Indicators and tools for restoration and sustainable management of closed-deciduous forests in East Africa

Summary

Objectives
The study links East African and European researchers into strategic alliances so as to contribute to resolving conflicts prevailing between the needs of different forest stakeholders and the need to maintain the remaining forest area and its biodiversity. The project will develop a scientific basis and directly applicable tools for forest ecosystem restoration and sustainable management. The particular objectives are to:

• Establish and validate ecological & socio-economic criteria against which the status and processes of a forest, and its management, can be assessed
• Assess indicators that permit inference of the status of a particular criterion and to formulate appropriate verifiers
• Design and validate nature-based silvicultural tools to steer operations so as to improve local livelihoods and sustain forest resources
• Integrate results into appropriate technology packages and disseminate to target-groups.

Activities
Establishment of country-specific tandems of local and European institutions. Identification of locally applicable C&I for sustainable forest management and standardisation of research methods. Together with stakeholders, the joint development of a framework in which C&I can be verified locally, based on available information and complementary research. Involving NGOs to facilitate the establishment of a socio-economic context, and research institutions to investigate the status and dynamics of forests. In parallel, research will commence on silviculturally relevant ecosystem characteristics. Mid-project evaluation of the descriptive-analytical 1st project phase so as to formulate the experimental, predictive 2nd phase of the study. Definition of research approaches to calibrate verifiers for indicators and to test silvicultural tools suited to guide the forest ecosystem in the desired direction or to attain the sought after status. Research into the management of invasive species, natural establishment of desirable species and stand improvement treatments. The continuous input and evaluation by an NGO moderator will help to fine-tune and ensure the client-orientated approach of the silvicultural research. A specific communication module serves to translate scientific findings into technological packages relevant to stakeholders.

Expected outcome

Regional framework to assess sustainability of forest management. Silvicultural tools for forest restoration and sustainable forest management. Research findings translated into formats appropriate to the target group, including extension, policy advice and management guidelines.