May 9, 2007—More than a decade ago, villagers in rural southeastern Senegal watched helplessly as their native forests were clear cut to feed the cities’ growing hunger for energy-producing charcoal.
As city-based charcoal traders got richer through shipping thousands of tons of inefficiently processed charcoal to Dakar and other urban areas that use the fuel for cooking purposes, the poor in the countryside got poorer, and so did the environment.
Tambacounda and Kolda regions lost about 30,000 hectares of forest each year.
And many feared deforestation would encroach on Niokolo-Koba National Park, an international biosphere reserve and UNESCO World Heritage site with 350 bird species and 80 mammal species such as lions, leopards, elephants, antelopes, monkeys, baboons, warthogs, buffaloes, hippopotamus, and crocodiles.
Deforestation Slows
Ten years later, deforestation has slowed and better forest management practices are helping to create a buffer for the national park.
The change is largely due to 1998 forestry regulations giving local communities the authority to manage forests outside of the state’s own forest lands, says Bank Senior Energy Economist Boris Utria.
“Before, entrepreneurs would come in, cut the trees, with no benefit to the local population. They would be totally disenfranchised, with no rights over those resources,” he says.
They’re managing the resources sustainably, protecting their environment and generating income out of it. And they’re reinvesting it in economic diversification through the introduction of new crops, animal herds, bee-keeping, and artisanal actvities and in social assests, education and cultural activities.”
“Now, they’re the ones selling at the farm gate. They’re managing the resources sustainably, protecting their environment and generating income out of it. And they’re reinvesting it in economic diversification through the introduction of new crops, animal herds, bee-keeping, and artisanal actvities and in social assests, education and cultural activities.”
Energy Management Project
Utria led multi-sectoral team responsible for the US$20 million Sustainable and Participatory Energy Management Project financed by the Bank’s International Development Association (US$5.2 million), the Dutch Co-operation Agency (US$8.8 million), and the Global Environmental Facility (US$4.7 million).
The project introduced sustainable natural resources management systems in 317 communities, covering 300,000 hectares of forest, trained elected representatives from each village in how to manage the village’s share of forests and other natural resources in a participatory and sustainable way, and how to produce charcoal efficiently.
And it gave villages the right to decide what to do with any money earned, an approach known as community driven development.
The results exceeded expectations, says Utria.
The project reduced deforestation by an estimated 39,000 hectares per year – exceeding the original target of 20,000 ha.
By December 2004 it saved an estimated 1 million tons of wood equal to 1.78 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions valued at US$1.8 million—312 percent above original estimates. The economic value of CO2 reductions is expected to total US$66 million after 20 years
250,000 urban and peri-urban families benefited from the dissemination of improved charcoal stoves and another 11,000 from access to less-polluting kerosene and liquid petroleum gas stoves.
Some 317 villages that never previously reaped benefits from the forests and other natural resources shared US$12.5 million of incremental earnings the year the first phase of the project ended in 2005; the figure has since risen to US$15.9 million a year. The project's original target for sustainable incremental was US$3 million.
“Not only has the project had a quantifiable, visible impact, but most importantly it generated real social change that generated a dynamic of self-reliance and economic sustainability,” Utria says. “It is their doing, and therefore it is to their advantage to continue it.”
“The project was implemented by them, led by them, and it can’t fail that way.”
RSS