Q&A: Community Involvement in Conservation a “Big Step Forward”

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Interview with Benoît Avononmadégbé

COTONOU, Apr 4 2007 (IPS) - This year marks the fifth anniversary of Benin’s Programme to Manage Forests and Surrounding Areas (Programme de gestion des forêts et terroirs riverains, PGFTR), started to prevent wooded regions of the West African country from succumbing to soil degradation – and ultimately desertification.

Co-ordinator Benoît Avononmadégbé says the programme acknowledges that community involvement is key to maintaining forests, and that it has sought to include people living alongside these areas in plans to prevent forests from disappearing. In an interview with Michée Boko of IPS, he also noted that there were already regions in Benin where over-exploitation of forests was taking a toll.

IPS: Could you begin by giving a few details about how the PGFTR got started?

Benoît Avononmadégbé (BA): It’s a programme that was initiated to reverse the degradation of our natural resources. With population growth, we have seen that ever increasing needs lead communities in search of timber, firewood, and especially agricultural land to put a lot on pressure on forests. It was thus imperative to…understand their needs, and from these needs see how to include them in the management of forests so that (wooded areas) could become their heritage.

IPS: In what way do you involve communities?

BA: We firstly did systematic analyses to understand the problems of these communities and to enable them to propose solutions to these problems. On the basis of these suggestions, we decided together on actions to be undertaken. These were included in a development plan, and it is the communities themselves that implement this plan, with the support of forest authorities.

IPS: How many protected forests are dealt with by this programme?

BA: Overall, Benin has 46 protected forests, but the programme is only active in 22 of these, which are situated in eight of the country’s 12 regions.

IPS: Are the remaining forests not under threat?

BA: The PGFTR that I manage is not the only programme underway in Benin. Other programmes are active in other forests, but not all wooded areas are being dealt with yet. An effort is underway to find funding to tackle all the other areas. The aim is to have a participatory development plan for the 46 areas to save them from destruction, even desertification.

IPS: Have certain communities in Benin already managed to exploit forests to the point of desertification?

BA: Yes, this has already happened in the area of Malanville and Karimama, in the far north of the country, where people have destroyed expanses of fan palms, turning these regions into pockets of desertification…

This programme (the PGFTR) therefore incorporates actions linked to the improvement of production systems, with a view to protecting soils, especially in places where forests are threatened by degradation – such as the regions of Borgou, Alibori, Atacora and Donga. The programme is also active in the near-desert territory of Djidja in the region of Zou, which is not adjacent to a protected forest, but where the problems created by (the need for) firewood and charcoal are serious. The programme tries to lessen the pressure that communities exert on natural resources of this locality.

IPS: What needs to be done in instances where land has become desertified?

BA: These areas need action to reconstitute forests. This is why a project to create a green belt around the area of Karimama and Malanville to prevent desertification from encroaching further southwards, is being planned.

IPS: What have you managed to achieve, to date, and which of these results are you most proud of?

BA: We’ve managed to enable communities living alongside forests to learn about tree nurseries. It is they themselves that produce seedlings and plant them, either in their lands or in forests to increase the number of trees there. It is the communities themselves that do the work of maintaining…these forests. This is a big step forward relative to the 1980s, where it was the state that conducted these activities.