FORESTRY ISSUES IN THE HUMID ZONE OF WEST AFRICA: STATUS, TRENDS AND OUTLOOK FOR THE FORESTRY SECTOR TO THE YEAR 2020
Paper presented at the Workshop on Data Collection and Analysis for Sustainable Forest Management: National and International Efforts, 13-17 December, 1999, Hotel President, Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire.
This report is based on a desk study of the available data relating to the development of the forestry sector in the humid forest zone of the West African sub-region. It forms part of the Forestry Outlook Study for Africa (FOSA), which is being undertaken as a collaborative effort of African countries, FAO, the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the European Commission and regional organizations. The paper was presented at a FOSA planning meeting that was held at Yamoussoukro from 13 to 17 December 1999. The objective of the planning meeting was to identify some of the key issues relating to the development of the forestry sector in the sub-region so as to provide an indication of the potentials and constraints in its development.
In light of the objectives of the above FOSA planning meeting, this report reviews the recent trends and future prospects in the forestry sector and examines the various options that countries have in fulfilling the objectives of the forestry sector by the year 2020. The countries with humid tropical forests that were considered include Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo.
Due to the paucity of data in some of the countries studied, coupled with the non-availability of the English version of some of the reference material, the report does not cover all countries involved to the same extent. It is expected that this shortcoming will eventually be rectified during the FOSA process, which will be anchored in focal points within the countries involved for data collection and analysis.
The state of the natural forests
Tropical humid forests can be divided into tropical rainforests and tropical deciduous forests. The tropical deciduous forests lie along the fringes of the tropical rain forest. They are less complex than the tropical rainforest and have more distinct wet and dry periods. In West Africa, the tropical moist forest is distributed across nine countries - from the fringed coastline of Guinea Bissau (via Guinea) and run through the coasts of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast to Ghana, continuing through Togo, Benin and Nigeria6.
The rain forest of West Africa forms a belt of up to 350 km long stretches from the eastern border of Sierra Leone all the way to Ghana. In Ghana the forest zone gradually dissipates near the Volta River, following a 300 km stretch of Dahomey savannah gap. The tropical forest continues from the east of Benin through southern Nigeria and officially ends at the border of Cameroon along the Sanaga River. FAO divides the west and central Africa along the national border of Cameroon for practical purposes, however, the distribution of many West African plant and animal species ends at the Sanaga River (Richards, 1979; White, 1983; Hamilton, 1984).
Table 1.1: The characteristics of the humid forests in the countries in the study area
Country |
Population Density per 1000 ha. |
% of Total Area of Nat. Forest |
Total Forest Area (km2) |
% of Total Forest Protected |
Types of Humid Forests |
Typical Species Content (Humid Forests) |
Benin |
489 |
42 |
21 040 |
14 |
Semi-Deciduous, Deciduous |
Triplochiton, scleroxylon, Antiaris africana, Chlorophora excelsa. |
Côte d'Ivoire |
448 |
17 |
77 875 |
10 |
Wet Evergreen, Semi-Deciduous |
Uapaca, Diospyros, Eremospatha, Triplochiton and Terminalia spp. |
Gambia |
1 118 |
9 |
4 830 |
3.7 |
Gallery forest |
Khaya senegalensis, Chlorophora regia |
Ghana |
767 |
30 |
59 712 |
3.3 |
Wet & Moist Evergreen, Moist & Dry Semi-Deciduous |
Cynometra-Lophira-Tarretia, Celtis- Triplochiton, and Antiaris-Chlorophora species associations |
Guinea |
273 |
76 627 |
1.8 |
Moist Evergreen, Semi-Deciduous |
Guarea cedrata, Lovoa trichiloides | |
Guinea-Bissau |
382 |
20 078 |
0 |
Wet Evergreen, Semi-Deciduous |
Dialium guineense, cholophora spp., Antiaris africana | |
Liberia |
314 |
47 |
63 218 |
1.5 |
Moist Evergreen, Semi-Deciduous. |
Lophira alata, Heritiera utilis, Nesogogordonia papaverifera |
Nigeria |
1 227 |
15 |
279 010 |
4.7 |
Wet & Moist Evergreen, Moist & Dry Semi-Deciduous |
Uapaca spp., Mitragyna ciliata, Terminalia superba, Triplochiton scleroxylon, Khaya spp. |
Sierra Leone |
630 |
18 |
13 625 |
5.1 |
Moist Evergreen, Semi-Deciduous. |
Lophira alata, Heritiera utilis, Klainedoxa gabonensis, Daniella thurifera, Terminalia ivorensis. |
Togo |
761 |
23 |
4 251 |
3.4 |
Semi Deciduous Montane |
Antiaris africana, Chlorophora excelsa |
Sources: NFP Update 33(FAO); http://www.wcmc.org.uk/forest/data/cdrom2/afrchts.htm
Table 1.2: Extent of natural forest areas - West Africa
Country |
Forest Area |
Annual Logging of Closed Broad-leaved Forest, 1981-90 (000 ha.) | ||||
Total Forest |
Natural Forest |
|||||
1990 Extent (000 ha.) |
Annual% Change (1981-90) |
1990 Extent (000 ha.) |
Annual% Change (1981-90) |
% Closed Forest |
% That is Primary Forest | |
Benin |
4 961 |
(1.22) |
4 947 |
(1.23) |
0.3 |
57 |
Côte d'Ivoire |
10 961 |
(0.96) |
10 904 |
(0.99) |
7.6 |
34 |
Gambia, The |
98 |
(0.75) |
97 |
(0.76) |
1.1 |
0 |
Ghana |
9 608 |
(1.24) |
9 555 |
(1.26) |
0.7 |
19 |
Guinea |
6 696 |
(1.14) |
6 692 |
(1.15) |
0.5 |
87 |
Guinea-Bissau |
2 022 |
(0.73) |
2 021 |
(0.73) |
0.6 |
90 |
Liberia |
4 639 |
(0.52) |
4 633 |
(0.52) |
1.7 |
87 |
Nigeria |
15 785 |
(0.68) |
15 634 |
(0.71) |
2.3 |
31 |
Sierra Leone |
1 895 |
(0.60) |
1 889 |
(0.61) |
0.2 |
0 |
Togo |
1 370 |
(1.31) |
1 353 |
(1.39) |
0.3 |
47 |
Source: FAO.
1Notes: () = decrease in forest area; 0 = zero or half the unit of measure
Compared with rain forest areas in other continents, most of the African rainforest is relatively dry and receives between 1 600 and 2 000 mm of rainfall per year. Areas receiving more rain than this are mainly in coastal areas. The distribution of rainfall throughout the year is also less than other rain forest regions in the world. The average monthly rainfall in almost the entire region does not exceeds 100 mm throughout the year (White, 1983). The diversity of the African rain forest flora is also less than the other rain forests (Hamilton, 1982).
Tropical forest of Africa is 18% of the world total and covers over 3.6 million square kilometres of land in West, East and Central Africa. This total area can be subdivided to 2.69 million square kilometres (74%) in Central Africa, 680 000 square kilometres (19%) in West Africa, and 250 000 square kilometres (7%) in East Africa6.
There has been a growing appreciation recently that tropical moist forest is economically undervalued relative to its total biological wealth and the environmental services that it provides and no price tags have been put to them. There is also a limited vision of the forest and its multiple values, especially by agents external to the forest. Because of this limited vision, only some aspects are taken into consideration, such as wood, or underground resources (oil, minerals), or land for agriculture. The decisions made are usually merely economics. As the water produced by the forest has no market value it is therefore considered as non existing.
Available data indicate that among the countries being studied Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana have significant areas of plantations. The plantations in Nigeria are composed mostly of Gmelina arborea for pulpwood production. Those in Ghana are predominantly Tectona grandis. However, the area of plantations with high grade hardwood timber similar to those that are being extracted from the humid forests are insignificant to make any impact of the supply of such timber in the foreseeable future.
The state of forest industries
Africa accounts for a small fraction of all tropical hardwood exports. It has been assessed that deforestation has been extensive all over West Africa, but has reached critical levels in Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria. The two countries accounted for 57% of all tropical moist forest in the sub-region in 1980 but were losing 7% and 4.8% of their forest respectively in the late 1970's.
Nigeria is Africa's largest wood producer, with an annual harvest estimated at more than 100 million cubic metres. The vast majority of production is burned as fuel. The industrial forestry sector is also relatively large and produces sawn timber, plywood, particleboard and paper almost exclusively for local consumption. Small quantities of sawn timber are exported. There are over 1 000 sawmills, numerous veneer mills, match factories, plywood and particle board mills as well as 3 pulp and paper mills6. The country was a leading tropical hardwood exporter but after extensive agricultural development only 6 million ha. of forest were left in 198013.
The estimated projected demand, supply and deficit of forest products in Nigeria from 1987 to the year 2020 are 710 million m3, 58 million m3 and 652 million m3 respectively. The household fuelwood consumption for the north and south is also estimated twice the total of commercial energy for all purposes.
According to the Nigerian Environmental Study Team, the Bendel State forest resources for instance have been depleted to the point of exhaustion and the high forest is in danger of becoming a faint memory of the past. The deficits in the timber supply increased pressures on logging and the illegal trade. In the 1980's, the Nigerian government tried to control the wood export trade through the issuance of export licence, but due to internal pressure, local needs and poverty, the government became relaxed. Others without export license found ways to circumvent the control6.
Nigeria is gradually becoming a wood-deficient country due to an urban and rural population pressure, which has greatly increased the demand for wood and wood products.
The Spread of agriculture in Côte d'Ivoire cut its forest area by 60% between 1950 and 1980 when only 4.5 million ha. of tropical moist forest remained and may have declined further. Côte d'Ivoire was Africa's leading log and sawnwood exporter in 1980. But over the next seven years removals fell by 50% and log exports by 80%.
Ghana timber is a key export commodity that has traditionally ranked third after minerals and cocoa in foreign exchange earnings. It contributes about 6% of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and about 11% to the country's total export earnings. The forest sector is dominated by the wood industry, which is comprised of some 250 logging firms and 130 sawmilling, veneering and plywood milling companies. In addition, there are more than 200 furniture and wood-working enterprises throughout the country. These activities employ a labour force of 75 000 workers, and thus provide the means of livelihood for about 2 million people out of a total population of over 16 million.
The industry is characterised by over-capacity of outdated and inefficient mills. Recent installations have been added so that capacity now totals 3.7 million cubic metres as against the calculated annual allowable cut of about one million cubic meters from the natural forests. There are plans to meet this gap in the long term through the promotion of short rotation private timber plantations.
Ghana produces moderate quantities of tropical hardwood sawn timber, veneer and wood-based panels for the domestic market and for export. The industry has traditionally concentrated on exports. The supplies to the local market are supplemented by illegal logging and chainsaw operations. Interim Measures were introduced in 1995 to control illegal logging and chainsaw activities and the exports of logs have been suspended since then. 75% of the logging activities are accounted for by illegal chainsaw lumbering to supply the local market. These chainsaw activities are not based on any allocation of yield to be harvested and the operators usually evade the payment of stumpage, taxes and compensation to farmers whose crops may be damaged. The 1998 Timber Regulations of the Timber Resources Management Act, 1997 (Act 547) makes the production and sale of chainsaw lumber an illegal activity (MLF, Ghana, 1999).
The local wood consumption is increasing the demand-supply deficit. The latter could be met by imports of logs or baulks for sawing by the mills, as well as lumber and wood products for the rapidly expanding domestic market. There is however a high import tariff (c. 40%) on wood imports.
Contrary to developed countries, which utilize up to 95% of the harvested wood, only about 50% of the volume of each tree cut in Ghana is extracted from the forest. This reduces to about 15% when the lumber is further processed into say mouldings. This low yield has been attributed to a combination of lack of skilled middle level manpower, obsolete machinery and under priced raw material.
Environmentalists have pointed out that some wood processing industries of developed economies are dumping their inefficient sawmilling and veneer-milling equipment in developing economies such as Ghana, a way to subsidize the timber industry6.
Liberia produces sawn timber for domestic use and exports modest quantities of logs. A significant processing capacity was destroyed during the civil war. The forest resource was also subjected to indiscriminate felling, widespread illegal trade of forest products and forest fires during the war. Wood is an important factor in meeting Liberia's energy requirements.
There are no large-scale forest industries in Sierra Leone. The country produces a modest quantity of sawn timber and uses moderate quantities of woodfuel.
Although non-wood forest products have great potential, formal structures for the collection of the related data are virtually non-existent. Collection and analysis of such data can be used to increase the benefits to the rural participants in the industry, encourage further processing at the producer level as well as involve the primary collectors in the management, protection and regeneration of the products involved.
It is reported that deforestation is threatening a sector linked to the well-being of people in Ghana (i.e. Pharmacopoeia). The majority of Ghanaian, like other nationalities in the sub-region, have always opted for herbal treatment over western medicine. At the Centre for Scientific Research in Plant Medicine, doctors confirm the control diabetes and other illnesses by dosing patients with herbal extracts. More than 250 indigenous trees and plants with healing properties have been scientifically catalogued. But as Dr Ampofo said," Time may be running out." He worries that the trees will be lost to deforestation before they can be catalogued.
Other non-wood forest products with great economic potential and on which data is scanty include rubber, gums, latex's, resins, tannins, steroids, waxes, rattans, bamboo, essential and edible oils, pesticides, nuts and fruits, lubricants, flavourings and dyestuffs.
About 8 500 plant species have been listed and 403 species of orchids recorded. The pygmy hippopotamus, the giant forest hog, the water chevrotain and a number of insectivores, rodents and bats, tree frogs, bird species inhabit the area. Top canopy monkey species, the red clobus, among others, have already disappeared from much of West Africa's forest6.
The costs of the deforestation in the region are only beginning to be understood. The most obvious costs are the loss of future wood for forest industry, destruction of biological diversity, changes in bio-geochemical cycles and climate by altering local rainfall and hydrological processes, and desertification2.
All civilisations have been built on the diversity of nature. Agricultural crops and domesticated livestock were first developed from the wild, and we are still dependent on it for food, medicines and industrial raw materials. Crop breeders rely on wild strains to improve domesticated varieties and safeguard them against disease. Up to half of all medicines prescribed world-wide are originally derived from the wild products. "The US National Cancer Institute has identified more than 2 000 tropical rainforest plants with the potential to fight cancer. Miracle substances wait in the rainforest to be discovered, and are being destroyed as we wait" 4.
It is estimated that mature tropical rainforests cover only about 7% of the earth's surface, but harbour a third to 90% of all its species, depending on the group considered, most of them as yet undiscovered. Clearing them is driving millions of species to extinction4.
Vision for the forestry sector in the sub-region
The author's visions for the forestry sector in the West Africa sub-region by the year 2020 are:
that the sustainability of the supply of wood and non-wood forest products - at least for domestic consumption - will be assured;
that adequate forest areas would have been conserved to protect biodiversity of the humid tropical forests in the West Africa sub-region, and
that the funding of forest management and protection activities would reflect the real values of the products and services that the forests provide,
The attainment of the vision described in chapter 1.3 above is influenced by certain key factors within the forestry sector - the internal factors. Certain driving forces in turn affect the key factors - the external factors - some of which are predetermined (e.g. demographics) while others are highly uncertain (e.g. public opinion). These factors are described below.
Government policy and institutional aspects: Many of the countries in West Africa have institutions which are weak and inadequately equipped to implement their functions. These shortcomings stem from factors such as a serious shortage of skilled staff, the absence of adequate training facilities, and the lack of integration and cooperation among the major institutions involved with the management of the environment. The inadequacy of staff motivation has led to difficulties in retaining quality staff. The organizational capability of government ministries is often inadequate to administer large areas of lands and forests.
There are often overlapping responsibilities among institutions in the forestry sector. The inter-sector coordination in the planning and monitoring of the forest resources tends to be weak at the regional/state and the district levels. As demonstrated in the case of Nigeria, central policy directives can be hampered by different policies at the state or district levels. For instance, prerogatives of state administrations present an effective filter between what is desired at the federal level and what happens in the forests in a particular state.
Many a good forest policy fail due to inadequate implementation. Shortage of field staff, for instance, lead to poor monitoring of felling operations in timber concessions. If those that are available are poorly paid, they become easily influenced to disregard the flouting of rules for say selective logging by concessionaires. At higher levels, top scientists may have to undertake full time management duties rather than urgently needed forestry activities.
Usually, the overall shape of policy and the beneficiaries of economic growth are determined by the distribution of power in the country. Leading companies, including those involved in natural resource exploitation and other development projects, are often controlled elite groups such as the relatives of leading politicians, top party officials or members of a ruling military government. The promulgation and enforcement of existing laws with respect to the forest exploitation and environmental protection becomes very difficult or are not done at all under such circumstances. For instance, the royalty policy in Ghana has over the years been shaped by the timber lobby, which has managed to keep royalty levels particularly low, by skilful and expedient politicking. Forest policy change has ever hardly been the result of "rational" analysis. It is almost always the result of compromises and trade-offs among and between various and diverse interests and players8.
Decentralization of government authorities offers potential for increased grass-roots participation in policy development and implementation in the future3. Throughout the world, experience shows that access to decision-making processes by local people reduces many problems of forest development. Yet these options have seldom been followed through in practice. The problems are increased by lack of education, poor organizational structures and often and ignorance of cultural issues by those who plan forest manegement12.
Fig. 2.1: Some factors affecting the forest resource base
Political liberalization is spreading across Africa. But the institutional infrastructures to support democratic changes often lag behind. There is also weak support for enacted laws and policies by most of the governments. The necessary database for sustainable forest management is inadequate and unreliable. Despite the fact that the scope of data collection is limited, it is often not being collected on regular basis and data processing facilities may also not be available.
In some countries, no system of data collection and processing is in place. Security of data is also not given the attention that it desired resulting in data loss at times. The forest industries in particular respond poorly to requests for data possibly due to the fact that they would not like to provide accurate information for tax purposes. Communication with other national agencies involved in forestry statistics and the rest of the world is poor.
Regional collaboration in forestry
The trans-border nature of West Africa's forests necessitated coordinated action within the Africa Timber Organisation (ATO). The preservation of remaining undisturbed forests has become the focus of the nine rainforest countries in the ATO. For example, the Nigerian Council of Ministers upon the recommendation of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) approved two important rainforest areas in Southeast Nigeria as a national park area. The ATO countries have amended their forest laws since independence in order to obtain a practical and consistent regulation for the protection of their rainforests, including trade in wood6. The ATO currently has inadequate resources to execute its mandate.
In Africa regional agreements have recently been drawn up to address the negative effects of conflicts, with consequent benefits for the environment. Other regional policy negotiations deal with land-related issues as desertification. Institutional arrangements to facilitate and coordinate regional actions on environment and sustainable development issues include the African Ministerial Conferences on the Environment (AMCEN), established under the auspices of the UNEP in 1985; the African Economic Community (AEC), established under the framework of the OAU; the Abuja Treaty in June, 1992; and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
While most countries have developed their own energy policies, regional cooperation in the energy sector is being developed through the creation of an African Energy Commission at the Ministerial level backed by the ADB, ECA, and OAU, with a goal to harmonize and coordinate the development of the energy sector in the region. This includes ongoing activities to develop hydroelectric power for common river basin such as the Gambia, Mano, Niger and Senegal in West Africa. If this is realized it will help in reducing the pressure on the natural vegetation.
Level of investment in the sector: In general, governments in the sub-region poorly fund forestry programmes. Hence, adequate logistics is generally lacking. Those logistics that may be available may not function properly for lack of spares or short supply of repair staff or both. Funding shortages also limit the availability of fuel for official vehicles meant for field duties.
Tropical humid forest silviculture: Silviculture is an interventionist form of management that manipulates regeneration in a logged over forest so as to promote the growth of preferred mix of commercial timber species in the second or succeeding harvests. At times tree planting is utilized to assist the regeneration of the forest. A number of different systems of tropical silviculture have been tried over the last hundred years or so in Asia and Africa. But those systems that have been successful have only been so in limited areas. Others that might have done well were so labour intensive that they were not cost-effective. Some of the silvicultural systems on which trial were undertaken include the following:
Tropical shelterwood system: Tropical shelterwood systems (TSS) were developed in Nigeria, Ghana and other West African countries from the early 1920's onwards. It dates back to 1946 in Ghana. The TSS was modelled on the classical shelterwood systems and the Malayan Uniform System. The implementation of the TSS was an attempt to convert the forest from its complex multi-species, all-aged structure to a simpler forest made up preponderantly of a few preferred or "economic" species and with trees of more or less the same age in any block or compartment".
Alder (1993) concludes from analysis of the TSS data from the Bobiri Forest Reserve in Ghana that, despite the heavy disturbance and the poisoning of 85% of the basal area, the forest has, within a period of 20-30 years re-established a structure not greatly dissimilar to that of the undisturbed forest. The species composition is however not the same (Owusu, 1996). Alder also indicates that the reduction in stocking has led to higher growth rates while low intensity logging may lead to little or no net growth.
Modified selection system: Between 1956 and 1970, the "Modified Selection System" (MSS) was also tried in Ghana. Improvement thinnings were undertaken through climber cutting and the use of arboricides in an attempt to create a forest that is similar in structure to that in its natural state. Less preferred "economic" species that were competing with young more preferred species were killed by poisoning to promote faster growth of the latter and to create room for regeneration. Better formed undesirable species were often sacrificed in favour of crooked "economic' species (Owusu, 1996).
The MSS was also wasteful as some of those species that were listed as "undesirables" for removal are currently marketable. However, as in Nigeria, there was no evidence that the treatments accelerated the growth of the selected trees (Osafo, 1970). The removal of the "poisoned trees" from could have probably made a difference to growth and regeneration on the forest floor.
Line planting: About the same period as the TSS, enrichment plantings were carried out in Ghana, Nigeria as well as the other West African countries with humid forests to improve the stocking of the poorly stocked Wet Evergreen forests as well as to sustain the supply of the then "desirable species".
Techniques for natural forest silviculture had not been successful for ecological and managerial reasons. None of those that were successful on a research scale has been successfully translated into a large scale field practice. The factors that were considered to have contributed to the failure of the attempted natural forest silviculture techniques include:
concentration on the promotion of the growth of the few so-called "desirable" species (the range of marketable species has increased significantly since then);
inadequate knowledge about the shade requirements of the different species at the various stages of their growth to maturity;
inadequate control of weed growth due to the lack of access to remote areas in addition to the underestimation of the extent of funding required.
Selective logging systems: The multitude of species in the tropical humid forests pose difficulties with respect to forest management and the timber trade as the latter is species oriented. Only a few of the many tree species are commercially marketable due to conservatism in the timber trade coupled with the lack of knowledge and difficulties (e.g. high densities and silica contents) with regards to the processing of most of the lesser-used or secondary species. Selective logging, which involves the removal of a few good-sized trees of the commercial species, is therefore normally applied. It is estimated that productive tropical humid forests world-wide contained 120 000 million m3 of timber in 1980 but only about 8 000 million m3 of this was commercial (Lanly, 1981).
In all the countries with tropical humid forests in West Africa, government forestry departments control the rights to exploit timber. They also specify logging methods with regulations that specify the most appropriate logging systems for the local forests as well as the trade in the exploited timber. Private timber companies or individuals (i.e. concessionaires) are awarded concessions by the government and issued contracts that indicate among others the numbers and/or sizes of trees to be felled in addition to the felling cycle. The latter is normally about 30-40 years after the first harvest. The minimum felling diameters for the prime species is 80-100 cm for Ghana and Liberia while that for Côte d'Ivoire is about 60 cm.
There is usually no guarantee for the renewal of the concession agreements and the sizes of the concessions also vary. The agreements may also be less than the felling cycle. Hence there is no assurance that the concession can either be logged again or that any investment will lead to future income. The constructed logging roads usually encourage locals to clear trees intended for the second harvest to grow crops. Some of the fees charged the concessionaires might be intended for the restocking of the logged forests or for post-harvest operations. But such revenue may not be used for the intended purposes.
Government regulations on the management of concessions are widely flouted by loggers. These include the exploitation of more trees per hectare than prescribed. Excessive damage can also be inflicted on the remaining trees and a second harvest can be carried out before the end of the harvest cycle. It has been reported that some forests in Côte d'Ivoire, for instance, have been logged three times in 10 to 15 years14. Logging roads are normally poorly constructed leading soil erosion.
The overall sustainability of logging depends on the sustainability of the logging systems and how they are implemented in practice. The wider trends in land use will also affect the future of logging as they will affect the extent of the forest that will remain to be exploited in the future. But the principal influences on logging will be trends in wood demand, logging and transport costs, government policies and forest management.
Some of the driving forces that affect the key micro-environmental factors described above are described in this section. They include rapid population growth, economic development, poverty, government policies and poor farming practices that accelerate deforestation. These in turn lead to land degradation, exacerbate food insecurity, loss of biodiversity, decline in water quality, and decrease in health status. The largest unknowns in the equation of environmental degradation are not the states and magnitudes but the relative importance of the driving forces and what actually drives what. Such knowledge will facilitate the formulation of realistic solutions to the environmental problems. A description of these factors is given below.
Economic aspects: Economic development, as formally defined, should increase a country's material prosperity and social welfare, reduce poverty and inequalities between different sections of the population, improve the quality of life of citizens by provision of better health, education and other services, and increase the quality and quantity of economic output by better access to technology. Economic development depends on economic growth - the rise in the average rate of provision of material goods and services, measured by the Gross National Product (GNP) - but is not identical to it, for if the extra income is poorly distributed among the country's population the lot of the average citizen is little improved.
The colonial authorities did not substantially invest in those parts of the infrastructure, which were not contributing to the short term profits derived from trade. The economic dependence on the primary commodities has therefore been geared towards the generation of revenues for development and the finance of public expenditures especially public services and social infrastructure.
Economic development involves major changes within the society, many of which favour more deforestation. These include:
increase in food consumption and production as the average income rises;
emphasis on permanent, sedentary agriculture and reduction in shifting cultivation rotations;
integration of national economies into the world economy and the promotion of the exploitation of timber and other natural resources and the expansion of cash crop plantations to raise foreign currency to pay for national economic development.
International debt servicing: The external debt continues to be a major impediment to the achievement of accelerated economic growth and development. In 1994, the average per capita debt servicing in sub-Saharan Africa was US$ 43, compared with US$ 35 spent on health and education. There are also problems of high dependence on foreign aid and marginalization in the flow of foreign direct investment. Several African countries have been implementing structural adjustment programmes for more than a decade, and have put in place economic reform measures in an attempt to correct some of the fundamental economic imbalances and to support private sector development. But all indicators point to increased poverty and marginalization of the African people3.
Debts have been caused by many factors including incautious bank lending, profiteering by minority elite's in the South and economic policies of the North that have pushed interest rates up and complicated debt servicing. Of the 17 most indebted countries, 14 have tropical forests. International debt obligations can lead developing country governments to accelerate the pace of forest exploitation in order to earn needed foreign exchange 12.
International trade: It has also been reported that the pegging of the Francophone countries' currency to the French Franc has hindered their performance in the coffee and cocoa market. The fluctuation of the French Franc vis-à-vis other currencies is automatically transmitted to those countries which affect the external competitiveness of their commodities6.
Traded goods do not include environmental and social costs in their prices. This results in the manufacture and sale of excessive quantities of under-priced goods and a lack of encouragement to develop and market environmentally preferable substitutes3.
Fierce international competition in commodity markets means that producers cannot easily internalize costs unilaterally, for fear of losing market share, particularly for unprocessed commodities such as agricultural products, forest products and minerals. The buyers will deal with whoever can offer the lowest price. Many developing countries who depend on such commodities are faced poverty and debt problems which force them to increase natural resource-based exports, without internalizing environmental costs; these exports the face environmental barriers in developed countries and increased competition from other exporters following the same strategy. The resulting low revenues result in yet further exports and further environmental degradation, as well as continuing poverty and poverty-related environmental problems.
Poverty: The World Summit on Social Development in 1995 highlighted the widening gap between the rich and the poor in many countries and the substantial proportion of the world's population who remain in absolute poverty. Lack of money is a critical factor driving many people to use forests unsustainably. Unemployment encourages forest loss through illegal timber felling. Smuggling of forest products and developments such as illegal mining. People with little hope have little incentive to manage forest resources well and often have little option but to exploit them unsustainably for short-term survival. A report from the Asian development Bank concludes "Poverty as such cannot be said to cause environmental degradation, however, often the two are associated with each other........"12.
Poor people are most at risk from environmental damage, whatever the cause. In economies based on natural resources, which most of African countries are, resource degradation reduces the productivity of the poor, increases their susceptibility to extreme weather, economic and civil events, and environmental health threats. Poverty also makes recovery from such events even more difficult3. Due to the uneven distribution of a nations wealth, most farmers are unable to invest in more productive and sustainable forms of agriculture that would reduce deforestation.
The adverse effects of poverty on biological resources are compounded by exploitation by a small but influential and affluent segment of the African population and by commercial firms hastening to satisfy market demands that often originate in other regions (UNEP, 1994)3.
Although poverty and growing global population are often targeted as responsible for much of the degradation of the world's resources, other factors - such as the inefficient use of resources, waste generation, pollution from industry and wasteful consumption patterns - are equally driving us towards an environmental precipice3.
While there is admittedly no evidence that reducing population growth rate will solve poverty problems and regenerate abused environments, failure to do so certainly worsens the situation. A precautionary principle seems to be emerging, and the consensus is that socio-economic development and population programmes should be planned and implemented simultaneously to ensure that the benefits of each are fully realized (UNECA, 1993)3.
There is a strong relationship between the status of women and environmental degradation such as deforestation. Women's level of education is negatively correlated with fertility, Educating women has the effect of improving the population as a whole, and helps to decrease growth rates. This in turn will lessen the population pressures upon the land7.
Demographic aspects: The African Common Position on Environment and Development (UNECA, 1992) states that the regional problem of environmental degradation is not so much the high population growth rate but its distribution3. It has been assessed that "the problem is seldom about the total number of people so much as the number of people without access to available agricultural land and is often not a simple function of total population"12.
The links between population and forests are complex. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF), "analysis fails to identify a close correlation between deforestation and rates of either total or agricultural population growth. Indeed, the most significant links between population and environment are those of consumption and pollution by people in the rich countries. Identifying the role of population is difficult because of the relationship between total numbers of people and such issues as land tenure, debt and poverty"12.
Urban population growth generally depends much more on market system and favour the expansion of permanent agriculture. It also leads to deforestation in the immediate vicinity for fuelwood, building materials and land for settlement. In several countries, migrants are not are not only pulled towards cities by the prospects for jobs and higher incomes. They are also pushed out of the rural areas by such factors as poverty, lack of land, declining returns from agricultural commodities, war and famine. An estimated 40 to 60% of the annual urban population growth in developing countries is due to rural-urban migration, particularly where rural poverty is rampant3.
Land tenure: Pressures on forests are increased in many countries because most of the good farmland is owned by a few people, thus forcing the poor and landless to try farming in forested areas. Unbalanced land ownership patterns put additional pressures on forests, particularly where large rural farming communities still exist and where land tenure also remains insecure.
The lack of recognition of the legal rights of indigenous peoples and other traditional communities over their territories can initiate deforestation. A typical situation is an example in Ghana with respect to the deforestation of the Tano Ehuro Forest Reserve and its environs in the western region of Ghana since 1962. The Protected Lands Act of 1952 had been passed for the government to control and regulate farm extensions into heavily forested areas outside forest reserves. This legislation marginalized the authority of the Chiefs in land use decisions. Migrant cocoa farmers who claimed to have acquired their holdings within forest reserve area from some of the traditional rulers undertook extensive encroachments of the forests in the area through illegal farming and human settlements8. The estimate of the Forestry Department in the early 1990's indicated that about 50% of the forest reserve (c. 9 000 ha.) had been deforested in the process.
In an attempt to modify traditional land tenure schemes, many African countries have nationalized ownership of land, often destroying centuries-old customary laws. This has often resulted in ambiguity over land ownership and use rights, creating situations of open-access where no person or community is responsible for maintaining the fertility of the land. When governments take over land rights, often the wealthy and well-connected are able to use their influence to secure land use rights7.
An important reason for the continued land-related environmental problems is that there are limited alternative industrial activities to reduce the pressure on land. This coupled with the declining terms of trade in agricultural commodities add pressure on land and contribute to continuing poverty.
Changes in agriculture: Substitution of forests by other systems of production, particularly those aimed at the international market, such as cash crop and tree plantations has significant effect on deforestation of the humid forests. Great Britain, France and Portugal have had major impact on the socio-economic development of the West African states through their past colonial ties. Through such associations, these countries were made completely dependent upon the external trade of a select few of raw materials. This has been so much so that a change in the world demand for such commodities results in economic peril. This reliance of on the export of primary commodities for foreign exchange earnings have affected the countries' environment. Millions of hectares of the tropical rainforest have been cleared to plant primary commodity cash crops such as cocoa, coffee, rubber, gum copal, palm oil and cola nuts. Increases in agricultural activities require to be supported with infrastructure developments that cause further deforestation.
Many of the institutions and infrastructure supporting agriculture often operate inadequately, with little impact on food supply and a lack of support for agricultural technologies3. Improvements in these aspects are very crucial to the minimization of inroads of farming into forested areas.
Cash crops account for greater proportions of the GDP's of the West African countries. For instance, traditional primary commodities account for two-thirds of Ivory Coast's total export earnings with cocoa as a major component. It has been estimated that the extent of the rainforest of Ivory Coast has decreased as a result of the cocoa trade from 12 million hectares in 1960 to 2.6 million in 1975. As a result, 200 000 cocoa plantations - which covers about 500 000 ha. and involving 650 000 people - were established by 19756.
In Ghana, It has been estimated that agriculture, logging and surface mining account for 55%, 30% and 10-15% of the deforestation of the high forest respectively. Timber is a key export commodity and currently ranks fourth after cocoa, minerals and tourism. The majority of Ghanaian depends on the forest for fire wood for cooking. The depletion of the rainforest as a result of fire wood, although a concern for many, has been insignificant compared to commercial logging.
The values of Africa's agricultural and mineral raw material exports have been falling dramatically from the combined effects of stagnation in industrial countries, substitution by synthetics, and competition from, for example, the Commonwealth of Independent States (UNECA, 1993). Shortfall in revenues due to decline in international prices are usually made up by increase in production through the extension of the areas of the cash crops in addition to the harvesting of more timber for export which affect the environment. The primary commodities tend to be inelastic to price. Hence in the short term, higher production leads to fall in prices. Since the 1950's this theory has been proved not only to be true but that it still affects raw material trading.
There have been important advances in agriculture with respect to the development of high yielding crop varieties, rapid growth in research into agroforestry systems since the 1970's and the start of research into low-cost modifications of shifting cultivation. The high yielding crop varieties have not been adopted widely since small farmers, however, cannot afford the high cost of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides that have also had environmental impacts. Agroforestry on the other hand provide an important basis to improve productivity and sustainability of agriculture in ways that are compatible with local environmental conditions and do not require outright replacement of existing farming practices.
Political aspects: Conflict arising from political instability has been a primary impediment to development in a number of African countries. Some conflicts and social unrest were the result not only of political instability but ethnic tensions, food insecurity, poverty, limited access to resources, and land pressures The social, economic, and environmental impacts can be immense, as demonstrated in the recent armed conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone. In Liberia, for instance, the war has led to the destruction of forest and infrastructure as well as the creation of refugees. People sought refuge in the forest where settlements were created resulting in the destruction of the forests. A lot of data on Sierra Leone's forest has also been lost as a result of the recent civil war.
The negative effect of conflicts on environmental security and the necessity of the importance of developing institutional structures and mechanisms to manage them has been recognized. Examples of this are the OAU mechanism for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflicts and the wide range of civil society organizations engaged in conflict management efforts3.
The lack of attention to promoting broadly-based agricultural development is part of a far wider problem. In the developed countries, urban-industrial expansion occurred only after a strong agricultural base had been established. But many tropical countries - including those in West Africa - are trying to circumvent this process by placing emphasis on the promotion of urban-industrial development to try to accelerate economic growth. This reflects the political realities that the survival of governments often depends on keeping the urban population happy despite the fact that this policy perpetuates rural poverty. Sometimes, food prices are kept low in the urban areas for the same reason and this gives farmers no incentives to invest in more productive and environmentally sound practices. As more countries become democratic and power is gradually decentralized this aspect of government policy will hopefully eventually disappear if the necessary political will to do so exist.
Because of the pressure to develop fast, investments are being made without due consideration to their impact on the environment. At the national level, there are problems in reaching agreements among various stakeholders (Government, the local community, foreign investors, and international financing agencies) on investment activities3.
Environmental aspects: Climate is one of the major underlying natural underlying factors that reinforce the effects of the human driven causes of environmental degradation in Africa. The rainfall is variable and there are frequent severe droughts. There is little that can be done about natural climate variability except the promotion of behavioural changes towards the adaptation to prevailing conditions.
The soils are also of poor quality with low phosphorus and organic matter content as well low water infiltration and retention capacity. These have been limiting factors on agricultural production and economic growth. Sustained farming on such poor soils is difficult for those who cannot afford to buy expensive agrochemical and machinery inputs.
There is the necessity for the understanding of the causal links and the relationship between the various driving forces behind environmental problems so as to facilitate the formulation of policies that will work.
In many countries, high-level coordinating agencies for environmental management have been created. Decentralization of government functions in environmental planning is also taking place. The countries involved include Benin, The Gambia, and Ghana. Countries such as Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana and Benin have formulated and enacted new umbrella legislation on environment and natural resources management as well as the establishment of monitoring and regulatory systems. Ghana has prepared Environmental Impact Assessment guidelines. Comprehensive response mechanisms have, however, not yet been fully internalized in the cited countries. The development at local and national levels of effective environmental legislation as well as fiscal and economic instruments has not kept pace with the increase in environmental institutions.
Many areas targeted for oil development overlap with sensitive and threatened ecosystems. Often, the countries involved have relatively young bureaucracies and environmental management systems that may lack the capacity to thoroughly implement and enforce effective environmental and social safeguards. The environmental impacts of oil development include colonization and extensive deforestation that result from the opening of access into the forest via roads and pipeline paths9. An example is the River Niger Delta in Nigeria where foreign oil companies in have seriously damaged the tropical rainforest in the northern reaches of the Delta. The mangrove forest to the south have also been similarly been affected due to the non-observance of international environmental regulations10.
Energy use: Large quantities of wood energy are consumed in the humid section of the sub-region. But there are no reliable information wood trade and consumption. Such data would be useful in the determination of the status of the adequacy of the fuelwood sources, the promotion of alternatives in addition to the protection of endangered fuelwood species.
Fig. 2.1 shows that woodfuel forms over 85% of the total wood consumption in all the countries studied. The per capita consumption of fuelwood is above 0.6 m3/yr. for all countries involved with Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau showing a steady rise in consumption from 1987 to 1996.
Even though the data has not been segregated according to vegetation zones, it would be expected that most of the fuelwood would be harvested in the drier vegetation zones for sale in especially the urban areas including those in the humid forest areas.
Infrastructure developments: Some policies result in negative impacts and are even conflicting with policies and practices aimed at forest management and conservation. Public investments can have enormous direct and indirect effects on forests. Many infrastructural projects (e.g. roads, railways, power lines, dams, mining, oil explorations etc.) inadvertently open up forestlands to settlers. Some public health programmes such as malaria control unfortunately create similar effect.
Such projects are in some cases not planned carefully or are poorly implemented. Land uses are introduced to sites to which they are unsuited or they undertake projects with potential for serious environmental impact. Too often development is seen as an end in itself and the role of natural resources in development strategies is simply as a source of short-term income. Public investments need to be preceded by careful environmental assessments. This requires the development of capacities for multi-disciplinary policy analysis in order to address environmental problems adequately.
Conditions for the development of the forestry sector
In order to ensure the attainment of the vision of sustained supply of wood products and the protection of biodiversity by the year 2020, an integrated approach combining the fields of agriculture, forestry and conservation would be required. A review of the factors that influence the proposed vision poses certain pertinent questions. The answers to such questions may assist in the development of the relevant scenarios and as well as the determination of their effect on the overall vision. Some of the questions are:
Is diversification of the national economy from the dependence on the export of primary commodities (i.e. cash crops, minerals, etc) the solution to reducing the adverse effect of declining terms of trade on the forests? If so how can it be done?
How can deforestation rate be stabilized and how soon can the suggested factors be expected to yield results?
Selection logging system vrs. the adoption of the most prospective tropical silvicultural system. Which one is the most feasible for the sustenance of industrial wood production by the year 2020?
d) From past experiences, is inter-sectoral cooperation feasible?? If so, which are the key sectors to cooperate with and how will they assist in the future development of the forestry sector?
Within the current financial constraints, what would be the minimum requirements to upgrade the effectiveness and motivation of staff within the forest sector institutions by 2020?
How can equitable distribution of wealth and power be achieved within the countries in the sub-region?
Some of the factors that need to be taken into consideration in the future developments of the forestry sector include:
political stability and political will to support enacted laws and policies;
permanent agriculture in the more fertile areas and increase in farm yields;
forest protection for long term timber production and effective ecosystem conservation;
monitoring and effective enforcement to ensure that target rates of timber production via the selection logging system are not exceeded and the encouragement of regeneration to make the second harvest at the end of the determined felling cycle certain;
government intervention to secure a minimum level of forest cover to supply domestic market;
effective monitoring of forest areas and deforestation rates to guide policy makers in the identification of priority areas for action;
integration of forest policy with other policy objectives such as employment generation and conservation of the environment;
restructuring and strengthening of forest sector institutions;
financial support to forestry on public and private land;
a strategy for sustainable development based on politically and economically strengthening the power of the currently marginalized social groups and then negotiating a social consensus regarding forest utilization and conservation.
Potentials and constraints for the development of the forestry sector by 2020
Some of the important key factors, the related trends and how they are likely to affect the development of the forestry sector by the year 2020 are described below.
Attempts at realistic future diversification of the national economy and the acquisition of the appropriate technology are crucial to reduce the impact of declining terms of trade on the forest resource base.
Given the large areas of poor soils in the humid tropics, only limited areas may be suited for intensive agriculture. Hence the more fertile lands in each country would have to be identified so that intensive agriculture can be concentrated there. The remaining land can be reserved for forest management, low intensity shifting cultivation and agroforestry systems. This requires a greater inter-sectoral cooperation between the relevant forestry and agriculture agencies in addition to change in policies as well as land management techniques.
Sustainability of industrial wood production
There have been relative failures of experiments in tropical silviculture in the first half of the century. Developing better management systems will take a long time due to the need to undertake research and monitor current practices. Previous planting rates have also been far too low and most new plantations in recent decades have been designed to produce pulpwood and fuelwood, rather than high-grade tropical hardwoods.
Owing to the relatively long rotations required, high-grade hardwood plantations cannot quickly take over the bulk of tropical hardwood production. Hence, there seems to be no alternative to placing greater emphasis on natural forest management and protection if tropical timber supplies over the next 50 years is to be assured. This is based on the assumption of the production of small diameter logs from the tropical hardwood plantations. Higher tropical hardwood prices - which are likely as logging shifts from low cost South-east Asia to higher cost Latin America and Africa - will however be needed to encourage an increase in the rate of their planting. Governments should therefore correct the present bias towards forest plantations.
Significant advances could, however be achieved over the next 10 to 20 years by improving the implementation of the existing selective logging system through a combination of better monitoring and regulation, incentives to concessionaires to assist in the regeneration of the forest and more government investment.
Foresters should be pragmatic enough to take into the requirements of governments into account in the formulation of policies. The formulation of forest policies should also involve all stakeholders as much as possible. The policies that are usually hatched between foresters and politicians tend to be vague and also cater for mainly the powerful structures in society with the result that they are difficult to implement on the ground.
Experience indicates that once the humid tropical forest has been felled, the species composition may not be the same. If ecosystem continuity is the objective of the management of a forest, then only the lightest non-extractive use of the forest is acceptable. Timber harvesting would be unacceptable. An example can be found in Ghana where the analysis of Tropical Shelterwood System (TSS) data from the Bobiri Forest Reserve. This showed a change in species composition after a 20-30 year period after harvesting. Conservation of biodiversity and commercial timber protection can therefore not be undertaken in the same area. It is consequently essential that areas with the richest species concentration are set aside to protect biodiversity. Such areas should be free from all uses.
Data acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination
The importance regular and timely availability of the necessary data for sustainable forest management and conservation is very crucial to the future development of the forestry sector. Some of the requirements for meeting this objective include:
training of staff and continuous upgrading of skills in the disciplines related to forest officers' immediate functional responsibilities including computer literacy;
installation of the necessary organization structures for efficient and regular data collection and processing;
simplification of data collection procedures and the use of user-friendly software from a menu to cover the necessary data requirements to the production of outputs in the desired formats;
motivation of staff to ensure the retention of key personnel;
promotion of inter-sectoral cooperation with respect to environmental protection and forest statistics compilation;
installation of the necessary data archival procedures to minimize data loss;
Formation of forestry information centres and libraries;
long-term ecological research into:
how large protected areas have to be to ensure sustainable conservation;
valuation of the services that the forests provide to mankind.
Poor funding of programmes by governments hampers most of the activities in the forestry sector. Some of the means of generation of funds for the sector include:
stronger support of developed countries to tropical countries in their effort to improve farming, forest management and conservation;
The benefits derived from the protection or conservation of large areas of natural forest can be viewed as services rendered by one country to the global community. In this respect, international transfers and concession financing would be required to support such projects.
Some of the revenues that accrue from the forests should be ploughed back to be used in the management of the forests as is being done in Senegal and The Gambia. This requires the determination of the appropriate levels for the sale of timber and the issue of concession in national forests.
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ANNEXE III: ETUDE PROSPECTIVE DU SECTEUR FORESTIER EN AFRIQUE (Cont.)
