Case Studies

Nou

Managing Forest in Partnership

The Nou JFM project has been working with communities around the Nou forest since 2001. Being a catchment forest reserve, the forest is jointly managed by the government and communities. The project is part of the FARM-Africa /SOS Sahel Ethiopia Joint Participatory Forest Management Programme, which includes the forests in Bonga, Borana and Chilimo in Ethiopia. The Nou JFM project works with 18 villages around the Nou catchment forest reserve. Murray is one of the villages where the project is underway.

Bilauri Yura is 50 years old and has been the Chairman of Murray’s environmental committee since 2000. The committee, which has ten members, has a role in ensuring grazing in the forest is limited to agreed periods, that cattle are not taken to water sources, and that illegal loggers are brought to justice. Once a month community meetings are called by the committee to discuss issues with all the members of the community.

As the environmental committee Chairman, Bilauri visits the forest every other day and makes sure meetings and training are carried out as needed. Bilauri said, “Before FARM-Africa and the government started teaching us the impact of unsustainable forest use, we entered the forest illegally. Now we know Nou is the source of our water and we know we can not live without water, so everyone is happy to help to conserve the forest.”

“When illegal loggers are found, everybody helps in making sure they are fined. First we use the traditional system and let elders deal with the illegal loggers. These people are usually fined a minimum of 15,000 Tanzanian shillings. If the damage is very bad or repeated they will be passed to the Forestry and Beekeeping Division of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. We use the money from fines to pay the forest guards.”

Community members are allowed to take grass and firewood for their consumption from the forest in exchange for their guardianship of the hardwoods. Non-timber Forest Products based livelihoods such as beekeeping and Raffia weaving are being implemented by the community through training from FARM-Africa. In addition, the communities have started a saving and credit programme which they hope will support them further.

Bilauri Yura adds, “The community members now know a variety of ways to generate income and to protect their livelihoods through the conservation of the Nou forest.”