• Government should promote community private partnerships agenda.
• This is in order to leverage financial resources for private sector investments in community forestry.
• Communities near Dambwa Forest Reserve can have high value Non Timber Forest Products businesses.

Centre for Environment Justice (CEJ) has urged Government to promote community private partnerships in forest resource management to curb unsustainable charcoal production and encroachments in forest areas.
In a statement, Organization Head of Programmes Ricky Kalaluka states that Government should therefore, promote community private partnerships agenda in order to leverage financial resources for private sector investments in community forestry.
Mr. Kalaluka cited Dambwa Forest Reserve in Livingstone District, Southern Province, as an example where community private partnerships can be a success.
He added that communities near Dambwa Forest Reserve can have high value Non Timber Forest Products businesses such as honey production are able to derive tangible benefits from the forest resources.
He commended forest management stakeholders in Zambia that convened the National Forest Indaba 2022 to dialogue on unsustainable charcoal production and encroachments in forest areas, further thanking World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment for facilitating the Forest Indaba as an important activity.
“Community Private Partnerships (CPP) represent a significant departure from the traditional Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM), as they place emphasis on forming partnerships with local communities in which business-oriented approaches assume significance in the management of forest resources,” he said.
And Mr. Kalaluka said as opposed to Community Based Natural Resource Management, Community Private Partnerships enable the involvement of private companies in the conservation agenda even when cooperation is still maintained with governments and international organizations.
Mr. Kalaluka said the approach under Community Private Partnerships is that of market or growth orientation, in which activities are no longer exclusively community-based.
“Therefore, the business organizations build on the traditional CBNRM methods in implementing their projects,” he said.