Localising forest governance in Burkina Faso: 2007-2024
The interconnected and global crises of climate, loss of nature, and poverty are worsening and becoming more complex, especially in regional climate hotspots and fragile and conflict-affected contexts like West Africa. Nature-based solutions (NbS) tackle these crises in an integrated way. They require an urgent scale up in the most vulnerable contexts, simultaneously holding great potential for climate, nature and people.
Community-led forest restoration is an effective NbS that yields long-lasting results by building climate resilience, slowing down and reversing desertification, alleviating poverty and improving food security, all the while strengthening social cohesion—crucial in the West African conflict-affected context. Successfully scaling NbS like community-led forest restoration in the region requires greater and more accessible international finance, but also investment in strong, local and inclusive governance systems whereby local communities have access and control over their forest resources.
Forest governance in Burkina Faso: Key learnings
This paper presents the case study of a programme of work led by Tree Aid in close collaboration with both national and local governments and local communities over 17 years (2007-2024) in rural Burkina Faso. It demonstrates how this work supported the creation of an enabling policy and legal environment in Burkina Faso that resulted in local and inclusive forest governance, allowing rural communities to develop a stronger sense of ownership and sustainable management of their forests.
