Table 3: Changes in land use classes (1 000 ha)

		1980		1988
Land Use	(ha)	(%)	(ha)	(%)
Mangrove Forest Closed Forest Open Forest	66.9 28.0 80.7	6.3 2.6 7.6	66.9 16.2 52.3	6.3 1.5 4.9
Forest Area	175.6	16.5	135.4	12.7
Savannah	449.8	42.3	426.9	40.2
Potential Forest Area	625.4	58.8	562.3	52.9
Cultivated areas Others	274.1 162.5	25.9 15.3	336.0 163.7	31.7 15.4
Total	1 062.0	100.0	1 062.0	100.0

While the potential forest area was reduced within 8 years from 59% to 53% of the total land area or roughly at a rate of 1% per year, the forest condition has become dramatically worse, the closed forest was reduced within 8 years by 42% and the open forest area by 35%.

Therefore, it can be concluded that forest degradation in The Gambia is mainly caused by bush fire and uncontrolled firewood exploitation rather than by conversation of forests into agricultural land or other land uses.

Land use change during the past decades

In The Gambia four agro-ecological zone use distinguished, the sahelian, the sudano sahelian, the Sudanian and the Guinea. The increased land degradation process during the last decades has moved the Sahelian Zone further south to the River Gambia which appears an satellite imagery as barrier between the almost deforested Northern part and the sill forested Southern part of the Senegambia region.

Land use change between 1980 and 1993 were recently monitored by Teusan (1999). Within this period of 13 years, the major shifts in land use are indicate in the table below.

Table 4: Land use change in the Gambia (1980-1993)

Land use category	1980		1993		Change
	(ha)	(%)	(ha)	(%)	(ha)	(%)
Woodland	14 400	1.3	12 000	1.1	-2 400	- 02
Savannah woodland	121 600	10.7	88 800	7.8	-32 800	-2.9
Tree shrub savannah	280 400	24.8	360 800	31.9	80 400	7.1
Agriculture with trees	84 000	7.4	85 200	7.5	1 200	0.1
Agriculture no trees	226 400	20.0	241 200	21.3	-14 800	1.3
Fallow area	138 800	12.3	89 200	7.9	-49 600	-4.4
Mangroves	68 000	6.0	59 600	5.3	-8 400	-0.7
Others	198 800	17.6	195 600	17.3	-3 200	0.3
Total	1 132 400	100.0	1 132 400	100.0	0	0.0

Source: Teusan (1999)

Based on these findings the following conclusions can be drawn:

In regions that have poor soils (considerable parts of the three up-river divisions) it seems that protected lands has been already pushed back to non-arable sites and fallow lands on marginal sites were turned back to tree and shrub Savannah.

The major reserves of arable land seems be found in the NBD in former fallow lands other new arable lands are only to be found under forest cover, thus, remaining woodlands stocking on better sites are converted into agricultural land with the highest rates in the LRD and CRD.

The increased demand on firewood in urban and Semi-urban areas in the WD is confirmed by the increase of the remaining closed woodlands in this division compared to the other divisions, but also increasing pressure on arable land is a course of deforestation in WD.

The steady diminution of trees on farm lands particularly in the three up-river divisions due to natural mortality of old and over matured trees, but also due to tree destruction by farmers who see trees as an obstacle to farming and as competition consuming the scarce ground water leads to increase wind and water erosion and negatively affects the soil water and nutrition cycles, and

The decrease of fallow lands and thus shorter fallow periods is alarming particularly in the NBD and URD and cause for considerable concern in order to counteract irreversibly.

Forested Land:- The total forested lands have increased due to a reversion of Former agriculture land (mainly fallow land) into tree and shrub Savannah, except for the NBD (-1.6%), all other divisions register an increased in tree and shrub savannah with the highest found on the Lower River Division (LRD).

Wood lands:- Closed and open woodland has reduced by 3.1% or 27 000 ha per year due to Forest degradation and conversion into agricultural land, the more severe degradation took place in the Lower River Division (LRD) and Upper River Division (URD).

Mangroves: Suffered a slight but nevertheless alarming decrease (650 ha per year) in total surface area, the causes are the die backs due to disturbed water exchange, illegal exploitation and conversion into shrimps and fish farm.

Fallow area: The fallow areas have decreased by almost 50 000 ha or 4.4% due to conversion into tree and shrub savannah, agriculture with no trees or to a lesser extent into agriculture with trees the Central River Division (CRD) has the highest percentage in fallow area (9.4%), the fallow areas in the North Bank Division (NBD) and upper River Division (URD) were reduced by half; there is a loose gradient of decrease observable from the west to the east of the country.

Agriculture with tree: The class remained relatively unchanged while a proportion was converted into agriculture with no trees and almost the same proportion was added from fallow areas and wood land, there is a concentration of agriculture with trees in the Western Division (WD) and North Bank Division (NBD) where as the more up-river, the more agriculture without trees are encountered, in the Lower River Division a strong down ward trend exists with minus 6.1%.

Agriculture with no trees: The class increased in the average by 1.3% or 1,140 ha per year, it notably increased by 10.1% and 7.3% in the URD and NBD, respectively, while it decreased in the WD and CRD.

Others: The western parts of the country (WD, NBD, LRD) have the highest percentage of land classified "other" with increasing tendency, where as up-river (CRD,URD) this category decrease due to migration patterns both internal and external.

Land ownership

Land tenure and the tree tenure have different historical origins. While land allocation and occupancy follows customary laws according to the land (provinces) Act and Regulations, tree tenure rights are based on statutory laws which are manifested in the forest Act and Regulations.

The land tenure system outside of Gambia's urban areas is based on customary tenure rights. There is no individual or collective ownership of land. All land in rural areas are held in trust by the district council under the district Chief. The control over unused and unclaimed village land is vested with the Head of the village. Customary law does not allow the selling, renting mortgaging or pledging of land for loans.

The local communities obtain exclusive access and control over the forest land through the allocation of this land through local authorities in accordance with Section 4 and 5 of the Land (provinces) Act. According to Section 39 of the Forest Act (1977), the Government of the Gambia owns all nature of forest products unless the contrary is proved.

Tree ownership can therefore only be obtained if the tree is a product of some one's labour, i.e. planted. The Forest Regulations (1978) allow in Section 12 (1) the use of tree and tree products on all lands in rural areas for private consumption up to a value of D500.00 (Dalasis). This regulation thus grants restricted forest user rights to the rural population, while for any kind of commercial forest products exploitation, licenses and permits have to be obtained.

The granting of tree tenure rights to local Communities is based on Section 3 and Section 30 of the Forest Act (1998). These regulations empower the Secretary of State responsible for Forestry to exempt any class of persons or any area from the operation of all or any act of the Forest Act on from the application of the Forest Regulations, and to make regulations on Forest administration and management.

Natural forest resources

The natural vegetation zone is woodland Savannah. The following plant associations can be found in the country (Kasper, 1994):

breach sands and coastal shrub;

coastal woodland;

mangroves;

variously brackish and fresh water swamps;

salty mud flats and salt pans;

riverine (gallery) forests and forest on river Islands; and

Savannah woodland, parklands, and bush fallow.

About one hundred years ago, most of the Gambian land territory was still covered by dense and almost impenetrable forests although large forest areas have already been in the Niumi, Badibu and Fuladu districts. At that time, the forests were rich in wildlife as they constituted the habitat for a variety of large mammals which are nowadays rare (such as hippopotamus, water buck) or locally extinct (such as buffalo, giraffes elephant, lion, etc).

The following table 5 illustrates the process of forest destruction based on the results of land use studies curried out during 1946 and 1993 in relation to the population density.

	1946	1968	1980	1993
Closed woodland (%) Open woodland (%) Savannah (%)	60.1 13.3 7.8	8.0 17.6 31.7	1.3 10.7 24.8	1.1 7.8 31.8
Total Forest Cover (%)	81.2	57.3	36.8	40.7
Population density (person per km2)	25	35	57	91

Source: Ridder (1991) Teusan (1999) NEA (1997) and ND Thoma 1999

The figures given for tree cover for the year 1980 and 1993 reflect the area in percent of the national territory of 1 129 500 ha (land and water surface). The reference area for these of 1946 and 1968 in not known. In addition, the comparison of these two years figures of 1980 and 1993 is limited due to the different classification systems used and survey methods applied.

Despite the limits of accuracy of dates, the figures obviously manifest a desertification process that started in the early 50s when the population counted to just 280 000 persons (at present, the Gambians population is estimated to be 1 280 700. Very interesting are results of a recently carried land use monitoring by Tension (1999) which indicates that the peak of deforestation was in the mid-80s and that from this time the total forest cover has slowly increased. This increase is explained by the fact that groundnut production drastically dropped due to low world market prizes and less forest was cleared for extensive cash crop production. The former agricultural lands were allowed to regenerate to a secondary tree and shrub Savannah.

However, this positive trend should not obscure the fact that the forest cover undergoes a severe degradation process due to fire and uncontrolled exploitation which reduces the biodiversity and threatens the extinction of plants and animals. Secondary, tree and shrub savannahs cannot provide alternative habitats for many species since their specific ecological niches, as provided by the original forests, are destroyed. The reduced biodiversity in secondary forest limits the forest use, particularly that of non-wood forest products which significantly contributes to the livelihood of the majority of the rural population.

Table 6 illustrates the change of the species composition in open woodlands and tree and shrub savannah based on the results of the national forest inventories carried out in 1982 and 1997. In this table, the species are listed according to their frequency based on the basal area hectare in 1982. Land use change between 1980 and 1993 were recently monitored by Tensan (1999). Within this period of 13 years, the major shifts in land use are:

Forested lands: the total forested lands have increased due to a reversion of former agricultural land (mainly fallow land) into tree and shrub savannah, except for the NBD (1.6%), all other divisions register an increase in tree and shrub savannah with the highest found on the Lower River Division (LRF).

Woodlands: closed and open woodland has reduced by 3.1% or 2 700 ha per year due to forest degradation and conversion into agricultural lands, the more severe degradation to be place in the LRD and URD.

Mangroves: suffered a slight but nevertheless alarming decrease (650 ha per year) in total surface area, the causes are the die backs due to disturbed water exchange, illegal exploitation and conversion into shrimps and fish farm.

Fallow areas: The fallow area have decreased by almost 50 000 ha or 4.4% due to conversion into tree and shrub savannah, agriculture with no tree or to a lesser extent into agriculture with trees the Central River Division (CRD) has the highest percentage in fallow area (NBD) and Upper River Division (URD) were reduced by half: there is a loose gradient.

The following tables illustrate the change of tree species composition in open woodlands and tree and shrub savannah based on the results of the national forest inventories curried out in 1982 and 1997. In these tables the species are listed according to their frequency based on the basal area per hectare in 1982.

In both forest types two major trends are alarming.

the over utilisation of the most common firewood species such as Pterocarpus erinaceus and Terminalia Macroptera which once clearly dominated the natural forests, and

a clear shift towards more fire and drought resistant species such as Combretum glutinosun, Bombax bouno pozense and Cordyla africana.

Table 6: Change of condition of open woodlands from 1982 to 1997

Tree Species	Number per ha			Volume (m3) per ha			Generation per ha
	1982	1997	+/-%	1982	1997	+/-%	1982	1997	+/-%
Plerocarpus erinaceus	25	9.7	-61	11.4	4.9	-57	23	70	204
Terminalia macroptera	22	11.1	-50	6.7	2.3	-66	118	179	52
Elaeis guineensis	8	3.1	-61	-	-	0	14	1	-93
Cordyla africana	13	7.4	-43	3.7	3.2	-14	1	12	1 100
Combretum glutinosum	32	29	-9	2.9	3.5	21	138	335	143
Combretum nigrans	23	12.8	-44	2.7	1.3	-52	252	652	159
Daniella oliveri	4	4.7	18	3.6	1.6	-56	3	6	100
Khaya senegalensis	1	0.3	-70	5.4	3.4	-37	2	3	50
Parkia biglobosa	9	0.8	-91	3	3.1	3	8	2	-75
Other species	51	42.1	-17	16.9	9.1	-46	303	1 112	267
Total Open Woodland	188	121	-36	56.3	32.4	-42	862	2 372	175

Table 7: Change of condition of tree and shrub savannah from 1982 to 1997

Tree Species	Number per ha			Volume (m3) per ha			Generation per ha
	1982	1997	+/-%	1982	1997	+/-%	1982	1997	+/-%
Combretum glutinosum	42	32.9	-22	3.2	3.8	19	587	458	-22
Pterocarpus erinaceus	8	5	-38	2	2	0	18	31	72
Terminalia macroptera	10	5.1	-49	1.7	0.8	-53	85	147	73
Cardyla africana	3	5.7	90	1.3	2.7	108	2	11	450
Bombax bounopozense	1	4.2	320	0.4	2.1	425	3	19	533
Combretum nigrans	9	7.6	-16	0.6	0.6	0	164	602	267
Prosopis africana	2	1.1	-45	0.5	0.7	40	4	1	-75
Other species	32	31	-3	5.7	6.9	21	212	1 138	437
Total Tree/Shrub Sav.	107	92.6	-13	15.4	19.6	27	1 075	2 407	124

During a period of 15 years, the stocking volume in open woodland has reduced by a remarkable 42% particularly high valued species like species hit worse. Some minor but still important components of the woodland population such as khaya, borassus, parinasi, mitragyna, detarium, ceiba and albizzia have been reduced to the lowest frequent species and will probably soon be marginalized as happened already in the Savannah population.

Compared to the woodlands, less dramatic changes took place in the tree and shrub Savannah where the species distribution of 1997 look similar to the one of 1982. However, the species composition is further narrowed, and the effects of regular fires and fuelwood exploitation cannot be overlooked due to the considerable increase of more fire resistant species at the cost of the major firewood species which all decreased in number and volume. A 27% increase of stocking volume in 1997 compared to 1982 can be noticed in the tree and shrub Savannah. This increase is explained by the changed classification system from 10 to 20% crown coverage for this land use class.

Regeneration of trees has increased substantially, in particular pioneer species including some important firewood species have multiplied their regeneration from 1982 to 1997. This development is probably due to the decline in agricultural activities, leaving formerly open lands to glow back to Savannah vegetation. Also the promotion of community forestry and related extension work has certainly contribute to reducing fires in the recent years leaving more regeneration to survive.

FOREST PRODUCTS PRODUCTION TRADE AND CONSUMPTION

Roundwood and sawnwood

It is not known exactly how much fuelwood, timber and other utility wood is exactly consumed in the country as no sufficient studies or recording has been done over the years. However from 1989 to date there has been some record keeping especially of logs and timber production at the Government operated sawmills and at the one private sawmill that exists. Production through licensing for pit sawing and other illegal production in the natural woodlands has not been estimated but this can safely be assumed to be the equivalent of production at the forest park (natural forest) level. The Gambia does not export logs or timber. However small tourist takes quantities of wooden artefacts are taken out of the country by tourist annually. This `export' oriented trade is not significant volume wise. Table 8 gives the estimate of official and unofficial logs and timber production respectively from 1989.

Table 8: Evolution of forest production and imports (in 1 000 m³)

Year	Plantation Production	Natural Forest Park Mgmt.	Licensing & Others Production	TOTAL	Log\Timber Export	Timber Imports
1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995	1.4 2.7 3.5 3.5 5.5 4.5 2.8	0.57 0.91 1.05 0.98 0.81 0.73 0.32	0.6 0.9 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.5 0.1	2.57 4.51 5.55 5.48 7.11 5.73 3.22	- - - - - - -	0.099 0.118 0.094 2.190 0.174 1.729 2.184

Source:- Forestry Department records.

The most important timber producing areas in The Gambia are the Western Division and the Lower River Division. Although there were localized areas of production in the other divisions of the country before the moratorium on the commercial production of timber from the natural woodlands in 1993, production from these divisions has been so small as to be regarded as insignificant.

Timber and logs production from the natural forest cannot be expected to increase in the near future until a significant improvement in forest protection and development, through the current practice of community forestry has been realized.

Timber and timber substitutes

The annual total timber demand in The Gambia, including rhun palm splits (borassus aethiopum) and poles for construction, was calculated by Schindele and Bangura (1988) at 0.00712 cbm per capita.

At present, the borassus aethiopum species (rhun palm) splits are no longer produced in The Gambia, but imported from Guinea Bissau. For construction purposes, poles are more and more substituted for rhun palm splits in the rural areas and by Gmelina timber or imported timber in the urban areas. In 1988, 78% of the sawnwood was imported and only 24% was produced in the country.

At present, there are three sawmills in The Gambia. The oldest sawmill was established during Colonial times at Nyambai. In 1985, it was completely renewed with the assistance of USAID and finally privatized in 1989. Nyambai Sawmill presently only produces Gmelina sawnwood from the timber supply of the nearby plantations. The two government sawmills (Kafuta and Dumputu) were established in 1985 and 1988 respectively by The Gambia-German Forestry Project for the utilisation of deadwood logs from the nearby forest parks. The main product is high quality sawnwood of local species for furniture making. However, due to the poor quality of logs, the average length of the produced boards is quite short and there is a high number of cuts.

Until 1994, when pit sawing was abandoned, a large share of sawnwood was, however, produced by pit sawyers and by local carpenters re-sawing big boards from the pit sawyers or converting small logs or even old fence posts with circular saws.

The value of timber is very high in The Gambia. The current average price for local hardwood timber is about D4728 per cbm while for Gmelina it is D2998 per cbm.

The demand for timber and timber substitutes in The Gambia cannot be met even in the medium term by locally grown wood. Considering the value of sawnwood, from the economic viewpoint, every suitable log which can be sustainably used and without degrading the resource base, should be used in order to save the expense of foreign exchange for imports.

Other forestry products and roles for woodfuel and wood energy

The rapid growing population has led to an increased demand of forest products, in particular, fuelwood, construction poles and timber and fence posts. Firewood and other products collected and used for home consumption are traditionally regarded by rural households as "free commodities". They do not have a price per se, rather the market value is determined by the work and cost involved for collection, processing and transportation.

A fuelwood survey recently curried out by the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in February 1999, reveals that 97.8% of all households, both rural and urban, surveyed use wood as primary source of fuel particularly for cooking. The survey clearly indicates that for the majority of the Gambian population no other energy source than woodfuel is as economical under present conditions. Charcoal, the production of which was banned in The Gambia in 1980, is mainly used for brawling tea and for ironing. In urban areas, the majority of households use gas for making tea, some also re-heat the children's food by using gas. The use of kerosene is limited to providing lighting. Almost 50% of the rural and some 70% of the urban and semi-urban households use kerosene for this purpose. According to the survey results some 75% of the households use the traditional 3-stone stove for cooking. Some, mainly the urban and semi-urban households use metal, gas or charcoal stoves. Astonishingly, none of the rural households interviewed used improved mud stoves such as the Kumba gaye type.

The burning properties of wood plays an important role in the selection of fuelwood as its attributes are calorific value, smoke production, workability, flammability, production of good charcoal and smell (i.e. the taste of the food).

Pterocarpus erinaceaus Terminalia macroptera and combretum glutmosum fulfil the preferred attributes and are therefore, the most demanded species. As a result, these species are being over-exploited and getting scarce in some parts of the country. This scarcity forced rural farmers to spend more time on fuelwood collection and urban dwellers to pay more for fuelwood or to use wood of less quality as Gmelina arborea or branch wood which are sold at a lower prize.

Various studies have been undertaken to estimate the fuelwood consumption and demand of the country. These estimates gave consumption rates varying from 0.34 to 1.44m³ per capita and year. Since fuelwood consumption per capita regressively increases with population growth, the real annual consumption most probably lies at present within the range of 0.4 and 0.6m³ per capita. By assuming a value of 0.5m³, the annual fuelwood consumption would amount to about 650 000m³ which is more than the annual increment of the country's forest cover of about 523 000m³ as estimated by Ludwing and Bojang (1999) in 1997 (excluding mangroves and Gmelina plantations). However, both figures cannot be directly compared with Seiner (1994). The study firewood survey in the Gambia, production, transport, marketing and consumption in the Greater Banjul Area).

Since rural households traditionally collect dry branch wood, the volume of which is not computed in forest inventories and thus not included in the volume and increment data provided in table - Sustainable wood supply becomes much more critical by taking into account that an essential wood quantity is annually consumed by bush fires and used for other domestic and commercial purposes such as fencing, construction, fish smoking, carpentry, lime and salt production and heating. At present, the countries wood demand is covered through import of wood, timber and palm split imports from neighbouring countries and by further over-exploiting the natural forests (decrease of stocking volume).

Although the total stocking volume of the national forest cover seems to have declined just by 3% from 1982 to 1997 and a promising increase in the annual increment on woody biomass of 37% particularly on agricultural lands, the estimates on the actual and future demand of forest products call for immediate actions in order to counteract the on-going desertification processes.

RECREATION AND TOURISM

The tourist sector is, apart from trade and agriculture, one of the driving forces of the Gambian economy with an estimated annual growth rate of 5%, contributing to about 12% of the GDP between 1991 and 1994. Tourism has a major role to play in generating income from protected areas and in the provision of income generating opportunities to local communities. Two villages, Tumani Tenda and Brefet, use at present their community forest to gain income strength through ecotourism. On the other side, additional pressure is put on ecologically sensitive areas as a result of uncoordinated tourism development activities, particularly along the coastline and with increasing tendency along the River Gambia where more and more tourist camps are being established. There is a need to harmonize the requirements and policies of the main sectors involved i.e. tourism, physical planning, wildlife and forestry.

FORESTRY POLICIES LEGISLATION AND INSTITUTIONS

Forest management law and policy

The Forest Act, 1998 repealed the Forest Act No. 9 of 1977. The Act recognized three different categories of forests, state forest (forest parks and reserves), community forest and private forest (natural forest and private plantations). This categorisation of the Forest of the Country allows for a broad-based participation of the population in forest management. The regulation is designed to give legislative backing to the policy and its new elements also include community and private forestry, which were distinctly absent in the previous Act 1977.

Private sector

The availability of forest resources is basically seen as God given and therefore the private sector's participation is limited to the use of forest products. However, very recently one private entrepreneur (Mouhtara Holdings Company) got directly involved in forest resources management by establishing a Gmelina plantation of one hundred hectares in the Western Division.

Village Communities (as private sector) participation in forest resources management through community forest management, has been on the increase as a result of the empowerment of local communities in natural forest management in 1991. Such communities have either formal or non-formal structures, such as committees with prescribed functions for the management of resources.

The current forest policy and legislation have made enough provisions for tenure and ownership rights as incentives for active private sector participation in gainful forest resource management.

Investment in forestry and forest products

The management system applied in the other state forest is the licensing system. Under the Gambian Forestry Code, all products taken from the other state forest for commercial purposes must be legitimized by a license. This includes all forest products from saw logs to fruits and nuts. By far the greatest number of licenses are issued for the commercial gathering of fuelwood.

Licences are issued by the divisional officers of the Forestry Department. They give the right to collect forest products only in the district where they are issued. However, no further detailed location for the exploitation is specified. The district Chief, or Seyfo, controls the allocation of permits for fruits, timber, and fuelwood collection for commercial purposes. The Forestry Department decides on the number of fuelwood permits to be allotted to the division for the entire year. Timber collection permits must be approved by the Chief, before the authorisation is given by the Forestry Department.

The following licence can be obtained for investment in forest products

Fuelwood producer license: The license is issued for the producer and for up to three assistants. The licence for a producer is costing D525 and for each assistant D250. The license allows the exploitation and production of five lorry loads per month each with a load of 10 tons, which amounts to 600 tons per year. According to Danso et al (1994), only a few producers are able to use the license to its full extent. As mentioned before, the number of license available for each division is limited. Fuelwood license holders and their assistants are authorized to collect dead wood from lands, within their division except from forest parks, community forests or village lands that have a community license.

Fuelwood vendor (buyer\seller) licenses: Fuelwood vendors need a license for the transport and the sale of fuelwood. The license costs at present D525 and there are limits on the number of licenses that can be issued. Holders of a producer license are not permitted to acquire a vendor's license. A license to sell fuelwood is valid for the whole country.

Pit sawyer license: The holders of a pit sawyer license are allowed to convert any tree for which permission has been issued. The license costs D1 000 and is valid for one year. After felling of the tree, pit sawyers cut the hole into rough cants or planks and sell it for re-sawing to local sawmills or carpenters. In June 1994, the Minister of Natural Resources and the environment suspended the issuing of pit sawyer permits in all divisions due to scarcity of suitable wood and the rampant illegal felling that is encouraged.

Other License: Rhun palm vendors licenses are required for the sale of rhun palm splits and cost D1 000 per year. Commercial rhun palm producer licenses are no longer issued because of the limited local supply. Most of the rhun palm splits on the market are imported from Guinea Bissau, although some illegal exploitation in the Gambia is probably occurring. For domestic use at village level rhun palms can still be exploited if permitted by a license.

Secondary forest products licenses: these are issued on an annual basis. They need to be acquired for the production of mats, Tara bed (rattan), pillows, brooms, palm wine, and the gathering of palm kernels, fruits and nuts and baobab fruits. The costs for these licenses vary between D100 and D300 per year.

The current national forest policy 1995 to 2005

Since 1995, the Gambia's national forest policy was revised with clearer objectives, orientations and tools. The new forest policy goals have been stated as follows.

To reserve forest land resources covering at least 30% of total land area through:

minimizing soil desiccation and soil erosion,

improving conserving and preserving biodiversity,

maintaining river bank stability (mangroves),

protecting the swamp areas.

To ensure that 75% of forest lands are managed and protected according to forest management principles in order to increase forest resource base.

To conduct a national forestry inventory once every ten years in order to generate base line data and information on forests for forest management planning purposes.

Recognizing the lack of basic information on forests, to support research to acquire base line dates through applied forestry research and studies, such as:

forest produce consumption trends studies,

silvicultural research (growth and yield),

agro-silvo-pastoral studies and research,

forest economics studies,

local knowledge about trees and forest,

wood utilisation research.

In terms of orientation, the policy calls for the promotion and use of community and private forestry to meet the policy objectives. It allows for capacity building in the sector: staff training and the training of the local community members on basic aspects of forest management. It further ensures that the policy objectives are met: a National Forestry Fund has been created to provide in part the funding requirements of the forestry activities.

Forest policy orientations

To achieve the goals set in the forest policy, the forest policy orientations will promote and encourage:

Popular use of affordable alternatives for energy in urban areas to bridge the gap between the demand and what the forest can sustainably supply, considering that the Gambia's natural forests cannot meet totally future demand for forest produce;

Community ownership and management of forest lands to:-

increase awareness and willingness of the rural population to protect forest resources;

ensure active participation of the public in management of community forests;

ensure that significant benefits are realized from the forest by the community.

The multiple use of forest and forest lands which are not in conflict with forest management especially in the areas of:

controlled grazing;

collection of minor forest produce;

ecotourism;

wildlife conservation with due regard to other community interests.

Efforts in the development of new strategies for the prevention and the control of bush fire, recognizing that it is the control of bush fires, recognizing that it is the most important agent of forest and change land destruction.

The active participation of private individuals and the private sector in the production of forest produce and its marketing in accordance with the Government of The Gambia's policies of privatisation and land reform following the guidelines set out by the Forestry Department, while forest management and exploitation of forest produce will remain the main responsibility of the Government and rural communities in the near future.

Nation-wide tree planting by encouraging tree farming on agricultural lands, grazing lands and along road sides to improve productivity and to contribute to soil and water conservation.

The participation of forest produce: exploitation license and permit holders in replacement activities.

Urban forestry through the establishment of green belts and woodlots in urban and semi-urban areas for landscaping and recreational purposes.

The forest policy requirements

For the realisation of these objectives the following forest policy requirements are needed:

To develop, in consultation with the population, Community Forestry regulation able to guarantee community ownership of forests. To ensure the non-conversion of community forests to other forms of land use that would be in conflict with forest management, as well as a sustainable management of Community Forests.

To define principles for forest management planning for both the state and Community Forests.

To conduct a national forestry inventory once every ten years in order to generate base line data and information on forest for forest management planning purposes.

To recognize the lack of basic information on forests, to support research to acquire base line data through applied forestry research and studies, such as:

forest produce consumption trends studies,

silvicultural research (growth and yield),

agro-silvo - pastoral studies and research,

forest economics studies,

local knowledge about trees and forest,

wood utilisation research.

To maintain a Forestry service with an adequate number of staff, from which sufficient numbers are trained at professional, sub-professional and technical level, both locally and abroad, to administer the forest resource of the country in accordance with the stated forest policy to ensure:

adequate licensing administration and supervision,

extension activities that will promote a positive public attitude towards the Forestry profession,

extension activities to ensure the willingness of the local population to be involved in the protection and the sustainable management of the forest resource.

To develop and institutionalize practical in-country training of forestry staff for the government, local communities, NGOs, and other organizations for a wider application of forest management techniques.

Recognizing that the Government allocation to the Forestry Sector is very limited to provide adequate funding for the Forestry Department for the realisation of policy objectives by:

creating a Forestry Fund administered by the Forestry Department for reinvestment into forest management and development,

ensuring that recurrent budget allocation by central government for the administration of the forest resource and for the augmentation of the forestry fund is continued,

to ensure that licenses, permits, royalties and stumpage fees reflect the replacement cost of the forest produce.

Forest legislation

The Department of Forestry operational mandate is embodied in the forest Regulation which was enacted in 1978. These regulations were, however, designed for controlled exploitation, management and development of the state forest parks. The regulations do not explicitly cover other forest areas except through declaring certain tree species as protected trees wherever they occur in the Gambia and the blanket prohibited of forest fires except where authorized by the Director of Forestry.

In view of the current trend towards the wide application of community forest management, the current forest regulations which do not explicitly provide for community involvement and empowerment is grossly inadequate. The possibility for community involvement in forest management is in a rather cautious manner provided for in the Forest Act of 1977, with a provision in the act the minister responsible for forests can grant permission to a given community to manage a given area by waiving the restrictions imposed by the ACT and regulation. An inherent weakness in this arrangement is that the community's tenurial rights are not guaranteed by the law, but determined by the good will of an individual. While for most practical pilot purposes this arrangement could be regarded as adequate, it has an inherent weakness in that it limits the pace at which implementation could be realized since every community would have to be "Screened" for its application for empowerment to be approved. Furthermore, in this day of partism politics a community may be denied the privilege to manage its resources because of its political beliefs. This has, however, so far not been the case in The Gambia. Ministerial involvement in the granting of community ownership rights has the advantage that communities that do not show any significant interest in the management of their forest can have their privilege with drawn without any undue legal implications.

The current forest ACT and regulations involve the communities in forest management and protection by legally requiring them to participate in fire prevention and control activities. Although the regulation makes a provision for the possible compensation of the participants in the event of a fire outbreak, it also makes it possible to publish them if they unreasonably refuse to participate. Though the Department of Forestry does not pay compensation to the participants (for reason of not encouraging them to set fires), it is very keen on prosecuting people who set fires. Prosecution for not participating in fire fighting is however rather rare. This aspect of the forest regulation, and the general belief by the public that all Forests be long to the State, has contributed to the general lack of public interest in forest management.

With the introduction of community forest management in 1991, and awareness campaign since 1980's, public awareness and desire to own and manage their forest is increasing. Consequently there is an urgent need to review the current forest ACT and Regulations with a view to revising them to permit community and private ownership and management of forests.

This revised forestry legislation is approved by Government in August 1998. The regulation is designed to give legislative backing to the current policy. Its new elements include community and private forestry which were distinctly absent in the previous legislation. This new legislation allows for free access to all privately planted trees without requiring any legal processing by the owner. The legislation further lay particular emphasis on fire protection in recognition of the fact that forest fires inflict the most damage on the forest resource base.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Sustainable forest management

The Gambian Forest Management Concept (GFMC) was developed in 1994 after management models for both state and community forests have been tested for some years. Based on the experience gained, the two models were merged into one concept whereby selected forest parks serve as nucleus for sustainable management.

The GFMC is an approach to conserve and improve the forest resources of the Gambia in order to supply as much as possible of the Country's demand for forest products through the sustainable management of its forest resources. The GFMC pursues an integrated forest management approach based on the following objectives and strategies:

To obtain and maintain a diversified structure in executing and implementing forest management activities.

To increase the awareness of individual communities, and The Gambia's population on the importance of forests.

To minimize the cost for management and conservation by using the resources capacity of self-regeneration and to improve its production capacity with a minimum of silvicultural inputs.

To hand over responsibility and management functions to communities and other managers in order to minimize government input in terms of manpower and finance.

To maximize economic returns of forest products.

To develop, test and introduce new techniques and methods designed to mitigate and to eliminate interest conflicts between agriculture and forestry production.

Biodiversity and ecosystem sustainability

In recognition of the urgency of the biodiversity situation, particularly the extinction of species and the serious threats facing them, The Gambia's Government embarked on active protection of the remaining wildlife species (fauna and flora) by setting aside protected natural habitats for them and simultaneously promoting conservation education to increase public awareness about wildlife and general environmental issues. Since 1916, six wildlife protected areas, with a total land area of approximately 39 772 ha (i.e. about 3.5% of The Gambia's land area), have been established, this is reflected in the next table.

Table 9: National parks in the Gambia

No.	Name	Date	Area (ha)
1.	Abuko Nature Reserve	1968	105
2.	River Gambia	1976	589
3.	Nuimi Natural Park	1986	4 940
4.	Kian West Natural Park	1987	11 526
5.	Tanji Coastal Park	1993	612
6.	Bao-bolon Wetland		22 000
Total Area			39 772

TAXATION

Royalties

Royalties are levied on truckloads (10 ton lorries) of fuelwood and other major forest products such as poles and saw logs at the divisional office in each division. The royalties must be paid by the license holder on each unit of production, for example the royalty for fuelwood is D10 per cbm. Pit sawyers pay a royalty for each tree, depending on the species. Royalties must be paid in the division where the producer license was issued.

Fines

Fines for illegal exploitation or transportation of forest products vary with the offence. All Forestry Department personnel, from the Director down to the Forest Scouts, are authorized to apprehend offenders and seize goods. The fines are processed through local courts, first at the village level for less serious violations, and at the magistrate level for more serious offences.

The described licensing system may have worked well when the forest resources were still abundant and the demand was still low.

Today, due to the dramatic increase in population, the pressure on the remaining forest land for fuelwood exploitation is extremely high and the situation is difficult to control. The Forestry Department has few staff and means to carry out effective control. Thus control posts can only be occupied during the daytime and along main roads.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ISSUES

As in other Sub-Sahelian Countries, there exists in the Gambia too traditional combines tree growing with a variety of agricultural an pastoral activities on the same plot of land. Certain tree species are left standing when the land is cleared for agricultural purposes or are allowed to grow in fallow periods. The most frequent trees in this traditional type of agro forestry system are Elaeis guineesis, Parkia biglobosa, Prosopis africana, Cordyla africaso Adansoma digitata, Acacia albida and ficus Sp. However, the tree density on farm lands is diminishing. The main causes are:

introduction of new farming techniques (mechanisation):

shorter fallow periods,

uncontrolled grazing, and

farmland clearing by using fire.

Traditionally mainly Adansonia digitata ware planted in and around settlements. During the colonial period mango and citrus trees were introduced and propagated. They have been planted solely around compounds and in home gardens on private land mainly by wealthy landowners. In the late 40s and early 50s tree planting started along roadsides by using mainly Azadirachta indica, Gmelina arborea and in some cases Anacardiuim occidentale. Relicts of such alleys still exist in some parts of the country particularly in the old trading centres.

Up to the most recent decades, forests were regarded by the rural population as an enemy rather than as an important element of the dryland ecosystem necessary for maintaining soil fertility and water bodies. At times, when the country was still widely covered with dense forests, farmers had to spend considerable time to clear land for agricultural production which was only possible by using fire. Thus forest was considered useless and even dangerous because they host wild animals and ghosts, and are the cause for agricultural pests. Therefore there exists no traditional knowledge on protecting and managing the natural vegetation cover on a sustainable basis including the propagation of most of the naturally grown trees.

On the other side, the rural population had and still has profound knowledge on forest plants and their multiple uses not only as fuel source and for construction purposes but also as sources of wild food and medicines. In recent years, this knowledge is being more and more lost with the disappearance of valuable species and due to the decreasing inter-generation knowledge transfer.

FOREST CATEGORIES AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

The new forest legislation distinguishes four broad forest categories: state forests, community forests, private forests, and national parks\nature reserves.

Table 10: Forest under controlled management

	Division		Controlled management (ha)									No management\protection (ha)
			Forest parks		Comm. Forests		Private Forest %		Total Ha %			Forest parks		Forest reserve		Total Ha %
Western		3 355		6 203		100		9 658		13.2	512		63 130		63 642		86.8
Lower .River		1 758		3 465		0		5 223		7.9	4 431		56 846		61 277		92.1
Central river		7 233		5 924		0		13 157		8.5	10 412		131 031		141 443		91.5
Upper River		858		1 565		0		2 423		2.1	2 178		108 599		110 777		97.9
North Bank		0		230		0		230		0.6	3 290		37 680		40 097		99.4
The Gambia		13 204		17 387		100		30 691		6.8	20 823		397 286		418 109		93.2

Without forested national parks\reserves and without mangrove forests

Source: FD statistics; Schindele and Bojang (1995); Teusan (1999)

State forests comprise the gazetted forest parks and forests reserves. Some 13 204 ha or 39% of the total forest park area of 34 027 ha are at present under management. The managed forest park area includes some 2 135 ha of Gmelina plantations all located in the Western Division. According to the GFMC, at least a forest park area of some 17 000 ha is needed for demonstration and training purposes. The remaining forest park area shall be managed by pursuing other management objectives.

Community Forests are being established by step wise transferring user and ownership rights from the government to local communities. At present, some 17 387 ha of community forests are preliminary surveyed and demarcated. The actual rate of community forest expansion is roughly estimated at about 4 000 to 6 000 ha per year. The vision of the Forestry Department is to have some 200 000 ha of community forests established by the year 2005.

THE OUTLOOK FOR FOREST RESOURCES

Trends and scenarios

There has been a steady increase in the demand for forest (wood and none-wood) products as a result of increased human population. The majority of rural dwellers depend on the forest as a cheap source of construction material. The natural forests provide about 80 to 85% of domestic energy for more than 84% of the total population in the form of fuelwood. Other forest products collected include poles, fence posts, timber for construction, leave roots, fruits etc, for different domestics function.

However, more wood is consumed than the forest can replace. Livestock production systems are traditionally seasonal utilizing communal lands and other unmanaged forest lands. The major range resource areas are in the upland and lowland ranges. The former is commonly identified within the closed woodlands, open woodlands and tree and shrub savannah and covers some of the designated forest reserves. Thus, humans as well as livestock increase pressure on forest resources. Traditional agricultural practices and systems are sometimes in conflict with the laws of the forest as they pay little regard to conversion. Forest areas are scarified to subsistence farming and orchard development as is evident in the Western Division and other parts of the country, therefore, the expansion of land for agriculture has a drawback on forestry development and maintenance of a balanced ecosystem.

The dependency of the fisheries sub-sector on wood for fish smoking has in some ways contributed to the pressure on forest resources as much as the creation of settlements and other infrastructure at times with the consent of the Department of Physical planning of the Ministry for Local Governments and Lands. The demand of the fisheries sub-sector on forest resources is evident in the widespread processing of fish in the artisanal sector located on both banks of the Gambia river along the coast line at Bakau, Brufut, Tanji Bato- Kunbu, Gunjur, Kartong, Kemoto, Juruku, Temda etc.

Frequent bush fires destroy a significant portion of the dry biomass and contribute equally to the problems in forest resource management. In 1994, it was estimated that approximately 90 to 96% of all combustible biomass material went up in flames. Bush fires were not only damaging to agricultural products but to trees as well and more severely to the young tree regeneration.

CONCLUSIONS

The impressive achievements made in the forestry sector towards sustainable forest management through establishing a sound framework allowing community participation has found international recognition which was expressed by giving the Forestry Department of Gambia the opportunity to host the first international workshop on Community Forestry in Africa (March 1999). It must be mentioned, however, that these achievements were only possible with adequate government support and continuing foreign assistance in the field of natural forest management for a period of almost 20 years.

The policy vision is to keep 30% of the total land area of the Gambia under forest cover of which 75% of that area under controlled management. Although most of the necessary hard and software is in place, today only 12% of the envisaged target is actually achieved which means that high pressure remains on non-managed forest lands.

It is estimated that at least up to the year 2005, the sector will require further donor support until the GFMC will be implemented at national level and until multiplier mechanisms are in place that work with a minimum of external inputs and which can be maintained by the Forestry Department in the long term. Donor support will be particularly needed for staff training and initial development investment, such as physical infrastructure; regional fire breaks; the establishment of community forests; private forests, and forests under joint management; related extension and support services; and the setting-up of a monitoring and evaluation system.

The achievement of the forest policy will also depend on the collaboration with other sectors and the harmonisation of their policy objections. Areas of collaboration should include the promotion of renewable energy sources and energy saving techniques, adequate forest products pricing, the demarcation of permanent forest lands, the promotion of agro forestry.

REFERENCES

Dr. Schade, F. Bojang March 1995 Gambian Forest Management concept part of GGFP Report No. 29

Forster H, 1983, Evaluation of the National Forest inventory of The Gambia, GGFP, Report No 10.

GoTG, 1998 The Gambia National Bio-diversity strategy and Action plan, GoF\INDEP\WWF, Banjul, December 1998.

GOTG 1996, The Gambian Forest management Concept, Banjul

GOTG, 1995 The Forest policy of the Gambia 1995 to 2005 Banjul.

GOTG, 1997 State of the Environment Report National Environment Agency.

GOTG 1998 The Forest Bill of The Gambia, Banjul

GOTG 1995, Administrative Guideline, Forestry Department Banjul.

NARI, 1999, Fuelwood usage in the Gambia, Draft Report Banjul - February 1999.

Ridder R.M. 1991 Land use inventory for The Gambia, on the Basis of land sat - TM, Scenes including a comparison with previous investigations,

Fajara Schindele, M . Bangura M. 1988, Timber market Analysis with special consideration of the Absorption capacity of locally produce sawnwood, GGFP Report No 19.

Tensen S. 1999 Monitoring of land use change in the Gambia between 1980 - 1993 URDFP February 1999.

Luduing R. Bojang L. 1998 Results and Analysis of the National Forest Resource inventory. The Gambia 1997\98, URD-FP, December 1998.

Danso A.A, 1998, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sector Review Report of Forestry and Wildlife Sector, Banjul.

Niklas Grunden, A Savic, 1996 Timber Consumption and utilization in the rural area of the Gambia Thoma W. Sillar J. 1999, National Action Plan on forest and wildlife management.