KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF FORESTS AND FORESTRY IN THE FIVE CASE STUDY COUNTRIES.

This section will analyze, compare and contrast the situation of forests and forestry in the five case study countries, taking into account the similarities and differences in the forest characteristics. Focus here is on the ecological setting of the country and its impact on forest conditions and productivity; the economic significance of forests and how this is perceived by the governments; social functions of forests and its environmental significance in the five case study countries. Furthermore this section recognizes how the characteristics have led to certain sector priorities as defined by the respective governments and other forest users and how these necessarily determines the key stakeholder groups.    

Physical, Population and Economic Indicators

Analysis of the basic data on the five case study countries (Table 1) reveals that Senegal has the least total land area, while Sudan has by far the largest total land area of  the five countries under review. A more important factor that influences the forest sector is the population density and the growing urban population. Again Table 1. shows that Nigeria has a population density of 119.6/Km²  while Namibia has only a population density of 2.1/Km2. The general trend is that the urban population has been growing and this concentration of people in a relatively small area of land has proved catastrophic for the natural resources that support these teaming agglomeration of humans. Gabon has more people living in its cities than in the rural area, while Sudan and Senegal still have 65% and 61% living in the rural areas respectively. Nonetheless, care should be exercised here in drawing conclusion based on this urban/rural population distribution. The mere fact that more people live in cities does not mean less pressure on natural resources if most of these urban dwellers are poor and depend on natural resources (e,g., fuelwood) for their livelihoods. The economic indicators reveal that while in 1997, Gabon has a per capita GNP of 3 985 USD and an annual growth rate GDP of 4.1% Namibia has 131 USD of GNP per capita but a 12.4 % annual growth rate of GDP. It is within the context of these basic parameters of land area, population distribution and economic status, that the forest sector of the five countries operated.

Table 1.  BASIC DATA ON THE FIVE CASE STUDY COUNTRIES

Country	Land Area	Population				Economic indicators
	Total,   1999   (‘000 ha)	Total,   1999   (Thousands)	Density   1999 (Population/km2)	Annual rate of Change, 1995-2000 (%)	Rural   1999   (%)	GNP1 Per capita, 1997   (US$)	Annual growth rate of GDP2, 1997 (%)
Gabon	25 767	1 197	4.6	2.6	45.9	3 985	4.1
Namibia	82 329	1 695	2.1	2.3	61.1	131	12.4
Nigeria	91 077	108 945	119.6	2.4	56.9	239	3.9
Senegal	19 253	9 240	48.0	2.6	53.7	554	5.2
Sudan	237 600	28 883	12.2	2.1	64.9	255	4.6

Source: State of the world’s forests 2001 (FAO 2001)

 

The five case study countries are distributed along a climatic gradient from the desert conditions of northern Sudan, to the Sahelian savanna of northern Nigeria and Senegal to the moist tropical high forests of Gabon and southern Nigeri a. Namibia with its very arid coastal Namib desert and the central plateau, is located along the southwestern part of Africa continent and like Senegal, Nigeria and Gabon  have a coast line at the Atlantic ocean. In contrast Sudan is land locked.

While Gabon is heavily forested with over 80 percent forest cover, Namibia has only 10 percent of its land area under forest cover.  In between the two ends of the spectrum Nigeria has about 15 percent, Sudan 26 percent and Senegal 32 percent of their respective land areas under forest cover. If forests are to contribute their full potential to food security and  poverty reduction then data on forest area per capita is quite revealing (Table 3). As at 2000 Gabon had over 18 hectares of forested land per capita while at the other extreme Nigeria at the same period had a meager 0.1 hectares of forest per capita. Senegal (0.7), Sudan (2.1) and Namibia 4.1 hectares. This situation is rather preoccupying as more than half of the population of these forest deficit countries live in rural areas and eke out a living directly from the forests.

The term forest cover, as adopted in this document defines forests as including natural forests and forest plantations. It also refers to land with a tree canopy cover of more than 10 percent and area of more than 0.5 ha. Forests are determined both by the presence of trees and the absence of other predominant land uses (FAO 2001).

Table 2.   The Status of Forest Resources in case study countries as of year 2000

Country	Land area (‘000 ha)	Land Area covered by forest, in year 2000				Wood volume in forests (m3/ha)	Wood biomass in forests (t/ha)
		Total forest (‘000 ha)	Percentage of land area (%)	Area per capita (ha)	Forest plantations (‘000 ha)
Gabon	25 767	21 826	84.7	18.2	36	128	137
Namibia	82 329	8 040	9.8	4.7	0	7	12
Nigeria	91 077	13 517	14.8	0.1	693	82	184
Senegal	19 252	6 205	32.2	0.7	263	31	30
Sudan	237 600	61 627	25.9	2.1	641	9	12

Source: State of the world’s forests 2001 (FAO 2001)

 

Environmental Significance

Forest conditions and productivity, to a significant degree, is partially influenced by ecological settings. The dry climatic conditions of Namibia permitted its forests to yield  in year 2000 a standing wood volume of 7 m3/ha only, while the wood volume in Gabon’s forests at same period is a rich 128 m3/ha set in the Congo basin,  endowed with moist ecosystems. Figures for wood volume in forests for Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan are 82 m3/ha; 31 m3/ha and 9 m3/ha respectively (Table 3). Gabon thus stands apart a`s possessing a luxuriant highly productive forests in terms of timber resources, while Senegal, Sudan and Namibia have a penury of timber. It should be noted that though Nigeria has a fair amount of productive forest, its forest area per capital is almost non-existent (0.1 ha) due to its burgeoning human population. Moreover the annual rate of forest cover change in Nigeria is high (-2.6%), as is the case in Sudan (-1.4 %), though in concrete terms Sudan lost 959 000ha of forest cover from 1990 to 2000. The annual rate of change of forest cover for Senegal and Namibia are modest, while that of Gabon is insignificant ( table 3).

Table 3. Change in forest area, in the 5 case study countries between 1990 and year 2000

 

Country	Total forest, 1990 (‘000 ha)	Total forest, 2000 (‘000 ha)	Forest cover change, 1990 - 2000
			Annual change (‘000 ha)	Annual rate of change (%)
Gabon	21 927	21 826	-10	N.S.
Namibia	8 774	8 040	-73	-0.9
Nigeria	17 501	13 517	-398	-2.6
Senegal	6 655	6 205	-45	-0.7
Sudan	71 216	61 627	-959	-1.4

Source: State of the world’s forests 2001 (FAO 2001)

Girard (2000), draws attention to concerns of environmentalists on the shift from fuelwood to charcoal for domestic cooking and heating in Africa due to increasing urbanization. Gabon has 54 % of its populations in urban centers and Nigeria and Senegal has almost 50 % of their population in urban centers. This is alarming considering that 1.1 tonnes of CO2 are released into the atmosphere per tonne of charcoal consumed (Girard 2002).

Box 1.Some figures regarding economic and environmental Issues on charcoal production and use in Africa

Mass yields from a Casamance (Senegal) kiln and a well-managed traditional mound kiln are about 25 percent. In other words, I tonne of wood will give 250 kg of charcoal. With poorer techniques, however, yields often do not exceed 15 to 20 percent, in other words about 150 to 200 kg from one tonne of wood. Many charcoal makers, for example, use green wood, and the energy needed to dry it is provided by part of the load, reducing yields to 15 percent. The carbon content of wood and charcoal is 50 and 90 percent respectively, giving the following carbon equivalents: 1 000 kg of wood  = 500 kg of carbon; 250 kg of charcoal = 225 kg of carbon; 150 kg of charcoal = 135 kg of carbon. When a tonne of wood is carbonized, 365 kg are released into the atmosphere with a poorly managed technique and 275 kg with improved methods. Improved technique thus prevents the emission of 90 kg of carbon per tonne of carbonized wood, equivalent to 300 kg of carbon or 1.1 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of charcoal consumed. For the city of  Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, which consumes about 300 000 tonnes of ch arcoal per year, the annual savings amount to: 330 000 tonnes of CO2 emission avoided; 800 000 tonnes of wood not consumed as a result of the increased yield.

Source: Girard, P. 2002. Charcoal production and use in Africa: what future? Unasylva 211. Vol. 53, 2002

In countries with arid conditions, the forest sector, inter alia, plays an evident environmental function. A change in vegetation will lead to desertification process hence these countries (Namibia, Senegal, Sudan) tend to make concerted efforts in their nfp process. CILSS (Comité Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse au Sahel) was created, among other organs, to respond to this need. The preceding argument not withstanding, this notion of super vulnerability of the Sahelian ecosystem is not widely shared. The argument that any change in that ecosystem will necessarily lead to desertification is not very popular.

Economic significance of forests

The economic significance of forests and how these are perceived by the five nation states being studied present some variations as well as similarities. With the exception of Gabon where the timber is exported contributing 12% of the country’s GDP, in the other 4 case study countries forestry contributes less than 3% to their GDP (Table 4). This estimate is based purely on timber exploitation as the ecological services (such as maintenance of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, water-shed protection, soil amelioration) , employment opportunities, pasture and fodder and habitat for wildlife, bush meat, firewood etc provided by the forests are not quantified in monetary terms, thus giving the erroneous impression that revenue generation from forestry sector is low or insignificant as in the case of Namibia.

Table 4.  Contribution of forestry to the national economy of the 5 case countries

Country	Contribution of forestry to GDP (%)	Remarks
Gabon	12	Today, the forest sector in Gabon ranks second to petroleum exports in terms of the revenue it contributes to GDP, and employs directly 6 000 and  over 10.000 people indirectly
Namibia	Not significant	Forestry is not a major formal industry that is typical of countries with luxuriant natural forests or industrial plantations. Instead, it plays a major role in the livestock industry, tourism and domestic energy supply, in addition to construction of shelter. This contribution has not managed a place in the national accounting system
Nigeria	2	This estimate is based purely on timber exploitation The sources of revenue generated by SFDs vary from the south to the North. Timber and related exploitation account for more than 70% of revenue accruing to the southern SFDs. The Northern SFDs due to the prevailing scanty vegetation, derive their revenue mainly from NTFPs, especially fuelwood, poles, Gum Arabic, fruits, oil, locust beans, game hunting, tannin, among others
Senegal	1.4	The forest sub-sector contributes about 5% of GDP of the agricultural sector, which experienced a drop from 40 to 28% between 1981-1992.
Sudan	3	Whereas forestry studies put it at more than 10% , the figures published by the Ministry of Finance lump it together with fisheries and put it as 2.99% (1988/89), 3.03% (1989/90), 2.73 (1992/93) and 3.0% in 1998.This ratio however is likely to continue decreasing with the increase of oil revenue.

 

Based solely on the occurrence and distribution of merchantable timber volumes and also the biomass statistics, a traditional forester would want to focus only on the forest rich Gabon and relegate the forest sectors of  the semi-arid and arid countries such as Namibia, Sudan, Senegal and the northern part of Nigeria to the footnotes of a chapter on African forests. However the social functions of forests and its environmental significance in these semi-arid and arid countries are diverse and rich, though the ecosystems and species are of different composition. For the predominantly semi-arid and arid countries of Namibia, Senegal, Sudan and to a lesser extent Nigeria, the contribution of the forest sector is not as minor as it may appear, especially when viewed in the context of its biological and environmental functions and direct use values. To illustrate: the woodlands and the savannahs all together, maintain vegetated ecosystems that are crucial to the livestock industry by being key grazing and browsing habitats. The livestock industry is a major export earner for Namibia and Sudan, while in Senegal and the savanna ecozone of Nigeria have a culture closely linked with livestock production. 

Moreover, the ecosystem value of the woodland and savannah biomes, in addition to the gallery or riverine forests, are key centers of  Namibia and Senegal’s wildlife based tourism industry. Fencing of cultivated fields is done using stems and branches of trees. The crop protection function of the woodlands is probably the most underrated or unaccounted for agricultural input in the dry ecozones. The predominantly  moist forest of Gabon and southern Nigeria are perceived by these countries as important source of re-investible capital and a source of income, serving as a foundation for industrialization and enhances the stability of the rural population. The economic impact of bush meat trade in African countries is significant. It was estimated that bush meat trade in Nigeria could range between US$ 50 – 60 million per annum (Molade 2000). Gabon like other African countries in the humid high forests of equatorial Africa rely heavily on bush meat as a source of animal protein in the diet of its populations.

The majority of populations in the 5 countries under review still rely on wood for fuel and house construction. The economic value of these two commodities, are enormous at a national scale. The arts and crafts industry, which has rapidly become an employer of thousands of populations on or below the poverty line, depends entirely on the indigenous woodlands. In Gabon, out of a total human population of 1.2 million, 6000 are estimated to be directly employed and 10 000 indirectly employed by the forestry sector. Clearly the stakes are presumably high for rural populations relative to making decisions and plans on how to manage and use these forest resources.

Forests and woodlands are widely acknowledged to provide critical environmental services ranging from watershed protection, climate moderation and habitat for diverse biological entities. These services, though having global as well as local impacts, the forests must be locally managed. The local communities living in and around these forests are the front-line group of stakeholders to take up this responsibility on a daily basis. And over 50 percent of the populations of the 4 case study countries (with the exception of Gabon) live in/around these forests and woodlands Table 1.

The set of five countries under review can be divided into two relatively distinct ecological zones: the humid dense tropical forest countries, and the dry tropical forest countries. These characteristic features lead to certain sector priorities. Gabon and  southern Nigeria produce timber and for Gabon it is also an important exporter of logs, in fact with timber ranking as the second export produce. While Namibia, Sudan, Senegal (including northern Nigeria) are countries in which the wood based economy represents only a negligible share of the orthodox computed gross national production. And as mentioned above these dry forests mainly provide fuel for households and fodder for livestock, giving rise to competition between forestry, agriculture and pastoralism. Another standpoint for viewing the five countries is in terms of the population characteristics with Nigeria being in a class of its own with a huge population density; and Namibia and Gabon having very low population density (Table 1). Senegal is some where in the middle of the two extremes. Yet another characteristic feature of the case study countries is the fact that 3 out of the 5 case countries have their national economies driven by the petroleum market (for almost four decades Nigeria and Gabon; and for Sudan petroleum started in 1999). However the rich financial gains accruing from these mined natural resources may not have adequately elevated the living standards of the citizenry of these countries. Majority of the populace across the five countries under review are stricken with poverty (Table 6).  In the context of persistent poverty, the threat to natural resources depletion is high and objective planning and implementation rest on shaky foundation. The nfp process in the five case study countries indeed are subject to challenges of this nature.

Of these five African countries two - Sudan and Senegal - have internal civil armed conflict, while Nigeria’s ethnic violent clashes are common and crime is rife. The political instability and conflicts are in some instances linked to inequity in the distribution of the wealth accruing from the natural resources. Planning and implementation of coherent, long-term management of forests in a politically unstable and insecure atmosphere is a daunting task.

With the exception of Namibia (12.2% GDP), the overall economic performance of the other four countries has been sluggish and in many cases the per capita incomes have declined during the last 10 years. In view of these weaknesses in key economic variables, savings and investments are low indicating that the pace of economic growth is slow (Table 1.). Poverty in general is on the rise.

There has been very little diversification of the economies and agriculture and allied activities continue to be the most important source of livelihood for the majority of people. Much of the society in the five countries is agrarian in nature and mainly subsistence agriculture, as there have not been significant changes in the application of technologies and this has resulted in horizontal expansion of agriculture. Furthermore, Senegal, and Sudan have a commercialized cash crop sector entirely geared for exports. However there has been a considerable decline in the prices of cash crops undermining export incomes.

Sector priorities as defined by governments and o ther forest users

These factors characterizing the countries under study have led to the setting of some priorities in the forestry sector. For Nigeria the priority as articulated by the government in the Perspective Plan for Forestry Development in Nigeria, 1990 - 2005 is directed at extracting and utilization of the goods and services that could be derived from forests. The government also recommended administrative changes, especially at the state level, where a Forestry board should be created to administer forestry matters. The fact that the present area of plantations in the country is far less than 300,000 hectares attests to the dismal level of success achieved so far against the targets set in the perspective plan for forest development in Nigeria (FMANR, 1988 in Adedoyin, 2001).

 The aspirations and priorities of the rural population were encapsulated in the Rural Forestry Development programme established in 1981 in Nigeria. Through this programme the government sought to address the rural communities’ dependence on forests for their fuelwood, vegetables, fruits and raw materials for building houses, boats and other infrastructure. It was designed to boost wood production through the involvement and encouragement of rural communities, co-operatives, institutions, individuals, entrepreneurs and the general public in the establishment of village woodlots, fuel-wood plantation, farm trees, hedges and shade trees on areas outside forest reserves. Other ancillary objectives included: promotion of rural employment and development; encouraging and promoting amenity plantings in residential quarters and public places; reclaiming and enriching barren and marginal lands through afforestation; and the introduction of Taungya systems (Agroforestry) to local farmers. Unfortunately, this programme was not able to realise its set objectives. It however, provided the basis for future community participation in forestry development initiatives. It could be inferred from the case of Nigeria that, while the government prioritized timber extraction and environmental protection, the rural population focused on NWFP. The government also prioritized reforms aimed at devolution of authority to decentralized institutions such as the State Forestry Departments (SFD). The articulation of sector priorities in the 1990 – 2005 Perspective Plan is seen as a fledgling attempt at iterative long-term strategic planning that is in line with goals and objectives of nfp in general.

In arid and semi-arid Namibia, Sudan, Senegal and northern Nigeria, the priority includes conservation of woodfuels by improving charcoal production, increasing the utilization efficiency of fuelwood and charcoal and streamlining the charcoal industry through appropriate policy interventions; institutional strengthening at the different tiers of government, improvement of arrangements for protection and management of woodlands both inside and outside forest reserves, and increasing wood supplies through tree planting partly for fuelwood but largely for other purposes (small wood-based industries, pulp , and mostly for the protective value for agricultural environment and watershed). But with the exploration of petroleum in Sudan, firewood is no longer the main energy source for bakeries (the biggest erstwhile consumer of firewood). And Sudan has shifted from a net importer of petroleum derivatives to a net exporter with huge amounts of LPG, the consumption of charcoal has dropped drastically. For the forest rich Gabon, the sector is characterized by:  its dependence on external markets which is very sensitive to the vagaries of international economic order; low rate of processing of forest products despite measures employed to enhance processing of raw materials (e.g., setting up of industrial permits, etc); low impact of revenue derived from forest on rural development; absence of value addition of forest products especially NTFP; exclusive ownership of forest by the state which results to absence of participatory management of forest resources.

The stated governmental objective of Gabon’s action plan for its forests was to reconcile use of ecosystem resources for economic development and the sustainability of these resources.

It is interesting to note that though there are significant variation in the economic parameters (GDP etc), population density, extent of endowment in natural resources, and even in ecological setting of the five countries under review, there is however an easily observable poverty across most of the people, especially the rural populations, in these five sub-saharan countries. This is due mainly to the skewed distribution of income, poor governance and weak institutional arrangements within the countries. For the civil society within the concerned countries, the priority for the forest sector is geared towards ensuring that the sector contributes its full potential to employment, food security, economic and cultural well being of the rural population. But for international environmental organizations as well as the world community the overriding priority is for the forests in each of the five countries to protect the physical environment, upon which economic priorities would be sustained. It becomes discernable thus, that the priorities as defined by various interest groups, determine the stakeholders in the sector. These stakeholders across the case study countries include: the state, the civil society, transnational timber companies, private sector, nongovernmental, intergovernmental agencies and community based organizations.