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1. Forest Resources in Eritrea

The forest ecosystem of Eritrea has been seriously affected due to the unscientific and improper management and misuse of the natural resources over the past century or so. The Italians, during their occupation of Eritrea, made excessive tree felling for timber extraction and wildlife hunting was practised leading to overall degradation of the environment. The Italian colonial policy had impact on the environment. During the colonial rule (1890s-1941) 300,000 hectares of forestland were converted into agricultural land (Alexander, 1998). During the colonial period little measure was taken to plant new areas or enrich the existing forest areas nor to protect and manage sustainably. In 1993, 11,000 hectares of forestland were issued to private investors (Consultative Workshop, 1996). From 1995-1999 the Ministry of Local Governments (MoLG) and the MoA granted about 60,000 hectares in concessions (World Bank, 2000). And applications covering about 50,000 hectares large area are under consideration (Consultative Workshop, 1996). These State lands were reserved for concession agriculture to cultivate cash crops such as cotton, banana and citrus fruits. The promotion of this land policy has forced peasants from the densely populated highland of Eritrea to move into the less populated Western Lowlands. The availability of land has allowed the easy accommodation of new comers. The settlement of the new comers has accompanied the cutting of trees not only for building their houses, but also for fuelwood and cultivation purposes. The settlers mainly engaged in agriculture although they practiced some animal husbandry, which required some grazing land. All these activities exacerbated environmental degradation in Eritrea.

The process of deforestation continued during the War-of Liberation by the invading Ethiopian Army and by the population at large for the need of additional agricultural land, fuelwood and timber, and by overgrazing.

Frequent droughts in the past few decades have exacerbated the precarious environmental situation. The process of degradation has been so rapid in this short time that agriculture, rangelands and important catchment areas were subjected to serious soil erosion with negative consequences on soil fertility, crop yield, water retention capacity and silting of down-stream reservoirs. Presently, the vegetation cover of Eritrea is about 13.5 % of the total land area, a substantial drop from estimates made about a century ago of 30 %.

Alarmed by such a precarious state of the environment, the Government of the State of Eritrea (GoSE) introduced a number of measures soon after the liberation of the country. The total ban on cutting live trees, hunting or the capture of wildlife and also on charcoal making, was introduced, and is still in force. Parallel to these control measures, the Government mobilised the rural population and high school students to plant the hillside catchment areas and encouraged the closure of denuded hills and woodlands for natural regeneration, planting along roadsides, homesteads and schools.

On the policy side the Government prepared a National Environment Management Plan for Eritrea (NEMP-E) in early 1995, following an extensive discussion with the population and an international conference that endorsed the Management Plan. At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture, (MoA), continued to strengthen its institutional base in order to improve its support services, some of which, such as research, had to be established from scratch.

Until recently, MoA’s effort in forestry had focused on afforestation of the denuded hillside catchment and on capacity building. Little attention was given to natural forests /woodlands and wildlife conservation and development. However, this is now changing as MoA proposes to deal with the conservation of important forest areas and ecosystems that have particular characteristics in terms of their forest and wildlife biodiversity. The Ministry also intends to continue encouraging tree planting in the context of agroforestry, or tree farming and building its institutional capacity.

The natural forests of Eritrea can be classified into 6 main categories (See Table 2). They are:

Highland Forests: These are composed of a mixture of coniferous species (Juniperus procera) and broad-leaved species (Olea africana) and other associated species.

Mixed woodlands of Acacia and associated species occurring mainly in the southern part of the Western Lowlands, but also in restricted areas elsewhere in the country.

Bush or Shrub vegetation, which is dominant cover in Eritrea.

Grassland to Wooded Grassland, which occurs in many parts of the country.

Riverine Forests composed especially of tamarinds (Tamarix apphylla) and doum palm (Hyphanae thabaica) which are common in the Western Lowlands and are frequent in the Eastern Lowlands; and

Mangroves occurring in many spots along the coast and concentrated mainly around the port of Assab and between Tio and the port of Massawa.

Generally the highland forests are heavily disturbed, except for a few well-conserved sites, and are highly fragmented, ranging from patches of a few hectares up to several thousands. The actual distribution suggests that all the highlands and large parts of the escarpments constitute the natural range of this forest type.

 

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