National Forest Policy Implementation Strategy 2018 - 2028.

This National Forest Policy Implementation Strategy is a nationwide sectoral document aiming at ensuring that forest and tree resources are well conserved, managed and utilized in a sustainable manner to meet the current and future demands. The document also contains some crosscutting issues, such as (i) combating HIV/AIDS among forest sector staff; (ii) promotion of gender balance in all the aspects of institution management and field operations; and (iii) climate change co-benefits. To achieve this overall goal, the Strategy indicates the following specific objectives for the forest sector (i) sustainable development and management of forest and tree resources; (ii) conservation of forest ecosystems; (iii) enhancement of production of forest and tree products; (iv) promotion of investments in the development of forests, tree resources and industries; (v) enhancement of human and institution capacity to deliver services; (vi) enhancement of regional and international cooperation; (vii) reduction of impacts of HIV and AIDS infections; (viii) enhancement of gender equity and equality; (ix) enhancement of good governance principles; and (x) enhancement of contribution to environmental conservation.
To make forestry more productive and sustainable, the following need to be done (i) establish tenure arrangements for forests and trees to curb forest land conversion; (ii) build human and institutional capacity for germplasm production and management for indigenous and exotic species; (iii) promote establishment of botanical gardens in zones to ensure gene resources conservation and genetic diversity; (iv) establish and manage tree seed sources and seed banks; (v) encourage establishment of new reserves and upgrade forest reserves into Nature Forest Reserves (NFRs) to sustain ecosystem products and services; (vi) establish a mechanism for ensuring compliance to principles of forest health and a surveillance mechanism to protect forests; (vii) develop urban forest and tree management initiatives; and (viii) support farmers to apply effective agro-forestry innovations.
In order to enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, it is necessary (i) to establish forest and product certification processes to meet international standard; (ii) promote public and private sector engagement in plantation establishment for commercial purposes; (iii) promote application of appropriate processing technologies and branding of forest products for domestic and international markets; (iv) build capacity of local artisans on innovative production and marketing; (v) establish and equip mobile training facility for technology and innovation transfer to individuals and small and medium forest related enterprises; and (vi) encourage and support women to participate in all aspects of forest development and management.
The resilience of livelihood to disasters will be increased through (i) tree growing and forest regeneration and carbon stocks management to combat climate change; (ii) developing the capacity, knowledge and mechanisms to implement the REDD+ commitments; and (iii) maintaining soil fertility on farms to diminish the slash and burn practice with the consequent effects on mitigation.
As for the Governance, the Ministry responsible for forestry as the overall coordination of the forest sector, as well as the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the Policy implementation. Furthermore, each stakeholder will have to establish a reliable internal monitoring system to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation, and availability of capacity to assess efficiency and effectiveness of their respective organizations. The M&E will involve, among other things, establishing baselines, indicators and source of information. Periodic tracking on progress on implementation of the milestones and targets will be done. In addition, there will be an annual review, which will focus on assessing whether the planned activities are in line with the achievement of set targets.