National Forestry Policy.

This National Forestry Policy is a sectoral policy document. The goal of the policy is: to revitalise, manage, conserve, and sustainably utilise forest resources and to enhance the contribution of the forestry sector to development and social equity through active participation of all stakeholders for the benefit of present and future generations.
The policy pillars have been idetified as the medium to long-term intentions of government for the forest sector. These policy pillars cover: 1. Maintaining forests integrity, to promote the conservation and sustainable management of forests and biodiversity in all categories of forest tenure systems; 2. Devolution and benefit sharing, to provide an enabling devolution framework for meaningful participation of local communities and other stakeholders in sustainable forest management and benefit sharing; 3. Forest industries and products, to promote investments and partnerships in commercial tree growing, forest-based industries and beneficiation of nontimber forest products (NTFPs) for improved community livelihoods as well as public and private sector growth; 4. Gender and vulnerable groups, to ensure gender equity and meaningful participation of women, youths, and vulnerable groups in forest resources management, forest industries and livelihood interventions; 5. Forests and beautification of towns and cities, to ensure that households not only plant trees, but also ensure a landscape that is maintained with additional aesthetic values from grass, flowers and related apparel; 6. Climate change and forest ecosystems: to enhance forest carbon sinks and build communities' resilience to climate change impacts through sustainable forest management; 7. Forestry research, innovation, and training, to support: technology transfer, forestry research in valuation of the contribution of forest resources to ecosystem services,etc.; 8. Forestry governance and institutional arrangements, to establish an effective legislative and institutional framework committed to the development of the forestry sector in line with regional and international agreements on sustainable forest management; and 9. Regional and international collaboration in forestry, to develop institutional mechanisms for mainstreaming forestry issues into, and coordinating with, other sectors.
Actions to be implenated for Pillar 4 Gender and Vulnerable Groups include: 1. Encourage women and vulnerable groups to actively participate in devolved structures of decision making, forest resources management and access and benefit sharing; 2. Promote women and vulnerable groups’ participation in value addition of timber and non-timber products for livelihoods enhancement; 3. Support initiatives that aim to actualise the constitutional environmental rights of women and vulnerable groups.