Gazetted Forests Management Project

The development objective of the Gazetted Forests Management Project for Benin is to improve the integrated management of targeted Gazetted Forests, to increase access of the main consumption cities to fuelwood produced sustainably, and to strengthen selected non-timber forest product value chains for forest-dependent communities.It has four components. First component, Support to Forests Governance aims to enhance the capacity of the Forestry Administration for improved management of the sector and establish a sustainable instrument for long term financing of the recurrent costs of managing the country’s Gazetted Forests.It has two sub-components. (i) Capacity enhancement of the Forestry Administration, and (ii) Strategies and instruments for sustainable management of Gazetted Forests; Second component, Integrated Management of Gazetted Forests is to support management of selected GFs in the south (Dan, Dogo-Kétou, Logozohè, Toffo-Lama Sud) and in the center of the country (Agoua, Ouémé-Boukou, and Tchaourou-Toui-Kilibo) in an integrated manner through the following four sub-components. There are i) Promotion of agricultural intensification and agroforestry methods, ii) Sustainable management of transhumance, iii) Sustainable management of conservation forests, and iv) Establishment and management of production forests; Third component, Development of Selected Non-Timber Forest Product (NTFP) Value Chains traditionally, forest-dependent communities have harvested NTFP for household uses, including inter alia, nutrition, medicine, and beauty purposes. Their potential value is not fully understood and is often underestimated.given that traditional processing of shea nut to shea butter contributes to deforestation, the project will work with women shea nut collectors and processors to identify energy-efficient technologies for shea nut processing so as to reduce pressure on natural resources.There are two sub-components. i) Development of shea value chain, and (ii)...