Forest Policy, Economics, and Markets in Zambia

Philimon Ng’andwe is a Forest Industries technologist and Lecturer in Biomaterials sciences and technology at the Copperbelt University, Zambia. He has worked both in government institutions and the private sector. Philimon teaches wood anatomy, wood preservation and forest products technologies, markets and trade and has industrial and academic work experience in wood and non-wood forest products spanning over 25 years. Philimon’s research interests include both science and commerce: wood properties and anatomy, renewable bio-energy, and domestication of edible wild root, tubers and bulbs and monitoring green house gas emissions from forests industry, natural forests and wetlands. He has collaborated with the wood industry in various ways including finding solutions that enhances the forestry sector’s potential to increase its contribution to the national economy. Currently he is coordinating three projects: (1) Interim Environmental Fund Project in Central Province for domestication of edible wild roots, tuber and bulbs (2) Zambezi North South -South for teacher and student capacity building and international mobility (3) the Zambian wood web based wood xylarium database. Dr. Ambayeba Muimba-Kankolongo, Lecturer at Carleton Uiniversity in Ottowa, Canada, has worked for more than 30 years assisting National Agricultural Research Services (NARS) and small-scale farmers in Central and Southern Africa. His career began as a researcher in Plant Pathology for a USAID-funded project National Cassava Program (PRONAM) of the Ministry of Agriculture in DR Congo. He is an Agricultural Engineer with MS and PhD degrees in Agriculture, and majored in Plant Pathology with minors in Plant Breeding and International Agriculture at Cornell University.