INTRODUCTION

Niger is a Sahelian country, surrounded by Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Libya, Algeria, Mali and Burkina Faso, with a surface area of 1,267,000 km².

With an exceptionally high and constant growth rate of 3.3% per year for the 1984-2000 period, the population is currently estimated to be 10,700,000 inhabitants. Whilst the population increases at this rate, the growth of the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 2.2% on average for the same period. However, the population is essentially a rural one with a rate of urbanisation estimated at 17%. People live in extreme poverty with at least 63% of inhabitants having less than US$ 1 (500 FCFA) per day to survive.

Consequently, all the social indicators are generally below the African average (the percentage of children in full-time education is 29%, one child in three dies before reaching the age of five, 53% of the population have access to drinking water, 30% of the population live within a 10km radius of a health centre, life expectancy is age 47). Thus, Niger figures amongst the very last in the ranking of countries in the annual UNDP human development reports.

During the period between 1984 to 1997, the GNP per inhabitant dropped by an average of 2.2%, dropping from US$ 240 in 1994 to US$ 200 in 1997.

Niger also has a very significant amount of foreign debt compared to its GDP and exports. The latest figures available indicate that at the end of 1998, foreign debt incurred was in the region of 859.1 billion FCFA for a GDP of 992.5 billion FCFA (86.6%) and debt service was 50.3 billion FCFA from an export volume of goods and services of 121.6 billion FCFA (41.4%). It would seem that the latest measures taken by the Paris Club favours an easing of Niger’s national debt by more than 60%.

According to recent documents on decentralisation, Niger is administratively divided into one hundred and seventeen (117) territorial communities, forty two (42) urban communes and thirty one (31) rural communes all of which are contained within eight (8) regions (including the Niamey urban community) and thirty six (36) departments (see Figure 1).

Politically, Niger has experienced several upheavals, which brought about the suspension of co-operation with certain bilateral and multilateral partners (notably the European Union). Since December 1999, a constitutional democratic system has been set up.

Today, the authorities in Niger are endeavouring to consolidate the democratic framework, notably by seeking social dialogue with all the stakeholders and civil society organisations. The drafting and implementation of a Guideline Programme for Economic and Social Policy from 2000 until 2004 will be a reference point for its economic and social action during this period. This programme establishes rural development as the driving force of growth and fixes guidelines, goals and financial and macro-economic strategies and for all economic and social sectors

In the area of forestry, several different stages have been gone through. During the post-colonial period, the forest estate (reserved areas, protected areas and areas for restoration) was exclusively reserved for the State and placed either under state control or controlled by the sale of a felling licence. This practice did not spare forest areas from increasingly greater erosion. Forest revenues were paid into the public treasury and used for other purposes. During this period, the monitoring rate, which records the efficiency of the measures put in place to collect forest revenues, remained low (varying between 11% and 30% only from 1984 to 1990). The State was losing considerable necessary resources for the financing of the forestry sector and, in particular, for financing forest monitoring. This loss, due also to widespread fraud on the part of sellers, hauliers and with the complicity of personnel from the Water and Forestry Service, happened as forest cover continued to decline. Thus, in 1959, the nominal value of forestry taxes was 35 FCFA per stacked cubic metre and remained unchanged until 1987.

From the 1980s onwards, there was much discussion of a more global, integrated management of forest resources for all main beneficiaries. The Zinder Conference of 1982 examined intervention strategies for the rural environment and the Maradi Conference in 1984 underlined the commitment of everyone to combat desertification. In the course of these discussions and with the aid of development partners, appropriate policies and strategies were put in place in the form of plans and programmes destined to combat desertification (National Plan to Combat Desertification, NPCD 1985, revised in 1991) and the management of natural resources (National Programme for the Management of Natural Resources).

A milestone in Niger’s forestry policy came about with the advent of the Domestic Energy Strategy (SED) in 1989. This policy recognised the true value of standing trees, making rural populations aware of their responsibility regarding the management of the forest estate and the normal collection (even optimal collection) of taxes on wood. Thus, between March 1987 and August 1992, the rate of tax went from 35 FCFA to 350 FCFA per stacked cubic metre before progressing to 975 FCFA per stacked cubic metre in accordance with this taxation policy. In 1995, the forestry sector contributed around 30 billion FCFA (UNDP, 2000) to the GDP (4%).

Another new element that concerns the forestry sector has been the creation of a Ministry for Environment and for Combating Desertification (Decree no. 2000-130/PRN/ME/LCD of 21 April 2000). This Ministry has been given the task, amongst other things, of implementing national policy for the environment and combating desertification in general, but particularly in the forestry domain. One of the pivotal roles of the intervention of the new national policy is the mobilisation of forestry revenue to finance the forestry sector and to improve the sector’s contribution to GDP, which should increase from 4% to 8%.