Whose responsibility is dryland forest management?

Dryland forest resources have great socio-economic and ecological importance in countries of SSA by playing significant roles in livelihood diversification of both rural and urban households, wood and food security, providing animal feed, human health care and environmental conservation. Despite their great importance, these resources have been subjected to severe degradation, owing to several and complex natural, anthropogenic as well as socio-economic and policy-related factors, leading to their complete disappearance in some places. As a result, undesirable consequences, for example wood famine, degradation of land and water resources, decline/loss of biodiversity and enhanced global warming, that affect the welfare of humans, plants, animals and micro-organisms have been observed. Several challenges could also be anticipated in future efforts to properly manage dryland forest resources. To prevent any further degradation of dryland forest resources in SSA, there is an urgent need to address the agents responsible for their degradation with the corresponding undesirable consequences. This requires appropriate and timely interventions from all stakeholders before the damage to the remaining dryland forest resources proceeds beyond the possibility of their rehabilitation. The interventions required to address causes and consequences of dryland forest resources are discussed, and each stakeholder can significantly contribute towards the realization of these interventions.