The Forestry outlook paper for Sudan was carried out as part of a process to prepare the forestry outlook study for Africa towards 2020 (FOSA).
The paper is an in-depth review analysing the status, trends and driving forces shaping Sudan forestry and assessing potential changes in the sector to the year 2020. It examines forestry policies, programmes, and institutional & external influences affecting the sector. It will also take into consideration intersectional linkages. Arriving to present possible guidelines for future developments of the forestry sector through the year 2020.
1.2.1 General outline of Sudan
Sudan is a vast country with an area of 2.5 million km². It is bounded on the east by the Red Sea and on the other sides by nine African nations. The Nile Valley forms the most salient geographical feature of the country.
Sudan’s total population in 1993 was 24.94 million, of which 25.2% was urban. Nearly 8.7% of the total population resided in the three towns making up the capital (Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman). The total population grows at an average of 2.8% per year.
Sudan’s economic growth is dominated by agriculture, which accounts for an estimated 49% of GDP, 55% of employment, and 85% of export earnings in 1999. Among the four main sub sectors, the value of forestry product is generally quoted about 3.3%. However, the Forests National Corporations (FNC) estimated that forestry contributes to the GDP by more than 12% (FNC, 1995). Forestry plays an important role in the national economy that is often under estimated in the national accounting. This role is apparent in its contribution to national energy needs, balance of payments through direct foreign exchange earning, wood supply for construction and employment generation.
1.2.2 Forest Policy, Institutional Strengthening and Capacity-building
Since 1989, the FNC has the responsibility for the co-ordination of forestry development in the Sudan. The FNC will continue to play a major role, providing the necessary policy, planning and administrative framework for forest and woodland management. Since its establishment, the FNC has been instrumental in achieving important changes in forestry. The Corporation emphasises the development of a forestry information system and planning database as part of national capacity building for effective planning, policy analysis and programmes implementation. To obtain reliable estimates of consumption of forest products and a reliable estimate of sustainable supply, FNC carried out:
A Forests Products Consumption Survey (FPCS) in the Sudan (1993-1995); with technical and financial support from FAO/Netherlands Forestry development Project
A National Forest Resources Inventory (NFRI)
The data from the FPCS and the data derived at the completion of the NFRI worked as a strong database for forestry planning and environmental management. A Comprehensive National Strategy (CNS) for socio-economic development 1992-2002 has been formulated and enacted by the Federal Government. The CNS also stressed the importance of taking the environmental dimension into consideration during the process of planning for sustainable development. The CNS is regarded as the provisional Sudan's National Action Plan for Agenda 21.
1.2.3 Current State of Forests
Forests are subdivided according to their origin into two categories:
Natural forests subset of forests composed of tree species known to be indigenous to the area
Plantation forests refer to:
Forests established artificially by afforestation on lands, which previously did not carry forest within living memory
Forests established artificially by reforestation on land, which carried forest before and involving the replacement of the indigenous species by a new and essentially different species or genetic variety
Other wooded land includes the following two categories:
Forest fallow: refers to all woody vegetation deriving from the clearing of natural forest for shifting agriculture.
Shrubs refer to vegetation types where the dominant woody elements are at maturity under 7.6 m in height
The ecological regions are defined with the help of ecological parameters: climate, physiography, and soils. The climatic parameters include mean annual rainfall, rainfall regime, and length of the dry season, relative humidity and temperature. The vegetation can be divided according to the aforementioned parameters, into seven principal types that in general follow the isohyets and form consecutive series from north to south:
Desert
Acacia Desert Scrub
Acacia Short Grass Scrub
Acacia Tall Grass Scrub
Broad-leafed Woodland and Forests
Forest (Gallery Forest, Bowl or Depression Forest and Cloud Forest)
Swamps and Grassland
The forest and woodland area in Sudan is currently amounts to 85.90 million ha, which is continuously being encroached upon by agriculture and urbanisation or otherwise degraded by uncontrolled felling. This area represents 34.5% of the total land area of the country. At 1999 the forest reserves area is about 8.86 million ha, that make 3.6% of the total area of the country. Of which about 7,738,000 ha are in the Northern States, which classified as follows:
Rivirine forests amount to 523,000 ha (under management plan).
Montane forests amount to 180,000 ha (only at Jebel Marra forest the plantation is under management plan).
Dahara forests (Rainfed) amount to 7 million ha
Afforestation and reforestation activities are restricted to areas constituted as reserves and subsequently put under management, almost exclusively owned by FNC. The Afforestation inside forest reserves is 240,000 ha by 1999. Institutional forests such as those owned by agricultural schemes and sugar schemes have tree resource plantations. Community woodlots, private woodlots (natural and planted) are approximately 340,000 ha.
Wood products obtained from Sudan forests include fuel wood (firewood and charcoal), building poles and sawn timber in the form of railway sleepers (rail ties), construction and joinery timber.
The most important non-wood forest product (NWFP) in the Sudan is gum Arabic, which is an exudate of Acacia senegal known as gum hashab and A. seyal known as Gum talh. Gum Arabic is an export commodity and hard currency earner. It plays an important role as a major source of foreign exchange, accounting for about 13.6% of annual export income. In this respect, Sudan commands over 80% of the world's gum Arabic production and trades. Other NWFPs like species yielding edible fruits, which are mostly known only in their specific localities, while a few are known and consumed all over the country through the agency of the trade between State.
For example, the value of exports of NWFPs for the Sudan (mainly gums) has been more than her imports of wood products during last ten years from 1986-1995. This confirms the positive effect of the forest sector on the country's balance of payment. Other benefits are fodder and wildlife utilisation.
The on-going process of environmental degradation is a critical issue that affects the livelihoods of a large sector of the population. Removal of tree cover for crop production, felling trees for fuel wood and building poles in addition to overgrazing are factors that, together with drought conditions, resulted in desertification and consequently, shortage in food crops, and loss of soil fertility. People's awareness about the critical situation and its future consequences and the importance of tree planting and protection is vital for their involvement in the protection and rehabilitation of the environment. It is also proving to be more forceful and apparently sustainable when it is of an income generating nature.
