TEN YEARS ON, UNROLLING AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE REVISED FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

TEN YEARS ON, UNROLLING AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE REVISED FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC TEN YEARS ON, UNROLLING AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE REVISED FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC In 1997, the Ngotto logging concession in the Central African Republic, under logging permit PEA 169, came under one of the first management plans for Africa's dense humid forests. The idea at the time was to apply the first results from research on these complex ecosystems, with support from new tools such as digital mapping. The main lines of the management plan were implemented over ten years; disagreements appeared recurrently between the forest management body (a component of the Ecofac project) and the licence-holding company, IFB, eventually causing the latter to bring the management scenario into question. Work on a revised plan began in 2006, the aim being to ensure compatibility between "sustainable production" and "profitability". The in-depth review of the management scenario required more than 18 months of study. This exercise, never previously undertaken in the Central African Republic, was a process involving numerous stages and the use of modern data processing tools that were adapted to the institutional framework. An emphasis was placed on technical advances achieved since 2000, and on consultations with the logging company to ensure their full acceptance of the process. Many lessons on methodology were drawn from the study, which provided an opportunity for a constructive analysis of different reasons for such reviews, which are likely to become increasingly numerous in the years to come.