Countries

Forestry policies, institutions and programmes

The Ministry of Agriculture has full responsibility for development of the forestry sector, including the management of catchment areas. The central divisions responsible for the various subsectors and their local counterparts all come under the General Forestry Directorate, which was created in 1995 and comprises the following seven directorates: the Forest Heritage Management Directorate, the Land Development and Desertification Control Directorate, the Plant and Animal Wildlife Directorate, the Planning Directorate, the Resource Administration Directorate, and two research directorates falling directly under the Director-General of Forests.

The country is divided into 48 wilayas, each of which has a Forest Conservation Service headed by a Forest Warden.

The General Forestry Directorate is responsible for sustainably managing and administering the national forest heritage, developing land, combating desertification, monitoring and developing plant and animal wildlife, planning forestry activities and carrying out studies.

The National Institute for Forest Research was established in 1981 as an autonomous public institution under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Policies
Algeria has to cope with rapid deforestation, a decrease in the productivity of rangelands and an increase in damage from erosion and sedimentation in dams. Despite these pressing problems, the proportion of funding allocated to this sector under public investment programmes has remained more or less unchanged, at about 2 percent of the total.

The government¿s goals for the long-term development of this sector are as follows:

• the protection and improvement of catchment areas, improvement of mountain zones and ongoing combating of desertification in the south, with a view to reducing erosion and the silting-up of dams and increasing rural incomes, thereby checking migration to urban areas;
• improved management of existing forest resources, including the expansion of forests wherever possible, which entails greater protection and more rational use of wood and fodder resources;
• the introduction of new technologies and the boosting of research with a view to modernizing the sector, reducing costs and increasing the participation of farmers and herders in forest management and catchment area development.

Legislation
The basic law governing Algerian forests is the 1984 General Forestry Law (Law 84-12), together with implementation decrees and orders. The law states that all existing forests and other woody vegetation, as well as areas that could be developed, whether State or common lands, are classified as national forest and governed by the General Forestry Law. Private forests are also managed in accordance with this law. Forests are divided into three main categories, according to needs: production forests, protection forests and special-interest forests (parks, reserves and forests of military or scientific interest).

Last updated: May 2003