Abstract
In the French-speaking countries of Africa, strategies of conservation, inherited from the colonial time, exclude the bordering people in the management of the national parks plant resources. Today, policies and legislation try to reconcile forest conservation and development by associating local people. As a consequence, approaches of participatory planning of forest management schemes have become necessary. A major challenge has been the issue of how to (use?) scientific knowledge and local knowledge in the most appropriate way. This article provides an account of a contribution to addressing this issue in the case of the “Parc National Kaboré Tambi” in Burkina Faso, by proposing a combination of ethno-botanical surveys and botanical inventories. The article analyses the importance of the park plant species, identify the constraints faced by local people to harvest the park plant products, analyse the park vegetation structure and assess the degree of regeneration of the main useful species. The surveys reveal that bordering people consider the park as their granary, their pharmacy, their pasture, their place of religious worship, and the source of the strength of their territory. They harvest in the park Non Wood Forest Products (NWFPs), although the Forest Code bans free access. About one hundred plants species are used, but the pattern of extraction of the products or some plant parts could destroy the resource base. Technically, conservation by domestication of the source species and improved harvest of Non Wood Forest Products could be combined for sustainable management of the park. Finally, the process toward an integration of ecology, silviculture, law, economy and decentralisation in order to achieve the park sustainable forest management is of great importance. The success of this process will depend on all actors including policy makers, technicians, local people, researchers and funding agencies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal for Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-21 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| ISSN | 1602-2297 |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 |