As indicated in chapter 2, the new forest legislation distinguishes four broad forest categories: state forests, community forests, private forests, and national parks/nature reserves. The latter category is administered and managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife.
Table 8: Forests under controlled management
|
DIVISION |
Forested |
Control management (ha) |
No management/protection (ha) |
|||||||||
|
land 1) |
Forest |
Community control |
Community |
Private |
Total |
Forest |
Forest |
Total |
||||
|
(ha) |
parks |
state forest |
forests |
forest |
ha |
% |
parks |
reserves |
ha |
% |
||
|
Western |
73,300 |
3,355 |
0 |
6,203 |
100 |
9,658 |
13.2 |
512 |
63,130 |
63,642 |
86.8 |
|
|
Lower River |
66,500 |
1,758 |
0 |
3,465 |
0 |
5,223 |
7.9 |
4,431 |
56,846 |
61,277 |
92.1 |
|
|
Central River |
154,600 |
7,233 |
0 |
5,924 |
0 |
13,157 |
8.5 |
10,412 |
131,031 |
141,443 |
91.5 |
|
|
Upper River |
113,200 |
858 |
0 |
1.565 |
0 |
2,423 |
2.1 |
2,178 |
108,599 |
11.,777 |
97.9 |
|
|
North Bank |
41,200 |
0 |
0 |
230 |
0 |
230 |
0.6 |
3,290 |
37,680 |
40,970 |
99.4 |
|
|
The Gambia |
448,80 |
13,204 |
0 |
17,387 |
100 |
30,691 |
6.8 |
20,823 |
397,286 |
418,109 |
93.2 |
|
1)
Without forested national parks/reserves and without mangrove forestsSource: Thoma & Sillah (1999)
Table 9: Proportion of forest categories under management
|
Forest type categories |
Total area |
Area % |
Description |
|
Forest parks |
32,729 |
6.5 |
Forest reserves managed by Forestry Department |
|
Community forests |
17,387 |
3.3 |
Forest managed by designated communities |
|
Private Forests |
100 |
0.09 |
Forest growing or planted on privately owned lands |
|
Protection forests |
- |
Forest managed for the main purpose of maintaining or improving the local environment |
|
|
Protected forests |
74,00 |
14.4 |
All mangroves and riverine forests managed by Forestry Department |
|
State forests |
388284 |
75.7 |
All other remaining forest under the control of Forestry Department except if they exist in National parks or in nature reserves |
|
Total |
512,500 |
99.99 |
Source: Based on Danso 1998
State forests comprise the gazetted forest parks and forests reserves. Some 13,204 ha or 39% of the total forest park area of 34,027 ha are at present under management as indicated in table 8. The managed forest park area includes some
2, 135 ha of Gmelina plantations all located in the western part of the country. According to the GFMC, at least a managed forest park area of some 17,000 ha is needed for demonstration and training purposes. The remaining forest park area shall be managed by pursuing other management objectives.
Most of the forest reserves are located on customary village lands. Forest reserves and forest parks not yet under controlled management (i.e. only the licensing system of management) by either adjacent communities or the FD (still some 93% of the countries forest cover) undergo severe deterioration. Those forest reserves are forested areas that are either to be handed over to local communities (community forests), jointly managed with local communities (community controlled state forests -CCSF-), or converted into another land use. A concept for the joint management of forest reserves by the FD and local communities was recently developed. The concept should focuses on communities that have already established their community forest.
Since the inception of community forestry in 1992, some 17,387 ha of community forests are preliminary surveyed and demarcated as indicated in table 8. The actual rate of community forest expansion is roughly estimated at about 4,000 to 6,000 ha per year. The vision of the FD as stipulated in the forest policy (1995 - 2005) is to have some 200,000 ha of community forests established by the year 2005.
Although private forest both natural and plantations are foreseen in the forest policy and legislation, to date only one private Gmelina plantation of about 100 ha exists which was even established before the new policy was formulated. At the moment, the FD’s highest priority is to bring as much as possible of forest reserves under one form of community management. Considering the increasing wood demand, however, the FD should pay equal attention to promoting and supporting private woodlots.
