Assessing the effectiveness of joint forest management in Southern Burkina Faso : A SWOT-AHP analysis

Abstract

We analyzed the perceptions of resource persons from three stakeholder groups on the benefits, challenges and opportunities offered by joint forest management (JFM) in the Ziro province of Southern Burkina Faso. In other words, a strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) approach in combination with an analytic hierarchy process (AliP) was applied. Results reveal that resource persons of the three stakeholder groups perceive the positive aspects of JFM to outweigh the negative aspects. In addition, favorable institutional setup received the highest overall factor score for strength. Inadequate enforcement of the management plans is the weakness with the highest score and the overall priority score for weaknesses was highest for resource persons from the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MESD). On the other hand, better community relations received the highest overall factor for opportunities while uncertainty in decision making at higher levels was perceived as the most important threat to JFM in the Ziro province of Southern Burkina Faso. Therefore, differences in views and addressing realities on the ground requires the participation of all stakeholders in the design, implementation and follow-up of JFM to arrive at a consensus that is capable of delivering the twin challenges of environmental protection and rural development.