Institutional & Local Capacity
Limited government spending on conservation has rendered forest and wildlife services extremely weak, and they suffer from insufficient numbers of staff, lack of professional training, lack of field equipment, and low morale.
The skills and knowledge to monitor the status of biodiversity and forest health are also limited, as African universities and other educational institutions lack the funds and resources to implement efficient training and education programs.
Local community-based organizations (CBOs) need to be strengthened and empowered to contribute to sustainable natural resource management. Linkages between traditional decision-making processes at the local village or community level are too often disconnected from decisions made at the national scale, resulting in conflict. Local communities as therefore not sufficiently engaged as stewards of the region’s natural resource.