It is recognised that the main constraint of not having available data and information on non-wood forest products lays on the fact that the sector in charge has not yet defined adequate mechanisms to value them in terms of its economic contribution, although it is recognised that large part of the population is dependent of forest and forest products.
Angola has an important potential of indigenous melifera plants apart from large plantations of Eucalyptus spp., almost non-exploited for beekeeping activities. There are five provinces everywhere in Angola. Beekeeping activities are particularly left by farmers for subsistence production, while during the past, it was one of the income sources for the traditionally known for as producers of honey, i.e. Benguela, Bié, Huambo, Moxico and Namibe provinces, at least in the past. However, it is reported that feral honeybee colonies are found national economy, since production, trades and exports. The industrial sector producing commercial honey and wax in the country was completely collapsed soon after independence.
Currently, it is not exactly known neither the number of people engaged in beekeeping activities nor the production of honey. According to the sellers of these products, one of the only ways of obtaining honey is to buy it from farmers in the neighbouring provinces surrounding Luanda City. The movement of honey is not adequately reported, although the existence of the Beekeeping sector in the institution.
According to information from the Forestry Department, a training of trainers was undertaken at the beginning of 1998 to 1999 in three provinces, namely Huambo, Benguela and Moxico. European Union through NESA – European Core for Food Security, an international NGO’s, financed the project. The main objective of the training was to enable selected field staff of the Institute of Forestry Development to gain new skills and know-how technologies in view of assisting the communities undertaking involved in traditional beekeeping activities to improve their production and quality of honey harvested.
Eighty-five (85) participants of the three provinces above attended the training mentioned; it based on the combination of theory and practice activities. During practices, a room was open to the communities in order to learn new technologies of making apiaries, using both, indigenous and modern material and means. As result, communities have accepted these innovations and make use of them, and as indicators, production and quality of honey increased and improved.
The cost of the training was estimated at about USD 12,500.00, conducted by a national expert after being trained in Portugal for one-year period.
The Moxico province, one the traditional area where during the colonial era was a greater producer of honey with small commercial factories producing honey and wax, achieved 706 litres of honey last year, while this was not observed in a few past. Unfortunately other provinces are not reported, thus, the situation in terms of production is not known.
There is no doubt that the institution responsible will not at a short run sustain training programme to capacitate its staff as far as financial support is concerned, and also, beekeeping is not a priority for the forestry sector.
The country was one of the excellent wax producer in Africa until 1975 as it has been the case of almost all agricultural products. Nowadays, same to honey, data with regard to this product are practically non-existent after independence. However, the Department Forest reported that the communities who benefited from this training have started producing wax in some of the areas. For a long time they have no paid attention to beewax production because the commercialisation
If this product has no importance. During the colonial period, wax was one of the greatest main resources of Moxico province. However, after the independence the production decreased, the factories went down, the export of the product broken and the populations which beewax production was their principal activity have abandoned this field.
As mentioned above, there are at about 5000 to 8000 plant species in Angola. Medicinal plants are found and known in every rural area of Angola and in a few occasions in the urban area. If it is recognised its social, cultural and spiritual value, the economic value remains still a concern. Consequently, it is evident that its contribution to the national economy be relatively ignored if not completely forgotten.
Few have been done in terms of research in the country. Mr. Azanco de Meneses, a national botanist undertook some researches on this regard, but it was not be possible to find some of his few results. Mrs. Manuela Batalha, also a national researcher and specialist in medicinal plants has done research in this field.
All primitive societies practised plant medicine and almost all medicine were obtained entirely from plant sources. In much of the developing world where it is recorded that about 70% of the population are rural dwellers and isolated from allophatic medical practice, therefore, the dependence on plant medicine is very high. It is accepted that about 25% of modern drugs are directly or indirectly derived from plant products.
In Angola abound medicinal plants, which with informed development. Its sustainable exploitation can support health and basic needs of its population. However, in the process of development, attention needs to be paid to factors related to finance, personnel, technology and necessary conditions to be put in place in order to ensure that the nation gets full benefits from the natural but exhaustible resources. Many sectors including the University must be involved.
The population of Angola uses medicinal plants, especially where modern medicine is scarce. However the transition of this product from an area to another is not almost a concern to the forestry sector. In the last sectoral annual report of 1998, root plants, without any specification, represented only 90 kg.
In the course of this study, despite of time limitation, few visits were conducted to three markets of Luanda in order to assess at least the trading of medicinal plants and other Non-Wood Forest Products (Annex 1).
In Angola like almost everywhere in Africa, the contribution of fauna even ignored by decision-makers, plays an important role mainly in rural areas, where the access to traditional meat from cow and other domestic animals is difficult and food scarcity in certain regions is very acute. Fishery and hunting are two complementary activities as main sources of protein for many inhabitants, including those living in urban and peri-urban areas.
Apart from animals found in the parks and reserves, it is not a surprise to find big groups of animal population almost in every province of the country. In certain areas, hunting is the main man activity, generally related to traditional and ethnic aspects, including fishery.
There are three kinds of hunting recognised in Angola, i.e. shifting, commercial and sport hunting. The first type of hunting largely practised by most of rural inhabitants is one of causing less damages to the animal population, whereas means used are still antique and traditional.
Quantity of bushmeat from its provenance is very difficult if not impossible to evaluate and this is certainly due to weakness structure of the sector in charge. Also to stress that the State almost never acts strongly face to this kind of hunting, being the only way to rural inhabitants to obtain meat to feed their families. It is also their right to make use of forest products as main actors contributing to the management of forest resources. Finally, this hunting is generally practised out of parks and reserves.
Commercial hunting is one of the most important and critical, whereas permit is needed. First, the number of hunters registered last year (1998) is relatively very low, at about 164, while in the field it appears to be over 1,000 escaping to the control of the game rangers. The means used for hunting by most of this group are really sophisticated and in Angola, the unrest situation has contributed to the dissemination of guns in possession of civilians. The light control made to this group, for many reasons, may be one of the causes of ravaging significant number of animals.
It is very impressed, reported an officer of the Department of Inspection and Control of IDF, the everyday number of animal, quantity of bushmeat and smoked fish entering Luanda without permit, while the quantity registered per year by the sector in charge can be compared to a one-week movement (Table 1).
There are many cases of prohibited species such as the elephant, rhino, hippopotamus and others generally preferred by commercial hunters for the obtainance of valuable trophies like ivory and skin. At least one of this case was reported last year in the statistics of the Institute of Forestry Development, but game rangers and some responsible of the sector in charge admit the existence of several of these cases.
Table 1 Movement of bushmeat in some provinces of angola in 1999
Province |
Quantity |
Value in 000 Kzr |
Total | ||
No of spp. |
Kg |
Product |
Penalty, 30% | ||
|
Total |
673 |
683 |
|
|
12,641,157 |
* Almost all bushmeat and animals come from neighbouring provinces
Data presented in the above table reflect the weakness of the Institute of Forestry Development in statistics. Among 18 provinces of the country, only 6 provinces provided data referred to hunting, while this activity takes place in all the provinces. Most of provinces did not specify
The revenue by nature of the products as well as the number and the quantities of products extracted from the forest.
It has not been possible to convert the number of animals into quantity of bushmeat for not having basic criteria. However, as already referred, these are the figures gathered through the reports of the forestry sector, therefore, the mechanisms used to obtain these data are still very weak and remote. There is a need to strengthen these mechanisms.
Table 2 Number of permits issued for hunting purposes in 1999
Province |
No of permits |
Type |
Value in 000 Kzr |
Total |
164 |
|
14,084,894 |
*One permit pertaining to type J
The number of permits registered in country is probably true, but it is also true that the number of hunters is several times higher compared to the one presented to this table. It is without saying that it may rise thousands among of which, including poachers.
Table 3 General picture of nwfp at national level in 1998
Nature of NWFP |
Quantity |
Value in 000 Kzr | |
No of product |
Kg | ||
Animal |
1617**
|
683’ 637.6000 litr. 4395 |
12,641,157 |
* only 81 traditional beekeepers registered in Moxico
province
** dead animals
’ bushmeat
” inland fish considered as NFP in Angola Forestry Sector
There is of course, a range of Non-Wood Forest Products in use in Angola and this is due to its large variety of forest resources, habit, and at some extent to the scarcity of food generalised in the country. As already mentioned these figures are just simple indicators.
The contribution to the national economy is certainly very low comparing to what was achieved during the last year, corresponding to almost USD 20.000 (USD 1 to Kzr. 686.000), therefore, with these figures, efforts to develop the sector can be completely ignored by decision-makers.
Table 4 List of main animal species hunted in the country in 1998
|
Local name |
Scientific name |
Bambi castanha |
Cephalophus leucochilus |
