ABSTRACT
The chapter documents ACM embeddedness in a Model Forests transformative change attempt to plant the seeds of a collaborative ecological economy in Central Africa. It introduces the forest ‘poverty paradox’ and related challenges for participatory engagements. It then highlights the ‘inversion’ of the African forest economy, criticizing the blindness of environmental ideologies and interventions to that disability and to their responsibility in maintaining conditions of African structural poverty. The chapter explains Africa’s criticality and considers future options from the ground up. The chapter’s central objective is to question and rethink the roles and ambitions of participatory engagements for local democratic governance in Africa, emphasizing the ‘poverty paradox’ and its momentous significance.
The authors draw lessons from their Model Forest experience in Central Africa, regarding the emergence of communities of practice, the transformative power of people-centered innovation, and the construction of territorial identities. They briefly discuss the Model Forest program’s accomplishments, along with the dire limitations of such processes without independent long-term investments. The team’s experience led them to recognize that the substantial benefits of participatory governance, though essential, cannot meet their full potential, until they manifest in the economy, thereby meeting the people’s demands for a better, more secure life.
