This synthesis report on forest genetic resources covers 11 countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) with significant dry zone areas. It excludes Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Seychelles, which together with the 11 countries make up the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC). The report is largely based on the country reports prepared by the different countries and presented at the Second Regional Training Workshop on Forest Genetic Resources for Easteren and Southern African Countries, 6-10 December 1999, Nairobi, Kenya and the SADC Regional Workshop on Forest and Tree Gnetic Resources, 5-9 June 2000, Arusha, Tanzania. The 11 countries have a combined land area of 554.9 million ha and a population of 130.6 million people. Forests cover approximately 152.2 million ha, which is 27.4% of the total land area of the 11 countries. Of this total forest area, 98.5% is natural forest while the remainder of 1.5% is under exotic forest plantation. Exotic forest plantations cover an area of 2.3 million ha and 68.9% of the sub region’s total is in South Africa. Three countries namely Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia do not have commercial exotic forest plantations except for some woodlots established for the provision of fuelwood and poles for general farm construction. In all the 11 countries covered, forests provide goods and services such as fuelwood, grazing, food security, medicines, woodcrafts, timber, biodiversity, water catchments, soil conservation, eco-tourism, etc. More than 50% of the households in the 11 countries use fuelwood as a source of energy and this has been estimated to be about 96.1 million m3 of wood. The deforestation rate among 11 SADC countries is highest in Zambia and Malawi where it averages -2.4% and is lowest in Swaziland where there has been a net gain in forest cover of 1.2%. The greatest threat to the forest genetic resources in the SADC countries is from the conversion of forestland to agriculture, a high dependence on wood as an energy source, uncontrolled late forest fires, illegal logging and the threat of invasive alien tree species. Although a number of forest tree species were identified as being under threat of extinction or genetic impoverishment in some individual countries, the threat may be lower at regional level as their distribution in most cases, span across two or more countries. Individual countries identified tree species requiring conservation, improvement and seed procurement. In Mauritius, only one specimen of Hyophorbe amaricaulis is now known to be left in the country while Warbugia salutaris, a medicinal plant is under severe threat in both Mozambique and Zimbabwe. From an analysis of the individual country reports, it was apparent that although all the 11 SADC countries have now established functional Tree Seed Centres, their role in ex situ conservation of tree species appears to be weak. Much of the conservation of forest genetic resources in the 11 countries is principally by in situ, from the many forest reserves, national parks and game reserves whose establishment were however based on other considerations such as protection of water catchments, provision of commercial timber, protection and conservation of fauna, etc. Most countries have now updated their legislation, particularly that which pertains to forestry but the land tenure system in most countries is likely to remain an impediment to the effective management of forests by individuals and communities. Among the identified programmes for research and cooperation is the long-term storage of recalcitrant seed for ex situ conservation, domestication and genetic improvement of some indigenous fruit tree species, propagation and co-management or community management of natural forests. The SADC has sound training facilities, which offer training from diploma level to higher degree level.
