Nigeria: Cross River State Community Forestry Project
Project Introductoin
Working for the UK Department for
International Development, Scott Wilson provided technical
assistance to over thirty forest-local communities to generate
sustainable livelihoods from State forest resources.
Project Background
More than 29% of Cross River State is under
tropical high forest, rich in biodiversity and economically
valuable timber and non-timber forest products. Most of this forest
is, however, under the direct jurisdiction of the Federal
Government of Nigeria as part of the National Park system and is
closed to both community and State utilisation. This has placed
increasing pressure on the remaining forest outside the park, and
both community forest (traditional communally-owned forest areas)
and the State Forest Reserves have suffered significant loss and
degradation over the last couple of decades owing to rapid farmland
expansion and illegal logging.
Project Scope
Scott Wilson team worked with Forestry
Commission staff and eleven international consultants to help local
communities set up Forest Management Committees and prepare
resource maps and community-based regulations for resources. At the
same time a programme of internal reform within the State Forestry
Commission allowed for the formation of a dedicated Community
Forestry Support Unit and the creation of task forces committed to
tackling illegal logging, staff re-organisation and sustainable
revenue systems.
Value Adding Project
Achievements
Significant Project outputs included: eight
community-based forest management plans with associated maps and
local byelaws; the successful introduction of alternative rural
livelihood options to target communities; draft new forestry
legislation, including pioneering sections on the recognition and
support of community-based forest management by the State Forestry
Commission. These were demonstrated at the Project’s highly
successful lesson sharing workshop, which took place in the state
capital, Calabar.
