R4D Forestry

Modified taungya system in Ghana: a win–win practice for forestry and adaptation to climate change?

Wed, 16 May 2012 04:37 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article
Creator: Kalame, F.B.; Aidoo, R.; Nkem, J.; Ajayi, O.C.; Kanninen, M.; Luukkanen, O.; Idinoba, M.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Kalame, F.B.; Aidoo, R.; Nkem, J.; Ajayi, O.C.; Kanninen, M.; Luukkanen, O.; Idinoba, M. Modified taungya system in Ghana: a win–win practice for forestry and adaptation to climate change? Environmental Science and Policy (2011) 14 (5) 519-530. [DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2011.03.011]

Summary: The formulation and implementation of an adaptation strategy is of growing concern to governments. The adaptation policy framework (APF) sets out indicative activities and features of an adaptation strategy. Understanding the extent to which existing practices can support adaptation in societies and ecosystems is an important step towards the solution. This study uses vulnerability, policy and financial analyses to investigate the compatibility of the modified taungya system (MTS) (a reforestation programme) in Ghana with the indicative activities of the APF. The findings indicate that MTS takes into consideration most of the activities of an adaptation strategy, is a profitable venture (BCR > 1) and has a high potential to reduce vulnerability due to short-term food production and long-term plantation establishment. Resource management in MTS is promising in the short term, but challenges remain to meet livelihood and adaptation needs in the medium and long term. Policy instruments related to MTS align with the forestry, climate change and the development goals of Ghana. We conclude that MTS is a potential win–win practice for forestry and adaptation. The legalization of all contractual arrangements coupled with continuous monitoring, evaluation and improvement may drive MTS to become a lasting activity that will support the long-term horizon of an adaptation strategy.

Overcoming tenurial constraints to carbon forestry projects in Africa. CCAFS Working Paper No. 10.

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:55 GMT

Document Type: Working Paper
Creator: Barbier, E.B.; Tesfaw, A.T.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Barbier, E.B.; Tesfaw, A.T. Overcoming tenurial constraints to carbon forestry projects in Africa. CCAFS Working Paper No. 10. CGIAR Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Copenhagen, Denmark (2011) 34 pp.

Summary: A common perception is that long-term environmental service provision, such as carbon sequestration through tree planting, cannot take place unless a landowner has secure and enforceable property rights to the land. This is especially viewed as a problem for Africa, where the dominance of customary law coupled with the inability of the state to develop and enforce legal institutions, policies and financing have thwarted efforts to introduce formal land titling.

However, in Africa, tree planting and other land investments can also improve land tenure security. Our analysis shows that landowners with customary land tenure can be efficient providers of long-term environmental services, such as carbon forestry, especially if tree planting helps secure their permanent claims to the land. Under customary tenure, where the farmer's tree planting can reduce the threat of eviction, the amount of land allocated to carbon forestry may be less than private ownership, but it is certainly more than if tenure security is completely absent. This finding has important implications for the participation in payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes of many poor farmers with customary land tenure, especially in Africa. Not only is customary land tenure dominant throughout the region - only about 1% of the land is under formal title - but past efforts to convert rural farmland to private ownership have been largely unsuccessful. Instead, our results support the view that carbon forestry and other PES schemes should accommodate the traditional African customary tenure systems, and if designed successfully, can both promote carbon forestry and benefit the poor.

Forestry and low flows, spatial modelling and open GIS dissemination of the science perception- India - LOWFLOWS. final Technical Report.

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:13 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Calder, I.

Production Year: 2006

Citation: Centre for Land Use and Water Resources Research (CLUWRR), University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK., Department of Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, Winrock International India, Resources Development Division, Regional Research Laboratory (CSIR), Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Hamirpur. 28 pp.

Summary: Project Purpose. Knowledge relating to land-use and forest decision making promoted for the benefit of smallscale farmers within the Forest / Agriculture Interface. The project contributes directly to FRP Programme Output objectives as a strategy developed and promoted to maximize the benefit of small-scale farmers and landless families and the urban and peri-urban poor accruing from current global issues and generic tools. Livelihoods of poor people will be improved through improved methodologies for whole catchment management leading to greater access to water by poor people.

Community forestry gets the credit.

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:24 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Hayward, B.

Production Year: 2004

Citation: Forestry Research Programme, NR Internatinal Ltd., Kent, UK., 4 pp.

Summary: Forestry Research Programme, Research Summary 006, June 2004.

id21 natural resources highlights 7. Forestry.

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:10 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: id21

Production Year: 2008

Citation: IDS, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, 4 pp.

Summary: This issue contains the following short articles: Monitoring forest resources in Malawi; Economic arguments for protecting wildlife sanctuaries in Cambodia; Carbon storage in Mexico; Can certified timber reduce conflict in developing countries?; and Payments for ecosystem services from tropical forests.

id21 natural resources highlights 6. Forestry.

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:52 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: id21

Production Year: 2008

Citation: IDS, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, 2 pp.

Summary: This issue contains the following short articles: Joint Forest Management in India fails the poorest people; Dry forests help to reduce poverty in South Africa; and Illegal timber trading in Honduras and Nicaragua.

id21 natural resources highlights 5. Forestry.

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:18 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: id21

Production Year: 2007

Citation: IDS, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, 4 pp.

Summary: This issue contains the following brief articles: Industrial logging in African rainforests - Helping or hindering development?; Are NTFPs meeting conservation and development goals?; Fair trade timber; Which forest verification systems work for rural poor people?; Smallholder palm oil production; and The impacts of carbon trading in developing countries.

id21 natural resources highlights 4. Forestry.

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 05:49 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: id21

Production Year: 2007

Citation: University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, 2 pp.

Summary: This issue contains the following short articles: How do forests influence human health?; Enforcing the law in forests; and Fighting corruption in forest product verification in Nepal.

id21 natural resources highlights 3. Forestry

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:04 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: id21

Production Year: 2006

Citation: IDS, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, 4 pp.

Summary: This issue includes the following short articles: Floods and forests – integrating flood management; Bringing legality to the timber trade; Illegal logging and forest livelihoods; Woodcarving: linking livelihoods to natural resource based enterprises; Improving microfinance for small-scale forest enterprises; and Non-timber forest products in peri-urban areas.

id21 natural resources highlights 2. Forestry.

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:41 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: id21

Production Year: 2006

Citation: IDS, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, 4 pp.

Summary: This issue includes the following short articles: Tribal rights and conservation practice in India's forests; Does the privatisation of plantations help poor people?; Forest trade in the Asia-Pacific region; Community forestry in Nepal - are poor people winners or losers?; Supporting community forest management in Lao PDR; and From poachers to tour guides - a forest management success story.