NAIROBI, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations has called on African governments to prioritize forests in their development agenda to realize benefits of forestry.
Peter Gondo, inter-regional advisor at the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat said on Friday that low prioritization of the sector has led to slow growth has led to low revenue generation.
"There is urgent need to increase domestic public financing through taxes, fees and royalties besides seeking for international financing," Gondo told delegates attending a regional workshop on sharing of information, knowledge and experiences in African forestry.
"It is unfortunate that despite the availability of funding at the international level, few countries from Africa are benefiting while majority are yet to benefit," he added.
Gondo attributed the low uptake of funding to lack of capacity from national experts to design projects to meet the requirements and lack of information on which funds are earmarked for forests.
He urged governments to present multi-sectoral project proposals instead of presenting separate ones for water, energy, agriculture and tourism.
"Single proposals are weak and does not attract ready funding unless the requests are linked to conservation of biodiversity, climate change and land degradation," he added.
The official noted that forests are capable of improving national economies but only if they are recognized.
"There is need to develop effective and efficient forest financing strategies for mobilizing resources from all sources," Gondo said.
Alternatively, Gondo urged governments to involve the private sector to access appropriate financial instruments and give them enabling environment.
The UN official said that alternative sources of funding such as from tourism levy are capable of helping transform the forestry sector into serious revenue generation base for the countries.
