simply forest ecosystem management strategies require scientific knowledge. Science and technology outputs generally are not consumed by forest users. If current weaknesses in forest science and technology efforts persist, the gap between developed and developing countries in the adoption of sustainable forest management practices could grow. Limited application of scientific advances to a few elite segments of the forest sector will contrast sharply with the lag in the rest of the sector resulting from insufficient research and development efforts, especially in the management of indigenous forests and those catering to local needs. The narrow pursuit of commercial profits could increase society’s
vulnerability to unforeseen environmental and socioeconomic changes.

 There is an urgent need to strengthen scientific capacity, especially in countries where it remains poor such as in the Congo Basin countries. The signed statutes establishing the Conference of Ministers in charge of Forests in Central Africa (COMIFAC), in 2002, is an important step towards transboundary management policies of forests for sustainable development. Common views, common goals and joint efforts can lead to shared benefits within the subregion (FAO, 2003b).

2.3.5 Processing, value addition and utilization
Forests are stocks of raw materials. Africa brings the highest proportion (58%) of non-value added forest products into world markets. This means that SSA is mainly supplying the raw materials and that its forest industry remains poor. For example, despite the availability of forests in the SSA, most consumed paper is imported (only 2.2% is value-added) (FAO, 2005b).

2.4 Fisheries and Aquaculture

2.4.1 Fish species and other aquatic species from fisheries and aquaculture
It has been estimated that about 210 million people in SSA, constituting about 30% of the population, are food insecure and this number is expected to rise (FAO, 2003a). Many poor in SSA are dependent on marine and inland capture fisheries and fish from aquaculture for their protein requirement and livelihoods. Fish protein constitutes about 22% of overall animal protein and per capita fish consumption is barely 6.7 kg per person a year, less than the average of the developing world (FAO, 2003a). Rural fishing communities generally have a higher percentage of people living below the poverty line than the national average (Whittingham et al., 2003). The high rate of poverty in rural fishing communities results in intensification of individual fishing efforts and subsequent overcapitalization and overexploitation of capture fisheries.

 About 10 million people in SSA make their living as fishers. The majority are small-scale fishers, fish processors and traders. There are far more fishers than what many small-scale fisheries can sustain. As a result, catch levels are generally above their maximum sustainable yield levels. Moreover, overfishing further exacerbates the loss of economic rent from the fishery, increases poverty and the loss of livelihoods and decreases food security (Fisheries Opportunities Assessment, 2006).

           Demand for fish as food and feed doubled between the 1970s and 1990s, with the developing world responsible for over 90% of this growth. The production of food fish from capture in SSA was 2.1 million tonnes in 1973 and 3.7 million tonnes in 1997 while the production from aquaculture was 11.7 million tonnes in 1997 (FAO, 2000a). This production represented a 4% share of the world’s total in 1997 and projections to 2020 bring this share to 5%. The production of molluscs from aquaculture in the SSA region is nil (FAO, 2000a), while only 3,000 tonnes of crustaceans were produced between 1973 and 1997.

In many SSA countries, capture fisheries have ill-defined use rights. The resource is usually owned by the state but managed as “regulated open access”. Thus, fishers could harvest any quantity of fish if they comply with regulations set by central or local authorities. It has been argued that community-based resources are not generally overexploited as predicted by Hardin’s “tragedy of the commons”. However, if the group using the resource is relatively unstable, if the members of the group do not have adequate information about the condition of the resource and if information about the expected flow of benefits and costs is not available at a low cost to the resource users, there may be little incentive for the community to design rules to manage the resource (Ostrom, 2000).

 Unfortunately, there is free mobility of fish stocks across communities and countries. Moreover, some of the fisheries are characterized by unpredictable seasonal growth rates due to upwellings. In some cases, state institutions have enacted conflicting policies at different points in time, which inevitably created mistrust between fisheries departments and fishers. Furthermore, inadequate policies of regulatory authorities provide opportunity for self-interested fishers to use illegal fishing technologies. For example, mesh size regulations in multi-species fisheries, with small and large pelagic species, are considered illegitimate by many fishers and are therefore heavily violated in many fishing communities. Moreover, capture fisheries regulations are generally poorly enforced as a result of limited budgets in state institutions responsible for enforcement, corrupt enforcement officers who solicit bribes from violators and an unenthusiastic judiciary that assigns minimum or no punishment to violators of fishing regulations. Commercial fishers, who use fishing vessels compete with local fishers for inshore fish stocks, degrade habitat and interrupt the fish food chain (Sterner, 2003). This has often led to conflicts and loss of property.

In 2001 aquaculture output in SSA was about 55,000 tonnes, about 0.15% of world food aquaculture output. Between 1970 and 2000 the annual average growth rates in aquaculture output was 8.8% compared to the global average of 9.2% (FAO, 2003b). Although the practice has been around since the 1850s and 1920s in South Africa and Kenya respectively, it is fairly new to many SSA countries.

The total production of food fish in SSA in 1997 was 3.7 million tonnes and may almost double by the year 2020. SSA is exporting an important part of its fish production into the world market (under various produce/product schemes: low-value food fish, high-value finfish, fish oil, etc.). This global picture shows high variation between individual countries in region. For example, Senegal, Mauritania, Na-