Robert Nasi gave this presentation on 22 May 2013 at a discussion forum during the two-day policy and science conference entitled "Sustainable forest management in Central Africa: Yesterday, today and tomorrow", organized by CIFOR and its partners and held in Yaounde, Cameroon.

1. Can we manage forests for
multiple uses in the Congo
Basin?
Robert Nasi, Alain Billand, Manuel Guariguata
Yaoundé, 22/05/2013

2.  Timber
• RIL and beyond…
 + Biodiversity
• Use ecology, life history, consider
wildlife…
 + Non Timber Forest Products
• Trade-offs but possible
 + Ecosystem services
• Trade-offs but possible; appears in
certification schemes (HCV); serious
accountability issues…
 + Carbone
• Several risks, trade-offs and issues
 …Against threats?
• Climate change, invasive species, land
conversion….

3. The “Compatibility Continuum”
Inactive Active
Coincident
Timber management
tools mitigates
damage to other uses
(roads, skid trails,
timber inventorying)
Timber extraction
benefits other values
(logging gaps,
directional felling)
Explicitly manage for
both timber and NTFP
values

4. Modes of Interaction
 Independent (spatially segregated, or when there is
no conflict of use for tree species with NTFP value)
 Competitive—e.g., extraction of tree species with
both NTFP value for different stakeholders or
exclusion of a given group of stakeholders
 Complementary—e.g., logging enhances
growth/regeneration of NTFP (all else being equal)

5. Main Issues
 Many tropical tree species have both timber and
non-timber values that accrue to different
stakeholders
 Current certification schemes diverge for timber
and NTFPs
 Forestry education and training biased towards
timber
 Legal and regulatory frameworks dictated
separately for timber and NTFPs
 Best harvesting practices/management protocols
for NTFPs have little validation

6. Multiple-uses in the Congo
Basin

7. Wood
OFAC, State of Forests 2010

8. Other goods
Source: OFAC, State of Forests 2010

9. Timber, management and
biodiversity

10. Land use km2
“Ordinary lands” 448,801
Logging concessions 595.381
Community forests ≈ 11.000
Protected areas 444,973 Source: Nasi et al, 2011
Source: Mégevand, 2013

11. Selective logging in the Congo
Basin
 Timber remains the sole managed commodity
 Highly selective, few individuals (less than 2) of few
commercial species (less than 5) represent more than
75% of the volume harvested (less than 10m3/ha)
 Rotation cycles of about 25-30 years; Minimum cutting
diameter rules; No post-harvest silviculture
 The area under proper management and certification is
increasing
Nasi et al. 2006; OFAC, State of Forest 2008, 2010

13. Impact of certification on harvest intensity
Cerutti et al. 2011
Certified concessions
have a significantly
reduced harvesting
intensity

14. Harvesting intensity and residual stands
Nasi & Forni, 2006
543210
Areaimpacted(%)
30
20
10
0 Rsq = 0.9427
Number of trees harvested/ha

15. Graphique symétrique
(axesF1 etF2 :54.36 %)
GroupeIndépendant
International
Aménagementencours
Aménagé
Certifié
Nonaménagé
2
3
4 5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
20
21
22
23
26
1
-1.5
-1
-0 .5
0
0 .5
1
1.5
-1.5 -1 -0 .5 0 0 .5 1 1.5
F1 (44.24 %)
F2(10.12%)
Variables supp. Observations
- Actions concrètes +
+Difficultésrencontrées-
-Ni les méthodes
-Ni les capacités
actuellement
-Malgré
quelques actions
-Vise la certification
-Souhaite maintenir
ses efforts
-> 30 essences
exploitéees
Pas encore
de résultats
More Biodiversity
activities ++
Moreproblems
expressed
++
Sust. Mangt Plan under way
No Plan
With Plan
Certified
No methods
No capacities
Limited activities
Basic
intentions,
Limited results
Activities limited to
legal requirement
Limited results
Motivated CEO and
some staff
Long term efforts
Effective field activities
Billand et al. 2009
Pro-biodiversity activities in logging
concessions
Only certified
concessions
show significant
activities in favor
of biodiversity

16.  Estimates of the value of the
bushmeat trade range from US$42
to US$205 million per year in
West-Central Africa.
 Current harvest in Central Africa
alone may well be in excess of 5
million tons annually, could
represent more than 20 million ha
deforested for pasture!
 30 to 80% of the protein intake of
many rural populations
Bushmeat hunting
in Congo Basin

17. Why a landscape approach?
 High mobility of wildlife (migration, dispersal, extensive
territories…)
 Conserving Protected areas alone, will not be enough to
conserve large sized/highly mobile species with huge
ranges (e.g. Elephants) or locally rare plant species
 The contribution of production forests to biodiversity
conservation is increasingly recognized (e.g. North Congo where
gorilla densities are higher in logging concessions than in the neighbouring
NP)

18. Protected areas and logging
concessions : surprisingly
close neighbors
OFAC, State of Forest 2008

19. National Parks
Logging Concessions
Hunting areas
Parks, Concessions, Hunting areas : where are flagship species ?
Some surprising assessments
Number of ape nests/km2
OFAC, State of Forest 2008

20. New land-use
types
 Combine several land use
types (e.g. logging
concession, protected area,
CBFM…) in one land-use
management unit that would
become an:
 Integrated
production/conservation
landscape

21. Environmental
services
Local incomes
Taxes, fiscal
revenues
Sustain rural
populationMixed area : protected area and
conservation enterprise
Protected
Area
Certified
logging
concession
Community
forest
Municipal
forest
Agro‐
industry
Hunting,
Gathering,
Informal
sectors
Urban, social space
Billand & Nasi 2006

22.  Realize the economic potential of the
conservation side
 Manage informal sectors like hunting, fishing or
NTFP extraction for local livelihoods
 Use part of the income generated by the
industrial production side for the conservation
area for reciprocal benefits
 Foster certification (not limited to timber
considerations)
Basic rules

23. Enabling conditions
 Starting funds are needed to cover initial transaction
costs
 The willingness of the production sector to engage
into certification or other biodiversity friendly practices
 The willingness of the conservation community to
collaborate, share experiences and support the
private sector in integrating conservation concerns in
management practices
 A proactive political support (creating specific land-
use units with specific instances for decision making)
or, at least, neutral (no undue interference from the
State).

24. Set of key attributes
 Complexity
 Authenticity
 Continuity
 Heterogeneity
 Proximity
 Redundancy
 Resilience
 Uniqueness
Gustafsson, Laumonier, Nasi 2009

25. Management principles
 Maintain landscape heterogeneity
 Maintain large structurally complex patches of
natural vegetation
 Create buffers around sensitive areas
 Maintain or create corridors and stepping stones
 Use appropriate disturbance regimes in
management
 Maintain functional diversity
 Manage for keystone species
 Consider endemic, rare and threatened species

26. The Congo Basin has identified 12 Landscapes designed for shared
production and conservation management of forests
Actors (public,
private sectors)
are aware about
the necessity to
improve
collaboration for
concerted or
integrated
management
But experiences
at field level
remain limited
Source : Carpe

27. Some implications for tropical
forestry research

28. “Our major disciplines have long ago ceased
to be effective as separate, have in fact
searched for ways of coming together…but
are restrained by institutional resistance and
lack of vision” (Ron Burnett 2005)

29. New disciplines
Social
Sciences
Biological
Sciences
“CONSILIENCE: the methods and assumptions of any field of study
should be consistent with the known and accepted facts in other
disciplines” E.J. Wilson.
Anthropology
Economy
Policy
Sociology
…
Botany
Ecology
Genetics
Zoology
…
Landscape ecology
Ecological economy
Political ecology
Land use change
Human ecology
Transdisciplinary
Sciences

31. Some final comments
 Search for a globally accepted definition of sustainable
forest management is pointless
 Management should be defined by societal demands
 Outcomes and results should be monitored based on agreed
objectives for management; unrealistic, unachievable or
vague targets are of little use
 Good management can never be attained through
bureaucratic procedures alone.
 Best practices require able and motivated managers are
available on site to address concerns on a day-to-day basis:
capacity building and training are keys!
 Sound judgment remains the foundation of good
management. Data can inform this judgment, but is not an
end in itself

32.  Search for universally agreed definitions is pointless
(forests or sustainability)
 Strive for continuous improvement to better outcomes
when the “best” is unachievable
 Scale research appropriately to the research question
 Classical forest science has peaked!
 Grainger (2009) calls for a “new global forest science’”
 Burley (2004) believes that forest science can be
“restored” with “new interdisciplinary approaches that
integrate the work of biophysical scientists and socio-
economic researchers”
Research /Science