Transcript Slide 1

BUILDING BIODIVERSITY INTO
ALLANBLACKIA INITIATIVES:
FOREST AND AGRICULTURAL
LANDSCAPE OPPORTUNITIES.
By
Samuel Kofi Nyame
IUCN, GHANA
23-27/10/2006
Outline of presentation
A. Brief overview of existing work / knowledge:
Distribution, Inventory and description
• Allanblackia Project in Ghana
•Development and use of harvesting guidelines
• Objectives
•Challenges or management issues
• AB & Biodiversity Conservation - FLR & Agricultural LS
approaches.
B. Key lessons for practical deployment
C. Important gaps where further work needed
A. Brief overview of existing work / knowledge
Description:
Family : Clusiaceae - contains ~ 40 genera worldwide, but appears
to consist of nine tree species, all restricted to Africa.
Genus: Allanblackia : Taxonomy - appears somewhat complex, with
some species having numerous synonyms, and the divisions
between taxa are indeterminate;
- molecular genetic studies are currently underway, though no
results are available yet, to help delineate the relationships and
boundaries between species.
- All members of the genus are apparently dioecious (separate male
and female trees),
- Tree single stemmed, up to 40 m tall, with whorled branches,
long-lived and long-fruiting, and the biggest fruit of all plants in
African rainforest (particularly A. stuhlmannii)
Distribution
Allanblackia species are mainly distributed in the wet
evergreen rainforest (and, sometimes, surrounding
farmland) of the lowlands of Sierra Leone, along the
Gulf of Guinea, through the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC), to the uplands of the Eastern Arc
Mountains of Tanzania.
Names and distributions of the nine species of
Allanblackia
Species
Distribution
Status of species
(IUCN)
A. floribunda
Nigeria - DRC
Not listed
A. gabonensis
Cameroon, Gabon
VU, habitat loss & degrad.
A kimbilensis
DRC (Kivu), Uganda
Not listed
A. kisonghi
DRC
Not listed
A. marienii
DRC
Not listed
A. parviflora
Sierra Leone-Ghana
Not listed
A. stanerana
Angola, Cameroon,
DRC
Not listed
A. stuhlmannii
Tanzania (Eastern Arc)
VU, habitat loss & degrad.
A. ulugurensis
Tanzania (Eastern Arc)
VU, habitat loss & degrad.
Inventories
•Densities of Allanblackia trees through the range of the genus
are patchy and surveys are ongoing.
•But at some sites for which data are currently available, species
can (especially in wetter areas) be found at high stand densities
(including of mature individuals, for example in some Tanzanian
forests), sometimes being one of the dominant trees.
•Allanblackia trees are retained when other forest trees are
cleared, possibly for local use of the oil or to attract bush meat.
•Reasonable densities of remnants can sometimes be found in
farmland after forest cutting.
•Tanzanian stands can reach high densities but actual overall size
of the Allanblackia resource in Tanzania limited.- relatively
small geographic areas (the small mountains of the Eastern Arc).
IUCN - AB project in Ghana
•Allanblackia: standard setting and sustainable
supply chain management project”
•Funded by SECO and implemented by IUCN
through its members.
•Launched in Ghana in March 2005 with an
initial duration of three years.
Objectives of project
Development objective - is to promote sustainable
development and trade in Allanblackia oil as a
contribution towards national economic development,
by diversifying income sources to improve the
livelihood of poor rural communities and by fostering
sustainable biodiversity conservation and management
in Ghana.
Specific objective - is to promote the instruments (Best
Practice Guidelines) that will ensure sustainable
harvesting of Allanblackia as well as equitable sharing
of benefits amongst the various stakeholders .
Expected outputs of Project
•Best-practice guidelines for Allanblackia harvesting
are adopted by industry and collectors,
•Biological and socio-economic baselines are
established,
•Institutional and legal aspects regarding
Allanblackia harvesting are clarified; and
•Allanblackia supply chain is managed in a way that
is environmentally sustainable, socially equitable and
economically viable, with primary producers trained
in good practice harvesting methods
Expected outcome or benefits
Long term:
• Ghanaians will take over the market
• Reduced poverty in pilot field sites,
• Increased export earnings and improved
national-level economic development,
• Functioning small- and medium-scale
businesses along the supply chain; and
• Improved forest quality and cover through
protection and restoration of forests with native
species
Expected outcome or benefits
Short Term:
• Development of good-practice guidelines.
• Impact of wild picking of Allanblackia on biodiversity
and on local socio-economic conditions will have been
determined.
• Small- and medium-sized enterprises have new skills on
running their businesses, which will help them to operate
independently in Allanblackia markets when the project
ends.
• Local public in Ghana as well as global public
internationally aware of the Allanblackia public-private
partnership and its implications for forest conservation.
Partners in the project
•The Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG)
•The Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA)
•Technoserve (TNS)•Intercooperation (IC)
Development and use of harvesting guidelines
Rationale:
To secure a sustainable supply of Allanblackia seed to meet the
needs of the buyer (currently only Unilever).
Short term:- used for harvesting seed from natural stands by the
Unilever supply chain.
Long term: applied to Allanblackia harvesting from natural and
cultivate stands involving other buyers or supply chain
arrangements.
Although these guidelines have been developed for Ghana,
they are expected to be largely relevant in other countries
within the Novella initiative
Objectives of guidelines
•Sustain biodiversity in the landscape (minimise adverse effects
on biodiversity, making a positive contribution where possible),
•Sustain social and local economic values (enable local
communities to protect and improve their well being and
environments),
•Sustain the physical environment (minimise adverse effects on
the physical environment); and
•Sustain product supply and value (produce high quality
product, while maintaining the viability, diversity and yield of
existing source trees)
The main message of these
guidelines is that, if you adhere
to these measures, you will have
a market for your Allanblackia
seeds.
Challenges of the guidelines
•Acceptance and adherence by stakeholders in the supply chain,
•Accessibility and understanding of the guidelines,
•Enforcement of guidelines; can one be sanctioned for noncompliance, apart from non-purchase of nuts? If yes, what
sanction? Will it be lawful or not?
•How to encourage community-based efforts that will promote
structures that enable the equitable sharing of biodiversity
benefits and associated intellectual property rights.
•Funding of the various research programmes outlined in the
guidelines e.g. agricultural research needed to determine what
inputs are needed or desirable for the agroforestry systems or
plantations advocated by the guidelines
Allanblackia and biodiversity
conservation- A forest landscape
Restoration Approach
What is the relationship between AB and biodiversity?
•Sustainable wild-harvesting will lead to more
equitable benefits sharing from the forest resource.
•Allanblackia will provide an increased incentive to
maintain and enhance the integrity of the resource
(especially if buyers demand good practice),
•Smallholder productions of Allanblackia can help
enhance the integrity of forest landscapes and
•Allanblackia incorporated into farming systems
contributing to improved landscape connectivity
Forest Landscape Restoration
A process that brings people together to
identify, negotiate and put in place
practices that restore an optimal balance of
environmental, social and economic
benefits from forests and trees within a
broader pattern of land uses
What is FLR?
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Focuses on restoring forest functionality
Landscape context. Site-based decisions within a landscape
context.
Local stakeholder involvement in planning management
options
Double-filter
Trade-offs
Adaptive management – learning process
No single-solution approaches but a package of tools
Requires supportive local and national policy frameworks
over the long term
Can be applied not only to primary forests, but also to
secondary forests, forest lands and agricultural land
FLR & AB
Allanblackia provides a unique opportunity to use a
native tree species, with environmental and
economic benefits, to restore degraded forest lands
in Ghana and other African countries that have
experienced a period of exotic species plantations
resulting in negative consequences for local
biodiversity and livelihoods.
FLR & AB cont’d.
How?
•AB tree has thick bark for reducing risks of farm fires during
the dry season since the tree keeps the ground moist) and thus
adds to its positive qualities for restoration.
•Allanblackia casts only minimal shade with its narrow crown and
is sometimes hard to remove because it sprouts easily.
•Smallholder productions of Allanblackia can help enhance the
integrity of forest landscapes,
•Incorporating Allanblackia into farming systems will contribute
to improved landscape connectivity.
Risks of using AB in FLR to
biodiversity
• Possibility of over-harvesting seed sources which may impact
regeneration,
•Evolution of Allanblackia into a plantation tree (contrary to Novella
Project objectives).
•Habitat disturbance issues linked to seed collection.
These risks can be reduced through careful management and by
promoting legislation that favours the sustainable use of
Allanblackia and enhances livelihood security and forest
governance.
Lessons Learnt
•Local communities’ abilities should be enhanced to benefit
from the forests, through initiatives such as the Novella
Project.
•Legislation that favours the sustainable use of AB and
other natural resources, and that enhance livelihood security
and forest governance should be promoted.
•Species that are dependent on Allanblackia fruit and seed
should be monitored and if necessary promoted
•Paths used for wild (forest) harvesting should avoid parts
of the ecosystem that are considered of particularly high
value
Lessons Learnt cont’d.
•Impacts (positive and negative) on other species (including
animals) should be considered before introducing the tree
into new areas.
•Natural and artificial Allanblackia regeneration should be
promoted to compensate for the inevitable decline resulting
from the loss of seed input from the ecosystem.
•Harvesting guidelines are not easy for local communities
to comprehend, and need to be simplified and translated
into local languages.
Some Important gaps where further
work needed
•Research into cocoa – AB interactions (positive & negative) on
each other.
•Impact of AB collection on animal species dependent on AB and
vice versa
•Research into cocoa farming that examines the integration of
shade trees into cocoa plantations from a landscape restoration
perspective
•Allanblackia as one of a number of forest products that can be
integrated into cocoa and other tree crop plantations.
•Diseases, pests or parasites that AB is prone to and its resistance
to these and other stress factors in the wild, on farmlands and in
smallholder plantations.
Some Important gaps where further
work needed
• Feasibility and commercial viability needs to be
researched into to provide the needed information
that will motivate people to cultivate AB.
• Can Allanblackia cultivation provide an
alternative cultivation system that
contributes towards the development of a
more sustainable agriculture?
THANK YOU
FOR YOUR
ATTENTION