PARTNERSHIPS
The Department of Forestry in The Gambia: unfortunately the involvement of the Gambian Department of Forestry has not been as extensive as hoped for. Lengthy internal bureaucratic processes involved in trying to facilitate the participation of members of the department in travelling to Casamance meant that it wasn’t possible for them to attend a number of activities. However, where possible members of staff were able to take part in training activities as resource people. Local authorities in the Communauté Rural of Kataba Un: ASAPID is a member of the Conseil rurale, the district administrative office, and through this, the district authorities are linked to the project. The Department of Forestry and the Environment in Diouloulou Casamance.
ASAPID has also developed links with:
School authorities in the area: the president of the Conseil Rurale is a member of ASAPID and is also the headmaster of the school. The activities of the project have been closely followed by the schools as a result, and children in the schools are aware of the messages being delivered by the project about the forest and its upkeep. Other civil servants in Diouloulou including the authorities at the Diouloulou Municipality.
LESSONS LEARNED
Creating an environment that enabled the villages involved to lead this forest protection project was of vital importance to its success, particularly within the context of the Casamance. The years of conflict have made it difficult for people to trust each other, but by bringing villages together to achieve a common goal, this project has accomplished a very natural process of reconciliation and peace building. This was of enormous importance to all participants, and this was expressed very passionately and repeatedly during a 3 day evaluation visit in December 2012. This outcome was felt to be of so much significance that many of the participants also felt that a scale-up of the initiative could have very positive outcomes for the attempts to attain peace in the Casamance. It is extremely important in a potential conflict environment to communicate in advance with both sides of those involved in the conflict before organizing activities. By doing this the project was able to ensure that activities were able to take place without being disturbed or halted. It has also enabled the parties on both sides to participate and be engaged in the activities, which contributes to the sustainability of the project and has certainly helped to achieve the peace building outcomes that have been observed. The desire and readiness for this type of community initiative, and for sustainable forest management at the community level, is more widespread in the Casamance area than anticipated in the scope of this pilot project. The relevance and popularity of the approach has been demonstrated by the fact that other communities not directly targeted by this project have learned about the project and its objectives, asked to attend training sessions, and have started to discuss their own needs relating to protecting the forest in their area. They have approached CU (through ASAPID) to ask for assistance in this. Using a combination of more modern with traditional means of communication is very effective. The Kaneeylang were very powerful tools for the dissemination of messages and are well respected and listened to by the communities. They are present at naming, circumcision, and other village ceremonies for example, where large gatherings of people can listen to their messages. Concern Universal will work closely with Kaneeylang in the future in other projects. Young people want to be involved – in any future scale-up to other areas; they will be more closely involved from the start of the project. In general, women better appreciated and understood the impact of protecting the forest than their men-folk, and are therefore key stakeholders in community forest conservation. As Yamma,
14