Social and Economical Aspects of Miombo Woodland Management in Southern Africa: Options and Opportunities for Research

Peter A. Dewees

[Chapter 1]
Background

[Chapter 2]
Local management of miombo resources: an introduction

[Chapter 3]
Institutional change, tenure, and access to woodland resources

[Chapter 4]
Economics of the household, and woodland use and management

[Chapter 5]
Woodland management for the market

[Chapter 6]
Longer term social, economic and environmental changes

[Chapter 7]
Policy, legislation and macroeconomic impacts on woodlands

[Chapter 8]
Woodland research options and opportunities: a summary

[References]

Woodland research options and opportunities: a summary

This paper has focused on five areas of social and economic research relating to miombo woodland management in southern Africa:

1. Patterns of local institutional change. Land and tree tenure. Rights of use and access to woodlands. Gender issues. Resource sharing on state lands. Capability of community-based institutions to plan and implement local management. Appropriateness of `participatory' approaches. Scope for linking woodland management with investments in resource conservation.
   
2. Household use of woodland products. Role of woodland and tree products in household production strategies. Risk and decision making processes. Differentiation and woodland use. Valuation.
   
3. Markets for woodland products. Function and operation of both large, high impact extractive industries and small, less intensive woodland-based industries. Employment characteristics. Sources of supply. Impacts of policy and legislation. Scope for investment.
   
4. Longer term dimensions to woodland use and exploitation. Earlier natural resource and land-use legislation and policies and their impact. Physical extent of woodland cover over time. More recent impacts of policies on existing practices at regional and local levels. Economic and social change and its relationship to environmental change. Political processes and rural communities.
   
5. Policy and legislation. Impacts of contemporary natural resource policies and legislation on woodland use and management. Consideration of broader policies, rather than forestry policies alone: land-use policies, structural adjustment, crop input pricing policies, access to credit, agricultural policies, etc. Intersectoral linkages. Scope for bringing about environmental improvements through market development and technical change. Use of valuation studies. Revised systems of national accounts which consider environmental values.

In summary, then, there are a number of common themes which have influenced and shaped local-level miombo woodland management and use throughout southern Africa. These themes are by no means definitive or exhaustive, but are described here as a means of focusing on the scope of future research.