Miombo woodland current status: drivers of change and management challenges in Mozambique

O texto a seguir foi apresentado  pelo Silvicultor na mesa redonda do workshop do Miombo Network que teve lugar em Maputo no dia 27 de Julho de 2016

Introduction

Taking into account the objectives of the network, the themes of the current workshop, and the objective of this session, I suggest discussing the Mozambican forest context focusing on the underlying drivers of change and the challenges for bridging the science to policy and to practice of sustainable forest management. In the past, Miombo Network generated science information and channeled it to shape policies and regulations. Countries like Mozambique are rich with these policies, but there is a big gap between policies and practice. This suggests that scientists should also shift their focus to understand better the reasons of poor policy implementation and what is needed to improve forest management practices.

What drives forest cover change?

Our economy is depleting the forest resources. The way we do agriculture, the way we extract our forest resources for timber and biomass energy, the way we expand our residential and infrastructure areas is not sustainable, at the same time we do not seem to move out of poverty.

It is estimated that agriculture accounts for about 23% of the GDP. Biomass energy accounts to about 80% of the household energy, saving more than 700 million dollars per year. Forests are used as safety nets and have proven to provide livelihood alternatives in times of crisis such as droughts and floods. They can be used to generate income to complement the low yields. However, whether these services contribute to move local communities off the poverty is debatable.

Population doubled in the last 40 years, and with it, the demand for food, energy, fiber, infrastructure, and other resources. In the same period, the productivity did not increase, meaning that increased production was done by increasing cultivated areas. In the same period, very little forests were planted, and access to alternative sources of energy did not increase in the same speed.

What did our research find?

Recent studies revealed that miombo woodlands in Mozambique are declining, with the consequent loss of the basis to provide the ecosystem goods and services. In many regions decrease of forests has been reported resulting in an increased distance and effort to collect basic goods such as firewood, thatch grass, poles, ropes, game meet.

Deforestation leads to loss of biodiversity at all levels including genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity. While this is a complex, a little understood area, it has been shown that ecosystem degradation and loss of habitats affects wildlife diversity. The combination of habitat loss and illegal hunting would jeopardize the miombo fauna, including keystone species like the African elephant. Recent study reveals that the number of elephants reduced to almost half (48%) in the last seven years in the Quirimbas National Park and the Niassa National Reserves, the areas with the highest elephant density and the most affected by illegal hunting.

Further evaluation suggested that the decrease of forest goods and services as well as limited capacity to get most out of the existing forest resources, results from poor governance, uncoordinated policies, administrative and economic instruments, limited technology capacity, social and cultural aspects. My point in this presentation is that before we can resolve these problems, forests will continue to decline, with all the consequences of loss of ecosystem services. In this context, I hypothesize, using the forest-transition curve, that the loss in forest cover will not contribute to increase in GDP, therefore, leaving behind poorer communities.

What are the key issues being discussed?

Forest governance – While Mozambique is commonly quoted as a good example of forest and environmental policies, it is also quoted as a bad example of application of these policies. Filling the policy-to-practice gap is a must, to ensure the basis for sustainable forest management. In 2003, Mozambique signed the Yaounde Ministerial Declaration on African Forest Law Enforcement and Governance, committing itself, internationally, to 30 intentions and 42 indicative actions against illegal logging and hunting, their associated trade and corruption, and to promote improved forest governance. But today, Mozambique is currently among the most vulnerable countries in terms of illegal logging, and elephant and rhino killing.

Forest economics – ecosystem services valuation has been a challenge. Tapping the adequate revenue from the forest resources, adding value to forest products would contribute to the process of valuation of ecosystem services. Initiatives such as the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation would serve as incentives to accelerate the process. Biomass energy consumption is estimated at about 17 million cubic meters, equivalent to about USD700 million per year, but this amount is not considered in the national accounts. (that is a cost to the environment, and we keep saying that people live below 1 dollar per day). The EIA (Environmental Investigation Agency) study revealed loss in the order of USD29 Million in 2012, due to avoided taxes, at the same time, Mozambique was seeking from international donors, USD1 Million to finance law enforcement system, and USD11 Million for forest zoning and detailed forest inventory.

Social and Cultural Aspects of forests – while there are social and cultural impediments that tie people to bad practices, these will not be overcome in the short term, but need long term programs of education, training, and demonstration. How people shift from using charcoal to gas or electricity, is not just a matter of cost; why people do not plant trees may have deep cultural roots; why there is limited adoption of alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture technologies may be more complex than just handing seeds and tools to the people.

Conclusion:

We need to go a further step and move from just measuring how much is lost, and where it is lost, and move the focus on influencing the practice of sustainable forest management of miombo woodlands.