Population increases in Sudan far exceed development rates, and there is erosion of the environmental capital (the natural resource base), which is subjected to malpractice and misuse.
The Civil war in Southern Sudan is the main obstacle, which is hindering development efforts. The war is draining all the country resources and is having serious impact on the country’s economy. Also the war is stopping any development of the forests of southern Sudan-which are the major forest resources of the country-and intensifying utilisation in the already depleted forest resources of northern Sudan. Although there is strong will and drive within the country for peace.
Resources availed for the forest developments are very limited. Also there are serious administrative problems emerging from the establishment of Federal system of government and establishment of 26 States. Division of responsibilities and benefits regarding forest resources is a source of disputes and the issue is not resolved.
The problem of investment in forestry sector:
Forestry is seldom presented as an option which is equally or more attractive than competing claims for funds. The exclusion of many non marketed and non timber forest benefits in presenting forestry is considered a problem in selling the sector worth
In general, forestry is not "marketed" adequately or presented convincingly enough to politicians or to wider constituencies in ways, which meet their concerns and priorities so as to gain their support
Limited efforts to attract investment by all interest groups, especially the commercial private sector
Inadequate national political will and commitment to forestry
Low budget ceilings for forestry, often worsened under rigidly enforced structural adjustment programmes that lead to across-the-board cut backs of government budgets
A.The Sudan is embarked into several positive conservation actions a few are listed as follows:
The National Comprehensive Strategy 1992-2002
The establishment of the Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in 1992 and 1994 respectively
The Development of directives for Sudan action plan to combat desertification 1999
The development of Sudan Country Report and Strategy to conserve biodiversity 2000
The development of Sudan Water principles
The passage of the environmental laws 2000
The development of Sudan directives for climate change
The development of a document on Sudan Agricultural Strategy
The development of a document on Sudan environment action plan 1998
The above efforts are considered positive environmental achievements. However they could be criticised as being fragmented based on sectoral basis and lack the comprehensive integrated approach.
B. The Sudan is embarked now in effort towards the second national comprehensive strategy 2002-2027. Such efforts should include popular participation and should be based on good data and solid information and database. A national landuse map should be developed to guide development efforts in the country.
C. Cross-boundary issues in forest development and management should be addressed. Upper Atbara River is a priority to be considered in collaboration with Ethiopia. Another priority to be considered is Gash, and Barrka and Toker where intensive water shed rehabilitation programmes should be established.
D. There is a need for strategy planning to guide land use, natural resources management with emphasis on afforestation efforts. There is sharp decline of forest in the country and a growing gap between supply and demand. The policies should address the need to develop a multiple use integrated action plan for natural resources. The private sector and all stockholders should be invited to participate.
E. Large-scale and sustainable forestry action cannot be formulated without adequate institutional support. The institutions and the mechanisms they use to organise and guide forestry activities are an essential prerequisite to success for any forest action programme.
Forest policy depends on a country’s general policy, its economic policy in particular. Policy development and decision-making are subject to two important factors.
The coexistence of two economies. One based on markets and commercial trade, the other a subsistence economy based on gathering and household consumption, found especially in wooded areas. It is extremely difficult to reconcile both with a view to rational management of forest resources
The artificially low (or non-existent) prices for natural resources such as water, soil, energy from wood fuels, means that these resources are considered free and thus abused
The forest policy has to be determined with a trend of gathering the economic and political requests of various interest groups, including representatives of rural populations
A national plan for the forestry sector should be prepared using the best data that are available. As more information is collected, and as the reliability of existing figures is improved, so the plan can be improved.
State level forestry development plans should be prepared in view of the introduction of the federal system and of the need to devolve responsibility to staff based in the States.
All forest should be placed under management plans as soon as possible. It is recognised that data may be lacking and that because of the need to give priority to the reservation programme it may not be possible to collect all of the information required on which to base detailed prescriptions. Nevertheless short-term plans should be prepared, the essential features of, which should be integration of all land users and the function of the records associated with plan to be repository for information and experience.
F. Four main areas related to people/forest relationships warrant special attention. The first is to assist local forest-dwelling communities to increase the range of livelihood-supporting options. The second related to mainstreaming collaborative forest management between governments and local communities living near forests. The third is to make tree planting on farmlands more financially attractive. Agroforestry and tree planting have too often been subsistence focused. The final is to promote production forestry for low-income urban centres or to make existing forestry activities more responsive to needs of urban areas with many poor people. The main issues relate to ensuring high productivity to compensate for high land costs near cities and identifying and strengthening institutions responsible for urban forestry.
G. The factors that are critical for industrial wood products include:
The current demand for industrial wood in the Sudan, combined with demands for fuel wood, NWFPs and forest services are placing severe pressures on the country’s forests. This demand will increase throughout the foreseeable future.
The key determinants of the demand placed on forest industry products include economic performance, population growth, and trend toward urbanisation and technological advancement. This list will not be complete without adding the price competitiveness of goods and consumer preferences for forest products compared to non-forest products.
Any measures taken to promote the replacement of LPG for fuel wood will probably have clear effects in the urban and semi-urban areas. This will lead to reduction in the consumption of charcoal that will result in releasing the pressure on vast areas of the savannah forests. Consequently, considerable amounts of wood material can be saved or used to supply other wood industries.
The species occurring in the semi-desert and the dry savannah of the central and northern Sudan are not suitable as raw material for the production of plywood, or veneer on account of their technological properties, their stem form and their total yield.
The scarcities of large-diameter logs suitable for cost-competitive sawing will encourage a shift toward reconstituted wood panels and other engineered products. A limited supply of large peeler logs (for veneer production) may reduce the chances of establishing a successful plywood industry.
H. The biggest challenge related to the provision of services of forests will be to achieve public awareness and acceptance that services are as important as timber benefits and that they can be economically realised. This may require convincing the middle class that ignoring ecological services of forests will cause enormous downstream costs that will directly affect them in negative ways. And to create self-sustaining "markets" for services or ways for beneficiaries to costs of sustaining forests for non-commercial services functions.
Accordingly, an influential factor will be developing further valuation methods for pricing externalities and for identifying beneficiaries. If policy-makers can be influenced by such methods, it will be possible to secure more support for maintaining and investing in the diversity of services of forests.
I. The main policy challenge for wood energy development in Sudan is to promote technically viable, economically efficient and environmentally sustainable wood fuel use and to cater for the substitutes. The broad policy areas that need to be addressed include improving information related to wood energy, improving the functioning of markets, development wood-energy strategies, and strengthening wood-energy planning capabilities. Related to the main policy areas, the major challenges to wood energy development are:
Social: the challenge is primarily due to the low socio-economic status of the majority of traditional fuel users. Low socio-economic status means they and their problems are easily marginalized.
Economic: the main challenge is to ensure the financial feasibility of large-scale dedicated wood-energy supplies, particularly on public lands (forest and community lands) where a majority of the poor collect their wood fuel.
Technological: this challenge is primarily associated with the costs of technological adoption. Technology transfer is expensive.
Institutional: government policies for bio-energy development and the role of the private sector are not clear.
Legislative: existing policies and legislation in the forestry, agriculture and energy sectors are not geared to promote wood-energy development and may often not be conducive to its planned development. For example, issues related to land ownership and tree tenure are especially important in wood-energy development.
J. The main challenges that are likely to face NWFPs development (excluding gum Arabic as it has sufficient attention) in the future include the following as key elements:
Policy and institutional issues
Absence of investment in research and development: efforts are also handicapped by lack of focused agenda; there are too many NWFPs for all to be supported
Resource issues
Deficient management practices: due to the small-scale of operations, management systems and practices have not been adequately developed for many products
Technical and management issues
Absence of inventory information: without such information, sound management decisions are difficult to make
K. Reservation of Unique Forests and Habitats:
The vegetation of Sudan Forest is not adequately explored adequately documented. Some of the species have a wide range of distribution and there is a great need for collaborative efforts at National, Regional and International levels for exploration, herbaria and establishment of arboreta at National and State levels.
Some Forest Formations are unique in the Sudan e.g. relics of Rain Forests termed "Bowl Forests" in Equatoria. Also the Mangrove Forests along the Red Sea Coast and other unique Forests on Mountains and Hills. These areas are suggested to be reserved.
Realising the Potential of Forests:
Collaborative efforts are needed for multi-purpose utilisation of Forests and methods for management of these resources natural or man-made need to be evolved.
Protection of Forest Reserves and Habitats:
Protection from fires and diseases, illicit cutting and dereservation need to be intensified. Also protection of villages, installations and water sources need to be intensified specially through popular participation.
The civil society at large and particularly the NGOs have a key role in information and awareness raising, lobbying and advocacy and empowerment of local communities through training and capacity building of the CBOs. This could be achieved through help from donor agencies and the involvement of the relevant governmental institutions. The NGOs have played an important role in protecting the forestry sector from transgressions at various levels of governance (central, state and local).
International Assistance and co-operation required:
The forestry Programmes in the past few decades in response to environmental deterioration and droughts were geared towards the rehabilitation of degraded farmland, desertification control in agricultural production areas and restocking of productive forest estates. Greater emphasis was laid on the role of rural communities in reforestation, conservation and management. The international assistance and co-operation was of great help in the achievement of most of the envisaged targets with most remarkable results.
The forestry and environmental rehabilitation programmes would continue in the same patterns with the prime objective of reducing the forest cover depletion trends towards positive increase in forested areas through wider involvement of the rural communities in integrated rural development programmes.
International assistance and co-operation would continue to be needed specially so in the following areas:
A. Capacity Building:
Enhancement of the institutional capabilities in monitoring and evaluation of the dynamics of environmental changes in status of the resource with inputs in the form of hardware and software with the necessary training and expertise
Technical and financial support for the intervention activities in conservation, management and rehabilitation of degraded and fragile ecosystems
Exchange of information, materials and expertise between the countries in the sub region including exchange of visits between the rural beneficiaries.
B/ Participation of the Rural Communities:
Pilot projects for intervention by the rural communities to alleviate pressures on the forest resources for the satisfaction of energy requirements and housing development.
Promotion of the rural communities abilities in forest resource management and biodiversity conservation through the development of rural and cottage industries and handicraft dependant on wood and non-wood forest products.
