Swedish-African forest relations KUNGL. SKOGS- OCH LANTBRUKSAKADEMIENS Nummer 2 • 2011 TIDSKRIFT Årgång 150 Swedish-African forest relations Björn Lundgren, Reidar Persson, Sten Norén African Forest Forum Publisher Åke Barklund, Secretary General and Managing Director, KSLA Layout/editor Ylva Nordin Cover photo Pia Barklund. Village meeting in Kakamega, Kenya. Printed by Gävle Offset AB Printed in February 2011 Edition 1500 ISSN 0023-5350 A report from the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry ISBN 978-91-86573-12-6 and the African Forest Forum, December 2010. All issues published in recent years are available as downloadable files on the Academy’s website www.ksla.se. Swedish-African forest relations Björn Lundgren, Reidar Persson, Sten Norén African Forest Forum A report from the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry and the African Forest Forum, December 2010. Contents FOREWORD ..................................................................................................................................................................5 1. IntroDuction AnD bAcKgRounD .............................................................................................................7 1.1 Swedish policy on development assistance ........................................................................................8 1.2 general development of forest collaboration policies ................................................................. 10 2. TAnzAnia ..............................................................................................................................................................12 2.1 overview of Swedish support to Forestry in Tanzania ..................................................................12 2.2 conclusions and results ........................................................................................................................... 20 3. EThIopia ............................................................................................................................................................... 22 4. Zambia .................................................................................................................................................................. 27 5. LesoTho ............................................................................................................................................................... 29 6. mozAmbIquE ......................................................................................................................................................31 7. guInea-Bissau ................................................................................................................................................... 33 8. SAhel ..................................................................................................................................................................... 34 9. Other countries ............................................................................................................................................ 38 10. REgIonal pRogrammes AnD Activities ........................................................................................... 39 10.1 Development and policy related programmes............................................................................. 39 10.2 Research and science capacity building ......................................................................................... 43 11. non-governmEntal OrgAnisationS ................................................................................................ 47 12. Private compAnies ....................................................................................................................................... 49 12.1 ScA in cameroon ..................................................................................................................................... 49 12.2 Korsnas and partners in Liberia .......................................................................................................... 50 12.3 other Swedish forest companies in Africa ...................................................................................... 51 13. Swedish Forest personnel In AfricA............................................................................................... 53 14. LessonS learnT ............................................................................................................................................. 57 AppEndices ..............................................................................................................................................................61 App 1 References and further reading ......................................................................................................61 App 2 Swedes with experience of forests and forestry/agroforestry in Africa .......................... 63 App 3 Presentation of the authors ............................................................................................................ 78 App 4 Abbreviations used ............................................................................................................................ 80 4 Kungl. Skogs- och Lantbruksakademiens TIDSKRIFT nr 2 2011 Foreword In the first phase of the project “Lessons learnt on Sustainable Forest Management in Africa” (SFM I, 2002–2005) – funded by Sida and carried out jointly by the African Forest Research Network (AFORNET), the FAO Forest Department and the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA) – it was decided to analyse whether there are relevant lessons to be learnt for sub-Saharan Africa from the development of successful management, use and conservation of forests in Sweden. Several studies were commissioned (e.g. Hamilton, 2004, Sjunnesson, 2004, and Barklund, 2004), consultations made with individuals and institutions, and discussions held in the course of the project. All this resulted, among else, in a summary document “Development of SFM in Sweden – any lessons for Africa?”, which eventually was published in the African Academy of Sciences’ magazine Discovery & Innovation (Lundgren, 2009). In the second phase of the project (SFM II, 2006–2008), the conclusions and recommendations of this study, together with those of several others, were presented at two sub-regional meetings (in Addis Ababa in August 2006, and in Lusaka in May 2007) organised to disseminate the results from SFM I and agree on sub-regional priorities. At both meetings, participants recommended that activities be initiated along the proposals in the study. This was subsequently endorsed by KSLA and the African Forest Forum (AFF) – in itself a result of the SFM project – and a first phase of a programme was incorporated as one of seven specific projects in the initial operations of AFF (from Nov 2008 to Dec 2011). The basic point of departure for the programme was that relevant lessons from Sweden are less related to detailed technical issues and more to processes and mechanisms by which forests in less than 100 years became a primary national asset. This includes the way problems were tackled and solved, opportunities embraced, industries built up, supporting policies and laws were formulated and implemented, forest owners were organised, and how extension, education and research sup- port systems were built up. However, what also became apparent was how poorly documented the rather extensive expe- rience that, after all, exists in applying many of these lessons on the ground in Africa is. Hundreds of Swedish foresters and other experts have been involved in forestry and tree related programmes and activities in a dozen or more African countries since the late 1960s. Although there have been quite a number of evaluations done of these programmes, particularly those financed through the Swedish development cooperation budget, many have never been properly analysed and recorded. And, with a few exceptions, those evaluations that have been made are today lost in obscure cor- ners of Sida’s and various consultants’ archives and very difficult to access. What remain are the recollections of all those individuals that were and, in very few cases, still are engaged in forestry collaboration with Africa. Swedish-African forest relations 5 When the Committee on International Forest Issues of KSLA, parallel to, but independent from, the SFM and AFF involvements, carried out a major analysis in 2007–2008 of the Swedish resource base for international forestry work (see Ingemarson et al., 2008), many interesting points were revealed. Among others, it was confirmed what many already knew, viz. that Sweden was quickly losing much of the experience and knowledge on working with developing countries in the forestry sector that had been built up from the late 1960s to, say, the mid-1990s. After this, there has been a drastic decrease in Swedish cooperation in the field of forestry. It was felt that it would be useful to try to record as much as possible of what Swedish individ- uals and institutions have been doing in the wide field of forestry in collaboration with colleagues and counterpart institutions in Africa before this knowledge is lost. After all, the development of sustainable forest management, and industries based on this, has contributed very significantly to the economic and social well-being of Sweden, and it can only be hoped that there will be a reawakened interest in assisting Africa