FAO highlights exemplary forest management in the Dominican Republic and Guyana

The report divides the model cases into two categories: “exemplary cases” and “cases with exemplary aspects”.

Two Caribbean projects, both in the Dominican Republic, are included in the former category. One of these involves community management of plantation forests in the province of San José de Ocoa:

The landscape of the area has changed radically as a result of work by communities to stop the expansion of farmland, control illegal logging, hunting and fishing, prevent and control forest fi res, and reforest.

The communities also protect their rivers, streams, waterfalls and springs. Water is transported through aqueducts for human and animal consumption and for irrigation.

The communities of San José de Ocoa have developed a solid, well managed organization to promote their development and create forest plantations that provide products and income for their families as well as protecting the waterways they depend on for their livelihoods.

The other Dominican case focuses on the achievements of the Association of Agroforestry Producers of Zambrana-Chacuey (APA):

Thanks to agroforestry and the introduction of a large number of agricultural, fruit and forest species, there is a multi-species forest in many of the community plots. In this way, the analogue forestry system has generated a more comprehensive and productive use of the forest.

The APA has become an example for students, teachers, NGOs and rural associations that want to know how to start agroforestry systems and make them profitable. The commitment made by the APA producers and Enda-Caribe to the project’s financiers, was to replicate this experience for free in other communities. The best method of diffusion has been field visits. Today there are plans to extend the model and integrate other actors and institutions in the area under the Model Forest scheme.

The management of Guyana’s State Forest was selected as a case with exemplary aspects, with special attention given to the Guyana Forestry Commission’s implementation of a log-tracking systems:

Between 2000 and 2001, the [Forestry Commission] introduced a system to control and certify logging in the country by tracking the movements of logs, from the felling of a tree in the forest until its arrival at its final destination for processing or export. The system is called the Log Tracking System (LTS).

This system allows the [Commission] to verify the origin of forest products, so it is also used as a means to control illegal logging, which could otherwise be a significant problem given the high demand that exists for tropical timber.

To read more about these cases, and other examples of sustainable forest management in Latin America and the Caribbean, download a copy of Standing Tall.