Establishing community forest management areas in Zambia

By Kaala B. Moombe, Freddie S. Siangulube, Kanembwa Mukoma and Sandra Cordon

Over the past six months, the COLANDS team in Zambia has focused on supporting the establishment and operations of community forest management groups (CFMGs) and community forest management areas (CFMAs).

Important partners in this work include the Zambia Forestry Department (ZFD) and the Zambia Community-Based Natural Resource Management Forum (ZCBNRM). The ZCBNRM Forum supports the process by creating visibility and raising ambition, working in conjunction with the ZFD and CIFOR-ICRAF, COLAND’s host. In addition, CIFOR-ICRAF leads the studies component of the process.

Meanwhile, the ZFD leads the seven-step process of establishing CFMGs and CFMAs, based on its published guidelines. COLANDS has supported this work and by early 2025, Step 1 had been partially completed. The team was also mobilising to start Step 2.

Participatory meetings

Several awareness meetings were conducted:

• One meeting in Ndevule village included 15 village headmen^[1] who agreed in principle to the formation of the CFMGs and CFMAs.
• Two community meetings in Mantanyani and Ndevule villages were held in areas where a total of 83 local village members and seven facilitation team members from government agriculture and forestry departments, Kalomo Town Council, and CIFOR participated.
• Follow-up meetings were held with 34 community members in Siamweengu, Siambelele, Sifanu, Sikauwe, Sijabala, Magalela, and Kaluwe. In Siambelele and Siamwengu, village productivity committee members represented the villagers. The communities are interested in forming CFMGs.

Landscapes proposed for CFMAs are in State- and customary-held areas in upland and river basins; for example, along the Sianankanga River in the case of Mantanyani. There are no settlements in the area and its forests have not been much disturbed. Area residents wish to protect and manage the riverine and other forests for activities including bee-keeping, livestock grazing, mushroom collection and grass collection. Some products are used for trade.

Establishing CFMGs/CFMAs

Following the seven-step process of establishing CFMGs/CFMAs, work has included:

Step 1: Initiation and awareness:

• Expressions of interest obtained from five villages in Kapanzi area to establish CFMAs, and advancing to a further stage of the CFMG process – management, constitution, and election of office holders.

Step 2: Negotiation, mapping and signing:

• Following an expression of interest, participatory and boundary mapping and validation has been conducted of the proposed CFMAs for five villages in the Mantanyani village cluster: Mantanyani, Magalela, Sijabala, Sianyama and Ndevule (see Figure 1).

The total area proposed for the five CFMAs is almost 6,394 hectares, or about 40 percent of the total size of the relevant villages (see Table 1 below). However, the size of the proposed CFMAs may change as interest grows. Other villages and farmers, as private individuals, have also expressed interest in seeing some of their land become part of a CFMA.

Village		Proposed CFMA
Name	Size (Ha)	Size (Ha)	% of the village size
Mantanyani	5,728.3	2,336.3	40.8
Magalela	2,399.5	1,200.4	50.0
Sijabala	1,649.7	353.4	21.4
Sianyama	5,529.3	2,354.8	42.6
Ndevule	685.9	149.0	21.7
Total	15,992.6	6,393.9	40.0

An aerial-based mapping of the proposed CFMA for Ndevule village was conducted. Other villages are yet to be mapped although they have been recognised by the Government of the Republic of Zambia through the Director of Forestry. In addition to general landscapes restoration, the communities would like to conserve the rivers or water bodies in their areas

Step 3: Management, constitution and elections

• Planning has been finalised for field work. Major observations include:
  • Boundary and land claims in and between some neighbouring villages;
  • People migrating from other chiefdoms into one of the proposed CFMAs.
• The following is suggested:
  • In-depth analysis of the conflicts to decide whether the proposed areas would be eligible for recommendation to CFMG;
  • Develop management group and bring in office holders;
  • Study tour visits to selected sites within the province or country.
• Suggested studies:
  • Landscape fragmentation analysis/assessments in the CFMAs
    • Data has been acquired through desktop and field work.
  • Quality of life study
    • Design of study tools and methodology has been finalised and field work was expected to commence in late January 2025.
  • Integrate Landscape Approaches principles application study
    • Tools and methodology expected by early February 2025.
  • Gender
    • A draft report, which is the basis for the preparation of a journal manuscript, has been completed. Drafting of the associated manuscript is ongoing.

• Plans:
  • The following are planned:
    • Conduct the remaining steps of CFMGs establishment;
    • Conduct a survey on profiling of forest- based enterprises, aimed to support an enterprise development model for CFMGs;
    • In collaboration with, and led by, the ZCBNRM:
      • Conduct communication, outreach and engagement activities to widen and enhance the visibility of the process of establishing CFMGs. Activities will include roundtable results-sharing workshop; preparation of print and electronic products for publicity and education use, especially for communities in the proposed CFMGs.
      •  Assessment of the potential and opportunities for forest-based enterprises.
      • Capacity building for communities in various areas including governance, and entrepreneurship.

[1] Headmen from Siamweengu, Sifanu, Siakauwe, Sijabala, Magalela, Kaluwe, Kalangu, Mayoba, Siakanchele, Kasiya, Simuyuni, Mweene, Dunka, Muchuzu, Kabuya