Community Forestry

The authors provide an analysis of Sahelian forests and place the state of forests in West Africa into a historical context. They provide case studies of agroforestry and assisted natural regeneration (ANR) in forested areas of Togo, Burkina Faso, Benin, Niger, Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea. Finally, the authors provide recommendations for smart investments in West African forests.

The article investigates the amount of wood villagers received from using assisted natural regeneration (ANR) techniques as opposed to wood that they bought. The authors found that in the region of Magaria, Niger, over 90% of households' wood needs were fulfilled by wood grown using ANR alone. They also provide several examples of successful agroforestry parks in the region. They article conclude by arguing that scaling up ANR will have positive impacts for agroforestry parks and that women especially should be sensitized to the benefits of ANR for agroforestry.

The authors describe the history of farmer managed wooded parklands in northern Cameroon. They note that a counter-productive ban on cutting from 1950-1990 provided a disinsentive for farmers to care for and plant young trees. Finally, the authors argue for implementation of farmer managed agroforestry parklands where parkland governance is mean to fall on local villages as opposed to local forestry department officers. In doing so, the authors provide suggestions for best practices in managing these wooded parklands for agroforestry.

The article seeks to catalogue trees used for traditional tools. The authors note that in certain areas, over exploitation of resources for traditional needs contributed to forest and soil degradation. They conclude arguing that traditional knowledge must be documented and taken into account in order for sustainable development projects to be successful.