Civil Society Forestry Support available from the Department of Forestry

PREAMBLE

The department of Forestry within the Ministry of Forestry and Land Reclamation has a mandate to cover the country with trees. In the Department's clearly spelled out vision, 5% of the country will have been covered with trees by 2020. In keeping with these mandate and vision, the department also ensures that jobs will be created, poverty alleviated and land reclaimed. The Departmental core functions, which are translated into comprehensive packages are as follows:

• Produce forest and fruit trees
• Supply forest tree seed
• Facilitate honey production
• Conduct forestry research
• Supervise woodlots management
• Manage & Support development of both Government and private nurseries.
• Undertake forestry planning.
• Carry out forest survey and mapping.
• Coordinate forestry activities undertaken by line Ministries, as well as NGOs.
• Carry out forestry extension work.
• Facilitate wood utilization activities

A series of packages offered by different Divisions in the department have gone a long way towards realizing the above seemingly challenging mandate and vision. These packages are therefore, embedded in the various Divisions within the department as follows:

Division of Field Operations

• The Division of Field Operations offers extension services to the communities through development and dissemination of technologies and approaches appropriate to peoples objectives and local conditions.  

• Promotes Forestry development through a widening of information channels and development of local human resources skilled in the practice of Forestry.

• The section of nurseries increases the quantity and quality of planting material available to people interested in planting trees. It further trains the target groups in nursery development and management and covers forest and fruit trees promotion and production among communities.

Table 1: Summary of packages offered by the division of Field Services.

DIVISION OF SPECIALISED SERVICES

Forestry Research Section

Responsible for appropriate silvicultural operations, nursery research, entomology, pathology and botany. Table below shows packages embedded in Research.

Table 2: Summary of Packages offered by Forestry Research.

 National Tree seed centre (NTSC)

Collects, processes and supplies tree seed to Government, NGOs and privately owned nurseries, with a common interest in seedling propagation for sales and for private and National plantings. The table below summarises the services provided by the NTSC. 

Table 3: Summary of packages offered by the National Tree Seed Center.

Beekeeping Section

The main role of beekeeping is to compliment objectives of the division by educating public on the value of forests, mainly melliferous trees, income generation for the rural community through honey, bees wax and other hive products sales, as forest produce and income generation for local artisans through production of beekeeping equipment, conservation of Lesotho=s flora and fostering research to assist in protection of forest trees and indigenous vegetation. The table below summarises different packages available in this section:  

Table 4 - Summary of packages offered by Beekeeping Section

Utilisation section

The role of Utilisation section is to organise the harvesting of SFRs, the payment of the community 20% share and marketing of forestry produce, including that through three FD sales yards and treating plants. Table 3 below reflects a list of packages embedded in the section.

            Table 5 - Summary of packages offered by Utilisation Section

PLANNING DIVISION

The role of planning is conceptualization and introduction of a Nationwide monitoring and evaluation system for seedling production, afforestation and woodlot management - annual targeting per district for both government and private nurseries, and promotion of private sector in seedling production. The table below reflects packages embedded in Planning Division. The table that follows shows packages embedded in the planning Division:

            Table 6: Summary of packages provided by the Planning Division

Civil Society Projects

Four civil society projects have been commissioned by the Department of Forestry assisted by Food and Agriculture Organisation as a part of working towards the new National Forestry Programme for Lesotho. The information from this research will be available on-line upon completion of the studies. These projects are;

Basotho Attitudes towards Forestry

World Vision – Lesotho have been conducting a survey to assess Basotho Attitudes to Forestry. The purpose of the study is;

1. To document the Basothos perceptions of the role and value of forests and trees for their livelihoods and of land for forestry;
2. To make an evaluation of the national tree planting campaign and the private tree planting activities over the last 30 years and determine the factors attributing to this success/ failure
3. Based on the findings from the research, extract lessons learned for policy purposes and make recommendations to improve promotion activities, forest policy and legislation

Determine the quantity and quality of forestry and environmental education in primary and secondary schools in Lesotho, and make recommendations for improvements

The Lesotho College of Education has been conducting a study into the quantity and quality of forestry and environmental education in primary and secondary schools in Lesotho, and will make recommendations for improvements as a result of this research. The purpose of the study is;

1. To make qualitative and quantitative assessment of foresty and environmental education in primary and secondary schools in Lesotho
2. To enable various stakeholders to sound their opinion on the standing syllabi and to reach a common position on the content and quality of forestry education
3. To determine the best strategies to deliver the educational content of the school syllabi.

Lesotho Baseline Forestry Information Project

The objective of the Lesotho Baseline Forestry Information Project is to identify the names and scope of forestry related activities of all non-governmental (NGO’s), the Community-Based Organisations (CBO’s) and the private sector which are actually undertaking (or intend to undertake) activities of forestry development such as awareness raising on forestry issues, planting and growing trees, stimulating improved management of wild trees and shrubs, and encouraging sustainable forest utilisation.

Lesotho Council of NGO’s have been commissioned on behalf of the Lesotho Forestry Steering Committee and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to;

1.     Produce a detailed work plan and methodology for producing data

2.     Through surveys and questionnaires, identify all stakeholders, such as non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and private sector active in forestry and describe their specific functions in the sector

3.     Establish a web-enabled electronic database to present the information gathered and make it available to a wide range of stakeholders and associated forestry web-pages

4.     Train staff of the Forestry Department and other stakeholders in maintaining and updating the data and web-pages

These web-pages are a part of this project. 

Production of Promotional film to raise awareness on Forestry Livelihoods in Lesotho

Lesotho Association of Videopros have developed a promotional film with the objectives of;

1. Producing a promotion video film (with Sesotho soundtrack and subtitles translated into English) of approximately thirty minutes for raising environmental awareness and promoting tree planting and sound management of trees
2. Show draft video film at different audiences such as schools, youth movements, farmer associations, governmental institutions and donors to receive comments and make necessary modifications if needed
3. Officially present the video film for a wide range of stakeholders for validation and produce one hundred copies.

Copies are available from the Department of Forestry