Assessing Kambui Hills North Forest Reserve Community’s Participation in Forest Reserve Management and Sustainability in Kenema District, Eastern Sierra Leone

This paper explores Kambui Hills North Forest Reserve (KHNFR) community’s participation in forest management and sustainability in Kenema District as a case study. Crucial issues examined were the forest reserve management strategies used by forest communities, participation of stakeholders in forest sustainability and livelihood activities of forest communities in the KHNFR. For sampling technique, six (6) forest communities were randomly sampled. From the sampled communities, forty two (42) respondents were sampled from the study communities. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the field and focus group discussion guide. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that there was a Core Forest Management Plan operated by the communities and stakeholders but the District Forest Office (DFO) does not follow its prescriptions strictly. It also indicated that the involvement of forest communities in the management of KHNFR was very small and low income generating livelihood activities. It was therefore recommended that forest communities in the KHNFR should be provided with alternative livelihood sources so as to empower them play the role of co-managers of the forest reserve.


Introduction
Forests consist not only of living (biotic) components like trees, animals, plants, and other living things but also of nonliving (abiotic) components such as soil, water, air, and landforms. All of these components together make up a forest ecosystem.
Forest reserves are portions of state lands where commercial harvesting of wood products is excluded in order to capture elements of biodiversity that can be missing from sustainably harvested sites. According to World Bank (2002), not less than 1 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods at various degrees. It is not surprising that the passive integration of community livelihood activities into sustainable forest management has encouraged illegal forest harvesting since local people depend directly or indirectly on the forest for survival. More so, the weakness in deterrent legal sanctions such as low fines imposed on the perpetuators of forest offenders does not deter people. In Sierra Leone, 2,726,000 ha or 38.1% (percent) is forested and out of which 113,000 or 4.1% (percent) is classified as primary forest with the most bio-diverse and carbon-dense form of forest in Sierra Leone. Undoubtedly from 1990-2010, on average Sierra Leone lost 19,600ha or 0.63% per year. In total, 12.6% of its forest cover or 392,000 ha was lost (FAO, 2010). Sierra Leone is a developing country with an agrarian economy where its population is dependent on agriculture. Agents of denudation such as moving water and wind have waged havoc on forest lands due to deforestation which makes them active. Their works are characterized by unpredicted negative impacts on the livelihood of many farming and forest communities and by extension the nation as a whole. A good number of environmentally friendly organizations have committed themselves to conserve the forest and to help forest communities carry out advantages. Sustainable forest conservation and supply chain management can be a good driver for the wellbeing of forest communities. Effective and efficient forest management is required to meet the increasing demand for food, fuel wood, and fibres. The alarming rate at which deforestation and land degradation mainly in forest reserves coupled with land grabbing and weak forest governance are threatening the forest ecosystem and its resources is exposed to various risks. To address these challenges in the forest communities, sustainable forest reserve management is key in responding to the challenges. Forests are destroyed at an alarming rate through various means and processes such as bush fire, indiscriminate logging, illegal and small scale mining; subsistence farming has huge negative implications on the effectiveness and efficient application of forest management strategies. It should be noted that forest contributes greatly to rural economy and dictates the livelihood strategies used for survival. To protect these reserve forests and its host forest communities, adequate forest reserve sustainable approaches needs to be adapted to realities of local needs and opportunities. Therefore it is against this backdrop that this study seeks to explore the recognition of forest reserve community's inputs and their livelihood sustenance in KHNFR in Nongowa Chiefdom, Kenema District, Eastern Sierra Leone.

Protected Forest Area Status in Sierra Leone
According to Blinker (2006), forest reserves and protected areas in Sierra Leone are only confined to these areas; Gola (77,044 hectares), Kambui (21,213  management when local participation and cooperation is utilized. To achieve this, (Kotey et al, 1998) opines that, the principle of stakeholders participation therefore demands that forest fringe communities are involved in all decisions concerning the management and development of their forest resources as it will give them a better understanding and commitment to the natural resource development and protection by themselves. On this backdrop one would infer that forest management should be co-managed and maintained if not improved. The effective and efficient use of the forest therefore should be appropriately ascertained so that over exploitation should not supersede conservation but rather forest reserve management should be geared towards conserving the resource for future generations and above all for posterity.
In the words of Blomley et al. (2011and Blomley andFranks (2009) It is of utmost importance to sustainably manage the KHNFR so that it can perform its basic functions taken into consideration the diversity of forest management approaches and the physical properties and status of the reserve in question.

Concept of Participatory Management
Participation simply means being involved or being meaningfully engaged in an activity. This involves presence, relation and interactions. In the words of (Brown, 2000), participation refers to some aspect of involvement of local population in the design, implementation and evaluation of a project. To implement such participatory management process, the primary stakeholders in a project, individuals and groups of vested interest should be involved in the implementation of the project and be aware of the outcomes.
As the stakeholders in the projects are identified, collegial participation and network partnership which involves empowerment and sustainability must be established. With such partnership, all stakeholders feel comfortable and belonged to the project with their roles in the project design process to empower the resource user groups and rural organizations within which they are incorporated.
According to CFN (2008) every community is arriving at more participatory approaches to natural forest management. Primary causes of poor forest management in recent years include widening socio-political transformation in the country towards more inclusive norms in the governance of the society and its resources.
In a bid of managing forest resources, it should be borne in mind that forest governance should be made free from confusion or ambiguity with technical driven functions. If sustainable forest management is to be achieved in the KHNFR, all development plans should involve the local people in the forest communities to participates, see themselves as users and above all let their interest be captured in accessing forest land and benefits from the generated income. Local participation is more meaningful and effective as it made them feel as owners in their rights. When this is done it goes beyond cooperation to commitment which ensures forest sustainability.
Partnership in community forest is gradually moving away from consultative and collaborative norms so to enable the forest communities to function as independent entities.
Currently the local people are looking beyond access to the forest but to be seen as custodians which is critical to any agreement with the forestry authorities.
Formete (2001) opined that it is of importance for the state to establish a tougher legal framework to establish local community's roles in forest jurisdiction. There is a need for forest administrators or managers to be transparent and accountable to the wider communities because they acting on their behalf.
This means that forest authorities or managers should be accountable especially with regards to forest resource and its usage to the wider community. This brings respect and collaboration between the managers and the forest communities.
There have been frantic efforts in African to involve forest local communities in the management of forests in their localities (Asare, 2000).
Due to these efforts, policies have been formulated with legal support through national forest policies, the forestry acts, the rural area acts, forest regulations, the draft forest acts, forest ordinance of Sierra Leone, and particularly the draft KHNFR Co-management Plan. Two (2) sampling procedures were used to sample the respondents. The first sampling procedure used was purposive sampling which used to select the KHNFR for the study because it had all the variables needed for the completion of this study. The other procedure used was simple random sampling of various fringe Kambui forest communities and respondents for the study.

Study Area and
Simple random sampling was used to select five (5) respondents each from six (6) selected communities making it thirty (30). However, the additional twelve (12)    activities in the KHNFR than females. It shows a positive indication that implementation of forest reserve management plan was effectively followed since the male were heads of the family and therefore can easily influence the rest of the family to rally behind the programme although a few female households existed. Majority of the respondents (55%, n =23) falls within the age bracket of 33-39 years while (12%, n =5) of the respondents were above forty years. The other (14%, n =6) falls within the age bracket of 18-25 years. It shows clearly that the youthful population who were more energetic were actively involved in the participatory approach used in managing the KHNFR. The youths in the study communities as indicated shows that they were concerned with the management and conservation of the reserve. It sends a clear picture on the minds of conservationist and other stakeholders in the field of environment because it ensures the sustainability of the system and above all the management of the forest reserve. This is ascertained in a report by UNDP/SECA and PAGE projects  strongly agreed that KHNFR has a management plan and 17% also agreed but indicated that it has become obsolete. For the very fact that they agreed that there was KHNFR management plan in the study communities, it should be noted as fact regardless its current status. If eighteen and seven respondents totaling twenty-five agreed that there was a management plan for KHNFR, then it is worth to go by because they were in majority.
However, 24% disagreed that there was KHNFR management plan while 10% also strongly disagreed. In the same vein, 7% took a neutral position on the grounds that they were not aware of any projects/activities going on in the reserve. The respondents who strongly agreed and agreed did that on a point that one company has started harvesting and maintenance of some few modified trees such as "Laphira alata and Parinari excela" stands in the forest reserve. This is diverse and difficult to conclude as forest communities lacked adequate information which was the fears of Kotey et al. (1998). It is also in disagreement with (Kotey, et al., 1998) as they recommended a better participation and involvement of forest communities and or groups in forest management. According to the data on table two, twenty-eight of the respondents representing 66% strongly disagreed that DFO contract boundary cleaning involves stakeholders and 7 of them representing 17% disagreed which forms the majority of the respondent who were not happy because DFO initially contacted them and also engaged them in the boundary cleaning exercise but later abandoned them. This made some area of the boundaries remained unattended as the stakeholders also abandoned the cleaning exercises. Three of the respondents agreed representing 7% while two of them strongly agreed and also two took neutral posture on the matter. Discussions revealed that the very few who were in agreement were benefitting extra Observation made by all the respondents pointed to the fact that they were not involve in the full implementation of these strategies. The very few who were initially engaged by UNDP/SECA and PAGE project in the formulation of the reserve management plan were left unattended to in one way or the other. This confirms (Blomley, 2013)   2009 acknowledges the facts that natural forest were being depleted by moment and therefore raised concern for its protection and management so that the remaining biodiversity, soil and water resources would be conserved for future generation. The forest is to be completely protected for conservation purposes. This can be effective and efficiently done when the policy is enforced in the area of partnering with forest community groups and or people in the protection and management of the reserve sectors. The respondents were asked whether District Forestry Office (DFO) did assign any of them in the study communities to play management role in the KHNFR, 43% strongly disagreed and 28% disagreed. Bulk of the respondents indicated that they were not involve in taken any managerial role in the KHNFR. 12% agreed, 10% strongly agreed while 7% remained neutral on the issue. A few agreed that they were involved and participated but at low key. This clearly shows that DFO, UNDP/SECA and PAGE did not consider much participation of stakeholders in the management of the reserve. It should be noted that collaborative forest management is a bottom-top approach where in communities in and around forest reserves are actively involved in the management and protection of the forest resources. Management goes beyond controlling people to achieve a set goal. In this context management involves recognition of the need to integrate conservation and sustainable development of forest reserve. It captures the legitimacy of the rights of the local forest communities to secure their socio-economic feature through their active involvement in forest conservation and management.
Respondents indicated that DFO involved community groups as stakeholders in decision making and formulation of KHNFR management plan as 57% strongly agreed and 14% agreed that they had some interactions with UNDP/SECA, PAGE AND DFO during the implementation of various projects in the forest reserve but they were not sure whether their inputs were taken into consideration. Three of the respondents representing 7% disagreed and five of them representing 12% disagreed that the organizations and DFO involved them while 10% remained neutral. Their disagreement was based on the facts that they had no technical knowledge and were not knowledgeable with the activities of the organizations and DFO. It was also indicated that they had no knowledge about forest reserve management planning.
This clearly indicates that there was much awareness raising strategies among the community groups with regards the formulation of the forest management plan in the selected communities. What poses problem was limited capacity and skill training of the community groups /stakeholders which would have enhanced effectiveness, efficiency and equity. 73% of Community groups strongly disagreed and 10% disagreed that they were involved in the implementation of KHNFR management plan. However, 5% agreed that they were involved while 12% maintained neutral grounds. This clearly depicts a picture of neglect and as a result, the community groups were left on their own unattended when the projects were handed over to DFO in Kenema District. The study however pointed in the negative when majority of the respondents and stakeholders arguably disagreed with their involvement in the management of KHNFR. From the table above, thirty of the respondents representing 71% strongly disagreed together with other ten respondents representing 24% also disagreed that community groups were involved in benefit sharing of all proceeds from KHNFR. It was an irony as the remaining two respondents representing 5% did not know anything about benefits or proceed sharing from the forest reserve. This explains that there is no equity between DFO and the forest community groups because the government did not give legal rights to community groups over the resources of reserve forest in Sierra Leone. This had negative impact on the community groups in the selected study communities as their involvement in forestry projects and forest management was less. To the worst they were used as labourers in project activities in the KHNFR.
There is a need to encourage partnerships and tackle environmental issues such as how the community relationship should be cultivated by organizations and DFO from raw deals to mutual gains. Community groups were looking for partnerships with relevant and trust worthy stakeholders as a way forward as it was captured by Asare (2001) who suggested that community groups must be granted local licensing and revenue sharing in the forest reserve area. Again 83% of the respondents strongly disagreed and also 10% disagreed that they were not involve in monitoring of any ongoing activity in KHNFR. However, 7% remained neutral. Therefore the negative consequences included connivance and abetting attitude of some community groups in committing all forms of illegal activities ranging from illegal gold mining to logging. Bulk of the respondents stated that they were involved in decision making during the implementations of UNDP/SECA and PAGE projects. They were involved in focus group discussions and road mapping for the development of the management plan but were not involved in the implementation of the projects in the reserve.
This also support the work of Kotey et al. (1998) who postulated that people's participation therefore demands that forest fringe communities should be involved in all decision making bordering around the management and sustainable development of their reserve forest. This would improve their comprehension and above all commitment to the natural resource development and protection by them. In the same vein, the result agree s with FAO's (2010) contention that forestry exist when the local community in that area plays an important role in land use decision making. This is because when the community people are satisfied, with their involvement, benefits and participation then sustainable forest management and its resources would be guaranteed

Types of Livelihood Activities Involved By the Forest Communities in Khnfr
Management.  strongly agreed and three of them representing 7% disagreed summing up to thirty-three respondents out of forty-two. The respondents vividly expressed their views that soap making was indeed established for women by both UNDP/SECA and PAGE projects in all the selected communities but collapsed after few months due to lack of entrepreneurial skills.
Seven of the respondents representing 17% agreed whilst two of them representing 5% remained neutral. Moreover, a few respondents indicated that improved animal husbandry was established for community groups in the selected communities UNDP/SECA and PAGE projects, 83% strongly disagreed and 7% also disagreed. In the same vein, 5% agreed and 5% also remained neutral. The respondents expressed a view that it was a good initiative but collapsed as the projects folded up. However, 74% strongly agreed and 19% agreed that they were allowed to collect Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in the KHNFR whilst 7% remained neutral. Apart from the NTFPs, other forest reserve products were also collected from the reserve which included mushrooms, mango, pineapple, stones etc. This captures the work of Brown (2000) who observed that collaboration in whatever form involves two way; either exchange of experience and knowledge in partnership between the local people and forestry or working partnership between the local people and the government. This same observation was expressed by Kotey et al (1998) Blomley et al. (2009) assertion that the integration of livelihood activities for forest community groups in sustainable forest management provides wider opportunities in resource utilization. It also reduces unnecessary risk and provides additional food and income for the rural poor.

Conclusion and Recommendations
There has been several government policies, acts and regulations on forest management, conservation and protection in Sierra Leone since the 1980s and various types of strategic plans and interventions coupled with policy reforms have been passed and are still ongoing in the country. These policies, regulations and acts are affected by illegal persons who are bent in reducing the forest reserve to its lowest ebb. The forest fringe community groups or members in the KHNFR had a conviction that the forest reserve is changing its natural vegetation from tropical to grassland due to constant depletion of the reforest. The forest communities were also aware of the fact that uncontrolled and further depletion of the forest reserve would negatively affects them. Therefore they were willing to help in the proper management of the forest reserve in their localities. For them, this could be done through their total involvement, partnership and regular consultation from the DFO. In the same vein, the study also took cognizance of the fact that community groups or members were readily willing to assist in the management of the forest reserve and it was demonstrated highly in the co-management plan interrelationship created during the development of the KHNFR management plan developed together with PAGE. Therefore there is a need to critically look at various policies, acts, regulations, plans and strategies in sustainable forest management of forest reserve through a supply chain perspective lens. In that regard therefore the study recommends the following for implementation:  DFO to integrate community forestry management and protection groups in all forest reserve fringe communities.
 Authorities particularly DFO, Environmental Protection Agency Sierra Leone and Environmental Organizations try to gain and win the minds and hearts of forest community groups or members by constantly engaging them in various forest management and protection processes. This could be done through forest guards, extension services unit who would serve as liaison between the DFO and the forest communities.
 More importantly, community members should be empowered through training to serve as co-managers of the reserve forest by empowering them to arrest and even cease forest products harvested illegally from the reserve with a handsome reward in cash or in kind.
 Also empower forest community co-managers to visit other African countries so as to experience various sustainable community forest management projects.
 Provide support to community groups or members with capital so that they could expand their livelihood sources and or assets  Provide value chain market opportunity for forest fringe communities to reduce their dependence on the forest reserve  Forest guards, Rangers, Range Supervisors to be adequately equipped and trained backed by improved interpersonal relationship with forest reserve communities  There should also be regular visit and collegial interaction between DFO and forest fringe communities because they are the strongest link in the supply chain for managing the natural resources of the forest reserve.