of the Union of Charcoal Producers in Missirah. ”But over the past seven months we have worked for ourselves and mastered charcoal production and distribution sector thanks to the support of the Forestry Department, the Rural Council, and the USAID/Wula Nafaa project.”

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