Non-wood goods and services: Sudan

Mohammed Ezeldeen	Abdel Rahim Osman
Coordinator for the National	Head of Afforestation
Forest Inventory	Administration

Introduction

This report covers the production, use, importance and other various topics concerning the non-wood forest products in the Sudan.

Sudan lies almost entirely within the tropics, between latitudes 21° 55N - 3° 53N and longitudes 21° 54 E and 38° 31 E. It is one of the largest countries in Africa (2 505 813 km²). This large area covers different climatical changes from desert in the north up to the high rainfall savanna in the south.

The population is estimated at 26 million and the country receives its principal revenue from agriculture and animal resources.

Non-wood goods and services

The important nwfps on the national level is gum (eg. Gum Arabic – Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal, gum loban-Baswellia pappyrifera, gum tartar -sterecutia setigera.)

The Sudanese use nwfps for a variety of purposes, some of the products are used as:

Food (eg dom – Hyphane thebaiea, doleib – Borassus acthiapum, gudiem – Grewia tenax, aradeib-tamarindus indica, gongleiz - Adansonia degitata, laloub – Balanites aegyptiaca, nabag-ziziphas spp.)

Medicinal plants (eg gongleiz, aradeib, gudeim, garad-Acacia nilotica, senamaeca-cassia senna, arak-salvadora persica.)

Fibres (eg saaf-Borassus acthiopum.)

Tannis (eg garad-Acacia nilotica.)

Dyestuffs (eg henna-lawsonia inermis.)

Beewax The important nwfps on the local level are:

Fodder (eg zizphus spp., Acacia spp.)

Edible oils (eg sheabutter – Butyrospermum parkii, laloub-Balanites aegypticaca.)

Honey Recently, NWFPS started to gain considerable importance in Sudan because of the following reasons:

1. NWFPs are developing good market value.

2. The use of NWFPs as food is becoming more familiar.

3. During the critical periods of droughts and famine some of the NWFPs were the only available food stuff.

4. Increased public awareness about the socio-cultural use of the NWFPs.

5. The exponential development in the use of NWFPs in many industries.

Due to the above remarks, intensive utilization took place and lead to negative affection of the resource base.

Most of the NWFPs mentioned are exploited from natural resources (eg food and fodder products.) Only henna (Lawsonia inermis) is cultivated, but gum spp. and Acacia spp. beside growing in natural stands have been widely planted.

The NWFPs are collected by men, women and children during the harvesting season from natural forests in remote areas and nearby stands.

The destination of the NWFPs for internal use are (dom, saaf, laban, garad, gongliz, aradeib, senameca, henna.) For export (gum Arabic, aradeib, gum loban, gongliez, henna, senamaeca.)

Trends of utilization are highly increased from 1988-1998 due to fair rainy seasons.

PRODUCT			RESOURCE				ECONOMIC VALUE
NWFP	Importance	Trade Name	Key species	Part Used	Production System	Source	Destination	Quantity, Value	Remarks	Literature
Plants and plant products
Food	1	Nabag	Zizphus spp	f	F,O	W	N	8890 tons	Also used as fodder	Demand survey 1995*
	1	Laoub	B. aegyptica	f	F,O	W	N	5590 tons	-
	1	Gongleiz	Adansonia digitata	f	O	W	N	146370 tons	-
	1	Aradeib	Tamarindus indica	f	O	W	1	1530 tons
	1	Gudeim	Grewia tenax	f	O	W	N	140 tons
	1	Dom	Hyphaene thebaica	f	F,P,O	W, C	N	-	-
	2	Doleib	Borassus aethiopum	f	F,O	W	N	-	-
Fodder	2	Acacia spp.	Acacia spp.	1, f	F,P,O	W, C	N	-	-	National forests inventory 1997
	2	Nabag	Ziziphus spp.	1, f	F,O	W	N	-	-	-
Edible oils	2	Shea B.	Putyrospena	se	F,O	W,C	N	-	first fruiting 12-15 yrs	(IRCC) 1997
	2	(Lulu) Laloub	Balanities aegyptica	se	F,P,O	W	N	-	Laundary Soap	-
Fibres	1	Saaf	Borassus acthiapum Hyphaene thebaica	1 1	F,O F,P,O	W W,C	N N	6100 tons	-	*
Tannis	1	Garad	Acacia niltica	se	F,P,O	W,C	N	1020 tons	-	*
Dyestuffs	1	Henna	Lawsonia inermis	1	O	C	N	2925 tons	-	*

Edible seed	2	Gimkeel	Cordia Africana	se	F,O	W	N	23	-	-
Bamboo	1	Ganna	ox. Abyssinjea	st	F,P	W,C	N	-	-	-
Medicinal Plants	1 1 1 1 1 1	Gongleiz Aradeib Gudeim Garad senameca arak	A. digitata T.s indica Grewia tenax Acacia nilotica Cassia senna Aslvadora persiea	f f f se se p	O O O F,P,O F,O F,P,O	w w w w,c w w,c	N N N N N N	909 tons	909 tons used as tooth brush	-
Gums	1 1 1 1	G. arabic (Hashab) G. arabic (Talha) G.loban G. tartar	A. Senegal A. seyal Baswellia papyrifera Stereculia setigera	-	F,P,O F,P,O F F	W,C W,C W W	1 1 1 1	1705	Tapping natural exudation	*
Animal and animals products
Honey Beewax silk (under research)	2 1	-	-	-	-	-	N,1 N,1	exportation of 4t worth 1000 USD exportation of 14t worth 41000 USD in 1985	-	Daoud 1998 Isola 1994

Importance given to NWFP: 1-important on the national level; 2-important on the local level; 3-important but not documented; 4-not important; 5-no information regarding the importance
Part used: fruit (f); nuts (n); flowers (fl); leaves (l); bark (b); roots ® seeds (se); stem (st); whole plant (p)
Production system: F-natural forest or other wooded land; P-plantation; O-other (e.g.) trees outside forests, agroforestry, homegardens)
Source: W-wild; C-cultivated
Destination: N-national; 1-international