DECISION-SUPPORT TOOLS FOR MANAGING DRY FORESTS AND WOODLANDS OF EASTERN AFRICA

Abstract

One main objective for managers and policymakers is to search for decisions in forest management that are economically, socially and ecologically sustainable. A basic challenge when striving for an ecologically sustainable forest management is to balance between harvesting and preserving trees over time. There is, however, a lack of empirically based decision-support tools that can be used by forest managers to explore and simulate alternative treatment options securing such a balance for the dry forests and woodlands of eastern Africa including Ethiopia. The aim of this paper was to discuss the challenges and requirements related to the development of such decision-support tools. This includes the establishment and re-measurement of permanent sample plots and the development of growth, mortality and recruitment models describing forest dynamics. The discussion is illustrated with examples from the dry forests and woodlands in Tanzania and Uganda. Some specific challenges related to the development of operative decision-support tools that could facilitate a regulated and sustainable utilization of the forest resources in the exclosures of Ethiopia are also discussed.