POLICY FORMULATION AND STRATEGIC PLANNING

The main public institutions responsible for forestry administration on the national level are the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, i.e. Undersecretary of Afforestation. However, on the provincial and local levels the municipalities are responsible for such affairs which are directed by the local authorities of the Governorates. Forestry activities represent 1 % approximately of the total budget allocated to Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. The current expenditure and investments are mainly used to establish and maintain nurseries, dealing with afforestation.

Briefly with respect to the situation and trends in forest ownership and tenure, one could state that in rural Egypt, the farmer owns the trees planted around his land. On the other hand, the government owns the timber trees planted on the side roads, highways, irrigation and drainage canals, natural garden and local parks. Apparently the forestry use rights belong to the owner of the land. Accordingly, the government gives the owners the right to cut down the mature trees on condition that it should be replaced.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and New Communities create recreational areas when new cities are established. The establishment of recreational parks in the urban areas is encouraged by the government through different means such as the distribution of trees to farmers at no or nominal prices.

In Egypt, forestry activities are mainly administrated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) in cooperation with universities, and other ministries. At Governors and districts levels, forestry activities are under the supervision of Directorate of Agriculture and its branches. With about 14,000 personnel, activities are financed through the MALR budget as well as the budget of other Ministries, as well as from USAID, UNDP, WB, GTZ, WFP and FAO.

Formal education is conducted only at the department of Forestry at Alexandria University. Students take two years of basic sciences and general Agriculture, then they specialize in Forestry (during the next two years, Forestry is a part of the courses). There is no private forestry education in Egypt. However, there is a growing interest to expand forestry education to cover new areas such as arid land forestry and agro-forestry. Training programmes in the fields of forest seed collection and handling, tree planting and establishment of windbreaks, sand dune fixation and wood utilization are conducted periodically. The trainers are mainly technicians and agricultural engineers working in the tree nurseries and afforestation programmes.

Research in Forestry is improving in Egypt. Institutions involved in research are Department of Forestry and Wood technology at the Faculty of Agriculture (Alexandria University), Desert Development Center (DDC), at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Department of Timber and Forestry Research, Agriculture Research Center (ARC), the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) and the Undersecretary for Afforestation (MALR). The research undertaken covers a wide range of areas, including basic and applied research, emphasis is directed toward, testing, selecting and/or adapting appropriate multipurpose tree species for shelter-belt and other desert agro-forestry systems, techniques for sand dunes stabilization, enhancement of seedlings production using several nursery techniques, wood processing parameters as well as properties of wood and its products. The Department of Forestry and Wood Technology at Alexandria University, DDC at AUC and ARC are playing an important role in diffusion of information and research results through on-site demonstration, training, consulting and on-site experience for farmers, students and technicians. The total labor force in forestry sector is estimated to be 171,000 representing only 1.2 % of the total labor force.

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