BENIN

In 1990, the Benin government organised a nation-wide consultation on forest issues. At that time serious shortages in fuelwood existed, timber resources were being exhausted, and the number of sawmills and forest resource exploiters was growing. A rising population and low economic growth had led to increased dependence on forest resources.

The result of the consultation was a greater emphasis on participative management of forest resources. Current management objectives focus on the sustainable management and regeneration of resources to ensure continued availability for the local population. Local communities are encouraged to be involved in forest management, there is a focus on wildlife protection and forest conservation and on reinforcing institutional capacity to manage resources.

In forest reserves, the forest service agrees contracts with the local population to manage the forest and provides assistance to enable the community to carry out their responsibilities. In areas of unclassified forest, communities form cooperatives which have rights as land title owners and agree to manage the forest in a sustainable manner. Their activities are highly regulated. Inventories ensure that managers are in possession of comprehensive information about the forest, and the forest service carries out management awareness raising and research to identify appropriate extraction rates.

Representatives from Benin attended a FAO/ITTO regional workshop in July 2008 on improving forest law compliance and governance in tropical West Africa and signed the participants statement (the Accra Declaration), which included recommendations for combating illegal logging in the region.

DOCUMENTS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
20/10/2008	Cross-border flows of timber and wood products in West Africa Recognizing that regional and cross-border timber trade may have important implications for the FLEGT ...	European Commission
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NEWS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
11/08/2009	'Edo loses N500m to illegal forest operators annualy' Benin - The Chairman of Edo State Monitoring Committee on Forestry, Comrade Lucky Eriyo, has said the ...	Vanguard
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11/08/2009	10 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world Hopefully it comes as no great surprise to you that deforestation is a major problem in many areas of ...	Tree Hugger
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18/06/2008	Fish and timber in West Africa need more sustainable EU policies say MEPs Fish and timber are natural resources often not managed in a sustainable way in West Africa due to inadequate ...	European Parliament (EU)
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22/01/2006	Goodbye to West Africa's rainforests West Africa's once verdant and extensive rainforests are now a historical footnote. Gone to build ...	Mongabay.com
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EVENTS

DATE	TITLE
Tuesday 15th July 2008	FAO/ITTO Regional Workshop on Improving Forest Law Compliance and Governance in Tropical West Africa Over the past two years, FAO and ITTO have assisted countries in the Amazon region, Central Africa, Central ...
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