An International Reputation: Impacts of SWFLG

The work of SWFLG is enhancing the resilience of communities, societies, economies and environments in this area in the face of many challenges, such as climate change, economic fluctuations and demographic dynamics.

  • Research— SWFLG research feeds into technical and policy development and supports government policies for the climate resilient green economy and growth & transformation programme. SWFLG has supported the development of guidelines on honey and coffee production, PFM and forest policy, wetland and catchment management and climate-smart farming.

  • Sustainable forest management— more than 150,000 hectares of natural forest is now under community management, with a target of half a million hectares; all supported by community institutions.

  • Livelihoods— community-based enterprises have been developed working on non-timber forest products (NTFPs); the value chain has been streamlined and local incomes from NTFP’s increased by 24% during the life of the NTFP project.

  • Biodiversity—a new approach to in situ conservation has been developed and applied in order to ensure community-led protection of the country’s valuable wild coffee resources.