Nairobi, March 21 -- Both Finland and Tanzania have in some ways a similar forest management history, when both were under foreign rule, the forest resources were placed under top-down state control that undermined customary forest management and created de facto 'open access'.

In both countries this top-down control and de facto open access contributed to forest destruction, rampant uncontrolled forest clearance and destructive use practices. At one point Tanzania had the 5th highest global rate of deforestation, and in Finland at the time 'slash and burn' practices in the forest were rampant.

After independence, it became increasingly clear to both governments that the only way to save the forest and the livelihoods of local people th...