FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (FAO)

GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALI

FAO-NETHERLANDS PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME SUPPORT TO
SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT IN LOW FOREST COVER COUNTRIES

By
Ibrahima Thomas, International Consultant (FAO) and
Sory Samassekou, National Consultant (Mali)
Bamako, Mali, 28 February – 26 March 2002

FOREWORD

According to FRA 2000²⁹, 71 countries, most developing, have a forest cover of less than 10 % of their land area. The open-ended International Expert Meeting on Special Needs and Requirements of Developing Low Forest Cover Countries (LFCCs) and Unique Types of Forests, held in Teheran in October 1999, agreed to prepare proposals to secure international support to sustainable forest management in LFCCs. The Netherlands approved support to targeted outputs and activities as a follow up to the “Teheran Process”. Country studies for Africa and the Near East regions were selected to outline the causes and effects of deforestation and degradation together with lessons learned and priority needs to enhance the role of planted trees. The Republic of Mali, as one of the country case studies selected, is detailed in this report.

OVERVIEW AND COUNTRY CONTEXT

Brief geographical and historical description

The Republic of Mali is situated in the centre of the Sahel, between 10⁰ and 24⁰ N latitudes, covering a vast surface of 1,240,192 km². It is deeply landlocked within Western Africa, bordered in the Northeast by Algeria, in the East by Niger and in the South by Burkina Faso, the Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and to the west by Senegal and Mauritania.

Economic and demographic characteristics

The agricultural sector dominates the economy of the county, employing 80 percent of the working population. With 42 percent of GNP, it comes in second place after the service sector (44 percent of GNP). Revenue from country exports are mainly from cotton, livestock and recently, gold. The dominant imports are energy products and capital goods.

The population is estimated at 9.2 million in 1996 and has one of the highest demographic growths in the world with an average natural growth rate of 3.2 percent. Despite a relatively low population density (about 7 habitants per km²), its capacity to support the environment is rather limited due to severe agroclimatic conditions. There is high urbanization, and one in five persons in Mali live in Bamako. About 46 per cent of the population is less than 15 years old. Life expectancy is 58 years.

Governmental and legislative framework

The Republic of Mali adopted a Constitution on 12 January 1992 and is divided up into eight regions and the capital district of Bamako, each of which is under the authority of an appointed governor. There are 51 Circles (districts) administered by the commandants, which are divided into rural communes and then, in turn, into villages or quarters.

Decentralization: Decentralization plans began in June 1992. This will give people greater control over their own affairs in terms of administration and other economic, social and cultural issues. There have already been profound changes in the services of State, notably in rural affairs. These changes have been supported by legal texts and regulations, including the Code of the Territorial Communities, the laws on taxing communes and communal personnel. The next steps of the decentralization process include implementing a High Council of Collectives, transferring expertise, accelerating the division of areas of collectives, and working out management and development plans.

Decentralization and land management aims at reinforcing the democratization process and adapting the Government missions. The Government organization promotes local initiatives by considering the struggle against poverty and the needs of populations regarding their environment. It promotes women in action plans, national policy of communication for development to implement dialogue among decision-makers and the populations, and sector policies, such as the General Plan for the Rural Development Sector. This Plan considers the value of water resources, the domestic energy strategy, policies of urbanization and transportation, public health and hygiene, mining, and commercial and home industries.

Policy-institutions framework, national development plans

The first structural adjustment programme, implemented in 1982, leaned toward a liberal policy in economic development and undertook reforms aimed at ensuring economic growth in a favourable socio-economic and political environment that centred on the market.

The Economic and Financial Programmes (1992–1996), funded through the Triennal Public Investment Programme (1997–1999), have shown these positive results:

• Increasing exports of livestock, the recovery of industrial production and the rise in level of exports, especially cotton and gold;
• Keeping inflation down from 33 % during the 1994 deflation to 12.7 percent in 1995, and 6.5 percent in 1996. It is expected to lead to an inflation rate of less than 3 percent in 1999; and
• Reducing the global deficit from 13.7 % in 1994 to 10.5 % in 1995 and then to 7.9 % in 1996, finally reaching under 7 % in 1999.

Environmental characteristics: Mali’s main environmental features are:

Geology: The platform is composed of metamorphic rocks, quartz, schists, gneiss and old eruptive rocks. This platform has been primarily re-covered by primitive sediments, especially of the sandstones and other more recent ones that formed sands from the Saharan part and those found in the alluvial system of the rivers.

Landscapes and soils: The main landscape and soils classifications are:

• Soils are strongly deficient in phosphate with a great spatial variability thereby providing a mosaic of soil units;
• The most widespread soils are arid brown forest soils and ferruginous soils of sandy matter; and
• The deep sandy and hydromorphic soils found in the Delta.

Climate: Mali’s climate is characterized by:

• High temperatures (average annual of 26°C) with strong discrepancies (12 to 16°C) in the North and more moderate variations in the South (3 to 4°C); two minimum temperatures are observed in December and July;
• Rainy season controlled by the movement of the Intertropical Front. It lasts for seven to eight months in the South and only three months in the Sahelian area; and
• A dry season in which the Harmattan, a hot dry blowing wind from the desert, aggravates the moisture deficits.

Biological resources: There are varied biological resources due to diversity in the ecosystems that include 1,739 species of flora and fauna including 136 mammals, 640 species of birds and 143 species of fish.

These indispensable biological resources provide food, fuelwood, medicine, feed, and a large source of income for rural people. However, Mali suffers from degradation of its biological resources due mainly to a host of man-made factors (deforestation, overgrazing, poaching, illegal fishing, bushfires, agricultural use of pesticides) and extremes in climate (drought).

Surface water and groundwater resources: The water network is characterized by this hydrographic network:

• An important fossil network north of the 16^th parallel with some rare, reviving rainfalls;
• Mali is divided in the South by the basin of the Senegal River, to the East by the Niger river with vast arid areas in the Central and North regions;
• The Senegal river joins Bafing and Bakoyé and is 1,700 km long, 800 km are within Mali, with an average flow of 669 m³/second; and
• The Niger River is a 4,200 km long, of which 1,700 km are within Mali, and has an average flow in Koulikoro of 1,550 m³/second.

Land resources: Mali’s forested zones are used as valuable land banks for supply of critical food and income-producing crops in rather primitive manner, economically speaking. The land-use situation is characterized by:

• Potentially arable land could cover 24 percent of the total land area of 30 million ha, of which only 2.2 million ha are irrigated, primarily in the south. Land crops and fallow comprise only 11.4 million ha due to restrictions from the river blindness epidemic and inaccessibility due to a lack of infrastructures;
• Cropping lands are estimated between 3.0 and 3.5 million ha and have increased annually at about 15 percent since 1970;
• 24 percent of land are desert where economic activity is almost impossible; and
• There are strong agro-pedological limitations (deficiencies in organic substance and minerals).

Population, demography and employment

• The 1998 general census estimated 9.9 million people (roughly 80 percent living in rural areas), compared to 7.7 million in 1987. The average growth rate is 2.2 percent. More than 91 percent of the population live on 30 percent of the country. Densities per square kilometre vary from 0 to 1 in the North to more than 30 in the South;
• The population less than 15 years old represent almost 50 percent of the population, as opposed to 3 percent being more than 65 years old. Women count for approximately 51% of the population; and
• Unemployment prevails in urban areas. In rural areas, lack of employment seems less important because people cultivate crops if weather permits. Although under-employment and unemployment may be more disguised in rural areas, they are more striking here and constitute the main causes of poverty.

Economic overview

The economy mainly relies on the rural sector dominated by agriculture and livestock-breeding, contributing (between 1994 and 1998) an average of 45 % of GNP. The mean annual growth rate of 3.6 percent is due to the increase in cereal (particularly rice) production, cotton and products of animal-breeding, fruit and vegetables.

Main agricultural production systems

Production systems are grouped into two major systems - pastoral and agro-pastoral, according to the importance of livestock breeding or agriculture. There are also specialized peri-urban, semi-intensive and intensive systems that appear in the big cities. Rangeland systems are based on extensive livestock breeding by nomadic farmers looking for grazing and water, contributing to degradation of resources due to prolonged concentration of herds around watering places. Bread millet, sorghum, beans (Niébé), peanut, fonio and watermelons are found in almost all regions where there are systems based on rainfed food crops. Livestock breeding represents less than 30 percent of agriculture production due to lack of mineral or organic fertilization and lack of knowledge and technology.

Agro-pastoral systems based on rice crops are in areas inundated with the Niger, Bani and Senegal Rivers. The surfaces concerned and the yields according to irrigation, management, hydro-agriculture and control of water are:

• 150,000 ha of traditional irrigation producing rice are weak through free flooding; rice yields are low (700 kg/ha) and depend on rain and rises in water level;
• 50,000 ha of irrigation by controlled flooding in the flooded plains of the Niger and of Bani. The yield is also low (1 ton to 1.7 ton/ha) due in part to lack of fertilization;
• 8,000 ha rice in small irrigated areas of the village where, with support of the Rice Services, are from 4.5 to more than 5 tons/ha); and
• 50,000 ha with total control of water (by gravity) in hydro-agricultural areas according to the model of the Niger Office with obtained yields of more than 5 tons/ha.

CURRENT STATUS AND MANAGEMENT OF FORESTS

Introduction

Mali has demonstrated its commitment to sustainable forest resources management and has become involved actively in the formulation of the project of the Convention to Combat Desertification of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and that it ratified. It then organized an institutional framework and programmes, which favour local development, promotion of real partnerships at the local, provincial, national and international level. This struggle against desertification and the protection of the environment concerns all initiatives against soil degradation, the restoration of forest and rangeland ecosystems and their management, and the promotion of suitable means of rural production that perpetuate natural ecosystems and eradicate poverty. Mali aims at a 7 percent economic growth in the upcoming years and developing of its agro-silvo-pastoral sector. It established a National Forestry Policy in 1982.

Forest inventory and inventory systems

Like other dry tropic African countries the status and trends in the quantity and quality of forest resources are not reliably known. Mali’s only projects carried out in the centre of the country have been too localized and are now obsolete. Mali requires a national forestry inventory and regular follow-up to quantify all features of its vegetation.

Forest cover

There is great disparity in estimations of forest cover. The first study that evaluated wood resources, carried out in 1982 by FAO in a regional study, estimated forest cover at 15.5 million ha. Studies carried out under the framework of an inventory and surveillance project on forest and woodland resources (Projet inventaire des ressources ligneuses et occupation agricole des terres au Mali [PIRL]) carried out between 1985 and 1991 estimate total surface of forest formations on five regions as 32.4 million ha with standing volume of roughly 516 million m3, with very low productivity of about 0.86m3/ha/year.

Characteristics of the forest sector

According to the law that sets conditions of forest resource management, the forest estate covers 91 percent of national territory and is divided by the state into a forest domain of decentralized territorial collectives. The State forest includes reserved forest, forests, afforestation, reforestation and 16 protected zones, as well as artificial forests or natural transferred forests.

Natural productive planting is mainly found in the South and West in human Sudano-Guinean and Guinean zones. It consists of open woodland, forest galleries, trees savanna and shrubs savanna. Standing volume contained in the shrub savanna of the North is less than 10 m³/ha. Stripped bush covers 25 % of the south, with volumes often reaching 20 to 40 m³/ha. The open woodland of the Sudano-Guinean areas with wood availability is 50 to 80 m³/ha. Gallery forests and forest formations of the West are richer, sometimes containing more than 100 m³/ha.

According to FAO, forest cover has decreased about 100,000 ha/year due to the growing population’s need for fuelwood and agricultural soils, overgrazing and bush fires, severe climatic conditions and to weaknesses in institutional capacity and capability.

Natural forests

Annual growth rates vary from 0.3 to 0.4 m³/ha/year in the Sahel zone; 0.5 to 1 m³ /ha/year in the Sudanese zone; and 1 to 2 m³/ha/year in the Guinean zone.

• Participatory approaches involving local communities in natural forest management have achieved annual volume increments in the region of Siby at 1.017 m³/ha/year or 2.30 steres/ha/year and 7.195 m³/ha of deadwood; and
• Non-managed forests have a low average annual incrementy of 0.86m³/ha/year.

Income from natural forest is difficult to ascertain because commercial activities and networks for sales and marketing of forest are not well monitored.

Forest products

Forest products revenues are generated by:

• Consumption of fuelwood (more than 10 billion francs in 1997 for Bamako city);
• Industrial wood sales where controlled production is estimated at 60,000 m³; and
• Traditional and commercial trade of non-wood forest products for medicine, diverse range of fruits and plants, bushmeat, handicrafts and for improving life conditions of the rural areas.

Planted forests

Planted forests consist of trees deliberately planted or seeded for afforestion or reforestation, and composed of exotic of local species, one or two species, with even age class and regular spacing. From 1981, a vast afforestation project began. Village afforestation expanded in 1981 for one decade up until 1991 and achieved 40,000 ha and almost 4,000 km of linear plantings.

Trees outside forests

Trees outside forests contribute positively to food security and alleviation of poverty in providing various products (fruit, leaves, root tubers, animal fodder and wood), therefore improving household income. Additionally, trees outside forests contribute to improved agricultural productivity (shelter/shade), soil conservation, protection of crops, aesthetics and recreational areas in and around cities.

Agroforestry parklands: These cover 39 percent of the country and constitute the dominant system where various agro-ecological features according to the agro-ecological areas where they make up about 90 percent of agricultural land.

Fruit orchards: These are essentially mango and orange trees, primarily located in four main production zones.

Village and urban planted forests: These include roadside plantings, shaded trees, green spaces (parks and gardens) and greenbelts. Village planted forests were started in 1981 to satisfy the overwhelming fuelwood demand due to recurrent drought. They were assisted by the forest service that created nurseries.

Wood production from urban planted forests: This is a top priority for Malian organizations, NGOs, selected local groups, and administration frameworks to work on the problem of green space.

Agro-silvicultural plantings: These include wind-break, live fencing and the wildflower plantings. There is insufficient information on types of afforestation and reforestion due to variations in data in reports. The slightly better results of the total of planted forests up until 1999 show 60,296 ha; another report estimates it at 43,796 ha and 4,584 kilometres of linear plantings. There has been an emphasis in afforestation since 1998.

Legal, policy and planning framework

Since 1960, the legal and regulatory framework of forest resource management has undergone many changes. The texts still rest on the protection of resources and have a forbidding and repressive character. The periods of drought between 1972 and 1974 led to a revision of the forest texts and in particular an increase in penalties, to better protect forest resources. This gave the State restraining measures concerning people’s access to forest resources.

A National Forest Action Plan was elaborated upon following a World Forestry Congress in Mexico in July 1985. The purpose was to stop the destruction of the forests and favour the use of sustainable resources to satisfy local and national needs. However, in 1992, the socio-political context stemming from March 1991 led to the Direction des Eaux et Forêts to work on a new national forestry policy. Then, in 1995, four Orientation Laws defined the conditions of forest resource management.

Criteria and indicators for sustainable management of forests

The criteria and indicators for sustainable management of forests currently used in Mali were adopted in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/FAO/Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS)/Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE) meeting which took place in Dakar from 14 to 17 December 1999. This continued the work on criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management in a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, from 21 to 24 November 1995. With the help of FAO and the Direction Nationale de la Conservation de la Nature (DNCN), the Government is validating these criteria and indicators and discussing and analysing available data regarding sustainable forest management.

Forest management plans

The main forest management plan guidelines include:

• “Le Plan d’Aménagement” (Management Plan) is for state-reserved forests that strongly use the traditional methods to simplify operations. It concerns forests with high commercial value that require high financial investments;
• “Le Plan d’Aménagement simplifié” (The Simplified Management Plan) is simplified for forests of communities and individuals to respond to needs and concerns of rural populations;
• “Le Plan de Gestion” (Management Plan) is an integral part of the Management Plan that programmes all activities throughout the duration of the management. It carries out technical and financial planning; and
• “Le Contrat de Gestion” (Management or Business Contract) is established by Article 38 of Law 95/004, concerning the implementation of management plans of reserved state forests.

Forest production and wood industries

Fuelwood and Charcoal: More than 90 percent of fuel consumed comes from wood products and needs are estimated at 0.9 m³/person/year. By the year 2010, it is estimated that about 7 million tons will be needed to satisfy woodfuel needs. An estimated 10 percent of all energy needs in Mali come from wood energy, corresponding to almost 600,000 ha per year. Wood energy consumption generates more than 10 billion Franc de la Communauté Financière Africaine (FCFA) (7 billion FCFA for woodfuel and 2 billion FCFA for charcoal).

As in urban centres, use of fuelwood in the rural areas has recorded a growth of more than 60 percent. Household consumption accounts for 98 percent of production of fuelwood with an increase of roughly 18 percent between 1990 and 1998. The fuelwood consumption by industries and factories is low. Almost all production of charcoal is used at the household level with roughly 80,500 tons per year between 1990 and 1997. There is a trend of 10 percent increase per year. All production of charcoal is traded commercially. Rural areas are increasingly facing scarce raw material supply for fuelwood and charcoal production.

Construction wood and industrial roundwood: Industrial roundwood is restricted to 60,000m³/year. Production of construction wood is not restricted but at full capacity only represents 5-10% of sawnwood consumption. Logging currently supplies needs of small sawmills and shopkeepers using mechanized woodcutters (cutting rough lumber with chain saws).

About 75 percent of these wood products are self-consumed in rural areas and 25 percent are traded commercially in urban markets.

Traditional forest products: They are used in construction and handicraft. Rural villages have “round houses” and straw huts. The commercial trade of traditional forest products (domestic and export) are valued at about 10 to 15 billion FCFA in a normal year.

Non-wood forest products (NWFPs): Important products include harvest crops, fruit, grains, tubers, flowers, fruit-bearing forest trees, leaves of food plants, gums and resins, honey, the bushmeat trade (hunting) and fishing. The main harvested crops are for feeding the rural inhabitants, and primarily include: the African locust bean, the tamarind tree, and the baobab. Wild date, geb, borassus palm and doom palm are also harvested in the forest. There are also products for traditional medicine, raw material and fodder trees. Arabic gum is among the most important products, providing 190 tons a year.

The principal non-wood products are:

• Shea butter tree, production of 80,000 tons per year;
• Arabic gum, average 2,100 tons per year;
• Honey, production traditionally reaches 190 tons per year;
• Fruits of the African locust tree, almonds, tamarind;
• Leaves of the baobab;
• Doom palm and borassus palm;
• Herbaceous and tree fodder for animals;
• Incense and vetiver plant.

Hunting and fishing provide rural populations with their animal protein.

Fishing directly employs 70,000 people and indirectly almost 500,000 jobs, roughly 7 percent of the working population. This is a vital sector for the economy, generating almost 30 billion FCFA per year. It also contributes a 1.7 percent agricultural added value. Fishing products represent 3 percent of GNP, that is, 8 percent of exports, making it the fourth most important sector after cotton, peanuts and beef.

Hunting products provide 20 to 50 percent of local needs for animal proteins, especially in rural areas. They are organized in associations with a traditional organization based on gerontocracy or influence. These associations protect hunting areas, safeguard activity and assure protection of the village against thieves and other criminals.

Beekeeping has contributed 300 to 400 tons of honey per year from 1997 to 1999. Wax production in the same period has yielded 3 to 6 tons per year.

Economic and social contribution of forestry

Forest resources satisfy fuelwood needs, construction wood and various non-wood products such as fruit and animal fodder. Economic activities linked to domestic and commercial trade generate more than 25 billion FCFA per year. Economic and social contribution of forestry is increasing, especially in crop products which have increased in revenue by more than 10 billion FCFA since 1999. In the same period, fuelwood, and industrial wood reached 5 billion FCFA.

Environment function of forests

In general, in addition to traditional products, forests provide environmental protection, especially in improving and maintaining soil fertility, protecting soils against forms of water erosion and wind erosion in the context of managing watershed and struggling against desertification.

Institutional framework

Five periods characterize the evolution of the forestry institutional framework:

From 1935 to 1960: During its creation, the Forestry Service responsibilities were to organize vast project sites of forest use to provide the Dakar-Niger train and the Bamako-Koulikoro boat with fuelwood.

From 1960 to 1970: The Forest Service operated under colonial legislation and was run by technicians in agriculture or war veterans. The Service was deemed repressive. In 1967, the National Forestry Foundation, and in the following year, the Forest Code (which constitutes the base of forest regulation) were created.

From 1970 to 1980: The forest estate accounted for 91 percent of national land area, of which 3.6 percent was reserved forest. The droughts of 1972 to 1974 led to the creation of the Direction Nationale des Eaux et Forêts in 1972. Its goals were the monitoring of forest estate, control over resource use, afforestation and reforestation, silvicultural works, evaluation of wood supply, and forestry research. Human resources were strengthened, managers were trained, and financial means increased (forest revenue, especially transactions of revenues from forest use, foreign funds coming for projects and the Opérations de Développement Forestier (Forestry Development Operations). There was an increase in logistic means relating to infrastructures (offices, lodgings, more than 4.5 million ha of reserved forests and 2,500 ha of planted forests, off-road and two-wheeled vehicles).

The Five-year Development Plan from 1974 to 1978 defined a National Forestry Policy with objectives based on the struggle against desertification and degradation of vegetative cover, and the improvement of life conditions of the populations in terms of food and energy needs.

From 1980 to 1991: The adoption of a new Forestry Code modifying the basic forestry regulations and previous legislation on bush fires and hunting. The issues concerned increase awareness of populations and decision-makers, carrying out vast afforestation and reforestation programmes.

From 1991: March 1991 led to profound changes in redefining policy on the environment, rural development and territorial organization, especially within the framework of centralization. The structures in charge of the management of natural resources were involved in defining new policy toward efficient and sustainable management of natural resources.

The Private forestry sector

The private sector is relatively recent as the State had exclusive management in the past. Not until 1995 did forest policy begin to favour private initiatives and the partnership of contracts signed between the Government and private operators in the framework of participative forest management including the French Development Agency (AFD), Bureau d'experts pour l'auto-gouvernance et la gestion de l'environnement au Sahel (BEAGGES). Other research institutes such as the Service d’Experts des Ressources Naturelles (SERNES), Groupement d’intérêt économique (GIE), Aménagement pour la Gestion de la Forêt et de l’Environnement (AGEFORE) became involved in creating implementing strategies of domestic energy and carrying out specific studies concerning forest management and the study of impacts on the environment.

Forest research

The Institut d’Économie Rurale (Institute of Rural Economy) (IER), the public establishment under the Ministry of Rural Development (MDR), conducts forest research. Additionally the “Ressources Forestières” and the “Equipe Système Programme Gestion des Ressources Naturelles” also conducts research in the forestry field. The IER was restructured at the beginning of the 1990s and its objectives were to act as a better support in response to users’ needs, which are understood from development research. In 1994, a long-term research strategy was adopted and financed by many partners, including the Netherlands and Switzerland through bilateral assistance, and the World Bank.

Education and training

Mali has a complete education and training programme from the following Forestry institutions:

• The Institut Polytechnique Rural (Rural Polytechnical Institute) (IPR) of Katibougou to train managers;
• Water and Forest Engineering (5 years after high school);
• Advanced Technicians (2 years after high school); and
• The Centre de Formation pour les Politiques Forestières (Training Centre for Forestry Practices) (CFPF) for technical officers for Water and Forests.

Following a diagnosis of the situation of human resources involved in sustainable natural resource management, Mali defined a new training policy in line with sustainable development of the sector.

External collaboration in the forest sector

External collaboration in the forest sector revolves around institutional support for public services, government projects and community activities. Due to the numerous tasks assigned to the Department (which was responsible in the past for the equipment, land management, the environmental and urbanization) other Cabinet Ministries are responsible for planning and monitoring and evaluation. These include CPS (the Planning and Statistics Committee), The Permanent Technical Secretariat (STP), and the Project of Natural Resources Management (PGRN).

Multilateral international cooperation: Within the framework of ensuring sustainable natural resource management, Mali benefits from the support of the World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP, FAO, Programme d'appui à la mise en oeuvre du schéma directeur de développement rural (PAMOS), The European Union, IFAD, and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Bilateral support: The Government receives bilateral support in forestry from the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, and the Federal Republic of Germany.

Other international support: Other support to the forestry sector is directed from the regional organizations - CILSS, West African Development Bank [BOAD], African Development Bank (ADB) and international NGOs such as IUCN, ICRAF, AGEFORE, SOS Sahel, CARE, WETLANDS, Club du Sahel, etc.

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF DEFORESTATION AND DEGRADATION

Introduction

The analysis of the forestry sector reveals a constant degradation of forest and woodland flora and fauna. The relationship between people and the forestry service underwent a traumatic crisis from numerous conflicts of interests in terms of natural resource use. The forestry sector has not been integrated enough into the national economy nor has sufficient investment in forest products been made.

It is difficult to clearly ascertain the difference between direct and indirect causes for the phenomena because the issue of desertification, deforestation and forest degradation are very complex. Still, the main reasons include climatic conditions, bush fires, strong pressure exercised by forest use to supply fuelwood in urban centres and the competition for agricultural soils. The factors that have caused desertification and degradation of natural resources for 30 years can be crudely classified as either man-made or natural causes.

Strong pressure on ecosystems without any consideration of the possibilities of regeneration is at the source of deforestation and degradation. The consequences are the deforestation, forest degradation, loss of biological diversity, soil erosion, reduction of water resources and consequent lowering of income and increase in levels of poverty.

Archaic and uncontrolled activities are responsible for the reduction of land productivity, the loss of forest biomass and biodiversity, the lowering of the groundwater, the increase in wind and water erosion, greater atmospheric pollution, increase in poverty and erosion of livelihoods.

Causes

Notwithstanding the lack of data on this phenomenon, causes of deforestation and forest degradation rapid population growth, precarious living conditions, increased poverty, uncontrolled harvesting (fuelwood, food and other wood and non-wood forest products), extension of crop lands to increase yields of cereal crops and income, systems of extensive livestock breeding, overgrazing, extension of urban centres, the development of infrastructure for roads, mining, and large hydro-agricultural developments.

Climate: Drought, reduction and irregularity of rainfall has been the situation for more than 20 years and among the causes of the decline of forest formation and continued degradation of natural resources.

Aridity, especially in the Sahara, affects 51 percent of the national territory where annual rainfall is irregularly dispersed and generally less than 200 mm. This makes the natural ecosystem particularly fragile. Even with these conditions and excessive human activities adding pressure, the vegetative species and animals have proven resilient.

Poverty: Rural populations are made poor by the low prices for farmer crops, the high prices of agricultural inputs, and the burden of agricultural credit. This results in misuse of natural resources (soils, water, flora and fauna) where there is free and easy access.

Mining: This deals mainly with gold washing linked to mining gold, especially in the South where forest formations have the highest wood potential and succumb to the strongest pressures. Both the traditional and modern methods of mining gold cause deforestation. Gold mining is practised in about 10-15 locations, covering between 5,000 and 10,000 ha each year. Between 50,000 and 150,000 ha are cleared or strongly degraded, adding damage to the surface due to human communities that live around or near the mining areas.

Irrigated agriculture development: The increase of irrigated rice crops is a significant factor contributing to deforestation. Rice production accounts for about 7 percent of GNP and is a priority in the agricultural development strategy of the country. The Government has opted to increase rice paddy production to 900,000 tons per year due to annual management of 6,000 ha of new agricultural areas.

Herding methods: Estimated livestock in 1995 was in excess of 13 million sheep and goats, and nearly 6 million cattle. Livestock breeding occupies an important place in the economy. However, traditional nomadic herding is generally of extensive stock raising that has led to degradation of natural resources through overgrazing.

Urbanization: Due to the erosion of rural livelihoods there has been a vast migration to large cities, particularly Bamako, which grew by a factor of 10 during the period 1972 to 2000. The extension of the cities damages the forest environment, particularly in Timbuktu where reserve forest is now settled. Today it is estimated that the encroaching cities destroy about 50,000 ha annually of the national forest estate.

Road networks: The development of the network of road infrastructures, necessary to open up areas of production and for the circulation of goods and services, also contributes to the deforestation process. Considerable portions of the forest estate are deforested by construction works of national roads and opening up the rural paths. Each kilometre destroys an estimated 2.5 ha of forest area.

Misuse of forests: With increasing urban centers come increased human pressures from needs of forest products. This usually leads to over harvesting and foraging forest products (wood and non-wood) with consequences of forest degradation or even deforestation. There is a heavy demand for fuelwood and charcoal, industrial round wood and various other forest products to generate income and improve the quality of life in rural areas.

Effects

Reduction of the biomass and diversity of forest species: Significant clearings for the extension of crops, especially in areas of high population density, have incurred immediate deforestation and forest degradation. With this reduction, there is a loss of biodiversity, biomass and carbon absorptive capacity. Deforestation has been estimated at 300,000 to 400,000 ha per year, which combined with marginal soils, high population densities and severe climatic conditions, has very serious social, environmental and economic consequences. Needless to say, these also have serious impacts on loss of woodfuel, industrial roundwood, traditional wood and non-wood forest products.

Increase of erosion: Deforestation exposes soils to excessive sun damage and wind erosion and can result in excessive water runoff and loss, prevent infiltration of water to recharge groundwater layers, lead to siltation of soil porosity, reduce carbon sink capacity and reduce the environmental mantel and buffer values that forests provide.

Faced with the extent of desertification and forest degradation, erosion and atmospheric pollution also play an important role against wind erosion and advancing sand dunes. Despite the advanced state of forest degradation, forest formations play a very important role in biological and mechanical fixation of dunes. The North of the country is faced with serious threats of advancing sand dunes in certain cities, which contribute to reducing the effectiveness and value of hydro-electric dams and irrigation schemes along both the Niger and Senegal rivers. These have enormous impacts on loss of agricultural land and productivity.

Pollution: Due to pollution of the Niger and Senegal Rivers and the atmospheric disturbances created by dust hazes coming from the Sahara, air pollution is notable in the big cities. The Government has begun actions for the purpose of growing planted forests to store carbon and purify the atmosphere. However, the costs for doing so are high and remain a major constraint.

STATE OF KNOWLEDGE

Lessons learned

The lessons learned include:

• Mali’s substantial natural potential has been undergoing severe deforestation and degradation, which has led the Government to undertake a series of actions to curtail the process. This political will has translated into many documents detailing the protection of the environment and the struggle against desertification, and into implementing institutional organizations that take on the responsibility, among others, of coordinating activities of the Environment National Action Plan;
• The approach relates the management of the environment inextricably with desertification issues and is based on participation of all actors (rural populations, private producers, professionals, technical supervisors);
• There is a huge collection of legal and regulatory texts, a national strategy to counter poverty, national programmes of rural development and support, and many projects in the management of natural resources and village lands, which all favour sustainable development of the natural ecosystems;
• Mali has a rich potential in forestry technicians and experts with experience and good will but human resources are dispersed in various state organizations or in NGOs. There is a lack of trained supervisors, and of necessary synergy for sustainable management;
• It is advisable to profit from these lessons by strengthening experience acquired in the silviculture and to note the mechanisms of applying new legal and regulatory text, above all in the current context of decentralization and local transfer of responsibilities. The logistic means of the DNCN would certainly contribute to highlighting the challenges concerning installing sustainable management of integrated natural resources and of efficient and successful production systems in response to issues of food security and desertification; and
• Marginal groups, and women in particular, should be considered at the conception and implementation stage of policy formation in the management of natural resources.

Gaps in knowledge

It is recognized that the gaps in knowledge include:

• Information on the status and trends in forest resources is obsolete (more than 25 years old) and concerns very limited geographical areas;
• Insufficient knowledge on land cover according to forest type (natural forest, planted forests, trees outside forests), standing volume, dynamics of growth, response of different types of natural and planted forests and trees to improved management (tree improvement programmes, application of modern silvicultural knowledge, forest protection, low impact/low intensity harvesting);
• The massive removal of unauthorized, uncontrolled and traditional or informal harvesting and utilization of wood and non-wood forest products in rural areas are not taken into account sufficiently;
• Insufficient knowledge concerning the extent of deforestation and degradation and their impacts (social, cultural, environmental, economic), particularly on food security and poverty alleviation strategies; and
• Insufficient attention and recognition of the immense richness in traditional knowledge of rural people tending the land.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions

Despite the increasing recognition of the benefits from forests, strong human pressure has continued to cause deforestation and forest degradation at alarming rates. If corrective measures are not immediately applied, there is a risk of creating an irreversible social, cultural, environmental and economic catastrophe where the livelihoods of both rural and urban populations will be severely eroded.

In search of appropriate solutions, the Government has reviewed the forest law to define a new national forest policy and to implement a strategy of domestic energy. Still, it does not have the proper means to elaborate on the Action Plan for 117 Reserved Forests of the National Territory, the protected areas of the State and of the communities. Therefore, it must rely on international cooperation, financial support and technical expertise of its partners to support its efforts. It is with urgency that the laws, policies, regulations and plans have to be translated through a more effective and efficient institutional framework into targeted priority actions in the field.

Further, it is reflecting on a form of collaboration with those responsible in the decentralized communities, to guarantee their interests in the framework of a better management of natural resources. The Government authorities need to identify simple intervention techniques that are operational, inexpensive and transferable in the context of decentralization. The current methods are lengthy and do not generate enough income for rural populations, thereby leading to misuse of natural formations.

Participatory methods of planning, managing and monitoring of forest resources have been insufficiently embraced so there is only limited engagement of rural communities striving to achieve sustainable forest management.

Recommended actions

Actions relating to issues and choices of development linked to legislative and administrative aspects are:

Choice and development issues

• Adopt participatory planning approaches to determine the expertise, needs, vision and expectations of rural populations to combine a top down and bottom up strategy to forest management;
• Identify needs in human resources, budgets, equipment and strategies aimed at implementing development options of the sector; and
• Implement a series of village demonstration or test sites, representative of main contexts encountered that relate to natural resource managements (in particular, forestry).

Intersectoral collaboration

• Set up networks of systematic exchange of knowledge and new ideas with the full sprectrum of main stakeholder goups;
• Widen multi-disciplinary and inter-sectoral dialogue across the public service and State projects and include community representatives; and
• Strengthen forums of communication to guide planning and evaluation.

Legislative, policy, institutional and administrative

• Review the legal, policy, regulatory and planning framework to reflect the vision, key initiatives, major stakeholders and target areas and the decentralization policies of the Government;
• Analyze the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of decentralization concerning the management of natural resources and strive to reach a balance of central and local administrative planning, management and monitoring to suit the unique conditions prevailing, supported with the necessary delegation of authority, responsibility and resources (budgets, personnel, equipment, vehicles );
• Review the role of the public service, private sector, NGOs, IGOs, donors, communities and other stakeholders in the management of forests;
• Establish an institutional structure in the public service and mechanisms of collaboration with other stakeholders which can effectively and efficiently deliver the necessary support services at all levels to apply the priority actions to the priority target groups and areas;
• Conduct a human resource development plan to quantify the needs of the public sector for professionals, scientists, technicians, artisans and support personnel and to identify the specialist expertise needed; and
• Correct omissions or gaps in re-examined forest texts where afforestation or reforestation is practically ignored.

Resource management

• Evaluate the most appropriate mechanisms of forest management, successful species and varieties according to different agro-ecological conditions and purposes, document and share this knowledge with a wide range stakeholders whilst incorporating this information in implementation guidelines and codes of practice;
• Conduct a national forest assessment that would relate to reality and be a reference for a viable analysis of status and trends in forest cover and monitoring and reporting of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management;
• Create a computer network of DNCD with regional representations to facilitate exchanges between the operating structures in the country;
• Pay greater attention to cultural diversity as well as rights and traditional knowledge of tree culture and melt this knowledge with scientific knowledge in implementation of policy and plans in a prudent manner;
• Focus the methods of collecting quantitative information on non-wood forest products, according to different times of the year and socio-professional categories (men, women, children) for the purpose of obtaining reliable statistics; and
• Strengthen organizational capacities of traditional medicines and develop mechanisms to establish credibility with their relationship with modern medicine. Make regulations concerning pharmacopoeia certifications for the products.

Research

• Stimulate the frameworks and networks of dialogue between forest researchers, professional foresters, local communities and other stakeholders in the forestry sector;
• Instal a network of permanent sample plots in all forest types for a better understanding of the dynamics of growth of various types of forest settlement;
• Introduce modern forest equipment, including computers and associated training for the treatment of statistical data and install a system to motivate those responsible for statistics;
• Build the technical systems of reference on methods of pruning of wood fodder trees; and
• Develop tools to relate management of selected trees on selected sites with the quantity and quality of fruit or animal fodder production.

Training

• Design a multi-level education and training programme to ensure upgrade training and graduation of the necessary, qualified professional, scientist, technician, artisan and other support staff for the sector; and
• Strengthen the experience acquired from the environmental education programme and extend it to all other sectors of activities.

²⁹ Forest Resources Assessment.