Potential of institutional arrangements for sustainable management of forests under co-management with local forest organisations in Mua-Livulezi Forest reserve, Mtakataka, Malawi/Arrangements institutionnels potentiels pour une gestion durable des forets en gestion partagee avec les organisations forestieres locales dans la reserve forestiere Mua-Livulezi, Mtakataka, au Malawi

• Published in: The international forestry review 2015-09, p.340
• Main Authors: Senganimalunje, T.C, Chirwa, P.W, Babalola, F.D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Case studies; Forest management; Forest reserves; Interagency cooperation; Sustainable forestry
• ISSN: 1465-5489

Adoption of participatory forest management has initiated the trend of transfer of access, management and control of forest resources from government to committee based institutions. Hence, understanding the institutional arrangements that support implementation of co-management with local forest organisations (LFOs), is crucial for sustainable forest management. This study therefore, examined the potential and contribution of institutional arrangements to sustainable forest management under co-management arrangement in Mtakataka, Malawi. The results show that while co-management has created new multi-level local forest organisations in the communities, the potential of the organisations to contribute to sustainable forest management has been negatively affected by lack of appropriate power and legitimacy. There are clear and well defined boundaries for the forest resources and communities involved in co-management of the forest reserve. However, co-management is faced with issues such as low participation of community members, ineffective rule enforcement, inadequate human and financial resources, and conflict of forest use. Despite these issues, it is concluded that with improvement in the co-management program, the local forest organisations have potential to achieve sustainable management of forest resources. It is thus recommended that the LFOs should be encouraged to follow what was jointly agreed upon and documented in the management plans. The management plans should also be regularly evaluated and effectively monitored for sustainable management and use of the forest products. Keywords: institutional arrangements, co-management, local forest organisations, sustainable forest management, Malawi L'adoption de la gestion forestiere en participation a initie le courant du transfert de l'acces, de la gestion et du controle des ressources du gouvernement aux institutions basees sur des comites. La comprehension des arrangements institutionnels soutenant la mise en execution d'une gestion partagee avec les organisations forestieres locales est par consequent cruciale pour aboutir a une gestion forestiere durable. Cette etude a donc examine le potentiel et la contribution des arrangements institutionnels a une gestion forestiere durable dans la gestion partagee amorcee dans le Mtakataka, au Malawi. Nos resultats montrent que, bien que la gestion partagee ait cree de nouvelles organisations locales a plusieurs niveaux dans les communautes ; le potentiel qu