A carpentry class organized by the project. Local timber is being used to make furniture that can be sold to create an income for the community. - - Support for Community Forestry and Wildlife Management: GCP/MOZ/056/NET. The project "Support for Community Forestry and Wildlife Management" started its activities in 1997 and will run for a period of five years to assist Mozambique institutions in the development and implementation of their policies for community involvement in sustainable forest management.

The project has three components, directly related to its immediate objectives. It aims to:

-Motivate rural communities and make them capable of caring for and managing the natural resources that surround them for their own benefit;
-Provide an institutional environment for the implementation of community forestry and wildlife management by strengthening the forest services at national, provincial and local levels with regard to the legal status and land use rights of the communities; and
-Provide formal forestry education and strengthen forestry research to support the implementation of community-based natural resources management.

Field activities are concentrated in the Provinces of Maputo and Nampula, those with the highest deforestation rates in the country. The deforestation is mainly caused by poor agricultural productivity associated with high population growth, forest fires and high demand for fuelwood both in urban and rural areas. The local communities are being supported through the Provincial Forest and Wildlife Services so they can gradually assume the management of the Narini Community Forest, comprising an area of 12 000 ha. The area is now being used for community-based management for sustainable timber and fuelwood production, carpentry as well as non-wood forest products.

The forest is an important source of timber (produced by pitsawing) and fuelwood, and a key source of income and food security for the 600 families that live in