USDA Forest Service Forest Resource Assessment Trip Kuando Kubango Province, Angola
In support of the USAID Regional Center for Southern Africa’s Okavango Integrated River Basin and the Angolan Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s National Institute for Forestry Development and Management Project
Trip and Assessment Report
Mission Dates: May 16 – June 1, 2006
Report submitted by:
Michelle Zweede Hugh Safford Glen Juergens USDA Forest Service USDA Forest Service USDA Forest Service International Programs Region 5 Monongahela NF
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Meeting Itinerary 4
Executive Summary 6
Scope of the Technical Assistance 8 Background Objectives Activities Deliverables
Kunado Kubango’s Overview 9
Findings 9
Overview 9 Existing Forest Conditions 10 Threats to Biodiversity and Forests 11 Key Issues for Forest Management 12
Recommendations 13
Issue 1: Vegetation identification and growth characteristics 13 Findings and Recommendations
Issue 2: Forest Inventory Data Collection 14 Findings and Recommendations
Issue 3: GIS Data and Satellite Imagery Utilization 15 Findings and Recommendations
Issue 4: Participatory Land Management Planning Methodology 16 Findings and Recommendations
Issue 5: Fire Prevention and Community Awareness 17 Findings and Recommendations
Issue 6: Law Enforcement Training 19 Findings and Recommendations
Action Plan 20
Next Steps 21
Budget and Timeline 24
References 25
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Appendices
I. Scope of Work 27 II. Memorandum of Understanding 31 III. Acknowledgements 34 IV. Meeting, Field Notes & Contact List 35 V. Community Forestry Project 60 VI. Tree Species List and Uses 62
Attached CD
I. Pictures of Technical Visit to Kuando Kubango II. Pictures of Overflight
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MISSION ITINERARY FOR USFS TEAM
May 16-June 2, 2006
Tuesday, May 16 • Glen Juergens departs from United States
Wednesday, May 17 • Michelle Zweede departs from Brazil
Thursday, May 18 • USFS, IRBM and USAID RSA teams arrive in Luanda, Angola • USAID – Angola entrance briefing • Hugh Safford departs from Italy
Friday, May 19 • Hugh arrives in Luanda, Angola • IDF entry briefing with Tomas Caetano, Director and Staff • Meeting with Vladimir Russo, NBSAP Project Manager at the Ministry of Urbanism and Environment (MINUA) • Meeting with Armindo Mario Gomes da Silva, National Director for Water Resources, Ministry of Energy & Water, and Director of GABHIC and Isidro Pinheiro, OKACOM Commissioner
Saturday, May 20 • Review Reports and Studies
Sunday, May 21 • Visit Kissama National Park
Monday, May 22 • Meeting with Joaquim Lourenço Manuel, Chief of Natural Resources Dept. and Julieta Condez, Chief Administrative Officer, Ministry of Urbanism and Environment. • Meeting with Meeting with Director Abias Huongo, Januario Augusto, General Secretary, and Simao Andre dos Santos (Futuro Verde) from Maiombe Network
Tuesday, May 23 • Develop outline for report and discuss recommendations
Wednesday, May 24 • Travel to Menongue • Meeting with Kuando Kubango Governor and representatives from the NGO, Acadir and IDF.
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Thursday, May 25 • Kuando Kubango Overflight
Friday, May 26 • Field trip from Menongue to Caiundo
Saturday, May 27 • Field trip from Menongue to Dumbu • Side trip to see portable saw mill
Sunday, May 28 • Depart Menongue for Luanda • Hugh departs Luanda
Monday, May 29 • Meeting with Carlos Mutula, Chief of Department of Forests and Manuel Enock, Chef of the Department of “Pecuaria” in the DNAPF of Ministry of Agriculture
Tuesday, May 30 • Meeting with Sr. Dario Daniel Katata, Vice Minister, Department of Agriculture • Meeting with Sr. Armindo Gomes da Silva, Director, Department of Water (GABHIC)
Wednesday, May 31 • Exit Briefing with IDF Director and IDF • Exit Briefing with USAID Angola • Dinner with IDF Director Caetano
Thursday, June 1 • Michelle, Glen and Brenda Depart Luanda
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Government of Angola invited the US Forest Service (USFS) to provide forestry technical assistance to Angolan government agencies. Prior to the technical visit, a scope of work was developed, which built on a memorandum from the US Forest Service – International Programs to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Institute of Forestry Development (IDF). The visit was supported by the USAID / Southern Africa’s Okavango Integrated River Basin Management Project (IRBM), USFS and IDF. The overall objective of the technical assistance was to complete a preliminary forest assessment of the state of forest resources in the Kuando Kubango Province. Another important objective included initiating a new partnership between the US Forest Service and Angolan Government agencies (IDF and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), OKACOM- Angola, USAID’s Regional Office in Southern Africa, USAID-Angola, and the Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) Project, which is funded by USAID and coordinated through the Permanent Okavango River Basin Management Commission (OKACOM).
The forest resource assessment trip to Angola occurred between the 18th of May and the 1st of June 2006. The US Forest Service technical team was joined by members of IDF, and the IRBM Project. Therefore, when we refer to the “technical team” we are referring to the entire team participating in the forest assessment. The technical team was asked to focus efforts on the Province of Kuando Kubango, as this Province includes the Angolan portions of the Okavango River Basin. Three major international efforts related to river basin and management for the Okavango River Basin are ongoing, as well as several that deal specifically with the Okavango Delta in Botswana. The three efforts related to the management of the Okavango River Basin are: 1) Global Environment Facility funded Environmental Protection and Sustainable Management of the Okavango River Basin Project; 2) Swedish funded Every River Has Its People Project; and 3) USAID funded Okavango Integrated River Basin Management Project.
The choice of Kuando Kubango was at the same time fortuitous and unfortunate: fortuitous in that land use pressures in the Province are not yet severe, and opportunities still exist to carry out land use planning largely in anticipation of impacts rather than in response to them; unfortunate in that very little information exists on current conditions in the Province. There is little government presence in the Province, and field visitation to many parts of the Province is difficult due to infrastructure damage and mine fields remaining from a longstanding civil war which ended in 2001.
After gathering publications, attending meetings and field visits, the technical team determined that due to the lack of vegetation information, detailed maps, and recent aerial photo or satellite imagery data in this area, an in-depth forest assessment is not possible at this time. The technical team believes that through training and USFS technical assistance, it will be possible for IDF personnel to increase their capacity for completing their own in-depth forest assessment of the Kuando Kubango province. Therefore, the overall goal of this technical assistance visit is to provide recommendations and develop
6 an action plan for future technical assistance to the IDF for sustainable multiple-use management of forests and working towards a forest assessment in Kuando Kubango. It is our intention that this technical assistance be integrated as part of the U.S. Government’s support to the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) for Kuando Kubango, as appropriate to the needs of NBSAP, IDF and the Ministry of the Environment and Urban Affairs. Some of the activities recommended in the action plan of this report align with a request that NBSAP made to USAID, for assistance in Kuando Kubango. Partners1 will incorporate these select activities into a proposed action plan for U.S. Government support to NBSAP in Kuando Kubango, which the IRBM Project will facilitate.
During meetings with IDF, Director Caetano discussed the priorities for the institute and opportunities for technical assistance, which include: forest information and inventory, capacity building, institutional strengthening, and forest policy. These priorities were discussed by the Director of IDF as well as the agency’s staff in the Kuando Kubango province. The first priority is the need for forest vegetation identification and inventory to determine the general state of Angola’s forests and species diversity in order to complete a forest assessment to be used in the preparation of a land management plan. Secondly, there is a need for capacity building within IDF’s main office as well as in the Kuando Kubango province for foresters, inspectors and enforcement officers, as well as in resource staff (soils, ecology, etc.). Thirdly, there is a need for addressing threats to biodiversity and sustainable multiple-use management; these threats include uncontrolled burning for agriculture and hunting and extensive use of trees for firewood and charcoal production.
The USFS team recommends the following activities in order to build IDF’s internal capacity for completing a full forest assessment. The forest assessment can be used in developing a land management plan in order to provide sustainable forest use and economic development, and to reduce impacts on biodiversity. The USFS could provide training to IDF personnel in the following areas while expanding opportunities for collaboration with IDF and other Angolan Government Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations by providing initial funding to support the travel, perdiem and salary of 4 experts for the first three activities listed below.
1 Tree species identification and growth characteristics 2 Geographic Information System utilization and interpretation 3 Forest inventory, protocol and methodology 4 Forest and Land Management Planning Process 5 Fire Prevention and Community Awareness 6 Law Enforcement Training
In coordination with the Integrated River Basin Management Project, we envision that activities 1, 3 and 4 will be implemented as part of the NBSAP program for Kuando Kubango. Based on a preliminary visit and investigation, the team believes the list above would provide a preliminary set of skills needed for developing an in-depth forest assessment as well as taking steps towards a larger goal of land use planning. The
1 Partners include the IRBM Project, USAID and USFS
7 findings and recommendations developed from the technical visit were discussed with IDF. IDF’s Director, Tomas Caetano, agreed with the assessment of needs and recommendations presented by the technical team and is enthusiastic about pursuing these training opportunities.
SCOPE OF THE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Background
The Scope of Work for the Technical Assistance and Forest Resource Assessment of the Kuando Kubango Province built on several preliminary developments, including: 1) a request by OKACOM/Angola that the IRBM project facilitate a forest assessment for Kuando Kubango, as follow up to the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan workshop for the Province held in September 2005. At this workshop, residents of the province strongly suggested that forest extraction along the southern border of the province, as well as forest fires, are of significant concern, 2) a memorandum dated October 23, 2005 from US Forest Service International Programs (USFS) to the Angolan Government and 3) a meeting Mr. Tomas Caetano, Director of the IDF, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had with USAID on March 7, 2006. The mission was the first of a series of two visits to be supported by USFS and USAID/Southern Africa through the Okavango Integrated River Basin Management Project. It was implemented from May 16 – June 1, 2006, by a team consisting of eight individuals from USFS, IDF and USAID’s IRBM Project.
The USFS team included the following individuals: • Michelle Zweede, USFS International Programs, Latin American Program Specialist. • Hugh Safford, USFS Region 5, Regional Ecologist. • Glen Juergens, USFS Monongahela NF, Forest Silviculturist.
Joining the USFS team was Brenda Bergman and David Kawika from USAID’s Integrated River Basin Management Project. Brenda, Biodiversity and Hydrology Coordinator of the IRBM Project, provided guidance and knowledge of the region, and issues and helped with arranging meetings and field visitations; her support was fundamental to the success of the technical visit. David, a member of a local NGO in Menongue working on the IRBM Project, joined the team during the field visits to Kuando Kubango. David provided a unique knowledge of the communities visited as well as fluency in local languages, English and Portuguese. Through IRBM, Jose Pilartes of the University of Agostino Neto assisted with logistics.
Three forestry engineers from IDF also joined the USFS/IRBM Team during the visit to Kuando Kubango. Mr. Rosario and Mr. Zissala met with the team on multiple occasions in Luanda, and joined the Team for the field visit to Kuando Kubango Province. Mr. Alfonso Douala, IDF provincial director, joined the team in Menongue. The IDF team provided critical support and information to the USFS technical team.
8 Objectives and Approach
The full Scope of Work for this mission is attached in Appendix I. Objectives of this first USFS mission to Angola included the following:
1. To initiate a partnership between the Angolan Government (represented by IDF, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and regional authorities in Kuando Kubango province), OKACOM-Angola, USAID-RCSA, USAID-Angola, the IRBM Project, and the US Forest Service. 2. To develop a plan for the execution of the forest resource assessment, 3. To commence the assessment via a trip to the field to view status of forest resources and review of existing data, and 4. To explore with the Angolan government and USAID opportunities to expand this partnership as requested by Mr. Caetano.
To realize these objectives, the team engaged in a series of meetings, information review, and preliminary field research activities, including:
• Review of Existing Information, • Planning sessions with technical specialists in Luanda, • Fly over of key areas of the Kuando Kubango province, • Meetings with stakeholders in Kuando Kubango who live with and use forest resources in Kuando Kubango Province, • Meetings with key stakeholders in Luanda and in Kuando Kubango Province to develop a forest resource assessment framework and work plan, including specific tasks for local counterparts to implement between USFS visits, and • Review of findings and recommendations with the Government of Angola and USAID.
Appendix IV includes detailed notes on the meetings as well as the field visits.
This report serves as the deliverable from this first mission, which includes a summary of findings and an action plan delineating the steps for completing a full assessment.
KUANDO KUBANGO’s OVERVIEW
Angola was a colony of Portugal for nearly five hundred years. During this time the Kuando Kubango watershed remained a remote and sparsely inhabited area. In 1975, after 14 years of armed struggle, Angola gained independence. Thereafter, several influential groups were not able to reconcile differences and a 27 year civil war ensued. Some of the most intense fighting occurred in the Kuando Kubango Province, the home base of the opposition group UNITA. This extended period of war, culminating in a peace agreement that was signed in 2001, took a great toll in this area. It continues to influence Kuando Kubango today in the form of destroyed infrastructure, displaced people and returning refugees, economic hardship, and land mines that remain scattered across many parts of the landscape.
9 FINDINGS
Overview
The team found that at the level of the Province itself, there is surprisingly little sign of obvious human impact on the landscape. As one would expect, human impact increases considerably as one nears centers of population, but from the air these areas of impact appear to be no more than 5 or maybe 10 km broad. Human impacts are also obvious along the road system. Our overwhelming impression from the over flight was that previous signs of human-caused alterations to forest cover are in the process of recovering, due to decades of war and the subsequent depopulation of much of the Province. Another strong impression was that, in the area of our over flight – which admittedly did not cross Luiana, and area purported to have growing populations of elephants and ungulates, etc. – there is very little in the way of wildlife. Again, our assumption is that this is a reflection of the impacts of war in the area. The time for landscape-scale land management planning is now, as we have in southeastern Angola the rare opportunity to prepare for anticipated impacts rather than respond to them after they have already occurred.
Existing Forest Conditions
Kuando Kubango Province is located in the southeast section of Angola, adjacent to Zambia and Namibia. Forest cover types are dominated by "miombo" woodlands, and composed primarily of trees of the legume family (Fabaceae). These include dense Brachystegia-dominated woodland in the north, Burkea-Brachystegia woodland in the central portion of the province, and Burkea-dominated woodland in the south. There are also riparian forests, especially in the south, and riparian grasslands, primarily in the north and center. Both the amount of annual precipitation and density of tree cover decrease as one travels from north to south.
The primary method of observing existing forest conditions in this assessment was through an overflight, taken over much of the province (excluding the far Eastern side of the province, over Luiana park) on May 25. During this overflight, we observed forest crown cover varying from approximately 50 to 80% in the north (between Menongue and Caiundo), 30 to 60% in the center, and 20 to 40% in the south (approaching the Okavango River along the Namibian border). Open, grassy areas are found scattered throughout all cover types, mainly adjacent to roads and streams; shrub-dominated vegetation ("mopane") becomes more common to the south. In some of the more remote areas (where recent human intervention was not readily apparent) we noticed distinct encroachment of forest species into previous clearings. Where active human settlements are located, recent tree cutting has occurred in patches of (usually) 1-5 hectares, either due to forest conversion to agriculture or to activities of carvoeiros (charcoal producers). These areas are primarily found within a few kilometers of communities or roads, and do not yet appear to have had a significant effect on the overall forest area. Between Mavinga and Rundi, a large expanse of forest exists with little evidence of recent human intervention. This begins about 10 kilometers south of Mavinga, and continues for a distance of approximately 200-220 kilometers until approximately 20 kilometers north of
10 the Angola/Namibia border.
A few dozen fires were observed during the overflight, mostly north of Mavinga near the border of Kuando Kubango and Moxico Provinces. We observed significantly more burning north of Mavinga as we turned westward towards Menongue. As we crossed the Rio Cuito heading west to Menongue we began to be able to pick out distinct stands of even-aged canopy trees, characterized by more or less equal height. These patches ranged from tens to hundreds of hectares in size. This mosaic of age-classes appears to be a vestige of past fires. We also noted many areas where recent fires had burned through the understory without having much (visible) effect on the overstory, except perhaps to slightly reduce overstory canopy. Grasses and shrubs were mostly absent in the recently burned areas, and bare soil was common.
Thus far tree harvesting appears to have been limited to 7 or 8 common species utilized for lumber, furniture, house construction, crafts, charcoal and firewood. The majority of tree species have not been utilized because they have no historic or traditional use. If this continues it could lead to a high-graded forest where the most valuable trees have been cut, leaving only the unknown or undesirable tree species.
Potential for intensive timber management exists in Kuando Kubango province, especially in the dense Brachystegia-dominated woodland in the northern 1/3 of the province. Generally, an area is considered to have potential for commercial timber harvests if there is at least 2,500 board feet per acre (International 1/4" scale) or about 22 cubic meters per hectare. Of course this also depends on the value, size, and quality of the species present and potential markets. Several species found in the province such as Afzelia cuanzensis, Baikiaea plurijuga, Brachystegia spiciformis, Guibourtia coleosperma, and Pterocarpus angolensis are considered to be valuable tropical hardwoods. However, an added complication in Kuando Kubango is the presence of land mines. An area may have commercial value but if it has extensive land mines then the cost of removal of the land mines may exceed the value of removing the timber. Also, since we do not have a forest vegetation inventory of the area we do not know how much timber volume is present. So we will have to use forest cover as a general estimate as to whether an area has the potential for intensive timber management. As an absolute minimum there should be at least 40% crown cover before considering commercial timber management as an option. This would leave out the Burkea woodland forest type (about the southern 1/3 of the Kuando Kubango province) and about 1/4 to 1/2 of the Brachystegia-Burkea woodland forest type. Of course these areas could still be managed for timber but not intensively and not with heavy mechanized equipment and probably not profitably (depending on the tree quality and species present) nor sustainably for the long-term. These less densely forested areas may be managed sustainably with less intensive managment on an individual or community use only basis. It is important that any forest management not focus on the removal of just one or two tree species and that regeneration is ensured after removal either through coppicing, seed germination, or planting.
Markets for timber grown in Kuando Kubango are not well known at this time. There are no wood processing facilities in the province with the exception of a few portable sawmills. Therefore, any large scale commercial harvesting would require to transport
11 the logs to mills outside the province or the country for processing.
Threats to Biodiversity and Forests
The technical team relied on a few sources of information to gain a better understanding of the threats to Anogla’s biological diversity and tropical forests. The principle source used regarding identification of threats to biodiversity was USAID’s Angola’s FAA 118- 119 Analysis of Conservation of Tropical Forests and Biological Diversity. We felt it was important not to repeat what has already been described in this report and other documents, but to summarize the threats we observed during our visit to Kuando Kubango.
It was noted during interviews and filed visits that key threats to biodiversity in Kuando Kubango province are uncontrolled burning, charcoal production and, in the longer term, slash-and-burn agriculture. Although Angola’s forests in the Kuando Kubango Province are fire adapted savanna-type ecosystems with thousand of years of human impact, there is and increasing use of fire during the dry season, which will have an impact on biodiversity.
Charcoal production is on the rise, as demand for fuel grows within and beyond Kuando Kubango. The team visited a charcoal producing village called Dumbo, which underlined some of the key issues at the local scale. Many people simply do not have the resources or skills to do anything else for a living. Charcoal production requires relatively little training, little in the way of equipment, and the income is relatively good. Demand is likely to remain high for some time, at least until other sources of fuel can be made available to common people. Many of Dumbo’s residents are demobilized soldiers, somewhat disaffected with the government's inability to provide concrete economic help. Many of the people we talked to were implicitly aware that their activities were not sustainable in the long run, but they did not feel that they had any choice, given their precarious economic conditions. Government and NGO help in developing alternative economic activities, agricultural self-sufficiency, and lessening ecological impacts would go a long way to solving multiple problems in places like Dumbo.
Key Issues for Forest Management
Communications with representatives of government agencies, cooperating organizations, and communities revealed several key issues in order to promote long-term forest management. These include:
• The need for a land management plan, at the provincial or watershed scale, that would allow for community and economic development, while providing for the preservation of biodiversity. Community involvement is critical to the success of the land management plan by giving community members a sense of responsibility and ownership that will contribute to accomplishing the plan’s goals and objectives. • The lack of information on the existing condition over much of the province. • The growing rate of slash and burn agriculture and extensive tree cutting for charcoal.
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Angolan forest policy and laws largely date back to colonial days. More recent laws passed in 1998 have not been widely publicized. Enforcement of the newly passed laws has been deficient due to the lack of trained personnel. Land ownership and property rights are determined by the Land Law (Lei das Terras), which reserves all permanent rights to land tenure to the State. People may lease land for 30 to 60 years and renewal is dependent upon the occupation and use of the land but documentation of the leased property boundaries is not consistent.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Future technical assistance for this collaboration will consist primarily of capacity building between USFS technical experts with IDF personnel through training sessions to provide the skills necessary for IDF personnel to prepare an in-depth forest assessment and a land management plan. We hope that these trainings will also include other government agencies, community members and NGOs.
Due to the lack of current data, the vegetation identification and growth characteristics, forest inventory, and GIS training sessions should ideally occur within the first year. The USFS proposes to provide funding for 4 experts to travel to Angola to provide technical assistance and training in forest inventory methodology and implementation, an introduction to GIS, species identification and possibly fire prevention training. In addition, Mr. Safford and Mr. Jurgens will develop a compendium of 20-30 species characteristics and uses. The long-term GIS training for IDF personnel will be supported by the institute itself.
The USAID/IRBM project and the USFS propose to continue their collaborative efforts by implementing the first two activities together, as well as the training in participatory land management planning, as part of the U.S Government’s support to the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for Kuando Kubango. Fire prevention and suppression training can be done at any time, although there is a critical need to address the current problem of uncontrolled burning in certain parts of the Province.
Based on our visits to Caiundo and Dumbo, we believe that there is an acute need to introduce basic concepts of economic and ecological sustainability at the local level. Field interviews revealed a low level of awareness among the populace regarding environmental law, the uncertain (and often impromptu) nature of government-public interaction, and the basic lack of knowledge about the identity and nature of forest resources. Most of the important land management decisions being made outside of the urban areas are being made by village elders.
A summary of recommendations for key issues identified thus follows.
Issue 1: Vegetation Identification and Growth Characteristics.
Background
Although most of the IDF personnel seem to know the most common tree species that are
13 being utilized, there is little knowledge of the associated tree species. Additionally, there is a critical lack of information on the basic ecology and silvicultural growth requirements of all tree species. Meetings with some representatives indicated that groups like the Koi-San/bush people may have significantly more information about the historic and non-commodity uses of forest tree species.
Recommendations
Forest vegetation identification should be the first course focusing mainly on common tree species found within the Kuando Kubango Province. The course should include information on the silvicultural growth requirements and ecological characteristics of each species as well as non-timber utilization potential. Hugh Safford and Glen Juergens will provide a compendium of available information on those tree species that are most common in the province prior to the initiation of the course.
The team recommends that at least 1 fully educated and trained professional forester should eventually be assigned by IDF to each province.
Issue 2: Forest inventory data collection The scope of work developed by GoA and the US partners in preparation for this technical assistance trip identified a need to develop a plan for the identification of data needs, and the initiation of a forest resource assessment.
Background Presently there are no forest vegetation inventory data available for the Kuando Kubango Province. There is a need to implement a simplified inventory methodology in order to complete a forest resource assessment prior to initiating management planning.
Recommendations An intensive, thorough forest vegetation inventory is not practical at this point in time due to timing, budget, qualified personnel constraints, and safety concerns due to land mines. However, a 4 to 5 day participatory and simplified inventory training session is recommended. The training should include IDF personnel and tribal members knowledgeable in tree identification and utilization (for both commercial and non- commercial purposes). Ideally, satellite imagery or orthophotos should be available as a prerequisite for the course. Since a primary interest of the government, partner organizations, and communities is protection of the forest resource combined with the low impact utilization of forest products, a 10-meter grid sampling method may be the preferred choice. Director Caetano suggested that the 10-meter grid method is the most appropriate because it is the easiest to use and does not require a prism or calculations to determine if a tree is in or out of the plot. This system will give IDF the basic information they need to begin a forest assessment. There is still the problem of locating the plots where there are no land mines. Director Caetano suggested that some permanent inventory plots be located for future training purposes. Ultimately, the methodology and protocol must be agreed on (prior to the training session) by the people doing the training with input from Director Caetano and his staff.
An essential feature of the chosen sampling method should be to determine the minimum
14 information that must be collected to make decisions in the land management planning process. It should be noted that the data collected in this simplified process may not meet normal statistical precision protocol. The usefulness of the data would be limited to answering specific questions for the land management planning process. At some point in the future the forest vegetation inventory may be expanded to more quantitatively assess vegetation status and diversity (etc.) in the area. When that time comes, a more elaborate inventory process may be developed to address that need. Regardless of the inventory method used, IDF personnel should be consulted early in the process since they will be completing the forest resource assessment and land management plans. Agreements should include the minimum inventory needs for immediate and near future utilization of commercial and non-commercial forest products. A field guide should be developed prior to the training session to standardize the protocol and methodology for data collection procedures. The USDA Forest Service International Programs has the resources and individual contacts of USFS experts capable of providing this training.
Issue 3: GIS data and satellite imagery utilization and interpretation
Background There are currently no employees of the IDF with any GIS analysis skills. We recommend that a training program be developed (probably at least two one-week sessions) to begin the process of growing a small cadre of GIS-proficient staff. Based on our discussions with Domingos Nazaré, it appears that a number of IDF employees are currently scheduled to attend a basic GIS training later this year in Mozambique.
Recommendations The following data layers should be acquired as soon as possible. To start with, we simply advocate that existing maps be turned into GIS-ready data layers (currently many of these layers exist as electronic scans, and have not been georeferenced or digitized). For the most part, these are very broad-scale maps and will only be useful at Province- wide or even nationwide scales. Angola Alliance, a group of South African GIS and remote sensing contractors, has apparently developed many of these layers for a number of provinces north and west of Kuando-Kubango. It may be most cost- and time-efficient to work with the same group in developing GIS data layers for Kuando-Kubango.
9 LANDSAT (or, if available and affordable, higher resolution imagery) 9 Soils 9 Infrastructure (roads, urban perimeters, etc.) 9 Hydrology (including streams and watershed boundaries) 9 Bedrock and surficial geology 9 Phytogeography (potential vegetation) 9 DEM (digital elevation model; the 10-m DEM may be necessary due to the very subdued topography of much of the Province)
Additional information on GIS layers and/or satellite imagery may be available from IGCA (Angolan Government’s Institute of Geology and Cartography), the Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Research Centre (HOORC), and ABSAT (a Brazilian company with offices in Luanda). The Mendelsohn and Oliveira (2005) paper provides an excellent summary of potentially available data layers. During one of our meetings with
15 Armindo Gomes da Silva, Director, Department of Water (GABHIC), discussed a United Nations funded project, which is being developed to collect images from portions of Angola. They will be using an orthophoto mapper to collect these images. The work will contracted out with a company outside of Angola. Mr. Gomes suggested that we share our findings and recommendations with him incase there are some possibilities of collaboration. Perhaps, there might be a potential for inter-agency collaboration as this project develops.
When the GIS data layers and imagery are available, a capacity building training session should occur. The training session may involve 3 to 5 IDF personnel traveling to the U.S., Namibia, or Mozambique where the technology is more readily available and dependable.
Issue 4: Participatory land management planning methodology The scope of work drawn-up in preparation for this technical assistance trip identified a need to develop a participatory process for developing a forest management plan.
Background A land management plan is needed to describe goals and objectives for specified management areas and actions, in order to preserve biodiversity in Kuando Kubango Province while allowing for sustainable forest commodity production and economic development within local communities.
Recommendations Provide a 3 to 4 day training session for IDF and MINUA personnel outlining a process to develop land management plans. A basic, simplified process described in the Senegal Report (Kendrick, Krueger, and Pierson 2004) can be modified, as a training aid, to facilitate the development of land management plans. The Senegal Report provides an excellent example of the steps needed to make conscious, well-informed, and reasonable decisions to implement activities at the landscape level by dividing the process into manageable pieces. However, the following modifications are suggested to streamline the 7-step process, which were described in a previous report written by USFS:
1) Delineate Management Areas by dividing the land into separate, distinct sections. Each MA would be managed for specific purposes/uses depending on the existing and desired conditions. Ideally, these areas should have natural boundaries that can be readily distinguished such as stream channels, ridges, etc. Permanent, man-made boundaries, such as paved roads, may also be used. 2) Describe the Existing Condition of each MA by documenting recent quantitative and qualitative information/data to provide an accurate description of the state of the resources within each MA. This information/data can come from recent vegetation inventories, field reviews, discussions with local villagers, aerial photos or satellite imagery, etc. 3) Describe the Desired Condition of each MA by defining goals and objectives that will meet the needs for the specific uses allowed. These goals and objectives should be sustainable over the long-term while limiting or avoiding significant adverse direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts on the human, floral, faunal, and physical environments.
16 4) Identify the Actions that may be allowed in each MA to achieve the desired condition. Consider the costs, benefits, and effects of the allowable actions for each action item that may be implemented. For site-specific projects within each MA, develop alternatives that may reduce costs, increase benefits, and/or minimize or avoid potential adverse effects of the actions to be implemented. For each site-specific project, it is especially crucial to include local communities that may be impacted by the project in the participative process. 5) Monitor the effects of implemented projects. It should be noted that an implemented project does not need to immediately meet a desired condition. In most cases each action will merely move towards meeting one or more desired conditions. Answer the following questions when monitoring the effects of projects: o Did the project move the area towards the desired condition? o How did the existing condition change? o What (if any) additional actions are needed to move towards the desired condition? o Were there any significant adverse impacts to the human, floral, faunal, or physical environment? o How can future actions/projects be improved to limit or avoid adverse impacts?
In concluding the discussion for this issue, it is important that the land management plan should be designed to be a “living” document, one that can be amended over time as conditions or needs change. An interdisciplinary and participatory (at the national, provincial, and community levels) process is critical to ensure the various physical, biological, economic, and social aspects are considered to determine the short- and long- term goals and objectives. It is also important to note that the GIS data layers and skills referred to in Issue 3 (above) are critical to the development of the land management plans.
Local communities need to be involved to ascertain their needs and priorities. Consensus among the various communities is necessary to provide them with a sense of ownership and responsibility to ensure the goals and objectives of the plan are accomplished. Community members are encouraged to be actively involved in project implementation and monitoring by providing comments and suggestions for improvement. It is also important to note that the GIS data layers and skills referred to in Issue 3 (above) are critical to the development of the land management plans. The USDA Forest Service International Programs has the resources and individual contacts of USFS experts capable of providing this training.
Issue 5: Fire prevention and community awareness Uncontrolled burning for subsistence agriculture and for hunting occurs across much of Angola, as it does in the Tropics and Subtropics worldwide. There is great concern within Angola that burning is damaging the forest resource.
Background Fire is a ubiquitous factor in seasonally dry tropical and subtropical landscapes. Fires have always occurred in Kuando Kubango, whether due to lightning or human ignition,
17 and most evidence is that the miombo woodland is adapted to frequent, low- and mixed- severity fire. We should not forget that man and his ancestors have been a constant and integral part of the miombo ecosystem for hundreds-of-thousands of years.
We have two principle concerns relating to fire: (1) We have very little hard information on the cultural or economic uses of fire in Kuando-Kubango, on the ecosystem impacts of fire in the area, or on the mechanics of fire in the respective vegetation types. (2) According to our sources, fires are increasingly being set in the middle of the dry season, when vegetation is extremely flammable and when occurrence of lightning is at its annual ebb. Fires are thus becoming extremely large and uncontrollable, and significant levels and areas of tree canopy mortality are resulting. Furthermore, the numbers of fires being set appears to be on the rise, and will likely increase further as populations displaced by the war continue to return to their homes.
Based on our overflight and field visits, and on our discussions with various people within Angola, uncontrolled fire does not yet seem to be a major problem within the core of Kuando Kubango Province, but we can anticipate that it may become a problem - especially around populated areas - if recent events in neighboring Provinces like Moxico are any indication. Fires in the seasonally dry woodland and savanna systems that characterize much of Kuando Kubango are not likely to cause the sorts of severe and "unnatural" damage that they cause in tropical wet forest (e.g. Cabinda), but IDF clearly needs to develop a rationale for ecological management of fire, and an infrastructure for preventing and suppressing unwanted fires when and where they occur.
Recommendations 1. A literature review should be conducted of the fire ecology of miombo forest and woodland systems, and translated into Portuguese. Much research has already been conducted elsewhere in Africa and this information needs to be made accessible to the Angolan public and government.
2. An effort should be made to collect information on the cultural/economic uses of fire in Kuando Kubango. Of particular interest is the use of fire for hunting. This seems to be widespread, and it is critical that we understand the rationale for this use, the ecological effects it has on surrounding ecosystems, and whether there might be alternatives (if they are indeed necessary). Another important issue is the use of fire to clear and fertilize agricultural lands. Currently there is no widely-accepted alternative to periodic burning in order to release plant-available nutrients (other than application of petrochemical-based fertilizers, which bring their own problems), but there has been much research done on this subject as well. This research should be reviewed and provided to the public through government extension (assuming extension agents exist, or will exist in the future) or NGO-contacts.
3. Provide training for fire prevention and awareness at the community level. Local populations should especially be made aware of the risks associated with burning in the middle of the dry season. Alternatives to burning for agricultural and hunting purposes, if available, should be taught. This step requires that relevant information be collected and reviewed first (steps 1 and 2), and that an institutional framework exists for disseminating this information. It is advisable that NGOs be involved in the public education aspects of
18 this work.
4. It is important to work with communities and provide education on fire behavior and prevention, but at this stage, we need to acquire further information about the characteristics of forests in Angola in order to assess extent to which fire is a real threat. As the population grows, the potential for unsustainable use of forest products will increase. These threats should be addressed at the community level with participatory planning, community forestry activities, and environmental education.
5. The USFS is the world's premier fire-fighting entity. USFS could potentially provide training of various kinds to IDF (and/or other appropriate agencies) with respect to fire prevention and fire awareness.
Issue 6: Law enforcement training
Background The USAID /Angola report mentions Angola’s Environment Law passed in 1998. This law provides Angolan citizens the right to live in a “healthy and non-polluted environment” and requires environmental protection by the government. The intent of this law is to provide a core set of principles, rights, and obligations that will guide the formation of future legislation and regulations. The technical team met with Vladimir Russo of the Ministry of Urbanism and Environment (MINUA). Sr. Russo revealed the 1998 Environment Law helped to create MINUA and several other more recent environmental regulations. However, the majority of the population does not have access to these recently passed laws. Due to the literacy rate of just over 40% (2002 estimate) it is difficult to get the word out to the general population concerning recently passed legislation. Additionally, numerous colonial laws relating to wildlife, reserves, and parks remain in effect. Presently there is little capacity for enforcement of these laws and the judicial system has not been effective in processing cases (USAID Analysis on Conservation of Tropical Forests and Biological Diversity 2006).
Recommendations The first step in enforcing laws is to ensure the population is aware of what the laws require. The 1998 Environment Law recognizes the Government of Angola (GoA) is responsible for providing environmental education to its citizens. Sr. Russo acknowledged they are in the process of providing this information through community meetings. This should be an ongoing process by GoA to ensure the public is fully informed. Keith Kline and Brenda Bergman, in their 2005 Angola Trip Report suggested the following recommendations with concurrence by the technical team:
o Establish provincial libraries of environmental information, including national legislation and regulations. Other natural resource information specific to each province could also be made available. o Educate staff of relevant government departments. We recommend the education be extended to all government employees, community leaders, and teachers through a series of workshops at the local, provincial, and national levels. o Involve youth in raising awareness of environmental concerns. o Communicate recent legislation by radio in both Portuguese and local languages.
19 This would be an effective tool in reaching those who cannot read. o Adopt legislation that incurs penalties for dumping of solid waste and other hazardous materials into stream courses. Educate the communities concerning this legislation and then enforce it.
Once the public is aware of the laws, it is the responsibility of GoA to enforce the laws by providing an effective judicial system. Providing an effective judicial system for Angola is beyond the scope of this project. However, a 3 to 4 day training session is needed to provide basic law enforcement skills in the subjects of contract law relating to timber sales and general enforcement of environmental laws. The USFS has the ability, skills, and knowledge to train provincial IDF and MINUA employees and local community members, who have been given law enforcement authority.
Action Plan
In order to provide partnership continuity and improve capacity building between the USFS, IDF and other organizations it is important to implement a technical assistance visit in one of the recommended training sessions as soon as possible. The training sessions that could be implemented soon include the vegetation identification course or the fire prevention & awareness course. Either course could be held in late July or August. The fire prevention & awareness course would be timely since most of the fires in Angola occur in August and September. The other training sessions are dependent on the completion of prerequisite courses. The forest inventory training session should not be implemented until the tree identification course has been completed and GIS/Imagery data are available. It was also decided, in the last meeting with IDF, that they would choose a location for implementing a forest inventory and training course. The land management planning course may be implemented while the data from the forest inventory are being collected and the GIS layers developed.
According to the recommendations above, there are many opportunities for expanding forestry related technical assistance to IDF and other organizations. In this section of the report we will provide descriptions of potential courses and technical assistance needed to work towards expanding the collaboration as well as creating capacity within IDF for completing an in-depth forestry assessment of the Kuando Kubango province and other provinces in Angola.
In support of the vegetation and identification course Glen Juergens and Hugh Safford have offered to put together a compendium of 20-30 key species, which exist in Angola. This compendium will include physical descriptions, growth characteristics and any other information that is found through the process of information gathering. The compendium could be used for capacity building and as a resource for Angolan government agencies.
The following provides a brief description of the course work needed and lists the courses in order that they should occur with the exception of the Fire Prevention & Awareness and the Law Enforcement courses which may occur at any time.
1. Vegetation identification, silvicultural requirements, and ecological characteristics of
20 common trees species found in Kuando Kubango Province - this course should focus on the identification of common tree species and learning the scientific names to allow IDF employees access to available literature and research. Learning the scientific names of the common trees is critical in order to effectively communicate with forest managers throughout the world. The course should also include historic, traditional, and non- traditional uses of tree species, silvicultural growth and seed germination requirements, as well as the ecological function and characteristics.
2. Utilization and interpretation of GIS data and satellite imagery – a training program should be developed (probably at least two one-week sessions) to begin the process of growing a small cadre of GIS-proficient staff. Based on our discussions with Domingos Nazaré, it appears that a number of IDF employees are currently scheduled to attend a basic GIS training later this year in Mozambique. Perhaps, a USFS GIS expert could work with IDF and GEF Okavango River Management Project to provide an introductory GIS course. In addition the USFS expert could work with GEF project partners, HOORC and IDF to develop a training and data layer gathering action plan.
3. Collection of forest vegetation data – this course should be on the protocols and methodology of sampling forest vegetation. Currently there is no standardized process for on-the-ground resource data collection in Angola. The inventory method should be determined by the density and species diversity/homogeneity within the area to be sampled. However, IDF indicated a preference for the 10 meter grid sampling method. We recommend that a training/meeting be arranged with FIA staff and/or other personnel skilled in forest tree measurements and resource data collection from the USFS to develop an efficient methodology for (forest) resource inventory. Recent USFS-IP work in Senegal and Madagascar can serve as a model for this effort.
4. Participatory land and resource management planning methodology – this course can use the process described in the Senegal Report with the modifications mentioned in the Recommendations section above. A scoping process to involve and seek input from other national and provincial government agencies, NGOs, and communities should be included in this training. It may be beneficial to include both IDF and MINUA personnel in this training session to improve communications and establish links between these agencies that are responsible for the management of Angola’s resources.
5. Fire Prevention and Awareness – this course should provide training for fire prevention and awareness at the community level. Local community residents as well as IDF staff should especially be made aware of the risks associated with burning in the middle of the dry season. Alternatives to burning for agricultural and hunting purposes, if available, should be taught. This step requires that relevant information be collected and reviewed first and that an institutional framework exists for disseminating this information. It is advisable that NGOs be involved in the public education aspects of this work.
6. Law Enforcement – this course should include basic skills needed for IDF and MINUA personnel to effectively: o Inspect concessions involving commodity resource extraction o Enforce the terms and specifications of the concessions
21 o Educate communities of existing and new environmental laws o Enforce environmental laws
Some other courses needed to support institutional strengthening and capacity building for IDF as they take steps towards an in-depth forest assessment:
Next Steps
As mentioned above it will be important to provide training as soon as possible to IDF and their partners including community members as we work towards the goals of institutional capacity building and strengthening. As agreed upon with Director Caetano and amongst the technical staff, the following lists of activities are priorities for the next six months.
1. July 2006: The trip report and needs assessment will be provided in Portuguese to IDF and other partners.
2. 2006-2007: The USAID/IRBM project can serve as support to facilitating some of the future discussions and follow up activities. This includes communication with IDF and MINUA to refine a proposal for implementation of the U.S. Government’s support to NBSAP in Kuando Kubango, outlining the role of USFS and IDF.
3. October 2006: A tree species compendium will be developed for 20-30 tree species found in Angola by USFS technical experts.
4. October 2006: IDF will select an area for vegetation identification and forest inventory training.
5. 2006-2007: IDF will continue to pursue basic GIS analysis and utilization training in Mozambique for 2-3 members of their staff.
6. 2006 – 2007: Through the GEF Okavango project, there are opportunities for IDF, USAID/IRBM and USFS to pursue opportunities for gathering available GIS data.
• Ongoing: To start with, existing maps should be turned into GIS- ready data layers (currently many of these layers exist as electronic scans, and have not been georeferenced or digitized). Nazare will follow up to find out if any additional information on GIS layers and/or satellite imagery may be available from IGCA (Angolan Government’s Institute of Geology and Cartography).
• Ongoing: Angola Alliance, a group of South African GIS and remote sensing contractors, has apparently developed many of these layers for a number of provinces north and west of Kuando
22 Kubango. It may be more cost- and time-efficient to work with the same group in developing GIS data layers for Kuando Kubango.
• In September 2006, USFS could provide technical assistance on preliminary GIS training as well as provide support as the Okavango project compile GIS layers.
7. November/December 2006: Vegetation identification, silvicultural requirements, and ecological characteristics of common trees species found in Kuando Kubango Province course. The course can be developed with through collaboration between USAD/IRBM project, IDF, USFS and possible local universities. It will be important to contact both Elizabeth Mattos (Luanda) and Gilberto Cardoso (Lisbon, Portugal) for their assistance. Gilberto is one of the only individuals whom know well the different species of trees in Angola. This course depends on the availability of biologists and botonists as well as a location identified where the species id and inventory course can take place.
8. November/December 2006: Following the vegetation identification course, will be the forest inventory course. It is important that the two courses be held back to back in order to take advantage of forest vegetation knowledge. The course will be developed with the assistance of IDF, USAID-IRBM and USFS. USFS could provide technical experts from the Forest Inventory and Analysis staff on forest inventory protocols and methodology.
9. Ongoing: USFS, IDF and USAID-IRBM Project will continue to discuss new opportunities for collaboration and capacity building for the GoA. USFS, USAID and IDF will need to explore funding opportunities to provide additional USFS technical assistance. These are discussions that can happen as each technical assistance visit occurs. USFS is responsible for costs of technical experts providing technical assistance, but all parties will have to contribute resources towards the opportunities listed in this report.
10. 2006-2007: During the technical visit, the team discussed an opportunity for a community forestry project around the community of Dumbo. As the above steps are taking place this community forestry project, which is listed in the appendix, could be developed.
23
Budget and Timeline
The budget is based on the costs for four USFS experts participating in the three courses. These costs do not include the actual course costs nor do they include costs for the participants. This budget also represents available USFS funding for direct costs for support to IDF / IRBM / OKACOM for FY06 ($10,000) and FY07 ($32,000). If USAID RCSA, USAID Angola, or IRBM can cover additional direct costs (travel, lodging), then additional USFS technical assistance can be made available.
USFS Assistance Topic Proposed Dates USFS Direct Cost USFS Salary Cost GIS Introductory Course September 2006 $10,000 $6,750 (1.5 weeks; 1 USFS GIS Specialist) Species Compendium (1 October 2006 $8,000 $4,500 week) Vegetation Identification November 2006 $8,000 $4,500 Course (1 week; 1 USFS forester) Forest Inventory Course (2 November 2006 $16,000 $9,000 weeks; 2 USFS foresters) TOTAL $42,000 $24,750
24
References:
Andersson, Jafet. 2006. Land Cover Change in the Okavango River Basin: Historical Changes During the Angolan Civil War, Contributing Causes and Effects on Water Quality. Masters Thesis, Department of Water and Environmental Studies, Link⎯ping University, Link⎯ping, Sweden. 52 pp.
Angola Ministϑrio da Agricultura. 1983. Classificacao das Espϑcias Florestais Naturais Produtoras de Madeira e Lenha. Diario da Republic, I Seria, No. 229, 28 de Septembro de 1983. p. 727-732
Angola Ministϑrio do Urbanismo e Ambiente. 2006. Estratϑgia e Plano de Accao Nacionais para a Biodiversidade (NBSAP). 59 pp.
Bergman, Brenda Gail and Keith Kline. 2005. Angola Trip Report August 31 – September 10 2005: Chronological Notes from Meetings. Unpublished paper. 25 pp.
Blessing, Asuquo, Jan Burke and Oliver Pierson. 2005. USDA Forest Service Technical Assistance Trip, Republic of Guinea, Draft Report. 52 pp.
Filomena Amaral dos Santos Leite. 1997. Flora and Fauna of the Okavango River Basin (Angolan Sector). Okavango River Basin Preparatory Assessment Study-Specialist’s Report. OKACOM. 16 PP.
Fischer, Franz Ulrich. 1993. Beekeeping in the Subsistence Economy of the Miombo Savannah Woodland Areas of South-Central Africa. Rural Development Forestry Network. 8 pp.
Kendrick, David, Joe Krueger and Oliver Pierson. 2004. USDA Forest Service Technical Assistance Trip, Senegal, Final Report. 44 pp.
Kline, Keith and Brenda Bergman. 2005. Trip Report: Luanda and Menongue, Angola, Aug. 31-Sept. 11, 2005. Unpublished paper. 5 pp.
Mendelsohn, John and Artur Mugindo de Oliveira. 2005. Report on work to assess GIS (geographical information system) data for the Okavango Basin: GEF EPSMO Project, UNTS/RAF/010/GEF. 41 pp.
Norfolk, Simon et al. 2004. Land and Natural Resource Management System Assessment: Bie Province, Angola. Report for CARE International. 61 pp. Shaw, H.K. Airy. 1947. The Vegetation of Angola. Journal of Ecology. p. 23-48.
Packham, James. 1993. The Value of Indigenous Fruit-Bearing Trees in Miombo Woodland Areas of South-Central Africa. Rural Development Forestry Network. 7pp.
USAID/Angola. 2006. FAA 118-119 Analysis: Conservation of Tropical Forests and Biological Diversity. 37 pp.
25
www.ars-grin.gov USDA, Agriculture Research Service, Germplasm Resources Information Network
www.earthtrends.wrl.org accessed May, 2006. Forest, Grasslands, and Drylands, Angola.
www.fao.org/forestry United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization www.greencrossitalia.it/ita/acqua/wfp/okavango accessed April, 2006. The Okavango River Basin.
www.ildis.org/LegumeWeb www.irbm.co.bw accessed April, 2006. English/Portuguese Glossary of IRBM Terms. Okavango Integrated River Basin Management Project. www.kew.org/efloras/namesearch.do Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Flora Zambesiaca
26
Appendix I
Scope of Work
Technical support to Angolan Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s National Institute for Forestry Development and USAID Regional Center for Southern Africa’s Okavango Integrated River Basin Management Project
Forest Resource Assessment of the Kuando Kubango Province
Summary This Scope of Work provides detailed information about the proposed forest resource assessment in the Kuando Kubango Province of Angola, to be carried out jointly by the US Forest Service, the National Institute for Forestry Development (IDF) and the USAID Regional Center for Southern Africa’s Okavango Integrated River Basin Management Project. The overall objective of this activity, scheduled from around May 18 to June 1 2006, is to complete an in-depth assessment of the state of forest resources in the Kuando Kubango Province with the goal of providing recommendations and technical assistance to the IDF for multiple-use management of these forests. Please note that this Scope of Work is a draft, and we seek suggestions, comments, and ultimately approval from the Angolan Government.
Background This Scope of Work builds on a memorandum dated October 23, 2005 from US Forest Service International Programs (USFS/IP) to the Angolan Government and a meeting Mr. Tomas Caetano, Director of the IDF, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had with USAID on March 7, 2006. The proposed assessment will be supported by USFS/IP and USAID (primarily through the Regional Center for Southern Africa, USAID/RCSA) under the Okavango Integrated River Basin Management Project. USFS/IP and USAID will consult with the government of Angola and other donors to ensure coordinated efforts and will work to identify additional partners for ongoing work if required and requested by Angola. Activities proposed at this stage focus on the Cubango basin. They will be carried out under the direction and guidance of the designated Angolan government counterparts and in consultation with OKACOM-Angola (Ministry of Energy and Water) and USAID.
Overall Objectives The proposed objectives for the overall forest resources assessment, which will be carried out in phases over the next 12 months, are to: 1. Use best available information on the current status of forest areas in Kuando Kubango to determine how ongoing forest use activities are impacting the resource and to illustrate forest cover change trends in the Province (some of this information is with HOORC in Maun, Botswana).
27 2. Assess current forest resource utilization activities for timber and non-timber forest products to determine species utilized, levels of extraction, possibilities for regeneration and sustainable production, impacts to soil and water systems, socio- economic importance, who the forest users are, and if there are conflicts in use 3. Document the financial incentives driving forest exploitation including the market incentives and disincentives that influence the harvesting of principle forest products in the region and typical chains of custody for both formal and informal markets a. identifying institutional arrangements that underlie the incentive structures, including limited to control access to forest resources, and structures supporting exploitation of resources and investment in forest resources b. Identifying incentives for larger scale logging activities as well as incentives for community based forest management, including necessary governance arrangements that management plans will depend upon
4. Support the Institute for Forestry Development to develop recommendations for how forests in Southeastern Angola can be managed in a multiple-use fashion to balance the contribution of forest products to economic development with needs to maintain watershed health, biodiversity habitat, and sustainability of forest production 5. Provide information that will support Angolan land and water management authorities at the provincial and municipal levels with efforts to develop regional and/or local forest management, biodiversity conservation, and watershed management plans 6. Help identify potential biodiversity hotspots and biologically important areas, especially in terms of flora and socio-economic value of the forest resources
Specific Objectives for this initial Technical Assistance Mission (May 18-June 1) 1. Initiate partnership between the Angolan Government (represented by IDF, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and regional authorities in Kuando Kubango province), OKACOM-Angola, USAID-RCSA, USAID-Angola, the IRBM Project, and the US Forest Service. 2. Commence the assessment via a trip to the field to view status of forest resources and review of existing data (maps, remote sensing, harvesting figures, etc.). 3. Develop a plan for the execution of the forest resource assessment, including necessary USFS support, data needs, timing, and budget, a participatory process for developing the forest management plan, and tasks for all actors for each step of the assessment. The budget should detail what can be achieved with existing resources and what additional resources will be needed. 4. Explore with the Angolan government and USAID opportunities to expand this partnership as requested by Mr. Caetano.
Activities • Meetings with key stakeholders in Luanda and in Kuando Kubango Province to develop an forest resource assessment framework and work plan, including specific tasks for local counterparts to implement in between USFS visits
28 • Review of Existing Information • Field Trip for Forest Resource Assessment • Planning sessions with technical folks in Luanda • Meet with NBSAP Stakeholders in Menongue who are concerned about deforestation in Kuando Kubango Province • Final Debriefing with GoA and USAID
Composition of USFS Team The USFS team is comprised of three individuals all who have extensive international experience and bring a diverse set of skills to the table. 1. Team Leader: Michelle Zweede, Latin America Program Specialist, USFS/IP 2. Tropical Forest Ecologist: Hugh Safford, Regional Ecologist, Pacific Southwest Region, USFS 3. Forest Management Expert / Silviculturist: Glen Juergens, Monongahela NF Ms. Zweede and Mr. Safford are both fluent Portuguese speakers. Mr Juergens speaks Spanish fluently. Their CVs (in English) are available upon request. USFS/IP will perform a literature review to help the USFS team prepare for this mission. Therefore, we seek any available documents about the status of forest resources in the Kuando Kubango Province, existing licenses, concessions, and production data if available, documents on forest and watershed policy in Angola, and the structure of the Angolan Government agencies responsible for forest land management and concessions.
Deliverables 1. Summary report describing issues, findings and recommendations related to the objectives listed above, based on this initial visit. This will include an action plan laying out the steps for completing the full assessment based on inputs from GoA and other counterparts, and defining the roles and responsibilities of each party. As mentioned, the action plan should also include a budget defining what can be achieved with existing funds, and what additional resources will be necessary. 2. Any additional information regarding the GoA–USFS partnership and next steps that need to be documented
Timing: This mission will start on or around May 17, 2006. It will run for approximately 2 weeks, with the team departing from Angola around June 1, 2006.
Funding USFS will cover all salary, lodging, per diem, and international airfare costs of the three USFS employees on this mission. USAID-RCSA through the IRBM activity will provide in-country transportation if required. USFS currently has funding for one follow-on mission in FY06, and potentially funding for additional work in FY07. However, for any additional costs beyond USFS technical assistance missions (map analysis, training, long- term activities, etc.), funding will need to be identified from other sources.
Logistics and In-Country Support (comments welcome; draft ideas presented here) USFS requests the following in-country support from the USAID IRBM project and/or the Government of Angola (GoA):
29 • Development of Trip Itinerary, including scheduling of meetings with key personnel in Luanda and in Kuando Kubango Province (GoA) • In-country transport for the entire mission (USAID/IRBM and GoA) • Hotel Reservations for the entire mission (USFS detailers will pay for their rooms) • Expeditors at airport upon arrival and departure of USFS team (USAID) • Designation of GoA and IRBM counterparts who will accompany the USFS team, especially during the field portion of the trip (USAID/IRBM and GoA) • Designation of GoA counterparts who would continue with activities to be defined and agreed in the assessment plan, during the period between visits of the USFS team • Provide any available maps, forest cover and utilization information on the Kuando Kubango Province (including maps from HOORC via IRBM) • Information regarding the status of landmine clearing efforts in areas to be visited (GoA, or IRBM via UNDP) • Support for translation or reproduction of key documents (if necessary, IRBM)
30
Appendix II
Memorandum
Date: October 23, 2005
To: Tomas Caetano , Director of the National Institute for Forestry Development (IDF), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Gomez da Silva, National Director for Water Resources, Ministry of Energy & Water
Copy: Domingos Nazare, Deputy Director, IDF Rodriguez Nanda, Chief of the Department of Forestry, IDF Keith Kline, USAID RCSA and Scott McCormick, Okavango IRBM Project Diana Swain, Mission Director, USAID Angola
From: Oliver Pierson, Africa Program Coordinator, USDA Forest Service International Programs (USFS/IP)
Re: USFS / IP Support to Forest Sector Diagnostic in Kuando Kubango Province, Angola
Summary The USDA Forest Service International Programs (USFS/IP) Office formally offers their support to assist the government of Angola with the implementation of a study to analyze the current status of forest resources in the Kuando Kubango Province of Angola. USFS/IP proposes to implement this study in collaboration with the Angolan Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s National Institute for Forestry Development as a primary counterpart.
Background This effort is initiated in response to issues identified in the National Biodiversity Strategic Action Planning Workshop held in Menongue, Kuando Kubango in September, 2005 and the recommendation of Angola OKACOM representatives. The proposed work will be supported by USFS/IP and USAID’s Regional Center for Southern Africa (USAID-RCSA) under the Okavango Integrated River Basin Management Project. USAID-RCSA will consult with the government of Angola and other donors to ensure coordinated efforts and will work to identify additional partners for ongoing work if required and requested by Angola. All activities will be carried out under the direction and guidance of the Angolan government counterparts listed below and in consultation with OKACOM-Angola (Ministry of Energy and Water) and USAID/Luanda.
Purpose The proposed objectives of this study are to:
31 7. Use best available information on the current status of forest areas in Kuando Kubango to determine how ongoing forest use activities are impacting the resource and to illustrate forest cover change trends in the Province 8. Assess current forest resource utilization activities for timber and non-timber forest products to determine species utilized, levels of extraction, possibilities for regeneration and sustainable production, and impacts to soil and water systems 9. Document the financial incentives driving forest exploitation including the market incentives and disincentives that influence the harvesting of principle forest products in the region and typical chains of custody for both formal and informal markets 10. Support the Institute for Forestry Development to develop recommendations for how forests in Southeastern Angola can be managed in a multiple-use fashion to balance the contribution of forest products to economic development with needs to maintain watershed health, biodiversity habitat, and sustainability of forest production 11. Provide information that will support Angolan land and water management authorities at the provincial and municipal levels with efforts to develop regional and/or local forest management, biodiversity conservation, and watershed management plans
Approach Given the challenges associated with this task, USFS/IP and USAID/RCSA propose that the work associated with these objectives be carried out in a series of two technical assistance missions, and with some clearly-defined work performed by in-country actors / counterparts between missions. This approach, which has worked well at the onset of other such partnerships, allows all actors to develop an adequate understanding of resources, assessment techniques, and the overall approach to the diagnostic, and will create opportunities for capacity building as well as promote ownership of the work by the Angolan Counterparts. USFS/IP currently has funding reserved for two missions, each for 2-3 weeks and with 2-3 experts. The final composition of the team will be based on a more detailed scope of work for this activity.
USFS/IP Team With 100 years of forest and watershed management experience on over 80 million hectares of land, the USFS is well-placed to undertake such a diagnostic analysis in collaboration with Angolan authorities, and to assist with the development of recommendations for multiple-use strategies that present sustainable, “win-win” options for the use of forest resources and conservation of biodiversity. USFS proposes to assemble a team to implement this study comprised of a tropical forest ecologist and a forest management expert/silviculturalist as core members, and a GIS/forest monitoring specialist and forest products/marketing expert as supporting members.
Next Steps The USFS core team can prepare to travel to Angola to complete this assessment in collaboration with the aforementioned partners, subject to Angolan review and approval of the proposed activity description, confirmation of the availability of local counterparts
32 to participate as Angolan team members, and country clearance by the US Embassy. The USFS can provide the services of its experts for a 2-3 week period and can cover all costs for its team during the implementation of this activity. To properly prepare for this activity, USFS would appreciate having at least 8 weeks advance notice for scheduling the travel of its team.
The USFS would appreciate confirmation from Angola that local counterparts will be available to work with the USFS team. The local counterparts would guide and advise the USFS team, provide available data on the state of forest resources, and accompany the team to the field. The USFS understands that there are travel restrictions in Southern Angola due to the presence of land mines and would work with USAID and competent authorities to determine where travel is permitted.
Once we receive your agreement to the statement of work, we would appreciate your suggestions on the best timing for visits by the USFS team to Luanda and Kuando Kubango, to carry out this activity, taking into consideration rainy season road conditions and the availability of Angolan counterparts.
The USFS looks forward to this opportunity to work in partnership with Angolan authorities. We view this mission as the potential first step of a broader partnership focused on capacity building and sustainable forest and watershed management between our respective agencies. Please feel free to contact Oliver Pierson with any questions or suggestions to improve this initial statement of work. He may be reached by email at [email protected] or through the offices of Joaquim Boavida (interim IRBM liaison) in Luanda, 923-505-694.
Note: Based on the meeting of Mssrs. Kline and Caetano on October 20, 2005, we understand that counterparts proposed for this activity may include: • Domingos Nazare, Deputy Director of the Institute for Forestry Development (IDF) Phone: 912-213-801 or email: [email protected] • Rodriguez Nanda, Chief of the Dept of Forestry, IDF • Jorge David, Chief, Department of Hydrology
33
Appendix III
Acknowledgements
Our sincerest thanks to all of the IDF staff for their openness, willingness to take the time and work with us, strong support during the visit to Kuando Kubango, and welcoming nature, with special thanks to:
Tomas Caetano Domingos Nazare Zissala Mamona Pululu IDF General Director IDF Deputy Director Staff Forester IDF Luanda
Rossario Texeira Alfonso Duala, Staff Forester IDF Provincial Director IDF Luanda Kuando-Kubango
Our gratitude and thanks to the Governor of Kuando Kubango, João Baptista Tchinjenje, for sharing his knowledge about the province and providing support to the team while visiting Kuando Kubango Province.
Acknowledgement and thanks to Armindo Mario Gomes da Silva, National Director for Water Resources, Ministry of Energy & Water, and Director of GABHIC and Isidro Pinheiro, OKACOM Commissioner
Acknowledgement and gratitude for pre and post-travel logistics and briefings must be afforded to:
Lauren Chitty Oliver Pierson IRBM Team Africa Program Specialist Africa Program Coordinator Brenda Bergman International Programs International Programs Scott McCormick
Our sincerest appreciation for invaluable in-country logistical support, information about natural resource and forestry issues in Angloa, USAID programs, and guidance for our mission is afforded to:
Keith Kline Scott McCormick Brenda Bergman USAID IRBM Project IRBM Project Regional Center for Southern Africa
Buca Boavida Josepha Gomes David Kawika IRBM Project USAID Angola ACADIR
Finally, we would like to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation for Brenda Bergman’s enthusiasm, critical guidance and feedback, great ideas, and positive support for our team all around.
34
Appendix IV
Angola Meeting and Field Notes
IDF/USFS Kuando Kubango Preliminary Forest Assessment Notes
Thursday, May 18 Meeting with Alonzo Wind, Keith Kline, Cathy Hamlin, Scott McCormick, Chris Schean, Brenda Bergman, Josepha Gomes, USAID Enterance Briefing
• We met to provide briefing on USFS technical assistance trip to USAID – Angola. • Comment by Brenda: Make sure to have a result to the objectives of the trip and share the objectives/deliverables with the GoA. • Identification of “hot-spots”: begin to do as part of the overflight • Keith: goal to have an output by the end of the second USFS visit to Angola • Alonzo asked whether there have been any changes with NGOs in Menongue, and mentioned the importance of understanding the capacity of each organization. Keith referred him to the presentation on the OKACOM/IRBM project’s community work in Kuando Kubango, to take place early the following week. • GDAs: o Alonzo noted that they don’t want contractors to talk directly with corporate sponsors that USAID has connection with o USAID/Luanda (Marvin) is going to hire a GDA coordinator o Alonzo has a couple of paragraphs about approach to GDAs written for the USAID/Angola health initiative that he could share o The USAID/Southern Africa activities should share any plans for attempting to establish GDAs or public private partnerships in Angola with the USAID/Angola mission (Alonzo and Marvin)
Thursday, May 18 Meeting with Brenda Bergman on trip objectives and deliverables.
• We met to review the SOW and organize our thoughts prior to the GoA meetings. • We discussed that the one of the deliverables is a report, which should provide a description and the threats to the forest. • An outline was developed to follow in the meetings with a focus on the SOW, the objectives and the final report.
Friday, May 19 Meeting with Director Tomas Caetano, Domingos Nazare – Chief of Programs, Sr. Mateos, Sr. Zissala, Sr. Rossario, IDF Briefing
35 • USFS met for the first time with IDF. Director Caetano had come back to Angola from his travels specifically for the meeting with USFS. Mr. Caetano welcomed the USFS team and said that he looks forward to strengthening USFS/IDF partnership. Also mentioned was that IDF would provide all the support the USFS team needed to accomplish its goals and objectives. IDF will provide all information they have on forest statistics, maps in Kuando Kubango.
• USFS principle contact at IDF will be Domingos Nazare but Director Caetano made it clear that we could also contact him directly at anytime. Two IDF individuals, Rossario & Zissala, will accompany USFS to Kuando Kubango. Rossario & Zissala will shadow USFS team as this becomes the first capacity building activity.
General Meeting Notes about IDF • IDF is part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with headquarters in Luanda and representatives in 28 provinces. • Has administrative, patrimonial and financial authority • IDF implements on the ground, while DNAPF (Direccao National de Agricultura Pecuaria e Florestas - National Directorate of Agriculture, Animals and Forests) is the political arm of the Ministry • There are 1,100 IDF employees • 3-4% of IDF employees are trained technicians • 1.5% of IDF employees are trained foresters (There are 6 foresters in IDF, 3 of whom were attending this meeting.) • The area currently under conservation in Angola is 6.6% of the total country’s land area. • There are no official “National Parks” in Kuando Kubango. • IDF is Angola’s administrative authority for CITIES • “Lei das Terras” – provides GoA with the responsibility to administer, manage and protect all forested areas. • Forest Concessions are administered and managed by IDF • Forest Reserves and conservation areas are managed by Ministry of Urbanism and Environment • In Kuando Kubango there are one year licenses issued for harvesting timber. There are not any concessions but there are “coutadas” in Mavinga Longa, Luenge and Mucosso, which are restricted utilization areas. • Northern Angola is an area of the most fires • (Caetano noted that) Tourism should be included in a study of Kuando Kubango. The province has high tourism potential, and IDF would like feedback on the potential for tourism in the context of a transfrontier park. • The province has been closed, and Caetano said that “we’re opening the doors of Kuando Kubango for your understanding!” He also suggested that in the future, perhaps we may transfer lessons learned there to other provinces • Nazare is our point of contact for all IDF-USFS-USAID activities from Luanda; in the Province, we should defer to the Provincial Director (Afonso Duala, in the case of Kuando Kubango). • IDF has topographic maps 1: 100,000.
36 • IDF has responsibility over coutadas. In Kuando Kubango, these include: 1. Coutada do Longa Mavinga 2. Coutada do Mucosso 3. Coutada do Luengue 4. Coutada de Luiana • MINUA has responsibility over Reservas Parcial. In Kuando Kubango, these include: o Reserva Parcial de Mavinga o Reserva Parcial de Luiana
Technical Assistance Needs in Kuando Kubango/Angola identified by Director Caetano 1. Forest Inventory and Forest Information Systems 2. Forest Management, Enforcement Training Needs. There is currently no technical school to train mid-level technical / managers in forestry 3. IDF Institutional Strengthening After the war there was a lot of infrastructure destruction. Difficult to manage forests without institutional capacity! 4. Forest Policy and Laws Forest Law is from back in colonial times – very old. Not applicable to today’s reality. There is a Dutch program looking at forest law.
*At the University of Agostino Neto, IDF collaborates with Esperança Costa, Pro- Reitora of the University
Friday, May 19
Meeting with Vladimir Russo, Ministry of Urbanism and Environment (MINUA) National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan (NBSAP) and IDF (Nazare, Zissala, and Rossario).
• We met to learn more about the role the Ministry of Urbanism and Environment in Angola. • In 1998 an environmental law was created which helped to create MINUA as well as several environmental regulations. The law established environmental protection. Many don’t have access to environmental laws and regulations. • Two major national environmental studies for Angola include: National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, which was recently completed and is about to be approved by the Council of Ministers, and the State of the Environment Report, which is being developed. o Nazare of IDF is on the NBSAP Steering Committee.
37 • There were a few thematic studies mentioned that would provide information to the USFS team, which were developed in relation to the NBSAP planning process. These include: o Biodiversity Legislation o Terrestrial Diversity o Bibliography of Sources • Critical Issues for Kuando Kubango o Not much information about forests in the province. o Fire is used for hunting, which causes forest and savannah fires o Population pressure on forests for wood and charcoal – major issue. • 80% of Angolans use wood for cooking, huge impact on forest resources o Erosion • “Programa Director” = Provincial Development Program should exist for Kuando Kubango, with the Governor’s office. He should also have information on those who are “managing” Luiana. • It was suggested that the overflight go up the Cubango River and fly over the towns of Jamba2, Calai, Dirico and Mucusso. • IUCN: o Angolan members of IUCN include: JEA (Juventude Ecologica de Angola, or Ecological Youth of Angola) and ADRA (Acção para o Desenvolvimento Rural e Ambiente, or Action for rural development and the environment)3 o IUCN wants to start a national committee • Keith: this is an opportunity for an organization in Angola to focus on biodiversity/protected areas planning. o Vladi: there are few organizations with sufficient capacity, may have to be creative with those who are partners – for example, the National History Museum, or faculty of the University, may be options. • Vladi: propose establishing “units” within MINUA to oversee the implementation of NBSAP.
TASKS: • Determine whether ACADIR has a copy of the Kuando Kubango development plan. • Collect from the Governor’s office the contact information for all people who are managing Luiana
Friday, May 19
Meeting with Armindo Mario Gomes da Silva, National Director for Water Resources, Ministry of Energy & Water, and Director of GABHIC and Isidro Pinheiro, OKACOM Commissioner • An IDF - GIS project was mentioned, which USFS will follow up on with IDF. 200K project to collect GIS images of Angola.
2 This is where Savimbi was based! 3 Jose Pilartes has a friend who used to work at ADRA, and could link us with people there)
38 • Overall the Ministry seems supportive of IDF and the USFS’ SOW for the forest resources assessment in Kuando Kubango. • OKACOM, even though three countries, we all speak with one voice!
Monday, May 22
Meeting with Joaquim Lourenço Manuel, Chief of Natural Resources Dept. and Julieta Condez, Chief Administrative Officer, Ministry of Urbanism and Environment (Matteus Andre, IDF, also present)
• Joaquim’s Department of Natural Resources will be the one most involved in our work. • Joaquim commented that there exists problems of deforestation in Kuando Kubango and there is a need to introduce alternative sources of energy (i.e. fuel efficient stoves. o There is also a problem with deforestation in the Northern Part of Angola. • The Kuando Kubango region has open dryer forests and there is a large problem of charcoal production and fuel wood gathered from forests around communities. Another issues facing forests and biodiversity are: o Slash and burn agriculture, which represents most of the deforestation o Fires (400 fires seen from on overflight from Luanda to Angola’s boarder with Congo). As the population density grows so do the fires. As an agency, IDF, manages both forests and fires. Last year IDF received information on fire occurrences in each province. Fires are allowed at the community level but in general there aren’t permits given to burn. (Joaquim said that cutting and sales are not the problem, it’s burning, particularly in Menongue and Mavinga) o Timber Harvesting- Selective harvesting but only one valuable species is harvested (20 cubic meters per month is harvested - as far as he knows, there are only 2-3 groups cutting wood) o Landmines are affecting elephants as they cross over border. Some do say that the landmines have helped preserve forest ecosystems because humans are staying away from those areas that aren’t cleared of mines. In the east of the province they
• IDF has most information about forest ecosystems.
• Timber Licensing: o Timber Harvests more than 500 cubic meters must be approved by IDF in Luanda (very few people are doing this legally). If the harvest is below 500 cubic meters it is approved at the IDF office in the province o The timber operations in southern Kuando Kubango are one year licenses. o On a 40ha. concession, 1,000 cubic meters might be harvested annually. • Concessions, Property Rights and Land Titles: o Lei das Terras provides GoA rights to all lands in Angola.
39 o People occupy land after receiving a lease from the government (30-60 year leases) o In urban areas residents can receive land for 60 years and is renewed if the resident continues to reside on the land. o Eminent domain can be used in Angola o Government is trying to urbanize people so that there are less people out in the hinterlands, but people have the right to use land. o A concession for more than 1000 ha. must be approved by the Ministry of Environment and anything more than 10,000 ha. must be approved by Congress. IDF audits the forestry concessions. o There are limits to the amount of land one can access Urban areas – 2ha. Suburban – 5 ha. Rural – 10,000 ha.
The Ministry approves the request for land if it is 1,000 – 10,000 ha. The Province approves land access if it is 2 – 1,000 ha. The provincial government must analyze the request for land. The provincial government also has to verify that the land indeed falls within the community in which the person lives. If a community requests land, they can do what they wish as long as it falls within the boundaries of their traditional land use.
A soba is a traditional community leader, which watches over the community’s activities. The soba also has the community’s respect, solves problems and advises the community on traditional land uses. The Soba interacts with a regedor to advise the community on government regulation. The regedor is a liason between the community and government.
• Land Use Management and Zoning o According to the representatives at the Ministry of Urbanism and Environment, there is a need to define lands for uses as in a land use management plan. They emphasized that different parts of the country should have different rules about extraction. o Angola is rewriting its land law right now. o Concerned because they don’t really have zoning nor a zoning plan. o Hugh Safford mentioned that that was one of the needs we would discuss in the USFS report, but to develop a land use management plan there is a need for some preliminary information such as soil, climate and digital elevation maps. o The maps and land use management plan could provide a pathway to basic zoning needs. o Are the boundaries for protected areas well defined? The government used natural boundaries such as lakes and rivers to define boundaries and develop parks. Boundaries were also established using surveying methods and GPS data.
40 MINUA has GPS coordinates for protected area boundaries. They also have digital maps of geology. (Can also purchase paper maps at the Department of Geology in the University Agostinho Neto, or at the Ministry of Geology and Mines). o Conservation International helped with the zoning of the IONA park in Namibia. Joaquim participated in this project. It took one month to delineate the park’s boundaries – BUT there are no people there. Could not get into the hills. A vegetation study and inventory with GPS coordinates was also developed. o It was mentioned by Joaquim that the IGCA (Angolan Government’s Institute of Geology and Cartography) has digitized maps of soils, vegetation etc… o USFS noted that they may be able to help with data layers, particularly if we could acquire digital elevation models. o A new department of zoning and planning has been established. Joaquim doesn’t know if Kuando Kubango has a person in place yet.
• The highest priority for the Ministry of Urbanism and Environment is conservation. After the approval of the biodiversity strategy everything will be redefined and individuals well be identified to work in natural resource management. NBSAP will create a biodiversity database. • Joaquim is a forest engineer by training. • He and others from MINUA were in Kuando Kubango 3 months ago on a fact finding trip looking mostly at animal migrations. o In the East of the Province they are starting to see elephants migrating, so there may be less land mines than they had thought. CI is leading a group doing overflights. o They saw 400 fires in their flight across the country, ending in Moshiko • They are planning a fly-over of Luiana for later this year. • Eng. Luta has information on hunting reserves. • They also suggest that we work with Joao Serodio de Almeida, Pro Reitor of UAN (University Agostinho Neto). They also mentioned Miguel Morais, Department of Biology in UAN (a colleague of Carlos Andrade).
Monday, May 22
Meeting with Director Abias Huongo, Januario Augusto, General Secretary, and Simao Andre dos Santos (Futuro Verde) from Maiombe
• Maiombe is a network of Angolan environmental NGOs, which was created 5 years ago. Today, 23 NGOs make up the Maiombe Network. Maiombe was created to begin an environmental movement, capture funding and provide information and linkages to all the environmental NGOs. • Maiombe’s projects involve: o Environmental Education (including training of trainers) o Conservation
41 o Kissama National Park o Conservation initiatives in Melonge o Protecting forests in Cabinda, Angola o Fighting desertification o Capacity building for NGOs and communities • In Kuando Kubango, Maiombe works with the Integrated River Basin Management Project and OKACOM, World Conservation Society on a tourism project, and collecting data. Particularly interested in representing indigenous communities along rivers. • Maiombe’s priorities for Kuando Kubango: 1) Economic alternatives 2) KAZA and next year’s elephant conference 3) Capacity building • They serve as ombudsmen between local government and communities on some things
• In Kuando Kubango they have two options for who to work with: o ACADIR through Jose Neto o Establish a Menongue-based organization as a division of one of the member NGOs, such as JEA • Funding for the Maiombe Network includes: o Regional Center of Environmental Education (in Durban) o IUCN o Society of Environmental Educators of Southern Africa • Maiombe has a staff of 8 people • *In August there will be a meeting of NGOs of Angola, open meeting, Abias can send us the information. • Three organizations they recommend as potential partners for our work in Angola: 1. Futuro Verde 2. JEA 3. Nucleo Ambiental (Environmental Club at UAN. Carlos Andrade is a member.) o They do not recommend the Quissama Foundation as a partner o It will be difficult for one to work alone there • Simao attending APM 1,2,3 training sponsored by IRBM • *They are mapping all areas of Southern Africa with significant deforestation, under Dutch funding, Maiombe Network working on the Angola portion of this o In Malange there is a lot of cutting, also north of Kuando Kubango there is a lot of diamond extraction that could move down to KK. • SADC biodiversity project includes the following elements: o Regional strategy for biodiversity (already exists, Abias could send us a copy) o Invasive Species Inventory o Study on benefits sharing for biodiversity o There are also small components of the SADC biodiversity project, which include:
42 Inventory of innovative financing mechanisms, which is ongoing • 1st phase is collecting information. All SADC countries are included in this except for the DRC. • 2nd phase is going to the field. • 3rd phase is protocols o Futuro Verde – plan has been around since 2001 Huila, Cunene, Bie, Luanda = areas of their work Most of their work is in environmental education, including a nation-wide radio program. When working with communities, the most interest they get is when the discuss extractive practices They also conduct training on alternative livelihoods
TASK: Find out who at Maiombe Network is working on the Dutch-funded deforestation mapping activity.
Wednesday, May 24
Meeting with Governor João Baptista Tchinjenje of Kuando Kubango Province. Joining the meeting with the Governor was representatives from the NGO Acadir and IDF.
The Governor seemed to know a lot about the province and provided input on the locations the team would visit. He recommended that the team visit the Koi-San community on the way to Caiundo or in Savate. They are nomads and know a lot about the local species of plants and animals. He mentioned that there were only two areas where selective harvesting is occurring near Menongue. He also mentioned that there is a lot of harvesting happening on the border between Angola and Namibia.
The Governor mentioned a study on biodiversity of Kuando Kubango being conducted by John Hanks and Tamar Ron. He called Tamar “a very good friend of the Province.”
He noted the problem of having “all these studies but (what) we need (is) money (to implement)”. He emphasized that they need a way to educate communities so that they don’t clear cut forests. He would like to see a study that helps to understand river levels!4
The Governor mentioned that in Cuchi and Mavinga there are a lot of forests, and Rivungu has the most dense vegetation because of the river.
The Governor mentioned that they are interested in conservation, but also in use of forests. He noted that there are 2 sawmills in the Province.
4 This implies that we should keep the governor informed on the outcome of data analysis from the hydromet stations
43
Wednesday, May 24
Meeting with Acadir representatives (David Kawika, Antonio Chipita) Miguel Kassule - World Vision, Commander of the Military in Cuando Cubango, Provincial Director for Agriculture,Alfonso Duala – IDF Provincial Director.
We met with all of these individuals to provide an overview of the trip’s objectives as well as collectively discuss the field visits. It was important to lay out the routes for the field visits so that the military could provide feedback to us on the land mine situation.
Thursday, May 25
Overflight summary, Menongue-Cuchi-Rundu-Mavinga-Menongue, May 25, 2006 Hugh Safford (USFS), Glen Juergens (USFS), Miguel Cabinda (IDF-Menongue), Sr. Zessala (IDF-Luanda), David Kawika (Acadir) participated in the overflight.
By Hugh Safford
USAID – IRBM Project and USFS sponsored an overflight with Wings Over Africa, a Windhoek, Namibia and Luanda, Angola-based outfit, to fly five of us to previously identified “critical” areas in Kuando-Kubango, and to carry out a general reconnaissance of forest conditions along the course of our flight. Passengers included: Sr. Zissala of the Instituto de Desenvolvimento Forestal (IDF-Luanda); David Kawika from ACADIR, a Menongue-based NGO; Miguel Cabinda, Forestry Section chief from IDF-Menongue; Glen Juergens, silviculturist from the United States Forest Service (USFS); and Hugh Safford, vegetation ecologist from the USFS. During the trip we kept notes, and we took many digital photos, some of which we geo-referenced with a hand-held GPS unit.
We left Menongue at about 0930, and began by flying west toward Cuchi, which is about 85 km by air from Menongue. The area around Menongue proper is extensively impacted by housing, agriculture and land clearing for other purposes. As was the case with all of the larger communities we flew over, this impact begins to lessen markedly 4- 5 km out of town, except along roads, where clearing follows the trace of the road. We flew more or less due west toward Cuchi, and so left the Menongue-Caiundo road to our southwest. The vegetation becomes quite dense (probably >70% cover over much of the landscape) and relatively unaltered and continues that way for much of the way to Cuchi, over a landscape of rolling hills. This same large area of dense forest is clearly visible when one arrives in Menongue from Lubango by passenger jet.
From Cuchi we turned to the south and followed the Cuchi River to its confluence with the Cubango. Below Cuchi the Rio Cuchi has 4-5 km of rapids, one of few places in the Province with whitewater. As one heads south, the evidence of previous forest removal becomes progressively more obvious, with much of the area in advanced states of regrowth (due to abandonment during the war?). Patch size is usually between 1 and 5 hectares. After the confluence of the Cubango and Cuchi Rivers, villages begin to appear along the River and there is much more alteration of forest cover, almost entirely within 1
44 or 2 km of the River. A couple of miles below the confluence there is another area of rapids, this one also about 4-5 km long, and appears to be of sufficient difficulty to be of interest to rafters or kayakers. We first saw sizeable herds of cattle (>5 head) near Caiundo. Leaf drop was much more advanced here than near Menongue, with up to 30% of the trees already without leaves on May 25. Caiundo is one of the few places we flew over where the rivers are emplaced within a decidedly hilly landscape – hilltops are perhaps 100-200 m higher than the river thalweg here.
From Caiundo we continued south along the Cubango River to the Namibian border, and then along the Cubango to Cuangar, where we landed and spent 1.5 hours on the ground. In the Savate area up to 50% of the trees had lost their leaves already. Girassonde (Pterocarpus angolensis) becomes an important part of the forest canopy along the southern Cubango and loses its leaves earlier than most other species – this is probably what we were seeing. In the Savate area ½ to 1 km on either side of the River has been or is being cultivated. Cauíco told us that this area has many land mines and many agricultural fields (lavras) are returning to forest as a result. Katuitui is the border crossing between Namibia and Angola, and the excellent state of roads and buildings in Namibia is a stark contrast to the infrastructure destruction on the Angolan side of the river. There were maybe 50 trucks backed up at the border, waiting to clear customs. East of Katuitui there are extensive “lavras” and many villages on both sides of the river; obvious human impact extends back as much as 2 km from the river.
In Cuangar very few planes use the landing strip, so a lot of people turn out when a plane lands. We were met by three truckloads of people, and were immediately taken to an impromptu meeting with the city administrators, police, immigration, and residents. We talked about the general state of things in Cuangar, the local economy and the future. A lot of people have been returning to Cuangar from Namibia recently, as it is now more clear that the war is really over. Very few of them have any means of support, and they have their hands full trying to rebuild their lives from scratch. We drove out to visit a carpinteiro who works with Girassonde, making different types of furniture, primarily for local use. Using Cauíco as our interpreter (the man spoke only Nagela), we asked many questions. The carpinteiro was understandably reticent, being suddenly surrounded by extremely curious officials from the IDF and foreign nations. He works only with Girassonde because it is readily available, it is relatively durable and has a reliable market (beautiful wood when finished), and it is soft and light enough to be worked and cut by hand tools. He stated that he did not cut the trees himself, but rather found different suppliers in different places along the river. He did not ask the suppliers whether they had permits to extract Girassonde. He didn’t know what the IDF was, and had never had any one ask him these questions before. According to other people we asked, there are many single woodworkers like him around, and Girassonde is being rapidly removed from local forests. It is obvious that currently the IDF has essentially no ability to regulate this trade.
From Cuangar we flew east down the River (it is called the Okavango once it hits Namibia) to Rundu, Namibia, where we made a fuel stop. There are some large center- pivot-irrigated fields on the Namibian side near here. Again, it was striking the huge disparity between Namibia and Angola - the infrastructure in Namibia, versus the reality of Angola and the well-kept, clean, and relatively modern facilities in Namibia, versus
45 the decrepit state of things just across the river. The Rundu airport is very modern and set up for jet fighters, although it has apparently essentially been abandoned since the end of the war. Another very obvious difference is the more advanced state of forest clearing on the Namibian side. This has gone back 2-4 km from the Okavango, apparently partly due to the population increase from Angolan refugees. The river in this area flows in a very wide thalweg (up to and beyond 2 km wide), with extensive wetlands and many oxbows. There appears to be some sort of extractive industry going on along the river in the reeds – perhaps they are harvesting Phragmites?
From Rundu we flew NNE to Malvinga. This is probably a stretch of about 250 km. Our impression of this area is that there is almost no sign of man across this entire area, except within a few km of the Okavango and within 5 km of Malvinga. We saw one hut and one road track across the entire distance. The vegetation is mostly a relatively dense savanna with scattered shrubs and more or less continuous grass cover in open areas. Zissala was of the opinion that a lot of this area was “secondary forest”, but we didn’t know how to evaluate this statement. Along the course of our flight, we saw many areas where the understory had clearly burned but the tree canopy had not been affected. We also passed two active fires, both of which were burning through pradeiras. There were a number of what appeared to be large fires in the distance, perhaps 50+ km to the NE and E. As we neared Mavinga, there were a couple of places where pradeiras appeared to be succeeding to shrub and tree cover. We know nothing about climate change impacts in Kuando-Kubango, but this looked suspiciously like the sort of succession that goes on where water tables have dropped. Our other strong impression of this area – indeed, of Kuando-Kubango in general - was the conspicuous absence of large animals (i.e. that could be seen from the plane). Ewert, our pilot, noted how similar vegetation in Botswana or Zambia would hold “loads” of animals, but we saw only 2 duiker and one larger antelope in the course of our entire flight!! Duiker is apparently one of the few things left to hunt in much of Kuando-Kubango. Kawika old us that many of the fires are set in order to drive duiker out of the underbrush so they may be more easily shot. From Mavinga, we turned to the WNW and returned to Menongue. We began to see more fires, mostly in the distance (probably in Moxico). As one flies north, the tree canopy becomes gradually more dense and the understory appears to become more open. Where we could see below the trees, it appeared that there was a lot of open sand substrate. South of Cuito Cuanavale (we passed just south of town), the uplands along the Cuito River are patchworked with “lavras”, much of which is succeeding to shrubs and trees. As the sun began to set, it became more obvious that there were many even- aged patches in the tree canopy, ranging from 10’s to 100’s of hectares, which points either to stand-replacing fires or human clearing in the past. As we approached Menongue, lavras became abundant within about 5 km of town, with many scattered huts and aldeias. We arrived back in Menongue at 5:45, just before it became too dark to see the runway. The pilot had calculated our arrival time perfectly – as there are no runway lights in Menongue, we would have had to turn back to Rundu before we’d reached Mavinga had we been even 10 minutes later.
In conclusion: we found that at the level of the Province itself, there is surprisingly little sign of obvious human impact on the landscape. As one would expect, human impact increases considerably as one nears centers of population, but from the air these areas of impact appear to be no more than 5 or maybe 10 km broad. Human impacts are also
46 obvious along the road system. Our overwhelming impression from the overflight was that previous signs of human-caused alterations to forest cover are in the process of recovering, due to decades of war and the subsequent depopulation of much of the Province. Another strong impression was that, in the area of our overflight – which admittedly did not cross the Luiana area, which is purported to have growing populations of elephants and ungulates, etc. – there is very little in the way of wildlife. Again, our assumption is that this is a reflection of the impacts of war in the area. The time for landscape-scale land management planning is now, as we have in southeastern Angola the rare opportunity to prepare for anticipated impacts rather than respond to them after they have already occurred.
Friday, May 26 Field Trip Summary, Menongue to Caiundo
Field Trip Participants: Alfonso Duala, director of IDF-Kuando-Kubango; Sr. Zissala , IDF-Luanda; Rosario Teixeira, IDF-Luanda; David Cauíco, ACADIR; José Pilartes, IRBM; Brenda Bergman, IRBM; Michelle Zweede, Glen Juergens and Hugh Safford, USFS
We spent May 26 on an all-day trip to the Caiundo area, to visit with the local IDF administration, and to visit a couple of aldeias (villages) to speak with the village elders (sobas) and others about land management decisions at the local scale. We drove in two vehicles. The route is about 140 km, and takes between 2.5 and 3 hours to drive. The state of the road is quite poor, with stretches of anywhere from 50-1000 m (sometimes longer) that are paved and passable, interrupted by craters, usually stretching across most of the road, caused by the explosion of land mines during and after the war. By the side of most of the holes are the hulks of the trucks, personnel carriers or tanks which set off the mines. The road itself is now “green” according to the UN, i.e. it is passable, but active mines are still found along the roadside in some locations. Where these have been located, the area is marked with pink-colored monument and stones lain along the side of the road. Now and again unfortunate pedestrians or truck-drivers who have left the road happen on one of these. Leaving the main road is unadvisable in most places.
As we drove, we passed many trucks parked alongside the road, the drivers cooking breakfast outside on the road. These are trucks coming from Namibia with goods to sell in Angola, and may be en route to places as far away as Luanda. They stop for the night well outside of towns, as they are severely overloaded and risk being fined/impounded by local police if they remain there too long. The backs of many trucks are festooned with branches of thorny acacias, to prevent thieves from getting into the load.
Notes from discussion with David Kawika during drive to Caiundo:
• Slash and burn agriculture is called “chitemene” here o Crop calendar here (Capico) Planting – mid October – January; October the rains begin; May – harvesting corn (that was planted in October). Some food shortage November – December. o Year 1: plant sorghum or maize (for 1-2 years_
47 Year 2 (or 3): cassava, (manioc) and use a new area for sorghum. Manioc takes 1-2 years to mature. They then let the land rest for 4-5 years. o The agricultural calendar is very different in lower parts of the province. In Calai, Dirico, etc. rains begin around February. Very hot and desert-like. Have to farm along the river. Grow drought-resistant crops like sorghum and millet. o Sorghum, millet and cassava are the grains used for Funge here
o David says that near Liapeka the land is “almost becoming a desert” because of this slash and burn, it is also an issue in Capico. o Natives of this area (Ngangela) are not farmers. Ngangela are a group of different people, mostly from Mashiko Province. People originally migrated to this area to make rubber from rubber trees. o Real natives to the land are the Koi San o The Portuguese found it easy to enter Huambo and Bie, but in Kuando Kubango it was difficult, more stubborn
• David noted that the Participatory Rural Appraisals gave them a lot of information because we are talking directly with the community • Areas of threat to forests in Kuando Kubango that David mentioned include Calai with respect to deforestation, and Dubmo with respect to Charcoal. Other environmental threats include that people are building houses on slopes, starting at Longa and going to Cuito. • He noted that there are few checks and balances to ensure that people acquire permits for logging. For example, when carpenters purchase wood, they do not ask the people they buy from if they have their documents. • Types of trees that David pointed out include: Acacia: Most of the trees along the river Moshibi – hard timber (=Ngangela hard wood) Mukwa (=Girassonde in Angola) – red (bloodwood) best but not the strongest, good for carpentry Mwambo – hard timber Mucosso – hard (=Zambezi redwood – common in Zambia) Mussivi – what they use in Menongue for construction • Administrative divisions within the province: Province (e.g. Kuando Kubango) District (e.g. Menongue) - has an administrator Communa (e.g. Caiundu) - has an administrator Aldei (e.g. Capico) Barrio - each barrio has a soba Regiador – over many sobas, makes decisions
Notes in Caiundo:
48 On our arrival in Caiundo, it turned out that neither the local administrator (Elysio Changano Makai) nor the vice-administrator of the municipal government5 were in town. The only functionary present was the director’s secretary, who did not know where either of his superiors where, or when they might return. They had apparently been gone for some time, and “might be in Congo or Namibia”. Alfonso, the IDF director for Cuando- Cubango, noted that on previous visits he had only rarely encountered the Caiundo government administration staff at their office. We met with the secretary, Sr. Bernardo Lucas Dinge, for about an hour, explained to him the purpose of our visit, and asked many questions. Mr. Dinge felt that there was a need for the community to understand more about natural resource management. Mr. Dinge had no training in resource management or forestry, and had many questions for the Menongue IDF staff relating to the prosecution of IDF’s job vis-à-vis hunting infractions, rampaging hippos, crocodiles, etc. Residents of Caiunde live off of subsistence agriculture (sorghum, beans, corn), fishing and hunting. Most agriculture plots ,“lavras”, are 1-2 ha., which doesn’t require authorization from the local government office. Local wood species, Mussivi (Guibourtia coleosperma), Moné (Isoberlinia angolensis),and Girassonde are used for houses, doors, roof beams and firewood.
Some points that came out of the meeting with Dinge include: • There has been only one request for a harvesting permit in Caiundo from the provincial IDF, which came from a person who is resident of Menongue. • By and large, residents of Caiundo harvest for firewood and subsistence. One factor preventing people from taking an interest in harvesting now is that people do not have the money for harvesting equipment. • The Caiundo area has never been a problem for IDF with respect to charcoal production, unlike Dumbo • Community members live by subsistence agriculture, fishing, some hunting of Daiker (small antelope). They grow sorghum, beans, millet. • Community uses of wood: fuelwood, furniture, home construction (frames and doors) • “Nkudo” is the local name for the tree that they use for fuelwood. • Required approvals for clearing land for cultivation: o For the local production of about 1ha there is no need for a permit. o To clear larger tracts of land, people have to seek approval from the district authority. Before giving an approval, the district authority considers things like whether there is enough land, how many big trees are in the way, etc. However, they have not received many requests. o If a person logs on 2ha or more, it may pay to have machinery, to work on less it does not pay. • IDF Menongue described their role as that of overseeing all life in the forest. • When Dinge asked a question about what to do abut hippo, the answer from IDF was that we don’t kill hippos unless out of self defense. • Comment from Dinge: it would be nice to have a pamphlet that explains what the government is doing
5 Both of these positions are nominated by the Governor
49 • He noted that communities are often interested only in what will bring an economic return
After our meeting, we walked to a neighboring aldeia and attempted to see the soba, but he was out. We visited with some of the residents, walked through a market area adjoining the aldeia, and then returned to our vehicles.
On the return voyage to Menongue, we stopped in an aldeia called Capico that had had a catholic mission before the war – the mission itself was a very attractive brick building that now lay in ruins. We had the good fortune of finding the local soba and we were able to spend about 40 minutes with him and about 20 other residents. Cauíco knew this village, as he had conducted some Participatory Rural Appraisals there last year. He also interpreted for us (as did Alfonso). The soba told us that there were about 900 people under his “jurisdiction”, scattered around in a couple of villages. The area had been largely depopulated during the war, as this was the scene of heavy fighting, and people had only begun to return over the last couple of years. The villagers currently depend primarily on subsistence agriculture, growing millet, sorghum (“massango”), manioc and some corn, along with leafy vegetables they grow down by the stream below the aldeia. They are actively opening more forest for lavras, and they explained to us their method of cycling crops. They start with corn (if the soil is good enough; down near the river, e.g.) for a few years, then go to massango, then manioc; or they might start with massango or millet and end with manioc. Manioc is planted last because it can survive in poor soils. Usually within about 3 or 4 years the soil nutrients seem to give out and they have to rest the lavra, for maybe 3-5 years. After clearing, they will take advantage of the wood to make charcoal (carvão); they said that their charcoal production is entirely destined for local use.
They mentioned that it is difficult to cultivate much because they lost their animals during the war, and it has since been hard to replenish a stock.
They noted that they experience some food shortages around Nov- December
There are also a couple of people in the aldeia who are involved in crafts. A bag of very well-made elephant figurines was dragged out for our inspection (made of girassonde), as were some very nice baskets woven from a grass that grows along the river. We were actually interested in purchasing some of these, but the producer was apparently gone for the day and they did not know what to charge.
Everyone in this area lived in Namibia as refugees
We had many questions about the “chain-of-command” within the village and its relationship to IDF and other government entities. It appeared that, at least in this aldeia, the soba played a pretty laissez-faire role in managing the land and its uses. Villagers make requests to him, e.g. for opening forest for a lavra, and he normally simply OK’s their request. We wondered whether the rapid growth in population in his aldeia concerned him (i.e., with respect to the finite size of his landbase), but he felt that there was enough land to go around and there was no need to curtail or manage any of the village activities at this time. According to the soba, they are more or less self-sufficient
50 for about ¾ of the year, but November-January can be difficult, as their stores from the previous year are giving out then, and they have only just planted the current
Saturday, May 27
Field Trip Summary, Menongue to Dumbu
Field trip participants: Alfonso Duala, director of IDF-Cuando-Cubango; Zissala Pululu, IDF-Luanda; Rosario Teixeira, IDF-Luanda; David Cauíco, ACADIR; José Pilartes, IRBM; Brenda Bergman, IRBM; Michelle Zweede, Glen Juergens and Hugh Safford, USFS.
The trip to Dumbu follows the road to Huambo, which goes north out of Menongue. The road is in better shape than the road to the south (the Caiundo road), and there are fewer land mine craters. Most of the vehicle remains have been scavenged or removed. The trip took about 1 hour, and was about 45 km. Our purpose was to visit the Regidor of Dumbu, which apparently includes some 9000 people in various villages (this was the number given us by the soba’s right-hand man there, but we found it hard to believe). We focused on two villages which are found right on the road, separated by a seasonal stream and a swampy grassland. We primarily spent time in the northern village, which is partly in the shade of a sparse grove of very big eucalyptus trees. Dumbu turned out to be a fascinating lesson in the sociological, economic, political and ecological complexities of Angola.
We were primarily interested in Dumbu because it is well-known as a center of charcoal (carvão) production, and we wanted to see the forest impact as well as the human side of things. When we arrived, it turned out that the soba was gone, so we walked back across the road and were able to find a man who had a large stockpile of carvão in large bags. We interviewed him and some other people willing to talk (there was a group of about 20-30 people around us). There were about 250 sacks (equal to 50 trees) in the pile we inspected, and they were waiting to be sent to Menongue for sale. It takes about one month to turn all of the cut wood into 250 bags of charcoal. Each sack apparently brought about 500 kwanzas on the market in Menongue (300 k in Dumbu), but it takes 30 days to sell 250 sacks of charcoal in Menongue. One bag sells for 300 kwanza in Dumbo, and 500 kwanza in Menongue. The main tree species used for producing charcoal is Mussamba (Brachystegia spp.) and Munyumbe. We made a quick rough calculation to figure out how many trees were being used a year with the information that the community leaders gave us. We estimated that 15,000 trees were being used for producing charcoal. We based this on the following rough calculation (250 producers x 50 trees per person x 12 months = 15,000 trees per year). According to the producers, in the past it would take only 30 minutes to find the trees for charcoal production but today most of them walk at least 2 hours to find the Mussamba species. According to people there, it might take someone up to a month to sell this many bags in Menongue. Apparently all of the carvão from this village went to Menongue, but they told us that the village across the stream sent much carvão to Bié and Huambo. Currently villagers are walking about 2 hours to the areas they are clearing for carvão. They noted that the 2 species used for charcoal are becoming difficult to find, and that there is less honey now,
51 as these trees bear flower that bees use to produce honey. We were told by everyone we asked that this charcoal was only obtained as the consequence of land clearing for agriculture (lavras). This is the same story we always heard, and the IDF and ACADIR people told us that this was definitely not the case here.
One of the interesting twists to the Dumbo story is that many of the men who have settled here are demobilized soldiers, some from UNITA, some from MPLA. (Other groups of people in Dubmo include those who were resident, left during the war and have since returned, and those who have come in from the outside but did not fight in the war.) We were told that none of the demobilized soldiers had received any of the support that they were promised by the government after the war, and they have come here with only the clothes on their backs and often with little in the way of skills. Charcoal production is their only way of quickly earning cash and buying food. One of the men with this story has been in Dumbo since 13 May 2003, and noted that to date, charcoal is his only means for livelihood. Some mentioned a government program trying to help returning displaced persons (non-soldiers who had been living in the bush during the war). There are an estimated 507 demobilized soldiers from both sides of the civil war (UNITA and MPLA) and their families in Dubmo, with about 247 of those families producing charcoal. During our discussions there was a heated debate amongst the community residents about who was really doing a lot of the deforestation for charcoal production. Some families of the demobilized soldiers are currently supporting their charcoal production from the towns of Huambo and Menongue. They provide money and transportation which makes it easier to produce and sell charcoal therefore creating a small long-term business (when one family member is legitimately given land, other family members from the outside follow). Residents seemed angry about the outside families that, since 2001, have been coming in to support the long-term production of charcoal and “destroying our land”. They mentioned that the original community members of this area were agriculturalists, but for those resettling since the war, charcoal is the only option. When asked about potential alternative sources of livelihood, they mentioned goats and cattle.
It was noted that one of the Sobas of Dumbo (Sayala) came to Menongue go plead with IDF not to arrest people of Dubmo for producing charcoal without the legal documents.
The Regiador of this area is Agriano Samba. 25 sobas are under him.
The USFS team along with Brenda Bergman felt that there were some real opportunities for working in Dumbu doing some community forestry and alternative fuel projects. Projects could include developing alternative businesses to charcoal as well as community reforestation projects using native species. There was also a real need for more interaction between IDF and communities. Most communities were not aware of IDF and were very interested in talking to the IDF staff about natural resource issues.
After leaving Dumbu, we traveled to visit a small timber and portable saw mill operation. When we arrived at the location of the saw mill, we were very surprised to find out that it was owned by Alfonso, the IDF director for Kuando Kubango. The area logged is around 1,000 ha. He received license to log the area prior to becoming IDF provincial director in 1996. At that time he was only selling logs but found that it took a long time
52 to sell. Today he has 2 chainsaws, a rubber-tired skidder, and a portable sawmill, financed by an Angolan micro-credit institution (INAPEM) based in Luanda. The sawn lumber is used mostly for doors and roof beams. He has a couple buyers in Menongue. From March to September is the harvesting season and only one species called Mussibi is harvested. On the land he has a permit to log he is able to extract 500 logs. Logs that are currently on the landing adjacent to the portable sawmill range in diameter from approximately 30 cm to 70 cm (Afonso noted that 40 cm is the preferred width). Sr. Zissala asked if he was replacing the trees that he was taking out and he said that it didn’t make sense economically for him to do this. He mentioned the need to reduce costs of production. He earns $400 USD (1,800 Kwanza) per cubic meter for the lumber he sells. The license is renewed every year and he pays a tax on the amount earned from the harvest. For an individual to obtain a license to log, s/he must create a business, provide a business plan and pay taxes on the amount that is logged. Currently there are 11 one- year licenses to harvest. Each year IDF receives 5-6 requests for one year harvesting licenses.
His clients are in Binguela and Huambo. In Menongue there are no customers because there are no carpenters.
There are 2 South African firms with a license to extract hardwood to Namibia – annual permits. On the border with Nambia all of the logging is foreign-supported. Primarily Mussivi extraction.
In all, there are 11 operators in Kuando Kubango, not all have machines. Out of Menongue, there are 2 with Machines, including this one. The rate of applications for logging in the province varies, but generally quite low: about 5-7 applications per year.
Different types of licenses, all but tourism are 1 year renewable. Poaching and hunting: specify which animal you will hunt, a 1 year license Tourism: 5-10 year permit, renewed annually thereafter. Tourism concessions are to be let for Luiana, but have not been let yet Logging: one year renewable.
IDF in Kuando Kubango:
62 people are working for IDF in Kuando Kubango (were 64, 2 recently passed away) This includes technical people, auditors, administrative personnel, etc. The 62 people are divided into districts, which include Longa, Cushe, Cuito Canival and Menongue. In the offices outside of Menongue, the staff are either Administrators or Auditors. In Menongue, they have 5 divisions: administration, human resources, inspection, wildlife (fauna), and forests. IDF Kuando Kubango has 2 forest technicians (Miguel, who participated in the fly over, and Afonso).
Their funding comes from Luanda. Inspectors are trained to look at forest and wildlife. They are supposed to be armed but are not now. They are divided into geographic sections in the province, work with forest and wildlife and therefore know what is out there. There are a total of 15 inspectors: 3 along the border, 3 in Mavinga, others in Cuito and Cushe, etc.
53 Kuando Kubango had 40 people doing a course in auditing.
Monday, May 29
Meeting with Carlos Mutula, Chief of Department of Forests and Manuel Enock, Chef of the Department of “Pecuaria” in the DNAPF of Ministry of Agriculture
• It was established that we are working with the right organization (IDF) for doing the forest assessment in Kuando Kubango. The Ministry of Agriculture and IDF work together to establish policies. • Ministry pulls together appropriate agencies to develop policies while agencies like IDF implements policies on the ground. • IDF falls under the Ministry of Agriculture because forests in Angola are considered commodities. There are some discussions that are on-going to whether IDF should be under Ministry of Agriculture or Ministry of the Environment. • Currently there is a phase of reform that is happening with all GoA. There are discussions as to what is the best structure for agencies such as IDF. • On issue is whether or not the inspectors/auditors, entities which enforce logging permits etc…, should fall under IDF or the federal police. • Two years ago parks and reserves fell under the administration of the Ministry of Agriculture and today they are under MINUA • There are always conflicts around protected areas because of the need for more zoning laws (ordenamento territorio). • IDF doesn’t know what forests fall under their control. There are 53 million ha. of forest cover but it doesn’t mean that IDF will be responsible for all of those forests. Boundaries and limits must be established. There is a proposed zoning / land ordenance law will define land use. • By default all land/territory belongs to GoA but there is no legal basis for the government to enforce different uses of the land. • All agricultural products produced in Angola are consumed internally. There are little incentives for local production and exportation of agricultural products. Interest rates are very high (12%) on the bank loans for small business. The banking sector doesn’t have much confidence in the agricultural sector, but there is talk of developing an agriculture credit bank within the ministry of agriculture. • It would be interesting to look at agricultural products that could be grown near and around forests, which could diversify the source of income for communities.
Tuesday, May 30 Meeting with Sr. Dario Daniel Katata, Vice Minister, Department of Agriculture
• This was a courtesy meeting to introduce the US Forest Service’s work with IDF. • Vice Minster expressed interest in technical assistance that could be replicated in other provinces of Angola. Also he is concerned that deforestation will increase now that the war is over. • Nazare from IDF said that indeed they are interested in replicating anything learned in Kuando Kubango to other provinces in Angola.
54
Meeting with Sr. Armindo Gomez da Silva, Director, Department of Water (GABIC)
• We met with Director Gomez to share some of our recommendations and findings from the Kuando Kubango province. • We brought up the potential work with community forestry in Dumbo or some of the other charcoal producing areas. Sr. Gomez mentioned that there is a Swiss funded NGO called Every River Has its People. They know communities well in that region. They work with natural resource education projects and have a partnership with Acadir. • Also mentioned was the work in Cabinda by Eng. Buzas from IDF. He is working on some interesting agro-forestry projects. He is also working with rotating crops. • In regards to GIS, he suggested that in order to obtain some of the needed images, the work could be contracted out. It is important to identify gaps in knowledge and information that might already exist in Angola. • GEF, UN funded project, is developing a project to collect images from portions of Angola. They will be using an orthophoto mapper. The work will be done by contracting with a company outside of Angola (maybe Angola Alliance). Mr. Gomez suggested that we share our findings and recommendations with him incase there are some possibilities of collaborating on collecting images or on the orthophoto mapper. Perhaps the images for Kuando Kubango could be shared or purchased by IDF. • The GEF project will also develop and annotated bibliography on the information that exists for the Okavango River Basin. • It will be very important for US Forest Service, IDF and USAID/IRBM project to share our findings and report with Mr. Gomez. • It was suggested that USFS get in touch with Elizabeth Mattos at the University of Agustinho Neto. She knows a lot about the various plant species in Angola.
Wednesday, May 31 Exit Briefing with Director Tomas Caetano, Domingos Nazare, Rosario, Zissala Other participants: Josepha Gomes (USAID) Brenda Bergman (IRBM), Jose Pillartes (IRBM), Michelle Zweede (USFS), Glen Juergens (USFS)
• Mr. Caetano opened the meeting with complements and the expectations of the findings and recommendations for Kuando Kubango. He hopes that the trip report is done well with realistic expectations. They need a realistic understanding of the Angolan forests so that the resources can be managed sustainably. They hope that the collaboration between USAID, USFS and IDF expands so that it can include other provinces in Angola. He also emphasized the importance of including any findings regarding tourism potential for Kuando Kubango. • The team presented to IDF the trip findings, recommendations and possible action plan. This included:
55 • The reactions to the presentation were very positive. Mr. Caetano was happy with the summary of the team’s findings. • IDF has listed fire as a priority for them as an agency therefore they were pleased with the discussion about fire in the team’s presentation. The possibilities for downloading real time images from a University of Maryland could facilitate IDF’s understanding of fire occurrences and locations, as they learned recently in a conference in Mozambique. Unfortunately IDF currently has internet problems that make downloading data difficult. IDF would like to develop a monthly bulletin to illustrate where the fires are occurring. Mr. Caetano said that there is a need to work with communities on alternative uses to fire as well as techniques used for fire prevention. • IDF also agrees that species identification course is extremely important. Mr. Caetano emphasized that as an agency, IDF needs to have botanists on staff. He provided an example of the extent of species in Angola by noting that in Cabinda, there are 2,205 different species. He noted that it is important to have an understanding of the value of a range of species because if we do not, there will be pressure on a few. He also thought that involving communities in the species identification course important since they have the traditional knowledge and local names of the species. He noted that identifying species is good, but we also need to identify the potential uses / values of different species. The course could be the beginning as IDF gets a better understanding of species characteristics, uses and the values. • IDF also agreed that there is a real need for GIS information. Planning for forest resources and conducting a forest inventory becomes very difficult without remote sensing images. Next week, IDF will be meeting with Angola Alliance to discuss their scope of work on forest change detection from 1975 – 2005. The project and collaboration with Angola Alliance will also provide software to IDF as well as training on how to use the software. There are plans to send a couple IDF employees to Mozambique for GIS training. They will also learn about how to create a forest inventory database. Mozambique has a great database for forest inventory. They would also like to begin digitizing the forest maps. Angola is hoping to begin a national forest inventory using landsat images since it is so expensive to do it on the ground. They expect to have the landsat forest change detection analysis completed within a year. That said, they were very interested in beginning trainings on methodologies and techniques for forest inventory and analysis. An inventory can be a means of training. • Caetano also mentioned an FAO program that includes some community forestry projects in Huambo. • People think that the forests belong to the state, and people can just usurp. • It was discussed that IDF would choose a location for a first on the ground forest inventory. The area choosen could serve as a training location for forest inventory methods. The training could be established for the Kuando Kubango province but could serve as opportunity to expand the USFS/USAID technical assistance to other provinces in Angola. • Mr. Caetano discussed tourism again as an important opportunity for the Kuando Kubango province.
56 • Caetano supports planned forests that are managed by communities. He noted that Namibians have much experience with “conservancies” that Angola may be able to learn from. IDF hopes to send some employees to visit the conservancies in order to see how the fauna and flora are conserved through sustainable tourism. There might also be another opportunity for brining Namibians to Angola to work with community forestry and development projects and share experiences. He agreed that it may be a good idea to bring Namibians to Angola in order to facilitate training in CBNRM. He also agreed that it is a good idea to engage the Koi San, who have an intimate understanding of the land. • Honey is important for Kuando Kubango – but people are using rudimentary technology, producing low quality honey. He suggests that a project to produce high quality honey with proper technology would be very suitable.6 • Regarding the recommendation to work through NBSAP implementation, Caetano noted that IDF does work with NBSAP. He noted that we would have to list IDF as the implementing agency for the specific relevant activities.
• The group discussed NEXT STEPS: 1. A report will be provided in Portuguese to IDF and other partners 2. The USAID/IRBM project can serve as support to facilitating some of the future discussions and follow up activities. 3. A compendium will be developed for 20-30 tree species found in Kuando Kubango by USFS technical experts (Hugh and Glen) 4. IDF will select an area for forest inventory training. 5. Species identification course followed by an forest inventory course will be developed with help of IRBM and USFS.
Wednesday, May 31 Exit Briefing with USAID – Angola
Meeting Participants: Diana Swain, USAID Mission Director; Mervin Farroe, USAID Program Officer; Josepha Gomes, USAID Environment Officer; Brenda Bergman, IRBM Project Manager; Domingos Nazare, IDF; Michelle Zweede, USFS; Glen Juergens, USFS
• The presentation of findings, results and recommendations went well with a good discussion of the overflight. • Nazare was a great addition to the meeting as he articulated IDF’s role in developing the new forest policy as well as their role as the forestry agency in Angola. He also mentioned that IDF is part of the inter-governmental relationship between Namibia and Angola, which addresses aspects like police, tourism, etc. He noted that the countries share similar problems, and noted that for IDF it is important to learn from the experience of other countries, such as learning from Namibia’s experience with National Parks for Animal Conservancies. He said that there is no effective control of illegal extraction along the border between Angola and Namibia
6 The FAO project and others may already be doing this, we could investigate if we decide to proceed with a honey production activity
57 • Diana brought up the potential of tourism and the conservancies in Namibia. The conservancies could provide interesting opportunities for Angola and IDF in the area of tourism. Relevant to our mention of the San, she specifically mentioned Nyanyae, a San conservancy in Namibia, under the Caprivi Strip, which might be interesting to engage. With respect to the issue of charcoal production, she also noted that this is an issue in Namibia. The Chita Conservation Society recognizes underbrush as a problem, and have a technology that can produce charcoal with underbrush. With respect to tourism, Diana noted that there is a circuit for rich tourists that move around by plane - some conservancies could offer a day trip to specific sites in Angola. • Nazare mentioned the fact that a transboundary park / tourism site exists between Angola and Nambia along the Skeleton Coast: Iona Park.
• It was also mentioned that the National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBSAP) will have a section on the importance of medicinal plants and traditional knowledge. Later on that day, Brenda found out that NBSAP was approved by the Angolan Congress.
II. Angola hydrological monitoring – related notes
Contact Information:
LUANDA • Abias Huongo, Presidente da JEA; 244-923-325-668; [email protected]; [email protected] • Armindo Gomes da Silva, Director of GBHIC in Minsitry of Energy and Water; 244-912-206-743; (E_MAIL ???) • Carlos Mutula, Chief of Department of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture; 923- 642-438 • Development Workshop. 222-448-366/ 371/ 377 • Domingos Nazare, IDF’s Chief of Projects and Planning, [email protected] 244-2-323-581 • Esperança Costa, Pro-Reitora of the University (focal point of communication with IDF) • Fabrice, Projects Manager, Development Workshop. 923-326-677 • Francisco Kipuko, DNA Geographer, trained in GIS • Joao Serodio de Almeida, Pro Reitor of UAN (University Agostinho Neto) • Joaquim Lourenço Manuel, Chief of Natural Resources Dept., MINUA; [email protected]; 912-226-938 • Jose Neto, ACADIR potential President, Luanda • Julieta Condez, Chief Administrative Officer, Ministry of Urbanism and Environment; [email protected]; 912-417-130 • Katu [email protected] • Manuel Enock, Director of Departmnet of “Pequaria”, Ministry of Agriculture; 923-975-565
58 • Romulo Peixoto, USAID/Luanda Specialist in Project Development, Municipal Governance. [email protected]; 923-733-343 • Rosario Jacinto Teixeira, IDF’s Chefe de Seccao, 244-923-414-855 • Tomas Caetano, IDF’s General Director, 244-222-323-934, [email protected] or [email protected] • Vladimir Russo, Director of NBSAP in the Minsitry of Environment, 244-222- 338-919, [email protected] • Wings Over Africa; 264-81-223-1769 • Engr. Zissala Mamona Pululu, Engineer, IDF Luanda; 244-923-90-2481; 222- 330-770
MENONGUE • Alfonso Duala, IDF Provincial Director, Menogue 923-40-41-60 (cell) • Miguel Cabinda, IDF Chef de Division de Forestry, Menongue 924-603-563 (cell); 923-844-808 • Usona David Kawika, ACADIR, IRBM Project 924-48-21-30 (cell); • Car rental in Menongue: Mr. Kapoko 924-12-10-48 • Jose Joaquim Dimitri; DPA (technician in training); 923-872-556 (cell) • Tchimbali Kanhungulo; DPA (IT and hydromet technician in training) 244-923- 832-943 • Firmino Da Conceicao Jordao; DPA (technician in training) 924-803-331 (cell) • Sabino, Chef de MINEA, Kuando Kubango 923-277-788
OTHER • Hugh Safford; USFS; 530-756-9200 (home); [email protected] • Glen Juergens; USFS 304-338-2145 (home); 304-636-1800, office; [email protected] • Michelle Zweede; USFS 202-273-0374 (DC office); [email protected]
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Appendix V
Action Plan for the Community of Dumbu, Kuando Kubango Province, Angola
Submitted by Glen Juergens
A community action plan is needed to meet the short- and long-term needs for the people living in Dumbu. This is a specific work agenda for local community members to develop and improve their economic growth in a sustainable multiple-use manner. It is important that an action plan has consensus among community members in order to give them a sense of ownership by identifying their priorities, goals, and objectives.
A meeting with community leaders on May 27, 2006 revealed a need to improve economic growth in a sustainable manner. Presently there are approximately 250 persons in the community producing charcoal for sale in Menongue, Bie, and Huambo. The main tree species they use are Mussamba (Brachystegia spp.) and Munyumbe (Funtumia latifolia). When they first started harvesting these trees for charcoal production they needed to walk only 30 minutes to find the trees. Today they need to walk about 2 hours. They also noticed that they were no longer able to find honey near the village. The trees they are cutting for charcoal are the same trees that produce the flowers the honey bees use.
Capacity building meetings should be held to allow the community to discuss these items and for them to provide their own ideas for improving their economy. It is critical that community members have ownership of the projects they want to implement. If the community has not already done so, they should request from 1,000 to10,000 hectares for community use. The following action items are recommended to provide the community of Dumbu some ideas to improve sustainable economic growth and community health.
o Construct a tree nursery to reforest the areas that have been cut over for charcoal production. Species to consider for reforestation and diversification include: Mussamba (Brachystegia spp.) and Munyumbe (Funtumia latifolia)for honey production, firewood, and charcoal; and Musivi (Guibourtia coleosperma) for lumber, edible nuts, and wood for carving. Omanda (Julbernardia paniculata), Mone′ (Isoberlina angolensis), and Manda (Brachystegia spiciformis) can also be planted for honey production (Fischer 1993). The community may decide to plant additional species for fruit/nuts such as Mongongo (Ricinodendron rautanenii), medicines, shade, etc. It is recommended they use only native species in the tree nursery and plant several different species in the same area to maintain diversity and avoid monocultures.
o Form a cooperative to market honey production to external sources.
o Utilize fuel-efficient stoves to reduce firewood consumption and improve health of community. Numerous types of stoves can be built with native materials. These fuel-efficient stoves allow the community to use less firewood and improve the health of families by emitting less smoke. A diagram for a solar kitchen can
60 be found in the “Gaviotas” book by Weisman (1993). However, this system can be expensive to construct and maintain.
o Raise cattle and/or goats in areas set aside for this purpose. Utilize the animals to provide milk, cheese, and meat for the community. Ensure the grazing is sustainable.
o Raise crops in community garden plots and form a cooperative to market the produce. Provide instructions for making compost so the gardens can be permanent and productive. Utilize the waste products from the cattle and/or goats for composting material.
o Construct water purification systems to provide potable water in order to improve the health of the community. A diagram to construct a “solar kettle” can be found in the “Gaviotas” book by Weisman (1993) or a simple chlorine drip system can be constructed to provide potable water.
o Construct latrines to reduce contamination of the local streams and improve the health of community members.
The following references may be available to give the community additional ideas to improve community health and sanitation conditions and increase supplementary economic growth potential. It may be possible to obtain funding for some of these projects through the numerous NGOs in Angola and the Petroleum Industry.
Community Development Counseling Services, Inc. 1964. Remote Areas Development. Arlington, VA 584 pp.
Department of State, USAID, Communications Resources Division. 1963. Village Technology Handbook. 169 pp.
Fischer, Franz U. 1993. Beekeeping in the Subsistence Economy of the Miombo Savannah Woodlands of South-Central Africa. Rural Forestry Development Network. 8pp.
Volunteers in Technical Assistance. 1975. Village Technology Handbook.
Weisman, Allan. 1998. Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World. Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, VT. 231 pp www.chelseagreen.com www.amazon.com Village Technology Handbook
61 Appendix VI
Kuando Kubango Tree Species List and Uses
Common Name Scientific Name Musongue/Mutontola/Mungondo Acacia cieberana (sieberana?) Acacia erioloba Acacia giraffe Acacia mellifera Acacia tortilis Uvala/Doussie′ Afzelia cuanzensis Nukasa Albizia adianthifolia Muiumba/Muhaha/Umpapa (firewood, fire Baikiaea plurijuga susceptible) Manda/Panda Brachystegia speciformis Samba/Musamba Brachystegia spp. Musese (fire resistant) Burkea africana Mupane/Mutiati/Mopaani Colophospermum mopane Mungondue Combretum spp. Onkue/Mugandu/Omukuku Combretum imberbe Combretum zeyheri Combretum psidioides Musese/Muhala/Muhaiu Crossopteryx febrifuga Croton spp. Cryptosepalum pseudotaxus Musala Dialium engleranum Diplorohynchus condylocarpon Mukoso Erythrophleum africanumpe Ficus gnaphalocarpa Munyumba Funtumia latifolia Grewia spp. Musibi(Musivi?)/Copalier (nuts,carving,lumber) Guibourtia coleosperma Mone′ Isoberlina angolens Omanda/Mumue′ Julbernardia paniculata Muvuka Marquesia macroura Saba Otenolophon engleranus Peltophorum africanum Maku Pericopsis angolensis Philenoptera nelsii Pseudolachnostylis maprouneifolia Ptelopsis anisoptera Girassonde (fire resistant/dependent) Pterocarpus angolensis
62 Mongongo (nuts) Ricinodendron rautanenii Mangetti (nuts, carving) Schinziophyton rautanenii Musisi Sterculia tragacantha Strychnos spp. Mukombe/Mutete (Mgoso-Tanzania) Swartzia madagascariensis Mueia/Mukongolo/Mungolo/Mubeba Terminalia sericea Muvambo/Muambo/Pao Ferro
Angolan Tree Species Uses
Acacia erioloba (also A. giraffe) – wood Acacia mellifera Acacia sieberana – forage, medicine, wood Acacia tortilis – food, drink, forage, medicine Afzelia cuanzensis (also quanzensis) (Mahogany Bean, Rhodesian Mahogany) –toxins, wood Albizia adianthifolia (also A. gummifera and A. sassa) - wood Baikiaea plurijuga (Rhodesia Teak, Zambezi Redwood) - chemical products, medicine, wood Brachystegia spiciformis – fiber, medicine, wood, honey Burkea africana – chemical products, medicine (a protected tree in Namibia, susceptible to fire, coppices) Colophospermum mopane (Turpentine Tree, Butterfly Tree) – forage, medicine, wood Cryptosepalum pseudotaxus (also C.exfoliatum or C.arboretum) – medicine Dialium englerianum (also D.lacourtianum and D.simsii) – food, drink, medicine Erythrophleum africanum – medicine, toxins, wood Guibourtia coleosperma (also Copaifera coleosperma)(Rhodesian Mahogany) – chemical products, food, drink, medicine, wood Isoberlina angolensis (also I.densiflora, I.niembaensis and I.tomentosa) honey Julbernardia paniculata (also Isoberlinia paniculata and Pseudoberlinia paniculata) – medicine, wood, honey Peltophorum africanum (African Wattle, Weeping Wattle) – medicine, wood Pericopsis angolensis (also P. schliebenii and Afrormosia angolensis) – medicine, wood Pterocarpus angolensis (African Teak, Bloodwood) – chemical products, medicine, wood
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