NAIROBI, May 7 (Xinhua) -- African governments should create opportunities for local communities to promote sustainable forest management, a scientist said on Tuesday.

Godwin Kowero, executive secretary of Africa Forest Forum (AFF), said the incorporation of local communities in forest management will help increase forest cover to the recommended percentage.

"Local communities are strategic partners in harnessing the potential of forest and tree resources to supporting livelihoods and management of climate change effects," Kowero told journalists in Nairobi.

He said Africa's forests are under extreme pressure due to agricultural expansion that leads to extensive deforestation, forest and land degradation, and that the pressure can only reduce when stakeholders are fully engaged.

"We are trying to restore the integrity, functionality, as well as resilience of the forests as well as creating opportunity for populations to benefit," he added.

Kowero noted that the AFF is providing a platform that facilitates change in the forestry sector to cultivate shifts in perceptions, priorities, values, capacities and skills to bear on subsequent impact on forestry.

Africa's forests are critical to agricultural development since they serve as a reservoir for additional agricultural land and increasingly supports irrigated agriculture as most rivers in the continent originate from the forest belts, the scientist said.

"Forests are critical to the socio-economic development and environmental stability of the continent and they underline human, animal and plant survival on the continent," Kowero added.

He said Africa's forests contribute 21 percent of total global carbon stock held in forests but the annual value of trade in non-timber forest products is largely unknown since these products are traded informally.