Lack of National CBNRM Policy Causes Confusion

There is a strong need for a national CBNRM policy if Zambia is to succeed in this area of conserving natural resources and improve poor peoples livelihood. MS-Zambia can play a vital role in that process.

By Morten Nielsen, DW at Kawambwa District Forestry Office

Kawambwa District Forestry Office, is doing Joint Forest Management (JFM) in Lubulafita Local Forest.

With the two-fold objective of conserving the forests and securing the livelihood sustainability of the local communities living in and around the forest, JFM has a big potential.

The JFM process provides the communities with the needed skills to work with the various forest products (beekeeping, chikanda growing, mushroom growing etc.). Furthermore the JFM program aims at creating awareness concerning the importance of managing the forest resources in a sustainable manner for people to be able to benefit from the resources now as well as in the future.

MS-Zambia supports CBNRM at district and community level. The support includes institutional capacity building, which is a crucial component of CBNRM, to secure the interaction between communities and institutions at district level.

Furthermore, the development of sub district structures (community committees) combined with capacity building of the communities to be able to use these structures, is a valuable contribution to the process of devolving decision-making power to the communities and thereby make them participate actively in the CBNRM process.

In other words, the tools for implementing CBNRM at district and community level (JFM in Kawambwa) are in place. But as the CBNRM process develops, it becomes more and more clear that there are some weaknesses in the overall national CBNRM structures and guidelines (JFM guidelines, acts etc.) that are supposed to guide the process of JFM implementation.

One weakness, which can have a great impact on the CBNRM process on the ground, is the absence of a national CBNRM policy.

Legal implications

The guideline in use to implement CBNRM in Kawambwa is the JFM guideline.

The guideline has been developed by the Forestry Department in Zambia, and is the outcome of an incorporation of a Joint Forest Management strategy as a management option for sustainable management of the Local Forests, Open Areas, and Forest Plantations into the National Forestry Policy of 1998 and the Forests Act No. 7 of 1999.

The JFM guideline is the main tool used to guide the District Forestry Offices, its stakeholders and the local communities on how to manage the forest areas and resources. But not only is the guideline not always corresponding to the Forests Act, but the same guideline and the Forests Act is also contradicting or overlapping with other Acts. This creates confusion within the communities as well as with other involved stakeholders. (Please see the box with examples of overlapping laws and regulations.)

These examples shows the many different laws are regulating conservation and natural resource use.

While users of natural resources perceive their natural surroundings as one entity, the national government is organized in a way that the responsibilities for natural resource management are vested in a number of sectoral government and quasi government agencies, each of which presides over a specific natural resource. All these sectors operate in the same communal areas without much lateral co-ordination at policy or at implementation level.

Overlaps and contradictions

The legislations is fragmented and spread among many national, provincial and district departments and sectors. This situation causes overlaps, contradictions and inconsistencies especially policies, institutional needs and land use prescriptions as well as different agendas for ecological interests, zoning and human requirements.

Where CBNRM projects like the JFM are implemented, these overlaps, contradictions and inconsistencies create a lot of confusions within the communities and to other stakeholders involved. There is strong need to improve the legislation concerning natural resource management and work for a national and harmonized CBNRM policy, to secure a more effective implementation of CBNRM at community and district levels.

By-laws as supplement

The problem with a national CBNRM policy could be the lack of possibility to involve context specific factors in the management policy.

A solution could be the introduction of by-laws. Furthermore, by-laws would also provide an important possibility for local level management interventions that cut across natural resources sectors like wildlife, forestry, water, fisheries etc. By-laws can then be useful for effective implementation of CBNRM as they provide specific guidelines at the local level. The advantages of by-laws is that the process of enactment is quicker, and communities may participate more effectively because by-laws can be used to address issues of particular concern and interest to them on the ground.

The role of MS-Zambia

A process towards developing a common national CBNRM policy opens up for a new and important area for MS-Zambia to support CBNRM. MS-Zambia can lobby and advocate for a national CBNRM policy that can overcome the above mentioned overlaps and contradictions in the acts and policies.

The lobby and advocacy can for example be done through a strategic partnership with already existing CBNRM forums, which brings various actors together in order to start a process towards formulating a new and national CBNRM policy. A CBNRM forum can be the place where different experiences and ideas from various institutions, donors, NGOs, organizations and associations are shared. This concentration of voices, experiences and power will create an opportunity to influence parliament to develop an overall CBNRM policy for Zambia.

MS-Zambia has the advantage of continuously gaining experiences from the ground while supporting various CBNRM projects in the districts. These experiences can be valuable inputs in developing a common CBNRM Policy