Part I
REGIONAL SYNTHESIS (continued)

Chapter III
FOREST RESOURCES OF TROPICAL AFRICA (continued)

1. PRESENT SITUATION (continued)

TABLE 1e - Areas of natural woody vegetation estimated at end 1980
Open broadleaved forests (NHc/NHO)
(in thousand ha)

¹ Undetermined

TABLE 1f - Areas of natural woody vegetation estimated at end 1980
All formations
(in thousand ha)

¹ Undetermined

Forest ownership and usage rights

In tropical Africa forest ownership and conditions of usage are sometimes fairly complicated. It is not always easy to determine what is encompassed in usage rights and who can exercise them, because of the superimposition of the written law introduced by colonial administrations. Customary rights are generally related to hunting, gathering of vegetal or animal products, utilization of fuelwood and wood material for building, shifting cultivation and, in some countries, grazing. These usage rights are regulated by local authorities or headmen who are responsible for the implementation of limiting principles of rights by families giving full respect to collective interests and to the conservation of natural resources for future generations. This customary law perfectly fitted the use of natural resources within the framework of a subsistence and barter economy.

Symbiosis between customary and written laws has been different in English-speaking and French-speaking countries of Africa. Forest laws adopted by the former British administration have often recognized the claims of local populations to forest ownership. For instance, in Ghana, forests were declared property of the traditional communities. In Nigeria many forests were established as communal forests and forests belonging to the state could only be gazetted as state forests after local representatives had been consulted. In Malawi 82% of the forests are the property of traditional communities (customary lands) and state forests were created with the agreement of local traditional authorities. Some of these community or communal forests were declared forest reserves with the consent of local representatives, becoming part of the permanent forest estate of the country without their ownership status being altered.

In French-speaking Africa forest law was based on the principle of the Roman legislation according to which any unoccupied land where existence of written ownership documents could not be proved, belonged to the state. All forest lands were thus declared state property, although local populations exercised many usage rights. For this reason there was contradiction between the oral customary law and the written regulations of the forest law, which explains the reluctance of populations towards the delineation of reserved forests. After Independence, French-speaking countries have tried to amend the regulations on forest ownership but as a general rule the legislative texts creating canton forests (Gabon), community forests (Ivory Coast) or communal forests were not applied, which resulted in the maintenance of the status quo, the whole forest area being in fact considered as a state property.

In Cameroon, which formed by the union of two parts formerly under British and French administrations, the evolution of ownership status is particularly interesting. Forest law adopted in 1974 separates between:

• domanial forests: forest reserved for the state;

• public community forests: surveyed forest, for which exploitation dues are given to communities;

• private forests: forests planted or to be planted by individuals;

• other forests: forests belonging to the “national collective patrimony” which are managed by the state, usage rights being exercised by local populations but regulated by the state.

Private ownership of forest lands is generally limited in tropical Africa. It practically does not exist in French-speaking countries and is more extended in English-speaking countries, particularly in southern Africa (Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana).

Governments issuing from socialist revolutions have conducted more or less complete nationalization of rural areas, including forests. This has only had a real effect in Ethiopia where half of the forests belonged to private feudal owners: in the present system all forests are nationalized but those of less than 800 ha are managed by peasant associations. In Madagascar the few private forests, granted in the colonial period are reverting to the state. In Congo, regulations concerning private and communal forests which had been maintained in the forest law until 1973 have been abolished: all forests belong to the state.

Legal status

Legal status and classification of woody areas differ according to the level of forestry development in the main tropical regions. As far as Africa is concerned, since the areas covered by natural woody vegetation still constitutes a large proportion of the land, it will not be possible to reach a final apportionment between forests and other uses before several decades have elapsed. Areas under forests are considered as part of the rural environment which contribute to the subsistence of the local populations and constitute a land reserve which can facilitate agricultural expansion. This results in a permanently conflicting situation between agricultural activities (traditional and modern) and forest activities.

This conflict has been solved in various ways by the former colonial administrations, the regulations of which are still valid, at least partially, in many countries. In French and Belgian colonies forests were gazetted. These gazetted forests (“forêts classées”) were delineated after an administrative procedure had recognized that they were not needed for uses other than forestry and that they were free from customary rights hindering their existence. In principle agriculture was strictly prohibited in these gazetted forests which could not be encroached on without a prior procedure of degazetting. However in many cases these gazetted forests were little respected by the local population and because of the small number of staff and the poor means at the disposal of forest service, a laxity often developed vis-à-vis these illegal clearings. Partial and often complete degazetting of forests were decided (e.g. in Ivory Coast). It must be recognized, however, that these forests, despite encroachments, were relatively more respected than the non-gazetted ones (in particular in woodlands and wooded savannas) and form often at present, the core from which a permanent forest estate can be built up. Logging was carried out in the same way in the gazetted forests as in the others, generally called “protected forests”, and it had to follow the same forest regulations. However in some countries, such as Senegal and Togo, logging was completely forbidden in those forests where there was no felling plan.

All other forests were called protected forests. The word protected means that uncontrolled clearings and unauthorized logging are forbidden. It is only after technical planning and as a result of administrative and legal action that a decision is taken whether a protected area will remain forested or whether it will be partly assigned to other uses and particularly to agriculture. The word “protected” implies also in principle the regulation of customary rights which the population could otherwise exercise without restraint. However, this was never done in practice in protected forests and the only regulations that were applied were those related to logging.

In the British colonies there were gazetted forest reserves. In these forests any person or community which had previously rights on this land or on the forest products can continue to exercise them. In the unreserved areas any person or community can fell and use trees (except those of protected species) for the following needs: handicraft, art, furniture, wood for household and agricultural needs, clearings for cropping (with a special authorisation) and building of fences for cattle. In addition to these reserved forests, “protected forests” were often delineated with the essential objective of protection but where logging was not necessarily completely forbidden (e.g. Sierra Leone). Finally the regulations in English-speaking countries mention almost always, under the denomination of “salvage logging areas”, those forests which have to be logged before being alienated to other uses and in particular to agriculture.

In the former Spanish and Portuguese colonies the status of the forest lands is less elaborated. In some countries there was no reservation or gazetting (Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau); in others forest reservation never went beyond the phase of surveying (Angola, Mozambique). In the oldest independent countries (Liberia and Ethiopia) the delineation of a public forest estate is very old. In Liberia there are 14 “national forests” which cover more than 80% of existing forests. These forests are practically uninhabitated; their boundaries have been marked and are in principle constantly maintained and controlled by forest guards and patrolmen; they are intended for forest management. In Ethiopia about half of closed forests were already state forests before the 1975 Revolution. New state forests have been delineated since then and this should be carried out in all forests of more than 800 ha.

A certain number of countries have amended their forest laws since their Independence, in order to attain a practical and consistent classification of forest land use, which is an essential component of a national forest policy. In all countries the will exists for the creation of a permanent forest estate. Present regulations for the creation of permanent forests are often however too difficult to implement and, when this is possible, the forest services still face the problem of obtaining the means necessary for the protection and development planning of those forests. In the countries other than the former British colonies, there are no regulations for the constitution of salvage logging areas. To conclude, a more precise mechanism or a close coordination between the various public services concerned with regional land-use planning should be created in all countries.

As for national parks and integral reserves where logging is completely prohibited, the total areas for all the countries are: 9 018 000 ha in closed broadleaved forest (NHCf2r); 110 000 ha in coniferous forests (NSf2r); 201 000 ha in bamboo forests (NHB2r) and 41 975 000 ha in mixed tree formations (NHc/NHO2r), i.e. a total of 51 304 000 ha. These figures can be compared with the official ones provided in the “1980 United Nations list of National Parks and Equivalent Reserves”; i.e. 48 921 500 ha of national parks and 36 932 600 ha of forest and wildlife reserves (these two figures overlap partially). The difference stems, for the most part, from the fact that logging is probably prohibited in part of the forest and wildlife reserves.

In the closed broadleaved forests there are thus only 9.02 million ha included in the national parks, over a total of 214.4 million ha, that is only 4.2%. Zaire on its own contains 4.52 million ha. Cameroon (where the Dja reserve is being gazetted), Guinea, Nigeria, Liberia and particularly Gabon, Congo and Central African Republic do not have any large closed forest area included in national parks.

Only 110 000 ha of coniferous forests are being reserved, all of which are included in the Mount Kenya national park in Kenya. No coniferous forests are included in national parks in Ethiopia although this latter country contains more than 70% of African coniferous forests (800 000 ha). Gazetting of important coniferous forest areas as integral reserves in Ethiopia would therefore be quite justified.

Finally, almost 42 million ha of mixed forest-grassland tree formations (NHc/NHO) are included in national parks, that is 8% of their total area. To these areas must be added parts included in some forests or wildlife reserves, not registered as national parks. Countries south of the Sahara have a fairly high proportion of their areas of mixed tree formations included in national parks (15% of total area). On the contrary, countries of western Africa, with the exception of Ivory Coast, Benin and Ghana have practically none, and the proportion in Angola, Cameroon and Zaire is very small. In eastern Africa the situation is fairly satisfactory with the exception of Sudan, Madagascar and Ethiopia.

In 1980 biosphere reserves of the Unesco MAB programme covered a total of 4 435 000 ha in only eight countries: Cameroon (170 000 ha); Central African Rep. (1 640 000 ha); Congo (111 000 ha); Ivory Coast (330 000 ha); Kenya (791 000 ha); Nigeria (460 000 ha); Sudan (650 000 ha) and Zaire (283 000 ha).

Some forest areas have a particular legal status: this is the case of the sylvopastoral reserves of the Sahel countries where grazing is regulated by special rules. Special wildlife zones (“zones d'intérêt cynégétique”) also exist in the French-speaking savanna countries where hunting is regulated. Some forests are allocated to state reforestation corporations to transform them into man-made forests (Ivory Coast and Cameroon).

Management

An important historical distinction must be made between former British and Belgian colonies and former French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies as for forest management interpreted as a clear definition of forest production objectives and of action aiming at implementing these objectives.

In the first countries (particularly Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Zaire), harvesting regulations or working plans have been in existence for long, often complemented by silvicultural treatments for forest regeneration and possibly forest enrichment. It can be considered that intensive forest management in the meaning used in this study, implying working plans and silvicultural treatments, was being implemented in 1960 in these countries on fairly large areas (around 4 to 4.5 million ha of closed forest in total). However, in many countries, because the population growth exerts a very high pressure on the forests and because of the shortage of staff and finance, these working plans were gradually abandoned and were not followed up or reviewed when they came to an end. This was particularly the case in Nigeria, Zaire and Tanzania where it can be said that intensively managed forests no longer exist in the meaning of this study.

At present there are only five tropical African countries with intensively managed forests. These are: Ghana, with 1 167 000 ha of managed forests correponding to more than two thirds of the managed forest areas of tropical Africa and almost all (88%) of its productive closed forests; Uganda, which possesses 442 000 ha of managed closed forests, that is 26% of the managed closed forests of tropical Africa and two thirds of its productive forest areas (because of the political difficulties faced by this country during the last fifteen years there is no insurance on the actual implementation of working plans); Kenya with 70 000 ha of managed forests, of which 50 000 ha of broadleaved forests and 20 000 ha of coniferous forests, i.e. 15% of its productive forest areas; Sudan (50 000 ha, that is 16% of its productive forest areas) and finally Zambia (5 000 ha) ¹. As a whole there are only 1.75 million ha of managed forests out of a total of 163.5 million ha of productive forests which is hardly more than 1%.

For many years however, particularly within the framework of FAO's activities, the concept of intensive management of African closed forests, discussed on several occasions during the sessions of its Committee on Forest Development in the Tropics, was implemented in the preparation of pilot working plans for several forests such as the Deng-Deng forest in Cameroon (1978) and several forests in Gabon: la Mondah (1970), Lacs du nord (1972), Fougamou (1979) and Sud-Estuaire (1979). Unfortunately these management documents were never put into practice, one obstable being the absence of technical units in forest services with the capability of implementing them. The almost complete lack of positive cooperation by logging companies and lack of involvement of local populations has also to be underlined.

Two projects carried out with FAO's assistance are being positively implemented: the management of the Deng-Deng forest in Cameroon and the activities of the UNDP/FAO/Ghana project on the development of forest energy resources. In Ivory Coast, the rapid destruction of closed forest areas led the authorities to decide on the creation of a permanent forest estate of 2.4 million ha, the management of which is important in order to secure its sustained existence and improve its productivity. This is the reason why an experimental design was set up to study the evolution of closed forest under various treatments. This design should bring most interesting data on the dynamics and growth rates of various species and its impact is by no means restricted to Ivory Coast. However, it is not for the time being a full scale pilot management scheme.

In several countries there are some forms of extensive management. This is the case of several English-speaking countries of Africa. The example of the Congo is also particularly interesting and can serve as a model for the implementation of regional planning based on extensive management of forest areas. Forest law provides indeed for the following:

• creation of regional units called forest management units (“unités forestières d'aménagement” - UFA);

• forest survey of these UFA;

• elaboration of management plans including not only forest logging but also tourism, hunting rights, wildlife protection, and, as far as forest production is concerned, the determination of a maximum annual exploitable volume (VMA) for the main commercial species, infrastructure planning and silvicultural prescriptions;

• breakdown of the area in one or several forest logging units (“unités forestières d'exploitation” - UFE) for which a logging plan has to be drawn up.

As has already been mentioned, implementation of intensive forest surveys are impeded by administrative and financial obstacles. It must also be recognized, however, that knowledge of the structure and dynamics of tropical African forests is relatively limited and does not allow for the immediate application of silvicultural methods for the regeneration and improvement of forest growth. As far as mixed humid tropical forests are concerned, which provide the largest share of timber, it can be seen indeed that few studies have been made on the subject, which has only been treated seriously by the forest inventory specialists who have a sufficient amount of data on large areas.

From the viewpoint of the variability of species composition it can be noted that mixed humid tropical forests show a fairly high local heterogeneity (Within an area smaller than a few hundred hectares), which disappears when areas of several hundreds of hectares are being considered. This is valid for the most important forest types mentioned in the country briefs. When the variability related to the distribution of a given species is considered, it is possible to distinguish between species with a gregarious distribution and others which are scattered over huge areas with Poisson or erratic distributions. The occurrence of certain species appears to be structured while others seem to be distributed completely at random. As for the variability of tree dimensions, tropical forests look as if they were managed under a selective system (“futaie jardinée”) but very often there is a superimposition of two populations: a population of small size trees (DBH < 50 cm) with a hyperbolic distribution (structure of “futaie jardinée”) and a population of very large trees with a “normal” distribution (if the largest trees are excluded) which therefore resembles the structure of evenaged high forest (“futaie régulière”). It is thus wrong to simplify tropical closed forest by classifying them in clear-cut categories in a definitive way. They are irregular high forests, composed of several overlapping populations, changing their physiognomy permanently when clearings in the canopy occur. As far as the height and size of trees is concerned, African forests contain some of the biggest specimens of tropical trees, in particular in the semi-deciduous forests. Some trees are more than 3 metres in diameter. African forests seem to be richer in big trees ( >60 cm) and poorer in small trees than Asian and particularly tropical American forests. If one divides the total volume of trees more than 10 cm diameter into two equal proportions, the diameter limit between them varies from around 40 to 45 cm diameter according to the forests concerned (30–35 cm in America and 35–45 cm in Asia). Finally, basal areas, which range in average between 20 and 30 m² per ha in undisturbed forests, may exceed 35 m² in some semi-deciduous forests.

The exponential model often used for the representation of the total structure defined as the distribution of trees (of all species) by diameter class is apparently fitting satisfactorily for areas of some hundreds of ha but is no longer valid when the area increases. Many aspects remain to be studied in this field. It has to be recognized indeed that the structure of African closed forests is not well known and that this hampers the elaboration of adapted and efficient silvicultural methods.

A review of the existing literature on natural regeneration shows that few quantitative studies have been carried out which take into account all stems of all species. In Ghana and Nigeria many foresters studied the existing regeneration and observed its inadequacy, which resulted in the definition of the regeneration system known as TSS (Tropical Shelterwood System), itself derived from European seed fellings, with this difference that creepers have to be cut before logging. In Ivory Coast some studies were made on the density of seedlings of 15 commercial species: there is a wide variation between forest types (evergreen and semi-deciduous) and according to logging intensity, with their total number per ha ranging between 0 and 250. In Uganda and Tanzania regeneration studies have shown apparently a wide heterogeinity of pre-existing regeneration related to the dispersion of seed bearers and the irregularity of fructification. All the studies in these various countries lead to the recognition, in most cases, of the extreme diversity of pre-existing regeneration on the one hand, and the extreme difficulty of naturally obtaining a complementary regeneration, on the other hand. This has been the reason why the concept of intensive management was abandoned between 1960 and 1975, especially in the French-speaking countries.

¹ In the absence of precise data on forest management and its modalities in Zimbabwe it has been assumed provisionally that there was no intensively managed forests in the meaning of this study.

Forest utilization

a) General comments on the various sub-regions of tropical Africa

Northern savanna region

Present and recent utilization of wooded areas in this region is characterized by four elements:

• areas concerned are relatively small and little productive;

• utilization is aimed almost entirely at satisfying the basic needs of local populations (household fuel, housing); the gathering of products from woody species (gum, fruits), for export to a large extent, is another form of utilization;

• the above type of utilization is organized fundamentally in an artisanal and little mechanized way;

• control is therefore difficult and experience shows that it is insufficient.

The following recent trends stand out:

• the very rapid growth of urban populations is responsible for increased pressure on wooded areas economically accessible from cities; this is aggravated by the fact that this production has recently become an economic activity and thus a source of profits; natural regulatory factors (distance) still fairly effective in rural areas, do not apply in the context of commercial production;

• degradation of wooded areas is becoming a general feature because of overexploitation; it has already had a limiting effect on consumption of wood products, particularly for household energy;

• to match demand, especially for timber, imports are becoming more and more necessary, even for countries which, until recently, were self-sufficient.

Wood for fuel is undoubtedly the most important forest product in these countries as it amounts in total to 20 to 25 million m³ per year for 28 million inhabitants in 1978. Production of sawlogs and veneer logs is very small (85 000 to 90 000 m³ per year). “Other industrial roundwood” is used for building and the making of household utensils; its production in the region amounts to approximately 2 to 3 million m³ per year of removals; it is much more selective and can be extremely damaging for the maintenance of some formations (rhun palms and some bamboos). The situation could improve in this field by raising the awareness of the population concerned and having them cooperate actively (plantations, organization of the forestry sector, rationalization of production). Minor forest products are essentially those gathered such as vegetal gums (gum arabic, mbep gum, etc.) and some fruits (karité nuts for instance). Their overexploitation, in addition to agricultural problems and drought, has locally lead to an early impoverishment of the stands and production has considerably decreased in recent years (in Senegal it went down from 10 800 to 850 tons between 1970 and 1978). Improvement and rejuvenation of these stands should soon be undertaken jointly with the rationalization and increase of productivity.

West Africa

The countries of this region and particularly Ivory Coast, were the first to develop their production of timber and to be oriented towards exports: the British were already exploiting mahogany in 1880 in the Assimé area.

Supply of forest products in these countries does not pose serious problems yet, except in their northern zones; they are either self-sufficient or experience some local imbalances between demand and supply in urban centres which are partly solved by imports from neighbouring countries.

Fuelwood production is responsible for by far the most important removals (about 100 to 110 million m³ per year); but log production is also very important in this region because it amounts to 70% of the total African production of timber with 9.5 to 10 million m³ of logs produced annually in the late 70's. “Other industrial roundwood”, with a production estimated at 2.6 to 3 million m³ per year during the same period, is thus much less important. Production of minor forest products is not controlled because of their relatively insignificant contribution to the forestry sector, except for gum arabic: the production of this latter was important around 1960 in Nigeria (which exported 4 885 tons of gum arabic in that year).

Central Africa

Although forest production started a few years later in this region than in Ivory Coast (logging was initiated in Zaire in 1895) it has nevertheless been active: in 1913 Gabon had already exported 100 000 tons of timber, essentially okoumé. These countries do not experience problems as far as the internal supply of forest products is concerned, except for very limited and localized shortages (some urban centres of Zaire - demand for charcoal in Kinshasa is only matched to 60% according to a survey carried out in 1976–77-, and, sometimes, the coastal zone of Angola have problems of fuelwood supply).

Production of sawlogs and veneer logs is most important also in this region since it accounts for about 19% of total African production, with 2.5 to 2.8 million m³ per year around 1978. Fuelwood production corresponds by far to the most important removals, with about 39 million m³ per year. Annual production of “other industrial roundwood” can be estimated at about 3.5 million m³ for the whole region. This roundwood is either directly produced and consumed by rural and a proportion of the surburban populations, or is produced and commercialized by craftsmen.

East Africa and Madagascar

This region does not show the same homogeneity with regard to forest utilization as west or central Africa. Indeed it contains countries with very different characteristics, from Madagascar or Kenya, where production of sawlogs and veneer logs amounts to or exceeds half a million m³ per year, to Burundi, Rwanda and Malawi, which have an insignificant production in comparison to their needs. Total production of sawlogs and veneer logs of this region can be roughly estimated at 2 million m³ per year of which 350 000 m³ are softwoods (300 000 m³ in Kenya and 50 000 m³ in Tanzania). Removals of “other industrial roundwood” is of the order of 9 to 10 million m³ per year. They are particularly important in Ethiopia and Sudan. But by far the most significant production in volume is that of wood for fuel; the corresponding demand was estimated at about 150 to 155 million m³ per year in the late 70's, of which 90 million m³ represent that of three countries only, Tanzania, Sudan and Ethiopia. Minor forest products have some importance in this region: Sudan exports 45 000 tons of gum arabic every year.

Southern tropical Africa

The two countries of this region have practically no logging activity and rely almost exclusively on imports for their industrial wood. The situation of Namibia may be slightly different to that of Botswana because its productive forests extend over 2 million ha, with Pterocarpus angolensis being logged on a small scale. Annual removals of wood for fuel amounts to 700–750 000 m³ in Botswana while the annual production of “other industrial roundwood” is estimated at 50 000 m³ in the same country. The most important forest products extracted are for subsistence: game, fruits, etc., and seem to play an important role in the life of rural populations. This aspect of forest utilization should remain predominant in the following years.

b) Log harvesting

Logging in tropical Africa remains highly selective as a whole. The net output per ha of extracted logs ranges between 5 and 35 m³ for closed forests and between 0.5 and 5 m³ for mixed tree formations, as is shown in Table 2, which provides the standing “volume actually commercialized” (VAC) in the virgin productive forests. However, because of the reduction of productive forest areas, whether undisturbed or not, in the countries of west Africa, and because of the intention of most governments to promote logging and processing of a larger number of species, it can be assumed that the extracted output per ha will continue to increase in the near future.

The volume actually commercialized (VAC) is only a part of the potentially commercial volume which is made up of the commercial volume of all trees of species known for their good technological properties and which have reached the legal diameter of exploitability. Unfortunately many of these species are unknown or little known in the international market of tropical timber. Another factor which limits the VAC is the geographic location of some areas (southeastern Cameroon, south of Central African Republic, northern Congo and Zaire) which prevents logging of relatively low value species through higher costs of transportation whereas the same species can be harvested in areas close to the ocean with reduced transportation costs. The potential commercial volume varies to a large extent according to the types of humid forests. The estimates obtained in many forest inventories carried out in Africa range between 25 and 100 m³ per ha, with a large majority of them between 40 and 60 m³ per ha. They represent roughly 3 to 4 times the total VAC.

Logging roads opened up by concessionaires allow for the penetration in the forest by farmers in search of land, generally for shifting cultivation (see paragraph 2.1.1). In some cases there is a kind of race between loggers and farmers, the former trying to salvage commercial timber on their concessions before the latter clear the forests for cropping. However, some undisturbed forests are being cleared before they are reached by logging. On the country forests can be logged-over without being cleared by agriculture. These latter areas are estimated in Table 3 for the period 1981–85. In order to estimate the areas of undisturbed (virgin or primary) forests, which are annually either logged over or cleared by agriculture, the figures of table 2 must be added to the corresponding figure on deforestation in table 6. For instance, the areas of undisturbed productive closed broadleaved forests (NHCf1uv) “converted” annually during the period 1981–85 by logging or clearing should be: 635 000 ha (table 2) + 225 000 ha (table 6a) = 860 000 ha. This latter figure, once multiplied by 5, corresponds to the difference between the area of undisturbed productive closed broadleaved forest (NHCf1uv) at the end of 1980 (118 180 000 ha as estimated in table 1a) and that at the end of 1985 (113 884 000 ha, as indicated in table 7a).