Forestry Partnership for improved Basotho Livelihoods and
Environmental Conservation in Lesotho
The ‘Mountain Kingdom’ of Lesotho lies entirely within the Republic
of South Africa but remains a separate country in Southern Africa.
Although forestry cover in Lesotho is small, ambitions are high to
begin to reforest Lesotho to help provide sustainable livelihoods
and environmental conservation for Lesotho.
The Department of Forestry
The Department of Forestry is the main driver to support civil
society in achieving the national goals in Forestry. An evolution in
approaches to forestry has occurred since independence 1966 and
lessons have been learned on the way that have influenced the
governments new approach. As such the government, through the
Department of Forestry has begun planning for its new National
Forestry Programme for the next ten years.
 The Government is
committed to working through all civil society players, NGOs, CBOs
and the Private Sector to promote new forestry livelihoods and
environmental conservation in Lesotho. Much of the information
provided on these web-pages has been provided by the Department of
Forestry for the support of civil society forestry initiatives in
Lesotho.
FAO Forestry
The Food and Agricultural
Organisation of the United Nations is supporting the Government of
Lesotho in its goal of creating a new National Forestry Plan for
Lesotho. The facility jointly with the Government are;
-
Promoting the potential of
successful forestry in Lesotho
-
Operating an effective
extension service, including ensuring the provision of sufficient
and adequate planting stock
-
Incorporating forestry
into all land use systems in Lesotho, including erosion control,
land rehabilitation and catchment protection
-
Managing the Forest
resources of Lesotho in perpetuity, including sustaining markets
for forest products (sustainable forest management)
-
Developing Lesotho
forestry in such a way that as many as possible of the Basotho
will benefit, including employment generation, relevant import
substitution and export earning
FAO have also supported
the development of Forestry Studies by local NGOs in Lesotho. These
are;
-
Study to Determine
Attitudes to Forestry
-
Study to Determine
the Quantity and Quality of Forestry Instruction
-
Study to identify Forestry
Activities by NGOs, CBOs and the private sector
-
Production of a
‘Forestry-Promotion’ Video Film
Details of these studies
can be found under NGO projects on this site.
Civil Society
 Through awareness raising and partnership working by the Department
of Forestry, Civil Society Organisations have become aware of the
potential of improving livelihoods and environmental conservation in
Lesotho through forestry activities. Many private sector
organisations have also become engaged in forestry businesses as a
result of the previous National Forestry Programme due to training
and inputs from the Forestry District Offices.
Therefore an emerging partnership has been constructed between civil
society and the Department of Forestry to the extent that civil
society is now represented on the decision-making body of the
National Forestry Programme Steering Committee.
It is envisaged that this strengthening of partnership between the
Lesotho Government, the UN through FAO and Lesotho's civil society
will realise substantial improvements in Basotho Livelihoods through
Forestry.
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