Strategy

DIN's focus is to reduce deforestation and poverty with both farmers and Fulani pastoralists.

Reducing Deforestation

Deforestation is caused by practises relating to poverty and insecurity. These include harvesting for timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs), burning, clearing for agricultural plantations and shifting cultivation practices.  Institutional causes include inappropriate forest policies, poor enforcement of forest legislation, and lack of information regarding forest tenure and access rights.  Undervalued forest goods are quickly exploited for short term gains. DIN has been addressing deforestation through:

• Conducting fire prevention activities including advocacy and controlled burning to prevent the spread of fire into forest patches.

• Establishing community tree nurseries and promoting non-timber forest product (ntfp) domestication technologies to provide greater access without further forest destruction.

• Supporting alternative livelihood and income generating activities to encourage farmers to farm outside the forest and reduce the need to exploit forest resources for cash returns.

• Initiating community forest management bodies, and replanting areas of degraded forest.

Addressing Poverty

Poverty is widely considered an underlying cause of deforestation.  Causes of poverty include lack of employment opportunities, poor educational attainment, illiteracy, poor governance and a lack of knowledge and security with regards to land and forest tenure. Working with groups is key to addressing poverty; to ensure the poorest are targeted, not merely individuals who are better off and may adopt new technologies quicker than the poorest.  Women and youth are our main target groups as they rely more heavily on forests for both subsistence and economic needs.  They are more negatively effected by deforestation and have fewer employment or income generating opportunities.  DIN has been attempting to reduce poverty in the communities in which it works through:

• Supporting womens' groups in animal husbandry projects aimed at generating income, e.g.: goat, sheep and poultry keeping, and in establishing market gardens for vegetable and fruit production.  

• Promoting beekeeping by providing hives and equipment, training and support.  DIN uses local bee-farmers to train others wanting to start.

• Conducting adult literacy classes, targeted at women and the marginalised Fulani community.

• Strengthening civil society through promoting the formation of Community Based Organisations (CBO's).

• Promoting micro-credit / micro-finance schemes within women's groups.

Thematic Programmes

Based on a strategic review involving our community partners and key stakeholders, DIN will concentrate on its strengths in four programme areas in order to meet the challenges of deforestation and poverty. They are:

• Community forestry

• Sustainable livelihoods

• Adult literacy

• Research

Cross Cutting Themes

Cutting across the four programmes are the following themes: 

• Environmental Education

• HIV / AIDs awareness

• Gender

These along with the broader principles of the United Nations Agenda 21 framework will be incorporated into all our work. These cross cutting themes are explained more here.