The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative

Case Received: January 30, 1998

Author: Phoebe Cochrane

Tel: 44 131 663 7428

Fax: 44 131 663 7433

Email: ukfsp@cableinet.co.uk

The UK Foundation for the South Pacific has been working with communities in the South Pacific for ten years to facilitate sustainable management of forest resources. This case study is based on the projects carried out in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. The Vanuatu project is working with two communities on the island of Espiritu Santo. The Solomon Islands project works with a number of community groups in Guadalcanal. The projects are being implemented by UKFSP’s partner organisations, FSP/Vanuatu and the Solomon Island Development Trust, with FSP International providing a coordination role.

The political and socio-economic context in both Vanuatu and Solomon Islands is that of change from primarily subsistence to a cash economy, increasing population, demand for better education and increasing expectation of a higher standard of living. Additionally, the Governments need foreign revenue, free trade is becoming prevalent and there is an influx of foreign companies.

Most of the land is held under traditional land tenure systems, which include rights of ownership as well as of use. Members of rural communities generally have varying degrees of usage rights over the forest resources, leased from the land owners.

Much of the tropical forests in Vanuatu and Solomon Islands are currently under at least one of the below threats:

• Large scale, unsustainable logging practices: Large scale logging produces, quick and seemingly substantial revenues that both national governments and local land owners want and find difficulty in resisting.

• Increased population pressures combined with shifting agricultural practices: Population growth rates in the Pacific are amongst the highest in the world. The majority of the rural population is still subsistent, utilising shifting agricultural techniques. Increasing populations are leading to more forested land being converted for food production as fallow cycles shorten and the agricultural area is extended into more marginal lands.

• Conversion to cash crop agriculture: Promotion of export-oriented, commercial agriculture has been a favoured means of generating government revenues and promoting rural economic development for many years. As more of the rural based population enters this cash economy, more natural forest is cleared to accommodate a commercial agriculture industry.

The above threats are enhanced by an acute lack of awareness on the part of the resource owners that their forest resources can be completely and quickly destroyed by these interrelated threats, and what impact that destruction will have on their future well-being. Rural forest resource owners are not yet equipped to make informed and wise decisions, and appropriate alternatives that are both profitable and sustainable are not easily available to them. The prevailing situation over the last thirty years has been that of forest resource owners feeling that they had very little option but to accept the offers made by logging companies or incentives to convert forested land to agriculture. National governments are currently uncommitted to actively support the non-formal forestry sector because large scale logging, in spite of its bad environmental press, brings in substantial and badly needed national revenues.

The exploitation of forests for short term monetary gain, rather than the management of the resource for long-term productivity has detrimental social, environmental and economic consequences. A World Bank study in 1995 estimated that forest resource owners received on average 8 - 15% of the log value, whereas the governments received 30 - 35% and the logging companies about 30% as ‘excess profits’ (i.e. after logging costs and normal profit margins). The large companies seem to be only accountable to their owners, and not the governments which do not have the capacity to supervise their activities. In many cases very few people retain the vast majority of the cash that is paid. In many cases, the land owners do not seem to be accountable to the communities who rely on their resources. Economically, the forest dependant communities lose their means of livelihood in the long-term. Socially, the loss of livelihood sources in rural areas contributes to urban migration. Environmentally, the well known scenario of deforestation, land degradation and further downstream adverse effects occurs. Governments have recently introduced a code of logging practice to reduce the environmental impact of large scale logging operations, but enforcement is difficult due primarily to limited government resources.

Attention was drawn to this issue when rural communities voiced their discontent over their situation. Although they recognised their forest resources as valuable long-term assets, they felt powerless and did not have alternative means to generate the cash income which they needed. The first intervention to address this situation was the introduction of portable sawmills to PNG by the South Pacific Appropriate Technology Foundation, to enable communities to harvest and mill their own trees. UKFSP first became involved when, as a result of an environmental impact study, it became apparent that there needed to be a parallel programme of training in sustainable forest management if these sawmills were to be used to their full potential. For some time, communities which have been involved in these programmes expressed a wish for further assistance in processing and marketing their timber. This was confirmed by the outcome of workshops and participatory planning exercises with resource owners which identified the following as the main problems being faced by rural communities in the development of small scale timber production:

• poor post production seasoning and handling;
• difficulties in transportation;
• lack of physical access to markets;
• lack of information about local and export markets for the producers;
• lack of business management skills;
• poor availability of spare parts in often remote rural locations;
• inability to secure loans for the purchase of necessary processing equipment;
• poor forest management skills;
• lack of local, fairly priced buying centres.

This resulted in the current phase of community oriented sustainable eco-forestry projects focusing on marketing. These projects demonstrate an alternative to the destruction of forest resources by large scale commercial logging or conversion to other uses, which is:

• economically viable;
• environmentally sustainable;
• practical for implementation by rural people;
• a direct mechanism for poverty alleviation in isolated areas;
• appropriate to the country where it is being implemented;
• able to be adopted and adapted by other rural communities.

These projects do not involve a dramatic engineered ‘institutional change’, replacing current structures with something new. Rather, they focus on building on and making more accessible existing structures as an on-going process. The following structures are being developed or strengthened.

Villages/communities are working together to implement sustainable forestry management plans. The projects are providing training in basic business skills, forest management including the establishment of community tree nurseries, inventory techniques and monitoring. This equips communities with the skills to produce timber which can be certified as being sustainably produced and to operate as suppliers to local enterprises. Participating communities need to provide some financial contribution and a long-term commitment of an area for sustainable forest management. An individual from the community will be nominated to oversee the implementation of forest management plans.

Equip communities with the skills to obtain certification. Certification of good forest management under the aeagis of the Forest Stewardship Council, or equivalent, is seen as a key requirement to gain market entry into Europe and Asia. Although, not universally a requirement, certification is being increasingly sought by major buyers of timber.

Extension services to communities established. Trainers are being trained to provide an extension service to communities to provide on-going support in the areas outlined above.

Developing the capacity of local timber yards. Owners and employees of timber yards are receiving technical assistance to enable them to:

• meet the demands of export markets;
• improve their capacity to manufacture value added products;
• improve their marketing and business skills.

In Solomon Islands the timber yard will be attached to SIDT’s ‘eco-forestry unit’ which was established in 1995. At the end of the project the control will pass to a ‘timber producers cooperative’. In Vanuatu communities are working in cooperation with an existing local joinery/timber yard company which is interested in handling more locally produced timber.

Facilitate access to local and export markets. Links are being established between community based timber yards and European importers of sustainably produced tropical timber. The supply of timber from different yards is being coordinated in order that the flow of timber between producers and importers can be facilitated.

The impact of these recent activities on the management of the forest and the welfare of the poor have not yet been evaluated.

The area of forest being managed under the project is being managed in a sustainable fashion, which will be key to the long-term viability of the enterprises and the continued availability of the forest for traditional and subsistence benefits. Low impact harvesting ensures that damage is minimised to standing growth and that there is reduced compacting of the soil. Planning and harvesting methods encourage natural regeneration, which is supplemented by the planting of indigenous species.

The primary beneficiaries are the forest and resource owning rural communities. This group of rural people are among the most disadvantaged in these countries, having limited opportunity for paid employment or other income generating activities. Through the projects, the communities will have the means and mechanisms to provide themselves with a sustainable livelihood, including a cash income. The increase in value added at community level, through timber production and further processing results in:

• a higher income to the resource owners;
• a greater proportion of the final value of the timber being realised at the local level;
• more people in the community benefiting through paid employment.

The lessons learned so far are those that lead to the development of the latest phase of projects described in this paper. Namely, that the communities needed institutional support, as well as training and technical assistance, to enable them to access markets for their timber. Without this vital link, communities were not able to generate needed cash income from their resources and, even if they had become aware of the negative implications of large scale logging, were often still turning to this option.

A few points that should be considered when determining the appropriateness of this model for replication are:

• Is the domestic market satisfied and is there some timber available for export? In FSP projects, it is ensured that timber, that would otherwise supply the domestic market, is not sold for export if this would cause shortages or significant increases in price in the local market. Enterprises may not be viable if they are only supplying a domestic market;

• Export taxes are not too high as to affect the viability of export;
• Governments do not restrict the development of small scale timber production for export;
• Local industries remain interested in eco-timber;
• Local transport infrastructure available for transporting timber;
• Land disputes are manageable.

Prepared by: Phoebe Cochrane (Projects Officer, UKFSP); with input from Andrew Tolfts (Regional Forestry Coordinator, FSP International) and Karen Preston (Director, FSP/Vanuatu).