CONCEPT PAPER
Partnership for Africa Concept Paper
Submitted by Bob L. Karr, Mississippi State University
Historically, inadequate management of natural resources has led to starvation, poverty, and political instability. Soil erosion and silting of aquaducts contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. Soil erosion during the 1930s dust bowl wrought poverty across the plains of North America. Overuse of resources may have caused the demise of the Inca civilization of Central America. In a recent report Carl Gallegos (2003), an officer with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), stated that rural Africa suffers from pervasive poverty, rural disenfranchisement, and natural resource mismanagement. USAID recognizes the link between natural resources and national development. They equate natural resources as sources of wealth, power, and patronage. The organization integrates environment, wealth, and rights into a guiding principle for their Environmental/Natural Resources program. Clearly, through their environment and natural resources management program, USAID is promoting conservation of biodiversity, clean water, and soils; economic growth with revenues from sustainable management of natural resources; and governance with rural democratic institution building.Education is one key to environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources. Although USAID and other development agencies have long recognized this need and provided opportunities for Africans to train in North America and Europe, the need has been greater than the financial resources available. Recently, the National Association of Professional Forestry Schools and Colleges (NAPFSC) sponsored an African Forum, chaired by Dr. Jim Johnson, Virginia Tech, which addressed the state of Africa's natural resources and explored directions for their future management. Several conservation efforts were presented that currently focus on environment and natural resources issues in Africa. Of these, the Congo Basin Forest Partnership Project is probably the largest active effort in natural resource management in Africa, and current interest suggests that it will receive major emphasis for several years. For sustained success in this and other conservation projects, the need for professionals, trained to manage forest, wildlife, fisheries, hydrology and watershed, and natural park resources, will be perennial. Recognizing that inadequate funding of local governments and development organizations will prevent training in North America and Europe the number of natural resource professionals needed, and recognizing that training in Africa could have lasting benefits for educational, social, and economic development, participants at the Africa Forum proposed that NAPFSC and the National Association of University Fisheries and Wildlife Programs (NAUFWP) create an organization that could assist USAID and other development organizations to train natural resource professionals effectively at the campuses of selected universities in Africa. Through this organization, Natural Resources Partnership for Africa (NRPA), USAID would have access to faculties, facilities, and libraries across a wide array of universities represented by NAPFSC and NAUFWP. This concept recognizes the benefits of two-way exchanges between students in African universities and students in North American universities and would encourage the continuation of exchange students, but not as the primary means of educating future African natural resource managers.
NRPA would assist with the identification of western, eastern, and southern regional universities in Africa that currently have expertise in one or more of the following: forestry, wildlife, fisheries, hydrology and watershed management, and national parks and protected areas. Ideally, one university in each region would possess expertise in all of these natural resources, but more than one university may be required in some regions. However, the number of regional universities should be kept small to prevent dilution of limited funding from development agencies and organizations. Choosing universities with demonstrated success in natural resource management would reduce time and funding required to bring programs to acceptable standards. The second criterion of selection of regional universities would be political stability to assure acceptable safety of participants and longevity of programs.
USAID and other participating agencies and organizations would assist with supporting and improving existing natural resource programs or establishing new ones in the regional universities, with improving or building needed facilities, fiscal support, and participation by Africans in the regional universities. Additionally, these agencies and organizations would assist the NRPA with associated costs of providing faculty, as needed, to participate in building capacity in the regional universities.
NRPA would have capabilities in instruction, research, and extension. Although universities do not have the funding to support international development, they do have the expertise needed for training natural resource managers and in other aspects of natural resource management, research, and outreach.
The repertoire of knowledge and ability that NRPA represents could be used in several ways. For example it could base could be used to form a consortium from its multiple strengths to respond to opportunities in natural resource management. It could be used a database from which definitive expertise could be sought as needed. Teams of individuals could be composed from from different NAPFSC and NAUFWP to response to international natural resource problems. Member institutions of NRPA would be better informed of each others' capabilities and programs. The organized database would coordinate and provide timely responses to the contractual needs of USAID and others.
The concepts presented above propose (1) the creation of an organization for partnership in Africa between NAPFSC and NAUFWP that will provide USAID and other agencies with an organized access to expertise in forest, wildlife, fisheries, hydrology and watershed management, and national park and protected area management, and (2) the identification and support of regional universities with natural resource programs that will provide USAID and other interested agencies an effective and efficient means of training natural resource professionals. If the concept of NRPA is acceptable to NAPFSC and NAUFWP, details of administrative structure, membership, and operation of NRPA will need to be deliberated.