FOREST PLANTATIONS AND WOODLOTS IN SUDAN · 2018-12-18 · Dr. Elnour Abdalla Elsiddig and Dr....

A P L A T F O R M F O R S T A K E H O L D E R S I N A F R I C A N F O R E S T R Y

A F R I C A N F O R E S T F O R U M W O R K I N G P A P E R S E R I E S

FOREST PLANTATIONS AND WOODLOTS IN SUDAN

V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 1 5 , 2 0 1 1

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Copyright © African Forest Forum 2011 All rights reserved African Forest Forum P.O. Box 30030 00100 Nairobi GPO KENYA Tel: 254 20 7623900 Fax: +254 20 30677-00100 www.afforum.org Disclaimer The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the African Forest Forum concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries regarding its economic system or degree of development. Excerpts may be reproduced without authorization, on condition that the source is indicated. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the African Forest Forum.

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FOREST PLANTATIONS AND WOODLOTS IN

SUDAN

by

Dr. Abdalla Gafaar

December 2011

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Contents Abbreviations and Acronyms ............................................................................. 6 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... 7 Executive Summary ........................................................................................... 8 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 11 1.1 Background ................................................................................................... 11 1.2 Objectives of the study ................................................................................... 17 1.3 Scope and coverage ....................................................................................... 18 1.4 Approach to the study .................................................................................... 18 1.5 Structure of the report .................................................................................... 18 2. Forest plantation situation .......................................................................... 19 2.1 Historical background ..................................................................................... 19 2.2 Location, areas and species composition ........................................................... 20 2.3 Plantation management .................................................................................. 23 2.3.1 Management models.................................................................................... 23 2.3.2 Establishment ............................................................................................. 24 2.3.3 Weeding .................................................................................................... 25 2.3.4 Pruning ...................................................................................................... 26 2.3.5 Thinning..................................................................................................... 26 2.3.6 Forest health .............................................................................................. 27 2.3.7 Maintaining long term site productivity .......................................................... 29 2.3.8 Growth, yield and rotation age ...................................................................... 29 2.3.9 Forest plantation expansion .......................................................................... 30 2.3.10 Constraints and opportunities for plantation expansion ................................... 31 3. Out-grower schemes and other woodlots .................................................... 33 3.1 Extent and impacts of out-grower schemes/other woodlots ................................. 33 3.2 Factors shaping growth of out-grower schemes and other woodlots ...................... 34 4. Forest and tree tenure ................................................................................. 36 4.1 Current forest/tree tenure systems .................................................................. 36 4.2 Impacts of forest/tree tenure on poverty alleviation and SFM .............................. 37 4.3 Suggestions for improvement of tenure system ................................................. 38 5. Financial and human resources for plantations and out-growers/woodlots 38 5.1 Current financing mechanisms ......................................................................... 38 5.2 Potential financing mechanisms ....................................................................... 39 5.3 Human resources ........................................................................................... 40 5.4 Other resources ............................................................................................. 42 6. Incentives for plantation establishment by public/private sector and out-growers ........................................................................................................... 42 6.1 The rationale behind incentives ........................................................................ 42 6.2 Current incentives: impacts and effectiveness ................................................... 42 6.3 Suggestion for improvement of incentives ......................................................... 44 7. Supply and demand of forest products ........................................................ 45 7.1 Supply scenarios and projections ..................................................................... 45 7.2 Demand scenarios and projections ................................................................... 46 7.3 Forest products trade ..................................................................................... 50 8. Forest royalties and other revenues ............................................................ 51

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8.1 Forest royalties and licenses ............................................................................ 51 8.1.1 Structure and amount of forest royalties and licences ...................................... 51 8.1.2 Suggestions for improvement of forest charges and licenses ............................. 54 8.2 Administration of forestry revenue system ........................................................ 55 8.3 Suggestions for improvement of revenue collection system ................................. 56 9. Processing of produce ................................................................................. 56 9.1 Ownership and types of industries .................................................................... 56 9.2 Raw material supply and quality ...................................................................... 57 9.3 Constraints facing the sub-sector ..................................................................... 58 9.4 Potential for future investment ........................................................................ 58 10. Socio-economic and environmental contributions of forests ..................... 59 10.1 Income generation and employment ............................................................... 59 10.2 Plantations in forest conservation ................................................................... 60 11. Conclusions and way forward .................................................................... 62 11.1 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 62 11.2 Recommendations ........................................................................................ 63 11.3 Way forward ................................................................................................ 64 References ...................................................................................................... 66 Annex 1. Sudan land cover. ............................................................................. 70 Annex 2. Major donor assisted forest projects in Sudan. ................................. 70 Annex 3. Total area of community, state and private forest plantations. ......... 72 Annex 4. Main biotic agents affecting Sudanese forests. ................................. 73

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Abbreviations and Acronyms AFF African Forest Forum CBD Convention on Biological Diversity CCD Convention for Combating Desertification CNS Comprehensive National Strategy FNC Forests National Corporation FRA Forest Resource Assessment FRC Forest Research Centre GDP Gross Domestic Product GHGs Green House Gases HQTAS Headquarters’ Technical Affairs Sector IFF Inter-Governmental Forum on Forests IPF Inter-Governmental Panel on Forests JFM Joint Forest Management LPG Liquid Petroleum Gas NFI National Forest Inventory NTFPs Non-Timber Forest Products NWFPs Non-Wood Forest Products REDD Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation RSTAS Regionally Stationed Technical Affairs Sectors SFM Sustainable Forest Management SSARP Southern Sudan Agricultural Revitalisation Programme TOE Tons Oil Equivalent UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development UNFF United Nations Forum on Forests

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Acknowledgements This report is an output of work commissioned by the African Forest Forum (AFF). This piece of work was directed by Dr. Abdalla Gaafar and coordinated by Prof. Shabani Chamshama whose guidance is greatly appreciated and acknowledged. The work involved the following professionals: Dr. Elnour Abdalla Elsiddig and Dr. Talaat Dafalla Abdel Magid. Dr. Elnour and Dr. Talaat made important contributions, including providing inputs in writing the draft version of the document. The collection and assessment of field information involved ten of the Forests National Corporation (FNC) Regional Technical Sectors staff and was coordinated by a senior GIS officer Mr. Fathi Omer. Their efforts were of crucial importance for improving the accuracy of information on plantation data and locations. State Forest Directors contributed to and facilitated the information flow and field data collection. The efforts of the FNC and of the private sector in providing relevant data and information on their plantations to this study are greatly acknowledged.

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Executive Summary A background chapter, including country area, population, state of forest and tree resources, deforestation rate, and economic outlook, is provided presenting also the objectives and scope of the study. Sudan is the largest country in Africa and is rich with diversity of forest resources which constitute a base for substantial contributions in economic development. It is characterised by variation in edaphic and climatic zones from north to south with the desert and semi-arid areas constituting almost 50% of the country area. The Savanna zone (40% of the area) is the richest in forest resources and most inhabited part of the Sudan. Agricultural expansion in the savannas constitutes the major factor that causes deforestation and forest degradation at a rate of 0.74% per year. However, forests which are presently believed to cover 29.4% of the country area contribute significantly in the dominant traditional sector that revolves around traditional land use. As of 9th July 2011, Sudan split into two countries, namely the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan. Following the split, the Republic of Sudan has, according to FAO’s classification, become a low forest cover country with about 11% of its total surface area under forest cover. Yet, the high dependency on forest products and service remains as it was before separation. A review on the plantation situation, including a historical review, forest area information, location and species composition, plantation silviculture and management - covering all aspects from establishment methods to yield control through rotational system – is presented in one chapter. Sudan’s forest domain is basically contained in reserved forests (government and community tenure) and natural non-reserved forests. The plantation area is not more than 13% of the reserved forests area. The study indicated that the total area of forest plantations in Sudan is just under 1 500 000 ha out of which c. 1 300 000 ha in Northern Sudan and 188 000 ha in Southern Sudan. A part of the plantation area is supported by irrigation, particularly in irrigated agricultural schemes and at some community out-growers level. Government plantations rely mainly on rain fed systems in the Savanna region. In spite of the small area and limited contribution of plantations, Sudan possesses a huge experience in plantation establishment and management which goes back to the middle of the 20th century. Management is based on working plan systems, where acacias, teak, softwoods and eucalypts are well controlled in a sustainable system that maintains a steady flow of goods and services at national and community levels. Still, the small area of plantations does not fulfil the goals to satisfy the demand for forest products. The multiple use management policy recently adopted by the Forests National Corporation (FNC) is meant to be controlled by the FNC in a sustainable system enhanced by good planning and linked to an effective revenue generation approach. Forest resources conservation and a sustainable silviculture and management system supported the utilisation of the growing stock within the increment level. The long experience of Sudan in development of forests in relation to out-growers is limited to gum gardens development and gum company partnerships within the production and marketing chain. Recently, gum producers’ associations entered into partnerships with gum garden developers in connection with management of Acacia forests. The role of gum farmers is contained in growing the acacia tree gardens and collecting the gum and selling it to retailers, while the role of the gum company is to promote the gum marketing. Private enterprises (like Jandail) and communities benefited from these out-growers developments, which could be directed to rural development. Though the rights and responsibilities of the different partners in the gum Arabic out-growers system is not documented it is institutionalised in the sense that the FNC is guarding and enhancing the system towards satisfactory production conditions and gum marketing, particularly in connection with gum producers’ association. Other types of forest/tree out-growers’ rights and privileges are set up for communities living inside and around forests reserves to enable and encourage them to participate in forest establishment and in collecting and selling dead wood and non-wood forest products (NWFPs). Agreements on such rights in the form of partnerships between FNC and communities are defined in the document written at the time of forest reservation. This type of partnerships resulted in more collaboration between communities and FNC which led to sustainable mutual benefits and services. The issue of forest and tree tenure is considered as part of the problems of forest development in Sudan. Three types of tenure systems are defined, viz. government, community and private ownerships. The major part, almost 90%, of forest land is under government control while limited forest lands are owned by communities and the private sector. At communal level, most of the tenure rights for forest, tree and pasture resources, come from customary laws and traditions usually based on tribal structures acknowledged by the government. Agricultural practices and associated trees and pasture are based on small-holdings allocated to households while pasture

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and range on large tracts are managed as common resources for grazing under government protection. Such relationships, based on collaborative management, are often a constraint to forest and tree development since they do not state clearly the tenure rights of the community. Solutions are to be found in policy and legislation facilitating more room for tree ownership by other sectors to enhance improved management and protection. According to the Forest Act of 1989, the FNC should be self-financed. The sources of financing are limited to the collection of revenues from the fees prescribed for the royalties on wood collected outside reserved forests. In addition, FNC has some income from sales of products from the forest reserves. Other potential resources of financing FNC come through international and regional initiatives. In particular, there is need for such initiatives to facilitate development and implementation of sound national forest programmes. One of the most important challenges in forest development, and especially in community-based approaches, is to ensure that local communities are provided with sufficient economic incentives in tangible and non-tangible forms in order to encourage them to become involved in sustainable forest management. Past policies often led to failures to attract people into investing in forest-based projects. Approaches that consider incentives are assumed to reduce forest degradation and increase environmental services. Current incentives include provision of land and exemption from taxes on forest products in addition to tax incentives for strategic industries and projects, opening investment to foreign competition, and consolidation through minimum capital requirement. Supply and demand of forest products are presented in different scenarios and projections covering both wood and NWFPs. Approximately 70% of rural area supply of fuel wood comes from indigenous forests (reserved and non-reserved) through unplanned illegal felling. However, developments in the oil industry and progressive increase in the use of energy alternatives to wood and improvements in energy use through improved cook stoves constitute good potentials for reducing wood biomass use as a source of energy. A national plan is underway and it is expected to result in positive reduction in wood energy use. The implications on environmental protection are expected to have positive national and global impacts, in addition to reducing deforestation rates. Although Sudan used to be self-sufficient in wood supply, the increasing population and reduced forest area have resulted in a state of deficit for some products, e.g. poles and sawn timber. Substantial parts of these commodities are now imported. NWFPs have good potential to contribute to the economy at the local and national levels. Gum Arabic is the major forest product in Sudan and the country is the biggest provider of this commodity on the global market. Yet, gum Arabic and other NWFPs are confronted with economic and managerial problems, e.g. in production and pricing mechanisms. Associated with the supply side are forest royalties and licenses, and aspects related to them as part of the revenue system and means of controlling illegal felling. The forest authority is making great efforts to control illegal and destructive felling through the adoption of a system of royalty collection and wood pricing, but various constraints are facing such systems, including the large area of the country and the limited training provided to technical staff in addition to the poor institutional capacity and limited equipments for observation and monitoring practices. The forest-based industry in Sudan is still in its infancy. The development of the industry must be based on different types of processing of wood and non-wood material, rationalising the ownership, and considering the raw material supply and quality in the future. Today, the wood industry is basically confined to sawmilling and furniture making. There is limited development in other types of wood based industry, including pulp and paper, plywood, particle board and chipboard. The major part of the demand for these industrial products is supplied through import. The socio-economic and environmental contributions of forests are substantial as reflected in their impact on income generation and livelihood support, in addition to environmental protection and forest conservation. Under the generally dry conditions in most of Sudan, with fluctuating rainfall and other aspects of climatic conditions, agriculture, forests and other natural resources activities become highly vulnerable to droughts and famines. Under such conditions the role of forests is significant particularly in integrated land use systems. The contribution of the forest sector to the national economy is greater than official estimates. The per capita consumption of fuel wood is 0.7 m³/annum, which, when converted into Ton Oil Equivalent (TOE), could be valued at nearly 2.0

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billion US dollars. Moreover, NWFPs are very diverse and make substantial contributions to livelihoods at the household level and to the national economy. The extent of environmental protection and conservation of biodiversity in relation to plantations or natural forests is very wide. At the global level, there are increased international commitments and endorsement of agreements and conventions, which are, in many ways concerned with the role of forests and communities in climate change issues such as mitigations and adaptation. Sudan’s contribution to GHG emissions is very limited but its potential contributions to climate change mitigation are substantial, e.g. through various forest-based projects within the Kyoto protocol and carbon market. Based on the set of conclusions drawn, general and specific recommendations on the development and management of forests are provided.

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1. Introduction 1.1 Background The old unified Sudan was the largest country in Africa with a total area of 2.5 million km². It is bounded on the east by the Red Sea and is surrounded on the other sides by nine African nations. Its terrain is characteristically flat, except for a few mountain areas, including the Imatong–Didinga range in the south, the Red Sea Hills in the east and Jebel Marra in West Darfur. The most salient geographical feature is the River Nile basin that traverses the country from south to north. The River Nile is composed of two main branches - the White Nile that originates in the Equatorial Lakes and the Blue Nile that descends from the Ethiopian Highlands. The two rivers unite in Khartoum to form the River Nile that runs to the Mediterranean Sea. The river Nile and the mountains constitute special sites, characterised by high rains and waters of special importance to Sudan. Sandy soils cover about 60% of the country area, mainly in the north, northwest and north-eastern parts. Heavy, cracking clay soils form a triangular central easterly plain which constitutes approximately 30% of the land. The remaining area, mainly in the southern part of the country, is dominated by varying forms of lateritic soils. The people of Sudan can be divided into three main ethnic groups with more than 115 local dialects. According to the 2008 census, the total population is 39.2 million with a rapid growth rate of 2.3% per year. About 29.5% of the population lives in urban areas while the majority of the population (70.5%) is rural and many of which are considered as forest dependant, e.g. by having wood as the main source of energy and depending on round timber and poles for buildings. Rainfall varies from zero mm/annum in the northern deserts to over 1 500 mm per annum towards the southern border of the country. The ecosystem classification and the vegetation distribution closely follow the isohyets that run across the country from west to east. The effect of topographical changes and soil variation on vegetation zones is much less pronounced than that of rainfall levels. However, a south-easterly shift of isohyets has been reported (ILO, 1984) that may be associated with migration of trees and habitats. As stated by Abdelanour 2011, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed between the Government of Sudan and South Sudan Liberation Movement (SPLM) and Army (SPLA) in 2005, which ended 50 years of civil war, embodied a self-determination referendum. The referendum took place on January 9th 2011, a majority of voters in Southern Sudan voted for cessation from the Sudan Republic. Six month later, on July 9th the whole world starting with the Government of Sudan recognised the Republic of South Sudan (RSS) as member 193 of the United Nations and member 54 of the African Union. Maps bellow:

Pre July 9th, 2011 Sudan Republic of Sudan Republic of South Sudan

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South Sudan has an area of 619 745 km² and a population of c. 8.3 million. Around 50% of the forest and woodland area of “old” Sudan falls in the new country. The Republic of Sudan retains an area of 1 886 000 km² and some 50% of the forest and woodlands of its pre July 9th estate (Abdelnour, 2011). The forest extent and estate in the two countries can be extrapolated by super imposing the map of Harrison and Jackson’s 1958 “Ecological Classification of the Vegetation of Sudan” on the maps of the two countries (Abdelnour, 2011). See tables 1a, 1b, and 1c below. Table 1a. Ecological classification of vegetation in the Republic of Sudan (RoS) and the Republic of South Sudan (RSS). Major Division

Subdivisions Total area 1000 km²

RoS RSS

Desert NIL 716.8 716.8 - Semi-Desert 1. Acacia tortilis - M. crassifolia scrub

2. Semi-Desert grassland on Clay 3. Semi-Desert grassland on Sand 4. Acacia mellifera – Commiphora scrub 5. Acacia glaucophylla – A. etbaica scrub Total

184.3 102.4 84.5 84.5 30.7

486.4

184.3 102.4 84.5 84.5 30.7

486.4

- - - - - - -

Woodland Savanna

A. Low Rainfall 1. On Clay (a) Acacia mellifera – thorn land (i) On dark cracking clays, with grass area (ii) On in situ soils, with Commiphora and Boscia spp. (b) A. seyal – Balanites aegyptica savanna alternating with grass (c) Anogeissus spp.-Combretum hartmannianum Woodland Total on Clay 2. On Sand (a) Acacia seyal savannah (b) Combretum hartmannianum- Albizzia sericpcephala-Dalbergia spp. savannah woodland (c)Terminalia - Sclerocarya - Anogeissus - Prosopis spp. savannah woodland Total on Sand 3. Special Areas (a) Toposa Hills (b) Hill Catenas (c) Baggara Catena (d) Raqaba Catena Total Special Areas Total Low Rainfall Woodland Savannah B. High Rainfall (a) Anogeissus – Khaya – Isoberlinia spp. Savannah woodland (b) Woodland savannah recently derived from rain forest Total High Rainfall Woodland Savannah

94.7

51.2

117.8

48.6

312.3

64.5

84.5

64.5

213.5

35.8 69.1 17.9 33.3

156.1

681.9

307.2

35.8

343.0

94.7

51.2

100.1

48.6

294.6

64.5

84.5

63.2

212.2 -

69.1 17.9 31.6

118.6

625.4

30.7 -

17.2

- -

16.6 -

16.6 - -

1.3

1.3

35.8 - -

1.7

37.5

56.5

276.5

35.8

325.8 Flood Region 243.2 7.3 235.9 Montane Vegetation

6.4 3.8 2.6

Total Area 2 477.8 1 850.2 627.6

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Table 1b. Ecological classification of Forests and Woodlands in The Republic of Sudan (2011). All figures in 1000 km² with % of total in brackets. Desert Semi-

Desert Low

rainfall savannah

High rainfall

savannah

Special areas

Montane vegetation

Flood region

Total

717 (38.6) 486 (26.2) 507 (27.3) 17 (0.9) 119 (6.4) 4 (0.2) 7 (0.4) 1 857 (100)

Arid and semi-arid Sub-humid Humid 92.1 7.5 0.4 100%

Table 1c. Ecological classification of Forests and Woodlands in The Republic of South Sudan (2011). All figures in 1000 km² with % of total in brackets. Low rainfall savannah

High rainfall savannah

Montane Vegetation

Special Areas

Flood Region

Total

17.9 (2.9) 325.8 (52.6) 2.6 (0.4) 37.5 (6.1) 235.9 (38.0) 619.7 (100)

Arid/semi-arid

Sub-humid Humid

2.9 53.0 44.1 100% Overview of the forest resources in Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan have never conducted a national forest inventory. The widest inventory was launched during the period (1995-1997) after completion of the energy consumption survey in 1994. The 1995-1997 inventory covered most of the area north of latitude 10N with crown cover ≥10%. It covered an area of 62.27 million hectares (ha) equivalent to 24% of the total area of the country. The results were published in 1998. The objective of this inventory was partly to assess the available wood supply as compared to the demand indicated by the demand study (1995). However, some tracts of forests have been inventoried more in detail, e.g. biomass resources east of the Nile (1991), Southern Blue Nile and Northern Bahr El Ghazal (1984), parts of Kordofan and Darfur (1990-94), and parts of N. Blue Nile (1994). In addition, there are the regular inventories of forest reserves as a basis for management plans. In 1997, the Africover project commenced its activities covering ten Nile Basin countries in addition to East African countries, including Sudan. The project used TM coverage and the maps produced were visually interpreted. Ground validation in Sudan was limited to some areas in Western Kordofan, Southern Darfur and Red Sea Provinces and limited scattered samples in central Sudan. Eventually the land cover database aggregated into six main themes, such as agriculture, forests, rangelands, bare areas, urban areas and water bodies (see Table 1, Figure 1 and Annex 1). Despite its vast land area, the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa, and relatively low overall population density, sustainable development in Sudan remains a significant challenge from both an environmental and socio-economic perspective. The unavoidable reality is that the existing natural environment status with all its components is in steady decline. There are many key driving forces of the continued environmental degradation which could possibly be curtailed by translating the theoretical intent into a practical strategic planning approach but there are also avenues and opportunities to remedy the situation (El Wakeel, 2011). The majority of Sudanese farmers depend on rainfed farming. In addition to these traditional farmers, a large modern mechanised rainfed agriculture sector has developed since 1944-45. Large investments continued to be made in the mechanised, irrigated and rainfed, cultivation. The increase, however, has mainly been expanding the cultivated area rather than by increasing productivity (Abdel Magid and Warrag, 2011). This expansion of mechanised farming, which aims at horizontal development of cropland, contradicts with the comprehensive national development strategies (1992–2002 and 2003–2027) which stated that the forest and other natural resources policy objectives aim at conservation, environmental protection and poverty alleviation at national and community levels. Large scale

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forest losses and environmental degradation have created a state of vulnerable conditions at various sites within the dry lands of Sudan. Nimir and Abdel Salam (2005) reviewed the impact of the oil industry on forests and reported that the exploration activities in forest rich areas have affected the forests in many ways: The initial cutting to clear the land for exploration activities resulted in clearing of large tracts

of forests. The number of wells drilled and the field production facilities as well as the central production facilities areas and camps affect the acreage to be cut in each field;

Safety measures around the field forces’ barracks, where security has been a major concern in

the past ten years, enforced more cutting of trees to enable the army to protect this new industry; and,

Since new social inhabitants are attracted by the new industry, more villages will be build close

to the oil facilities where more jobs are expected and consequently more cutting will occur for their daily energy needs.

Deforestation and forest degradation are in fact the major threats to the forestry development in Sudan. Information on forest cover and biomass changes and deforested areas are obtained from successive inventories and remote sensing images taken at various sites as well as through forest products consumption surveys carried out at the national level. The state of natural forests can only be extrapolated from these ad hoc surveys and from global Forest Resource Assessment (FRA) such as that by FAO (1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010). FRA (2010) indicates that the forest area declined from 76.4 million ha in 1990 to 70.0 million ha by the end of 2009 (for more information see Table 1d).

The forests follow the ecological classification profile and rainfall trends as from north to south with forests taking the form of bush land and scattered trees and shrubs in the north and in denser woodlands and forests with larger trees in mixture of acacias and broad-leaved trees in the southern end of the savanna and montane region. The largest rates of deforestation occur in the savanna where the major land use is for agriculture.

Table 1d. Old unified Sudan forest cover. Source: FRA, 2010. Type of land/water Area (000 ha)

1990 2000

2005 2010

Forests 76 381 70 491 70 220 69 949 Other wooded land 58 082 54 153 52 188 50 224 Other land 103 137 112 956 115 192 117 427 Inland water bodies 12 981 12 981 12 981 12 981 Total area 250 581 250 581 250 581 250 581 Forests area % 32.1 29.7 29.6 29.4 Annual deforestation rate -959

-1.4% -589 -0.8%

-589 -0.8%

-542 -0.7%

The Global FRA of 1990 and 2010 indicated a declining trend in Sudan forest cover from 32.1% (76.38 million ha) to 29.4% (69.95 million ha) respectively. However, it also indicated an improvement in the annual removal of forests, which declined from 589 000 to 542 000 ha for the same period. The reserved forest area is remarkably increased, from 1.22 million ha which were reserved during the period 1926-1989 to approximately 12.6 million ha by the end of 2009. These reserved forests consist of public, private and community forest reserves. The total area of the reserved forests represents 4.8% of the total area of the country. In addition to that, the total area occupied by other protected areas (game reserves) represents 5.7% of the total area of Sudan. This means that 10.5% of the total area of the country is currently under forestry and other natural resources uses, while the Comprehensive National Strategy (CNS) (1992-2002) and the quarter century Strategy (2003–2027) allocated 25% of the country total land for natural resources, namely forestry, range and pasture and wildlife.

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Figure 1. Forest area of Sudan (Africover 2000).

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Forest products provide sources of income and livelihood support. Within their productive role, forests provide fire wood, timber, and building material, as well as food, medicinal and industrial products from non-wood material. Forests have multiple uses and benefits according to the characteristics of different species compositions of trees or shrubs and ecological characteristics. They provide an environment for other plants and animals. It is becoming possible to assess the quantitative impact of trees, shrubs and forests on the environment and to convert these quantities to figures by evaluating the negative impacts resulting from the disappearance of trees. In general, production costs of NWFPs in Sudan vary according to type of produce, production system and area of production. Mahir and El Doma (1995) undertook a study of NWFPs as part of a major study on consumption of forest products in Sudan. Production costs could be calculated at three different levels, namely producer's, wholesaler's and retailer's levels. Production cost items at producer's level include: Daily payment for labour (or the opportunity cost in case of self-employment); Processing and packing; Cost of containers, e.g. sacks; Handling and transportation; and, Taxes, especially in the case of large-scale production. Whereas, cost items at wholesaler's level are: Price paid to get the commodity from producers; Handling and transportation; Taxes; Processing e.g. cleaning, grading, re-packing, etc; and, Losses during handling, processing and storage. As for the retailer's cost items, the following items are identified: Price paid to wholesaler; Handling and transportation; Processing; and, Losses during processing and handling. According to Ali (1986) irrigated forest plantations under Gezira conditions are competitive with agricultural crops and are important in meeting essential needs and national objectives. The non-wood values in the form of reducing rural depopulation, creating jobs, amenity, environmental and crop protection, saving of irrigation water and increasing agricultural yields are appreciable. They are normally not included in financial analyses. Efforts should be made to include these non-wood benefits in future assessments of profitability, as they will definitely boost them greatly (Bayoumi, 1985; Bayoumi et al., 2001; Ball, 1985; Abdel Magid, 2008). The following are the drivers for economic development in the forestry sector: Opportunities will increase with an expansion of the forest industry sector. Development of

sound forest industries would be expected in response to the expected increasing demand for forest products. Adequate infrastructure for the development of the wood-based industry will be required. Many local and foreign investors are interested in forest-based industries;

On the demand side, secured supply of gum will surely but slowly lead to the regaining of the

country's position in the gum Arabic world market. Studies, inventories and research work will be carried out to assess the potential value of NWFPs for maximum utilisation;

Strategies and mechanisms for better mobilisation of both national and external financial

resources for securing sustainable management of forest resources will be developed; The agricultural sector continues to be the main source of sustained growth for the economy,

particularly in light of the major macroeconomic and sectoral policy changes introduced to improve production incentives in the sector since 1992. However, there remain substantial inefficiencies in agricultural production and marketing in each of the major crop and livestock producing sub-sectors, in some cases because of the interference by the government. These inefficiencies should be addressed through improved support services, technical and

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institutional change, further deregulation of some specific markets, land reform, strategic infrastructure development, and close attention by the government to reducing the destruction of the environment;

The advent of peace would allow the country to take advantage of its many assets such as a

rich agricultural and livestock resource base with considerable export potential, sound medium-term prospects for the oil industry, a dynamic private sector, a rich and talented diaspora abroad, and the goodwill of a number of donors to support the peace process. The macroeconomic policy is basically sound, and there is a keen interest among a number of donors and international investors in supporting investment projects. Unleashing this potential will require complementary investments in infrastructure, strengthening of institutions, reforms and technical assistance for improving governance, transparency and accountability in public affairs, and a renewed focus on poverty reduction (World Bank, 2003);

Introduction of incentives to strengthen and encourage participation of communities and the

private sector in wood energy conservation and wood production; Provision of alternatives to fuelwood (biomass energy consumption decrease). This will release

pressure on forest resources and provide opportunity to sustainably manage the resource to meet the growing demand for forest goods and services;

Development of ecotourism which could provide an economic incentive to protect natural

resources. It also offers jobs and the potential for economic development to residents of rural communities;

Forest resources are increasing and ecosystem services are increasingly valued; Increase significantly the area of protected forests nation-wide, as well as the proportion of

forest products from sustainably managed forests; FNC and other forestry institutions are prepared and fully engaged in national and international

discussions regarding forests and climate change mitigation and adaptation; More research and systematic approaches are intended for climate change adaptation in the

forest sector; and, Climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies are integrated in the national forest

programmes and other relevant forest policy processes.

1.2 Objectives of the study The objectives of the present study are to: Undertake a study of the current public and private forest plantations situation, specifically with

respect to the distribution and location of these plantations, species planted and sources of seedlings and seeds, age distribution of tree species, their management and quality of stands, and other features;

Undertake market surveys to determine supply scenarios (2015, 2020, 2025, 2030 and

demand projections (2015, 2020, 2025, 2030) of plantation wood volumes and trends (by tree species, private and public sources), including prices of local and imported timber and wood products and sources of such products;

Evaluate the current revenue collection systems, revenues collected annually during the last 5-

10 years, licensing/concession procedures, forest and tree tenure, management arrangements and pricing mechanisms for round wood and industrial forest products;

Provide income and employment data during the last 5-10 years and estimate the potential for

income generation and employment creation (2015, 2020, 2025, 2030); Evaluate and propose incentives that could favour rapid forest plantation establishment by the

public and private sectors, and outgrower schemes by individual farmers;

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Provide options for establishment, expansion and improved management of public and private forest plantations, including ways to overcome existing and potential constraints; and,

Evaluate the processing of industrial round wood from the plantations in the individual

countries, ownership, its current and potential capacity, wood raw material supply (sources, types, and adequacy), product lines and quality of produce, potential for future investment in the sub-sector, constraints facing the sub-sector, future of the processing industry, growth and constraints, among other key considerations.

1.3 Scope and coverage The report covered extensive areas in northern as well as southern Sudan. The present state of forest cover, plantation and forestry; role , trade, demand and supply of present and projection scenarios of wood and NWFPs; financial and human resources for forest plantations, some models of plantation managements and major NWFPs used at subsistence levels are the main aspects covered in this study. The economic, social and environmental functions of the forests, including the importance of forest based industries, are treated. Policies, institutions, and owners that have the authority for the establishment and management of forest plantations are highlighted. Major drivers and factors shaping the growth of forest plantations are discussed and suggestions for improvement considered. Forest royalties, licences and revenues are discussed and suggestions for improvement developed. Recommendations and future actions that would be required to improve and create a favourable future environment have been presented and discussed. 1.4 Approach to the study Based on the terms of reference set out by African Forest Forum (AFF), the study was based largely on secondary information in addition to primary data collected from field visits to plantation sites in different Sudanese states. Sources of the secondary information included FNC annual reports, reports and field documents of donor assisted development projects, Sudan National Forest Inventory Study, Forest Product Demand Survey, Forestry Sector Review reports, Riverine and other forest plantation management plans, Forest policy and legislatives documents, published and un-published dissertations pertinent to the study, FRA 2005, FRA 2010 and relevant web pages. More than 100 sites were visited covering most of the forest plantations of Northern Sudan to ensure the accuracy of the plantation data and locations. Situation analysis was carried out during the review of secondary data so as to identify the key factors that contributed to the success, failure, development and promotion of forest plantation in Sudan. Assessment of reviewed secondary information indicated that the information on plantation for timber production is accessible and identifiable, whereas information on other plantations is erratic and inadequate. 1.5 Structure of the report The structure of the report is as follows: 1. Introduction; 2. Forest plantations situation; 3. Out–grower schemes and other woodlots; 4. Forest and tree tenure; 5. Financial and human resources for plantations; 6. Incentives for plantation establishment; 7. Supply and demand of forest products; 8. Forest royalties and other revenues; 9. Processing of produce; 10. Socio-economic and environmental contribution of forests; and, 11. Conclusions and way forward

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2. Forest plantation situation 2.1 Historical background Afforestation and reforestation activities have been practiced in Sudan since 1911. The annual FNC afforestation and reforestation programmes ranged from 2 100 ha to 2 520 ha during the period 1910-1950, to some 35 000 ha during the 1990s and from 24 000 to 48 000 ha of forest plantations during the period 2000-2009 (Table 2) depending on availability of resources, including foreign assistance. Table 2. FNC annual afforestation programmes (1990-2009). Period Public afforestation (in reserved

forests); 1000 ha Community and social afforestation; 1000 ha

Total

Average Total Average

1990-1994 123 25 56 11 1995-1999 117 23 60 12 2000-2004 70 14 52 10 2005-2009 134 27 108 22 Plantations were mainly established for the following purposes: Fuelwood and building material (irrigated plantations of eucalyptus and acacias); Sawn timber production (Acacia nilotica in riverine forests, soft wood plantations in Jebel

Marra, teak and mahogany plantations in central and southern Sudan); Environmental protection (shelterbelts, wind breaks in agricultural schemes, acacia plantations

for combating desertification in semi desert areas); Watershed protection (plantations along seasonal rivers and water courses, canal site

plantations in northern Sudan, plantations in Jebel Marra); and, NWFPs (mainly out-growers and plantations in reserved forests for gum production, forest

fruits, tannin and fodder). Industrial forest plantations consist of both softwoods and hardwoods. Most of the hardwood plantations are in urban and peri-urban areas and are mainly used to supply fuelwood and poles. The main objective of the softwood plantations in the Imatong Mts. in Southern Sudan and Jebel Marra in Western Sudan is to provide industrial round wood for different purposes. Plantation areas constitute a small fraction compared to natural forest reserves and forests outside reserves. Plantations include both indigenous and exotic species. The largest plantations are made of Acacia senegal, used for gum Arabic production, raised to compensate for areas damaged by fire and illicit felling. These are followed by Acacia nilotica planted and managed on a rotation basis to produce sawtimber, building poles and fuelwood. Teak, Tectona grandis, is in third position while Eucalypts spp. comes last among the most important planted stock. Other species, e.g. Khaya spp., Cupressus spp., Oxytenanthera abyssinica, Prosopis spp., Acacia seyal and A. mellifera, are planted on a small scale. The oldest irrigated plantation scheme in the Sudan had its beginnings with the initiation of species trials in 1932 in the Gezira cotton and sorghum irrigation project established in the 1920s on the west bank of the Blue Nile some 170 km upstream of its confluence with the White Nile. The decision to develop plantations at Gezira to provide fuel and poles for the inhabitants of the area was made in 1937 and planting began the same year at Fewar. The area experiences a severe summer drought and erratic rainfall that averages about 200 mm. The soils include extensive areas of black, alkaline, cracking clays (vertisols), with a pH sometimes over 8.5. They originally carried sparse open grassland in the north, Acacia mellifera scrub in the centre, and Acacia seyal and Balanites aegyptiaca open woodland in the south. Use of water is governed by the Nile Waters Agreement with Egypt, which permits very little irrigation (virtually none for the plantations) from mid-March to mid-July. The land allocated for plantations comprised

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unused pockets within the agricultural area. Particularly after 1951, these tended to be areas of irregular micro relief used to dump used and excess irrigation water, often of high salt content. Eucalyptus microtheca was chosen as the principal species to be planted. It is tolerant of great heat, the heavy montmorillonite soils of the area, and a degree of interruption of watering regimes. Unfortunately, all the seed used for the 1932 trials and for many years afterwards was derived from a single tree planted by Massey at Shambat in 1922 using seed from South Africa. This resulted in a marked inbreeding depression that manifested itself in a very poor stem form that is a marked feature of virtually all local stands of this species. The bamboo Oxytenanthera abyssinica is also well suited to the irrigated plantation conditions. The following sources of funding for plantation establishment are dominant: FNC self finance: the budget allocated for technical operation constitute 19-22% of the total

annual budget and is derived mainly from royalties, fees, investment and revenue from services and sale of products;

National development budget represents not more than 6% for the last five years; and, Contributions from donor assisted projects reached 50–70% during the 1980s and dropped to

10-15% for the current period (Annex 2). 2.2 Location, areas and species composition Institutional efforts in afforestation and reforestation programmes are restricted to the reserved forests that are almost exclusively controlled by FNC. Tree and shrub species used in afforestation and reforestation are normally indigenous in areas of less than 500 mm rainfall and exotic in more humid or irrigated areas. The most common indigenous trees used are Acacias, particularly A. senegal, A. nilotica (Sunt), A. seyal and A. mellifera. Exotic trees used are Cupressus species in mountainous areas and Eucalyptus, in areas of more than 600 mm of rainfall or under irrigation, together with bamboo (Oxytenanthera abyssinica). Sunt is by far the most important productive forest formation in northern Sudan. The tree has the valuable capability of growing on water from river flooding in regions where the rainfall is too low to support other tree species. The most well stocked forests of Sunt are found on the banks of the Blue Nile. The forest policy adopted for the Sunt riverine forest reserves is to produce sawn timber (mainly railway sleepers) and fuelwood to supply big towns in central and northern Sudan, in addition to protection of the Nile eco-system. Eucalyptus microtheca plantations are established in the degraded lands of central Sudan. The land is degraded either because of high salinity or because of being in waterlogged and depressed areas of land used as dumping ground for surplus water. The use of E. microtheca as the main species in these areas is due to its ability to grow on heavy cracking clay soils and withstanding considerable periods without irrigation water. Hashab, the main gum-producing tree, occurs naturally in a belt that lies between latitudes 10–16 North in an area of about 52 000 km2 (approximately one fifth of the total area of Sudan). Over 60% of the gum derived from Hashab is obtained from natural stands. In the sandy areas of western Sudan the pattern of land-use, which involves Hashab, is frequently referred to as “gum cultivation cycle”. Recently, Hashab plantations have also been established in the central clay plains of Sudan where rain-fed mechanised crop production is practiced. These plantations are established in farmlands that lost their fertility and could no longer be used for crop production. Such activities are carried out by the FNC, or practiced by the private sector on lease basis under the supervision of FNC. Here, sowing of Hashab and weeding are done by mechanical means and the objectives set are to restore fertility and to keep these lands as reserves of strategic value to stabilise the production of gum when the need arises. Table 3 shows the rate of annual planting programmes implemented during the period 2002–2010.

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Table 3. Annual planting programme (2002-2010).

Year

Type of planting; ha (rounded)

Public on reserved and other land

Private and community forestland

Total

2002 21 000 17 700 38 700 2003 10 300 10 600 20 900 2004 12 600 5 100 17 700 2005 12 200 5 700 17 900 2006 13 400 42 300 55 700 2007 42 200 55 900 98 100 2008 36 500 23 500 60 000 2009 20 900 25 500 46 400 2010 19 700 75 700 95 400

Total 188 800 262 000 450 800 In the Republic of South Sudan , the first teak plantation was established at Kagelu in 1919, on a red sandy clay-loam varying in depth from 10 to 45 cm overlying a pea-iron layer, and a rainfall of c. 1 300 mm. Subsequently, no more was grown on a plantation scale until 1932, when more plantations were made at Kagelu. A beginning was made also at Nyin Akok, with a rainfall of c. 1 040 mm, where most of the area is savannah woodland overlying ironstone at relatively shallow depth. On the ironstone the growth of teak is poor, and it is probably not an economic species on such sites. Plantations were established in many parts of Equatoria and Katire on deep red clay-loam with no pea-iron layer and in Bahr el Ghazal and a few areas elsewhere. In Yambio, on a red loam overlying pea-iron at a depth of 30-75 cm with a rainfall of about 1 400 mm, good growth was found on soils 30 cm deep. At Loka, with a rainfall of 1 270 mm, growth on ironstone soils is poor, actually so poor that it is not worth growing teak in such places. Teak needs at least 45-60 cm of soil over ironstone. In the wetter parts of the flood region, such as Mongalla and Kadule, there is a narrow belt on the contour between high land and flooded “toich” on which teak grows reasonably well, at least good enough to produce poles. There are also areas with moderately good growth on the silty banks adjoining the White Nile in parts of Upper Nile. The total area of forest plantations in Sudan and Republic of South Sudan is equal to just under 1 500 000 ha out of which c. 1 300 000 ha in Northern Sudan and 188 000 ha in Southern Sudan. Table 4 shows the total forest plantation in Northern Sudan with types of plantations and then the figures for Southern Sudan added. Location of forest plantations in Northern Sudan is illustrated in Figure 2. Table 4. Forest plantations in Sudan and Republic of South Sudan . Source: FNC reports and field data. State Community forest area

(ha; rounded) Reserved forest area

(ha; rounded) Sennar 8 190 178 695 Blue Nile - 2 660 Eljaziara 205 12 850 Kassala 1 340 4 175 Elgadriff 56 990 160 225 White Nile 10 940 3 830 N. Kordofan - 15 905 S. Kordofan - 11 235 N. Darfur - 43 855 S. Darfur - 33 160 Sub-total 77 665 466 590 Hashab plantation (gum gardens) 630 000 Companies 126 075

Total Northern Sudan 1 300 330 Southern Sudan 188 000 Grand total 1 488 000

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It was estimated that Republic of South Sudan had a wealth of plantations covering total area of c. 188 000 ha. These comprised of Acacia nilotica plantations of high commercial value along the banks of the River Nile, plantations of indigenous tree species such as Khaya senegalensis and K. grandiflora (concentrated in the greater Bahr-el Ghazal area), eucalyptus plantations and Tectona grandis plantations, spread over most of the states. The teak plantations in Central Equatoria and those in Central and Northern Bahr El Ghazal were exploited during the war and are currently in a degraded condition. Those in Western Equatoria were not accessible by road and so are relatively intact. None of the plantations received management or silvicultural treatment during the war. Maps and inventory data on the forest reserves and plantations were lost during the war and therefore, data on the area and status of the plantations are limited. In 2004, the USAID-funded Southern Sudan Agricultural Revitalisation Programme (SSARP) set out to map all the teak plantations using Landsat imagery (Abeya, 2004). Thirteen plantations were found and mapped. In early 2007, the Equatoria Teak Company (ETC) used Quickbird satellite imagery to map 11 plantations in Western Equatoria, including five plantations that had been missed during the SSARP mapping exercise in 2004. The total area of teak plantation mapped was to 7 680 ha. Figure 2. Forest plantation areas in Northern Sudan.

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The area under sustainable management for different objectives (Table 5) constitutes less than 2% of reserved forest area. Encroachments and excisions of forest plantation areas, mainly in riverine forests and big towns’ shelterbelts, is estimated to be 3 500 ha and 5 300 ha, respectively. Table 5. Commercial plantation areas by ownership, species and management objectives in 2009. Forest plantation/ management unit

Sawn timber area (ha; rounded)

Fuelwood area (ha; rounded)

NWFPs (ha; rounded)

Total area (ha; rounded)

Public sector: Acacia nilotica, Cupressus lusitanica, Eucalyptus spp.

67 660

98 050

329 230

494 940

Private sector: Eucalyptus spp., A. senegal, A. seyal

50 570

75 500

126 070

Outgrowers and other woodlots: A. senegal, A. seyal

69 500

630 250

699 750

Total

67 660

218 120

1 034 980

1 320 760

2.3 Plantation management The Sudan experience of plantation management has been long and effective in bringing the plantations into sustainable systems. Plantation management is founded on planning and operational programmes since the middle of the 1930s. The first written working plan for the riverine forest for the period 1948–1958 was a plan for converting Sunt natural forests into plantations. This was followed by the Sawn Timber Working Circle (1958–1968) to all forests south of the Sennar Dam. The plan concentrated on the silvicultural operations starting from broadcasting or pit sowing, beating up, singling, weeding, and first to fifth thinning. The rotation age was fixed at 30 years; the target number of trees/ha was the 120 largest and best quality trees. The third working plan (1968–1978) was a continuation of the second plan. A ten-year working plan for the Sunt riverine forest reserves (1997–2006) is now under revision. The plantations in Central Equatoria are currently in a degraded state with most of the best quality teak logs removed by concessionaires. Most of the plantations in Bahr el Ghazal are in a similar condition. The best option for those degraded plantations is to clearfell and regenerate. The plantations in Western Equatoria are generally fully stocked but due to lack of thinning they are slow growing and relatively small in size, but they are of good quality due to the slow growth rate. 2.3.1 Management models Sunt Riverine Model. Sawn Timber Working Circle: This includes all forests south of Sennar Dam and the management planning for Sunt in this working circle is mainly for railway sleepers with a rotation of 30 years. Initial stocking density per ha is 2 500 trees. Five thinning operation are carried between the age of 1 to 20 years old with final crop density 155-165 trees per ha. Firewood Working Circle: the management planning for this circle is mainly for firewood production and for round poles for building. The duration of this Sunt rotation is 20 years to fulfil the maximum production of firewood. Gaafar (2008) assessed the management of Acacia nilotica plantations along the Blue Nile and indicated that:

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The age-class distribution among the plantations was good for achieving a sustainable yield during the first rotation length (1935-1964) and up to the middle of the second rotation (1965-1994), while during the second half of the rotation (1980–1994), the situation started to deviate from normal age distribution structure at an alarming rate;

For the period 1980–1994 plantations younger than 15 years represented 47.1% of the total

area of the plantations, while for the period 1965-1979, those older than 15 years represented 27.7% of the total area of the plantations. This is in contrast to the situation in the first rotation (1935–1964), where plantations younger than 15 years for the period 1950–1964 represented 42.2% of the total area, while those older than 15 years for the period 1935 -1949 represented 54.8%; and,

The area of bare land during the first rotation was 481 ha while it was 3 580 ha at the end of

2006. Irrigated Eucalyptus Model: E. microtheca is the main plantation species under irrigation. Seedlings are planted at the spacing of 2 x 2 m. The rotation for removal of the first crop is 4-8 years, depending on the site and end-uses. The clear felling system is adopted for the first crop followed by selective felling for the coppice regeneration. The coppicing continues till the age 25-30 years when the stumps should be uprooted. Gum Cultivation Cycle Model: The Hashab system basically consists of about 4-5 years of cropping followed by a period of 15–20 years of fallow under regenerated Hashab. Hashab is sown with the last agricultural crop or occurs as coppices from old trees, which are not cut back during cropping. The successful seedlings are protected from browsing animals until the seedlings are out of the reach of the animals. Then animals graze in these fallows making use of the grass and the pods of the gum trees and add to the soil fertility by their droppings. The gum trees continue for 15-20 years before they are cleared for cultivation of crops. This is the system, as it used to be practiced in the past. Nowadays, rotations for agricultural crops have tended to be longer than the soil can support and the rotations of the bushes or gum trees have tended to be shorter. The technology used remained unchanged, save for the change from seeding to the use of seedlings, as the conditions in the drier parts of the savanna would not allow for seeding or coppicing of the older stock of trees (El Houri, 1969, 1977; Ibrahim, 2000). 2.3.2 Establishment There are different forms of plantation establishment in Sudan, e.g. through seeds, seedlings and vegetative propagation. The technology of seed collection, processing, handling, storage, treatment and seedling establishment are important parts of operational plans for plantation establishment in order to assure good quality trees and forests. The species, site characteristics and climate play major roles in determining the form of plantation establishment. Three species are selected below to represent the silvicultural practices and management on three main sites in Sudan: the flood basins along the Nile and its tributaries, the clay plain and the montane sites. Acacia nilotica, which is one of the most important species in Sudan’s economy, grows successfully on the flood basins along the Nile and its tributaries and it is the only species well adapted to flooded sites. The flooding conditions which extend over 3–4 months provide a special environment for the species’ regeneration and development. All A. nilotica plantations have been established on these sites artificially by either sowing seeds in pits or by broadcasting seeds collected from recognised good quality mother trees. Seeds are pre-treated by sulphuric acid or submerged in flood water to enhance successful germination. In general, pit sowing is the standard establishment technique on the upper slopes of the flood basin flooded for short periods of up to two months. For pit sowing techniques, land preparation involves planning and digging of pits - shallow pits are made at a spacing of 2x2 m using a native hoe, and six seeds are sown per pit. The seeds are lightly covered with fine soil. The amount of seeds used in pit-sowing is 6.4 kg per ha at spacing of 2×2 m, resulting in of 2 500 pits per ha. Seed broadcasting on the other hand is the standard practice on lower depressions of the flood basins that are regularly flooded for up to 5 months. Seed broadcasting usually takes place when the flood draws back. The regeneration of broadcasted seeds results in a dense stock of saplings which are singled out and brought to a spacing of 2×2 m stock within the first two years.

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Gaps in the established crop of A. nilotica are filled by seeds sown in pits prepared at a spacing of 2×2 m. Seed broadcasting and pit sowing techniques constitute the main methods of A. nilotica plantation establishment and planting seedlings is rarely practiced except on non-flooded sites or in irrigated areas. A. nilotica plantations are established at an annual rate of 600–800 ha along the flooded basins of the Nile and its tributaries, including the Blue Nile, White Nile, Dinder River and Rahad River. Eucalyptus plantation establishment is based on seedling technology and when felling a mature crop, the roots develop a coppice crop. Eucalyptus species presently in use for plantations include E. microtheca, E. camaldulensis, E. saligna and E. tereticornis. Seeds are collected from healthy vigorous mother trees defined by straight stems free of defaults. Seeds are tested and used for seedlings establishment at the nursery. Seedlings are established in the nursery and tended for 3–4 months or to a height of 40–60 cm. Seedlings are then transplanted to the site for planting. In relation to the variation in the rate of annual afforestation and reforestation programme in Sudan, seedling production varied from 2.2 million to 8.5 million. However, during the last 3 years the annual production of seedlings has stabilised at 6.2–6.6 million seedlings. Site preparation for eucalypts starts with ditching at a spacing of 3x3 m and preparation of pits along the ditch at a spacing of 2.5-3 m resulting in a stocking density reaches 1500–2000 seedlings per ha. Gaps are filled by beating up using seedlings. The coppice plantation which develops in successive rotations, following the felling of the original seedlings, is characterised by 2–3 stems per tree resulting in 3000–4000 stems per ha in plantations well managed. When eucalypt plantations reach 25–30 years (sum of ages of seedling origin and successive coppices), the plantation is cleared, stumps uprooted and a new eucalyptus plantation is established from seedlings. Softwood plantations, particularly Cupressus lusitanica, in Sudan started to be established in 1958 in montane areas on moderate to gentle slopes of high quality sites (Jebel Marra and Imatong) with annual rainfall of 800–1000 mm. Softwood plantations are developed from seedlings 3–4 months old transplanted and planted in spacing of 2×2 m. During its introduction phase (1958–1980), C. lusitanica was established by seedlings. Because of the difficult terrain on montane sites, annual plantation of softwood does not exceed 300–500 ha. Planting procedures follow the same techniques of nursery work for good quality seedling production, seedling establishment, land preparation and seedlings planting at spacing of 2×2 m resulting in 2500 seedlings per ha. For plantations under more rigorous conditions, plants should be raised either in boxes or in raised beds, and for very difficult sites plants raised in plastic tubes can be used. All seeds for plantations are collected from the best plantation sites through selection of mother plus trees. No seed stands and seed orchards were established in Sudan. The total softwood plantation area in Sudan is approximately 4 000 ha. Beating up is conducted during the rainy season of the second year preceded by a sampling for assessment of seedling survival rate and stocking density. Beating up is done at survival rate 85% or lower. When the plantation is 25 years, natural regeneration starts while the canopy is opened. 2.3.3 Weeding Acacia nilotica (Sunt) established on the flood basins face limited competition from weeds as the weeds are eliminated by the flood. On sites where pit sowing is practiced, advantage is taken of the taungya system of agricultural inter-cropping to reduce weeding costs. Weeding is carried out once and rarely twice because the density of saplings, particularly when established by broad-casting, reduces weed development. Weeding is done manually by hoe, since Sunt is susceptible to weed and grass competition, and thorough weeding is done in the first 2 years, especially on fertile lands infested with grass. The most economical way of doing this is to sow field crops such as maize with sunt and use traditional equipment to uproot the plants. Eucalypts plantations are weeded in a similar way using manual labour and traditional equipment. For C. lusitanica the first weeding is defined as spot weeding during planting practices and this involves clearing of a circular spot around the planting pit. Three more weedings are done up to the end of the third year. For Eucalypts the plantations are weeded by hand in their first and second year thereafter the trees close canopy and further weeding is unnecessary. The cost of weeding can be reduced by

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cultivation of crops between the trees. Suitable crops include groundnuts, cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata), and phillipasara (Phaseolus rilobus). Lubia afin (Dolichos lablab) is unsuitable because of its trailing habit. Teak will withstand a certain amount of grass competition, but at the expense of growth. The plantation areas should be clean-weeded before the trees are planted and also after planting is completed towards the end of the rains. The last weeding is the most important, since grass competition for moisture is most damaging when the soil is drying out. Weeding must be completed before the dry season sets in. During the second year weeding is required early in the rains and just before they end. After the second year, the plantations need no weeding if well tended. If cultivators are available, taungya methods will give results comparable to those obtained by clean weeding at lower cost. 2.3.4 Pruning Pruning is a specialised silvicultural practice involving the selective removal of branches. Reasons to prune trees include deadwood removal, shaping (by controlling or directing growth), improving or maintaining health, reducing risk from falling branches, and increasing the timber quality of the main stem and its yield. The practice entails targeted removal of diseased, damaged, and dead, non-productive, structurally unsound, or otherwise unwanted branches. When pruning A. nilotica and C. lusitanica small branches are cut in order to improve the quality of the main stem. It is important to treat the wound to limit the risk for pathogen intrusion and wood decay. It is therefore preferable to make structural pruning to young branches rather than removing large, poorly placed branches from mature trees. Pruning is carried out at the age of 9 years and is associated with the second thinning. It is done up to 5 m height along the main stem. The number of trees pruned per hectare is 125, which are the selected best stemmed trees that represent the final felling. The total area pruned is c. 7 000–8 000 ha of the total area of the plantations in Sudan. In fact, pruning is limited to plantations of a few species in Sudan because of limited capacity and lack of equipment. For A. nilotica, the species is grown for good quality timber for saw logs, which makes the application of pruning an important silvicultural practice. However, pruning requires guidelines and capacity building to facilitate good practice and fulfilment of its objectives.

2.3.5 Thinning Thinning schedules for A. nilotica plantations follow yield table schedules and prescriptions in management plans. In general, a tending operation in the form of thinning starts at age 2 years by singling out plants and adjusting the spacing as close as possible to 2×2 m. The thinning schedule then depends on the rotation age and the type of intended main produce at the end of the rotation age. For a rotation age of 30 years for plantations managed for sawn timber, the first thinning is carried out at age 6 years and continues every 3 years until the age of 15 years. Then, at age 20 years, the last thinning is done to bring the final stocking to 125 trees per ha. This stocking is usually maintained until the end of the rotation of 30 years and at that age the plantation is finally felled and replanting takes place immediately. For a short rotation of 15 to 20 years for plantations managed for fuel wood, the thinning schedule starts at age 6 to 8 years and is carried out every 3 years for three thinnings before the final felling. The normal practice is that the tending (singling out) and the first thinning at 6 to 8 years are carried out by staff of FNC, whereas successive thinnings are carried out on a tender basis under the supervision of FNC. The produce from tender thinnings are collected and stacked in a yard outside the forest for sale by auction. The tender may include both the thinning work itself and the sale of the wood, in which case the harvesting and collection of the products are components of the tender. For Eucalypts, there is no thinning operation for crops managed for 6–7 years where seedlings have been used to establish the plantation in irrigated schemes, or for those and managed for 5–6 years in community and private forests. Thinning is practiced of coppice crops by removal of bad stems and retaining 2–3 good stems for the final felling. Thinnings are carried out by public institutions in irrigated schemes and in FNC forests, and by communities in their forests.

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For C. lusitanica, the first thinning takes place at age 6-7 years when the canopy closes. Thinning at this age is scheduled to take place from below to maintain canopy closure at not less than 85% and this is done by removal of malformed, dying, dead, suppressed and competitive trees. Thinning continues successively every 5 years maintaining the canopy closure at same level of close to 85% up to age 20–25 years. By this age, natural regeneration starts to appear. Thinning then continues every 3–5 years in selective management systems to harvest target trees of a dbh of ≥35 cm and gradually open for natural regeneration development by creating a spacing of 6×6 m and increasing this gradually to 10×10 m. Harvesting of the thinning produce is carried out using power saws and the felled trees are extracted to the road side by camel. The thinned trees are sorted as building poles or saw logs and transported by tractor and trailer. Saw logs are gathered at the government sawmill while poles are sold to merchants. The thinning schedules for A. nilotica and C. lusitanica plantations are illustrated in Table 6. Based on approved management plans, FNC executes annual silvicultural operations and programmes. Table 7 shows the thinning programmes implemented by FNC during the period 2002-2010 Table 6. Thinning schedules for Acacia nilotica and Cupressus lusitanica plantations. Species

Age/years Initial stocking Final stocking

Acacia nilotica and Cupressus lucitanica

6 9 12 15 20 30

2 000 – 2 100 1 400 – 1 500 1 050 – 1 150

650 – 750 300 - 325 100 - 125

600 450 400 350 200

Table 7. FNC annual thinning programme (2002-2010). Year

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Area (ha)

600 2 100 4 000 495 876 1 350 1 550 2 000 350

2.3.6 Forest health Soil salinity in irrigated soils occurs as a result of several possible causes. It can be due to irrigation with saline water or a high evaporation rate that brings salts to the surface, in both cases without adequate allowance of water to leach salts down and out of the soil profile. This is a very serious problem in irrigated plantations in central and eastern Sudan. Fire, fungal and insect attacks and grazing hinder natural regeneration. Fires are used for land preparation for cultivation but they often run out of control and destroy range lands where they negatively affect the habitat for many animals. Fire is a serious problem in nearly all forest areas in Sudan. Only the semi-desert areas, where the grass is normally too sparse to burn, and the small areas of closed forest in South Sudan, where there is no grass, are relatively free from fires. Even in these areas, however, fires sometimes occur, and can do considerable damage. The most difficult fire problems threatening FNC forests occur in Jebel Marra. The steep terrain and valuable forest combine to present a challenge to the local foresters and the villagers. Fortunately, or as a result of the problems, this location has the most active and experienced fire suppression personnel. The results of investigating fire causes in Jebel Marra by Elgamri et. al. (2007) is summarised in Table 8. Honey collection, clearing of agricultural land and tribal conflicts are the most common causes of fire in Jebel Marra.

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Table 8. Different types of fire causes and their percentage in causing fire in Jebel Marra. Fire Cause

Percent

Honey collection 24% Nomads 22% Livestock holders 11% Tribal conflict between farmers and poachers 10% Clearing for agricultural land 23% Smokers 4% Arson 3% Others 3% A survey was conducted by FNC which indicated that siltation is one of the major problems causing serious disturbances leading to change in A. nilotica habitats, particularly in Sennar State where all riverine forests were severely affected. During flooding, the river always deposits the finest soil particles (silt) and when this accumulates in the course of time, it causes a lot of damage to the juvenile sunt regeneration and can bury up to two meters of the tree stems into the ground. The siltation depth was from 90 to 220 cm, and 35% of the riverine forests in Blue Nile State were affected. Siltation seems to be a major factor that causes dieback, decline in survival rate of newly planted sunt, closing of drainage systems, loss of boundary pillars and hence disturbance of the whole ecosystem. Other findings in the same survey show that bank erosion affects 3%, 10% and 35% of the riverine forests in Gezira, Sennar and Blue Nile States, respectively. Dieback has been found in eleven riverine forests in Sennar and seven forests in the Blue Nile States. Limited information is available on insects and diseases impacting forests and the forest sector in Sudan. One report projected that over 100 000 km2 of forest in four states (Darfur, Kordofan, Eastern and Central) were affected by insect pests and diseases (FAO, 2005). Annex 3 shows the major biotic agents affecting the Sudanese forests. Among indigenous insects causing damage to trees are: Anacridium melanorhodon (or Schistocerca exsul). Common names: Sahelian (or Sudan) tree

locust; night wanderer. Host type: broadleaf trees. Hosts: A. senegal; Balantines aegyptiaca; Sphenoptera chalcichroa arenosa (Obenberger) (or Heteropsylla incisa (Sulc.). Common name:

silver tree borer. Host type: broadleaf trees. Hosts: Acacia nilotica. Dieback of A. nilotica was reported in Sudan as early as in the 1930s and was attributed to infestation by this cambium and wood boring beetle. The larvae tunnel into the cambium layer of branches and stems causing dieback and gradual tree mortality. A study was conducted in Lembwa Forest (Blue Nile) to examine the effects of the larvae on A. nilotica growth, and the results showed that over a 4 year period, there was a 30% reduction in dbh, 21% decrease in height growth, 54% decrease in volume and 60% decrease in mean annual increment (El Atta and Abdel Nour, 1995); and,

Bruchidius uberatus. Common name: seed beetle. Hosts: Acacia spp.; A. nilotica; A. tortilis; A.

mellifera. Among indigenous diseases causing damage to trees are: Xanthomonas axonopodis (or X. campestris). Common name: leaf spot. Causes damage to the

leaves of Khaya senegalensis (mahogany) in the drier regions of Sudan; and, Caryedon serratus. Attacks the seeds of a wide range of plants including Acacia spp., Cassia

spp., Tamarindus spp., Bauhinia spp. In plots where the native species A. nilotica has been used for regeneration in riverine forests along the Blue Nile, this seed beetle has caused significant problems. In these plots, A. nilotica is planted in pure stands by direct seeding following harvesting. This beetle usually occurs at high infestation rates in stored seed; on the other hand, the levels of infestation are lower in seeds on the forest floor and on standing trees. (FAO, 2007; El Atta and Nour, 1995).

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There are a number of pests and diseases that may damage A. senegal. The buffalo treehopper (Stictocephala bubalus) may destroy seed crops. Spiders (Cyclops sp.) can smother young growing tips. The larval stages of beetles, moths and butterflies, and bees and wasps can damage the seeds. Locusts (Acridium melanorhodon) can defoliate vast areas overnight. A. senegal is also attacked by the fungi Cladosporium herbarium, Fusarium sp., Ravenelia acaciae-senegalae and R. acaciocola. Browsing goats and camels are major enemies. Herdsmen lopping off branches to make cattle enclosures can also be a threat. The acacia bagworm Auchmophila kordofensis Rebel, better known to the local people from the silk cases hanging from acacias rather than the larvae living in them, is widely distributed in the Sudan savannah. The caterpillars of this species thrive mainly on Acacia nubica and A. tortilis, both of which are a major source of fodder, firewood and timber in semi-arid areas (FAO, 2007). Annex 4 shows the main biotic agents affecting the Sudanese forests. Among serious recent insect damages in the country were one of the silver tree borer on A. nilotica in 2009 and one of the Sudan tree locust on A. senegal in 1994, both of which damaged thousands of hectares (FRA, 2010). A recent survey shows that Ipomoea fistulosa and Xanthium brasilicum are major invasive exotic plant species in the riverine forests area where more than 500 ha have been invaded. Both species are quite hazardous to the young sunt regeneration in this unique ecosystem. Prosopis chilensis (mesquite) is another major invasive species, particularly in irrigated areas, where 1.5 million ha are affected (Abdel Magid, 2008; FNC reports). Pest management. Control of tree locust or night wanderer is limited to ground or aerial chemical spraying. This work is usually done by the Plant Protection Department of the Ministry of Agriculture. Cultural practices conducive to growing healthy trees are the first defence against termite attack. These include weeding, thinning, terrace management and timely irrigation when possible. However, since most planted forests are rain fed and with periodic droughts, cultural practices may not be enough to prevent attack. Application of termiticides to the potting medium in the nursery or during transplanting may be required (FAO, 2007). 2.3.7 Maintaining long term site productivity To maintain long term site productivity of the forest plantations, the following precautions are taken: manual clearing of planting sites without use of fire to dispose slash. Woody material is collected by local communities for firewood while foliar mass is retained on site. During final harvesting, animal rather than machine extraction is emphasized to minimize soil compaction. The slash remaining on site after clearfelling is not burnt but left to be collected by the local communities or for decay. The felling practice for C. lusitanica plantation on montane sites put great emphasis on protection of the sloping terrain. Periodic training of the skilled labour on felling procedure and harvesting techniques is associated with intensive programmes in order to select appropriate methods for felling and assist in erosion control. 2.3.8 Growth, yield and rotation age Mean annual increment (MAI) data, total yield, and distribution of rotation age, all by species, are shown in Table 9. Table 9. Estimated mean annual increment (MAI) for some tree species in Sudan. Source: Abdel Magid, 1995. Species

m³/ha/year Rotation Reference

Acacia nilotica

12 22.6 16.3 7.4

25-30 Bayoumi, 1983 Houri, 1989 Poulin, 1984 Goda, 1987

Eucalyptus microtheca 7 4.0 9.8 9

8.0

8+6+6+6 Foggie, 1967 Houri, 1977 Khan, 1967 Semizoglu, 1987 Talaat, 1988

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Cupressus lusitanica 20 3.9

Jackson, 1960 Houri, 1989

Pinus radiata 24 Houri, 1989 Tectona grandis 5.3

8 5

Houri, 1989 Bayoumi, 1983 Jackson, 1960

Acacia seyal 0.5-1.0 0.4-1.0

15-20 N.A.S., 1980 Abdel Nur, 1984

Prosopis chilensis 7 N.A.S., 1980 Acacia mellifera 0.7-1.0

0.6 Anon., 1986

Jackson, 1960 Balanites aegyptiaca 0.5 Jackson, 1960 Acacia senegal 0.5 15-20 Writer’s estimate As a result of variable cultural and other factors, the growth and wood increment of the plantations have varied widely. For quality class III sites, which appear to make up most of the areas, yields to rotation age of eight years for seedling stands have varied from 1 (sometimes even less) to about 10 m³/ha per year with a mean of about 6.5. In a few instances, on better sites, they have reached 23 m³/ha. Masson and Osman (1963) gave the average yield of irrigated E. microtheca plantations in the Gezira as 7.3 m³/ha per year at 7.5 years. In his analysis of production and production prospects for these plantations, Foggie (1967) noted that water was commonly applied irregularly and frequently in inadequate quantities. Under these conditions, the average yield was 6.6 m³/ha per year although, sometimes, under more consistent watering regimes, MAI reached 9.9 m³/ha per year. He believed that, under more adequate, regular irrigation, the average should be at least 12 m³/ha per year. El Houri (1977), in his management tables for the same species at Gezira, showed average MAIs from seedling stands at 9 years of 23.3, 14.1, and 6.9 m³/ha for quality class I, II, and III sites with mean heights of 40-60, 40, and 30-40 m respectively. Ahmed also noted that MAIs in succeeding coppice rotations should average 15% more than those from the seedling rotations in class I sites and 10% more for class II stands, although it would be 17% less in class III stands. 2.3.9 Forest plantation expansion Based on Sudan National Communication reports and according to the forest law (allocation of 5% and 10% of irrigated and rainfed agricultural schemes), more than 8 million ha are available for forestry in Northern Sudan (Table 10). Table 10. Land available/set aside for plantation expansion. Type of area Area of available land (ha) Suitable tree species for

afforestation

Irrigated area in central Sudan 10 000

Eucalyptus spp.

10% of rainfed mechanised agricultural schemes

400 000 Acacia spp.

Waste land and degraded areas in central Sudan

8 000 000 Mixed: Acacias and broad-leaved trees

Stakeholder views on establishment, expansion and improved management of forest plantations: The private sectors involved in forest development include individuals and large companies who both invest in forestry development as a business in order to make profits from the sale of wood and NWFPs, particularly gum Arabic. Irrigated plantations of Eucalyptus microtheca established as woodlots and wind breaks are widely distributed all over central Sudan and west Darfur, managed on 5–6 year rotations for the sale of poles at local markets and large town markets. The 5% of the area of irrigated schemes and the 10% of the area of the mechanised farms are increasing annually although they have not covered their potential capacity of the land resource

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allocated for these types of forests, estimated at c. 1.5 million ha (10% of rainfed mechanised agricultural schemes) and 850 000 ha (5% of irrigated agricultural schemes). The main objective in the establishment of the forest components in mechanised rainfed farming is the compensation for the deforestation created as a result of expansion of agriculture. The forest established is based on a presidential decree which states that 10% of the area of any mechanised farm scheme should be maintained as a forest cover. However, the forest cover within most of the farms is designed as shelterbelts in order to protect the agricultural scheme. A number of the sugar companies and agricultural schemes, such as Kenana, Rahad, Guneid, Sennar and New Halfa have implemented programmes for tree planting in their estates. These plantations are generally made up of fast-growing eucalypts, they provide substantial employment to casual labour, and they supply much of the market demand for poles and fuelwood. Private farmers in Jebel Marra and the Gezira have reacted positively to the FNC forestry extension messages and planted their own woodlots. As the wood market is currently deficient in supplies, especially in the central and northern parts of the country, it is expected that private and community forest plantations are going to increase. In the institutional type of irrigated schemes where the institute has to establish the forest area as 5% of the irrigated scheme area, the institute is the owner of the forest and enjoys all rights of ownership. The institute is the body responsible for the forest area, its protection, maintenance and management. The forestry administration unit is part of the hierarchical structure of the scheme administration, as in the Rahad irrigated scheme and the Kenana Sugar Scheme. In some irrigated projects, forest plantations are owned by the farmers’ union, as in the Gezira scheme, or by FNC as in New Halfa Agricultural Scheme. In these schemes, the owner enjoys all rights of benefits and bears all responsibilities of management. 2.3.10 Constraints and opportunities for plantation expansion According to UNEP (2007), the second half of the 20th century has witnessed a pattern of declining rainfall culminating in the wide-spread 1983-84s drought. Climatic variability manifests itself in the form of severe droughts and occasional floods, and Sudan faces both problems. For over three decades, recurrent droughts, with occasional severe droughts, were normal phenomena in most of the country. Drought is threatening the existing cultivation of about 12 million ha of rain-fed mechanised farming and 6.6 million ha of traditional rain-fed lands. Pastoral and nomadic groups in the semi-arid areas of Sudan are among the most affected communities. Due to Sudan's inherently climate sensitive agricultural systems, climate variability and change have always affected its agricultural production. Under future predicted climate change and increasing variability, further decline of agricultural productivity would be expected. This has been illustrated by the climate change models for Kordofan State in Western Sudan which showed an unfavourable precipitation scenario involving large reductions in precipitation and an increase in temperature (HCENR, 2003). Climate variability in the form of erratic rainfall and recurrent drought in Sudan could trigger conflicts due to competition over scarce resources. The tribal conflicts are considered among the main factors leading to both migration and displacements. This situation is expected to worsen under climate change with more migration and tribal movement across the country and between boundaries. Opportunities exist to address weak forest governance. For example, The Forest Policy Statement responded to the new concepts, perceived since the 1970s, based on the emphasis on environmental protection, popular participation and the multiple uses of forests. The Statement: Recognised new forms of forest tenure including private, community, and institutional forests,

targeted 20% of the area of the country as forest reserves; and, Stressed the role of forests in environmental protection by creating new obligations on a lessee

basis in mechanised farming or irrigated area to maintain or establish green belts; The Forests Act 1989 has, since its promulgation, been repeatedly praised as the most important piece of legislation of its kind ever enacted in Sudan. It recognised new types of forest ownership: private, community and institutional forest reserves to be managed by owners, committees and

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institutions respectively, in addition to the national and regional forest reserves. All these forest reserves would be under the technical supervision of FNC. The Forests and Renewable Natural Resources Act, 2002, provides the framework for managing and protecting forests and renewable natural resources encompassing pasture and range as well as the framework governing the managerial system of the forestry sector. The Sudan National Forestry Policy Statement 2006 stated that the Sudanese government sought to actualise the forest policy framework and prepare the forestry sector for challenges ahead, such as reduction of poverty, improvement of people’s wellbeing, amelioration of the physical environment and combating desertification. The first attempt for setting the criteria for the designation of federal and state forests was made in 1997 by the Council of Ministers issuing the Decree No. 40. This states that forests protecting inter-state water, watersheds and protecting federal structures and forests arresting the process of desertification are federal forests to be managed by FNC. Other forest reserves are to be managed by the states. The Decree also states that private, community and institutional forests are to be managed by their owners. The Environment Protection Act (2000) harmonises the different sectoral environmental laws, sets environmental standards, calls for the protection of biodiversity and combating pollution, requires environmental impact assessment to be carried out prior to implementing any development project (Hamad and Abdel Magid, 2009). Table 11 describes the perception of risks for private sector investment in industrial forest plantation. Table 11: Perception on risks for private sector investment in industrial forest plantation. Adapted from ITTO (2009. Factors Risk for forest investment

Low Medium High

SUPRA (Macroeconomy) Growth of GDP X Exchange Rate X Interest rate X Free Trade Agreements X Political Stability and Government Transparency X Governance issues1 X Fiscal Policy X INTER SECTOR Economic infrastructure X – Transportation X – Energy/Utility X Social infrastructure: (water, sanitation, education, health) X Licenses and permits X Labour X – Laws and labour contracts X – Wages X – Labour productivity X – Labour qualification X Access to credit X Justice and law enforcement X Capital gain policy X Land and resource tenure X – Land tenure X – Land market X – Land use as collateral X Sectorial policies X – Environment policies and restrictions X – Agricultural policies and restrictions X

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INTRA-SECTOR Forest Resources (availability) X Subsidies and Financial Mechanisms X Trade Restrictions (on forest products) X Markets X Entrepreneurial Development Service X Forest Vocation Land (land suitable and available for forest)

X

Legal and Institutional Basis X

3. Out-grower schemes and other woodlots 3.1 Extent and impacts of out-grower schemes/other woodlots Though rights and responsibilities of different partners in the gum Arabic out-growers system are not documented, they are institutionalised in the sense that FNC is guarding and enhancing the system towards satisfactory production conditions and gum marketing, particularly in connection with gum producer associations. Other types of forest out-growers are indicated in the rights and privileges of communities living inside and around forest reserves to participate in forest establishment and to collect and sell dead wood and NWFPs. Agreements in a form of partnership between FNC and communities are stated in the document written at the time of forest reservation which sets out these rights. The irrigated forests that belong to Farmers’ Unions were established with the objective of wood provision for farmers and agricultural workers in the form of wood fuel and building poles to compensate for the scarcity in wood supply created as a result of clearing forests during land preparation of the irrigated scheme. In the case of the Gezira irrigated scheme, for example, c. 850 000 ha are bare of tree cover. However, other objectives included income generation for the peasant unions to facilitate funds for running the union and support services at villages. The most important forests in Sudan are in the gum arabic belt, which is a zone of c. 520,000 km2 that extends across Central Sudan, accounting for one fifth of the country's total area (IIED and IES, 1990). The belt is an important area because it accommodates around one fifth of the population of Sudan and two thirds of its livestock population. The belt acts as a natural barrier to protect more than 40% of the total area of Sudan from desert encroachment. It is also an area of intense and diverse human activities where most of the county’s agriculture and animal production are practiced. This includes irrigated agriculture, mechanised rainfed agriculture, traditional rainfed agriculture and forestry (Ballal, 2002). The biggest out-grower plantation programme, that made a breakthrough in social forestry in Sudan, was the Restocking of gum arabic belt project during the period 1981-1996 where more than one hundred million seedlings were distributed and planted in communal land. The area thus reforested was estimated at 300 000 ha. Community forests on the other hand are developed for multiple purposes. The main purpose is to generate revolving funds to support village development in various aspects, e.g. school maintenance, water supply development, health services support and poverty reduction, in addition to provision of wood to the village inhabitants at subsidised prices. Increasing areas of community forests are aiming at generating revolving funds (Abdel Magid and Salih, 2005). Gum arabic gardens are managed for gum production, which is sold locally to small entrepreneurs or transported to auction centres. Gum producers’ associations enhance the development of farmers owning gum gardens and support marketing of the produce. There are also opportunities for development of forest industries, such as pulp and paper, plywood, particle board and veneer from valuable timbers. It is thus expected that forestry will attract investments, particularly in the irrigated sector, for such industries. It will then generate increased employment and, thus, contribute to the improvement of the living standards of many Sudanese people. In addition to marketable products, these plantations will offer valuable contributions towards improving grain yields and saving irrigation water. These contributions are estimated to

34

more than pay back for the release of arable lands to establish the plantations. Table 12 shows out-grower plantations in Sudan. Table 12. Extent of out-growers/other woodlots. Source: FNC and company reports. Type of out-grower plantation

Area (ha) Number of out growers

Tree species Estimated production

Gum arabic gardens 630 250 2 000 000 Acacia senegal Community forests 69 500 300 000 Eucalyptus ,

Acacias 50 m3 per ha

Total 699 750 2 300 000 In the case of the forest component of mechanised rainfed agriculture, the land is on lease based on lease contracts between the government that owns the land and the farmer that uses the land. The farmer enjoys the right of using the land for agriculture during the period stated in the contract. The legal status of the forest established on the 10% of the area of the mechanised farm is not defined by any legislative framework and this situation creates an ambiguity when the lease terminates. It is only understood that the farmer can use the land and the forest growing on it as long as he is using the main land (90%) for agriculture and protects it. Usually, the farmer cultivates Acacia senegal gum tree on the 10% of the land where he produces gum but also uses the area under the hashab forest for grazing. The case of community forest is quite usually clear. The forest land is a reserve and registered in the Sudan Gazette under the title of the community. The community has the right of ownership and bears the responsibility of protecting and managing the forest and the land. For ensuring such responsibility, the community forest is usually put under the responsibility of an elected village committee that bear all responsibilities of management of the forest, sales of the produce and administration of services. Impacts of out-grower schemes/other woodlots on parties involved. The wide range of benefits obtained from the forests by out-grower groups, including a diversity of forest products and services encourage the owners/users of these forests to conserve and maintain them. The development of out-grower forestry has had various impacts. The forests constitute a strategy for increasing tree cover in Sudan. The forest areas within this sector play significant roles in the economy of Sudan. Gum Arabic is an export commodity which contributes to foreign exchange earnings, in addition to its contribution to livelihood support for more than two million persons in the dry lands of Sudan. Moreover, the forests of the out-growers provide forest products and services at local and regional levels, including fodder from trees, medicinal material, food and raw material for cottage industry, particularly palm leaves, fruits for production of soft drinks, tannin material and other non-timber forest products. The gum gardens, managed on successive rotations in the bush-fallow system, result in soil fertility restoration at the end of the rotation. The soil is fertile and is suitable for agricultural use. During the bush-fallow the A. senegal produces gum supporting livelihood and contributing in poverty reduction. The impact of the forests of the out-growers in environmental protection is recognised. The role played by shelterbelts in protecting the agricultural environment and increase crop yield is stated by various studies. In addition, these forests may eventually make contribution in climate change mitigation. 3.2 Factors shaping growth of out-grower schemes and other woodlots Growth factors. The development of out-grower schemes in Sudan is considered as an innovative approach for increasing forest cover and a contribution to economic development. The historical developments of these schemes indicate that there are many factors that enhance their growth. The gum Arabic gardens have historical supported Sudan’s economy at the household and at the national levels. The gum Arabic production season extends into the post-harvest agricultural

35

season during December-March, when there is no other source of income generation. Therefore, gum growers are encouraged to manage the gardens in order to support their livelihoods. Gum is tapped sequential every two weeks following pickings of gum nodules that exudates at artificially developed wounds on the tree branches (Ballal et al., 2005). The collected gum is transported to local markets for sale and the returns support the living of farmers. Sudan is providing unlimited land resources for forest establishment for all actors. The processing of forest reservation and the registration of forest reserves and title deeds of forest owners/users in the Sudan gazette provide security of ownership of the land and of the trees grown on registered land. Land registration is a guarantee for land and resource ownership which secure investors’ rights and possessions and encourage owners to grow crops and trees. The areas of community forests have increased sharply since 1984, the starting year of this type of forests. It is expected that the incentives provided by community forests are reflected in their contributions to village development. The incentives provided by institutional forests, indicated by their contribution to the budget of the irrigated schemes, and that of the farmers union are strong factors for the development and growth of these types of forests. Constraints. However, there are also some constraints facing forest development by the out-grower groups. These constraints vary in their significance in relation to the type of forest and the forest products they provide. Major constraints are faced by the gum Arabic development as a result of fluctuations and unstable prices of gum and the low density of trees growing in the gum gardens. The area of gum gardens during the 1960s and 1970s exceeded 10.5 million ha of productive forests that used to produce approximately 48 000 tons of gum Arabic. The gum prices during that period were attractive and the technical support was encouraging. At present, the gum garden area has declined to c. 6.3 million ha producing about 14 000 to 16 000 tons of gum. Farmers are even encouraged to clear their gardens of gum trees and cultivate grains that may have better prices and returns than gum Arabic. The government is also maintaining royalties and taxes on forest products obtained by the forest out-grower groups and these taxes discourage private growers from developing their forests enterprises. The development of forest plantations on 5% of the area in irrigated schemes is usually impossible to achieve in any scheme because of limited funds and scarcity of irrigation water. In many of the schemes, as the case of the Gezira irrigated scheme, which has been under crops since 1925, the plantation area is as low as 0.8%. The area seldom exceeds 2% of scheme areas. The development of the 10% plantation area in mechanised rainfed schemes, on the other hand, is constrained by the uncertainty in land tenure. Farmers use the agricultural land on lease on the basis of fixed periods, which at present is for 10–15 years. The majority of mechanised farmers refrain from planting trees on the 10% because they feel insecure when the lease period is terminated. Potential growth factors. In spite of the constraints that slow down the growth of the out-grower forestry schemes, there are encouraging potentials for development of these types of forest resources. The most encouraging factor is the policy of forest reservation which secures forest land registration in the Sudan Gazette in the title of the forests out-growers. The problem is the slow process of registration and the long chain of institutions involved in the process of reservation. Improvement in the system of registration of forest land will encourage many of the out-growers to enter into this business. Another potential growth factor for development of forests by out-grower groups is the increase of tree cover on agricultural land in agroforestry systems and woodlot establishment. With increasing extension services, farmers will adopt such systems, which will be of great benefit to them as reflected in agricultural yield improvement and provision of forest products. With increasing development of dams along the Nile there will also be increasing irrigated plantation areas. A microfinance policy is now in place in Sudan, which enables private individuals and communities to establish their own forests. Moreover, improvement in the gum arabic sector through decontrol and removing of floor price resulted in an increase of the gum price and revenue to small producers.

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4. Forest and tree tenure 4.1 Current forest/tree tenure systems Prior to 1970, anthropological studies on land use and tenure systems were often framed in the context of the balance between agriculture, forestry and range. Prior to the colonial era, most of the tenure rights and traditional land use systems for forest, tree and pasture resources were based on customary law and indigenous traditions usually based on tribal structures and leadership. Agricultural practices and associated trees and pasture were based on small holdings allocated to households while pasture and range on larger tracts of land were managed as common resources for grazing under government protection. The colonial system started its control on the land by issuance of the Title to land act 1899, and the Land Settlement and Registration Act 1925 that provided land title to someone on the basis of continuous cultivation, recognising lands that were under permanent cultivation as privately owned land. Trees and woodlands on these types of land were left for land users. The Act recognised no private property in the range lands of Sudan and these were considered government land that was either subject to no rights other than that of the government or in some cases subject to tribal customs. Land, and the resources on it, was unregistered but customs and regulations defined all unregistered lands as common property. Land allocation for agriculture, forests or pasture was under the control of tribal leadership and collaboration between tribal leaders and formal institutions. However, during the 1970s and 1980s concern focused on environmental and development policy issues in relation to the categorisation of use of land under government control. That was because, in 1970, the government had issued an Act that stated that all unregistered land is government land. Information from the periods prior to and after 1970 indicated the impacts of changing land tenure laws on the environment. Thus, the land tenure system contained in the 1970 Act greatly influenced the use of natural resources in range and forest lands, as well as in other uncultivated or non-residential lands and has shaped the form of tenure up to the present. Although the government had the formal ownership of the unregistered land, it was not possible to exercise effective control over the forest resources and their sustainable utilisation. This created an administration vacuum which negatively affected the forestry resources (FNC, 2000). The ambiguity in the tenure system lead to the loss in the majority of natural forests – the forest cover declined from 40% of Sudan’s area in the late 1950s (Harrison and Jackson, 1958) to approximately 29% in 2005 (FAO, 2005). Sudan is lacking comprehensive environmental and natural resources policies and legislation that deal with land and resource tenure in an integrated fashion (Atta Elmoula, 1985). Instead, there are sectoral policies dealing with a wide range of specific interests, e.g. forestry, wildlife and other resources. According to Tolentino (1994), there is no legislation that specifically deals with land use. While land in Sudan is generally for agriculture, grazing and forestry, legislation relating to resource tenure could only be found in the Land Settlement and Registration Act (1925), the Acquisition Act (1930), the Town/Village Planning Act (1961), and the Unregistered Land Act (1970). Land not being registered by 1970 were deemed property of the government of Sudan. The absence of laws governing tenure issues resulted in a situation that led to conflicts between land uses and land users. The conflicting interests of traditional rainfed farmers, mechanised farmers, pastoralists and forest product users and the state (as owner of all unregistered land), discourage proper forms of resource management, particularly forest management. In many cases, the forest policy and legislation that deal with conservation and sustainable management of forests were not respected and usually encroached upon in favour of mechanised farming. However, forest land under customary tenure is more stable because of the effectiveness of the traditional laws governing tenure and use. This may be due to the fact that the tribal customs as implemented by the local leaders who try to ensure equity and right of subsistence cultivation for every member of the local community (Metz, 1991). However, on the other hand, the concept of forest reservation is well understood as an efficient and effective forest and tree tenure system that provided for forest and tree ownership at government, communal, private and enterprise levels. Tree tenure is based on land tenure which is contained in three types of land ownership which emerged in association with the continuous issuance and amendments of the legislations related to the land use and land settlement systems.

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These include private, government and community lands. Most land is under government control. However, each category faces many problems generated by conflicting rights of use and legislation that gives the government greater control on resource use. Private land holdings are generally small holdings usually for agricultural practices. When land productivity declines, farmers abandon agricultural practice and leave the land for tree growing, usually A. senegal gum trees in a bush-fallow system. Farmers are the owners of the tree producing gum Arabic for income generation. Other trees like B. aegyptiaca, A. seyal and Ziziphus spina-christi are also grown. The system is defined as bush-fallow, a well known land use practice in Sudan since the early 20th century. It allows for multiple land use practices including grazing and tree growing. However, most of the privately owned land is not registered and have been subjected to land acquisitions from companies and individuals practising mechanised farming following the 1970 Unregistered Land Act. The situation has created obvious conditions for conflicts between different stakeholders. It is the Unregistered Land Act of 1970 that puts these lands under government control and allows for the intensive use of all unregistered land for agricultural purposes based on mono-culture mechanised farming. As a result, forests were degraded and pasture lands were taken, resulting in major problems for forest development and pastoralists. Between 0.5 and 0.7 million ha of natural forests are annually cleared for agricultural land use, added to the previously cleared lands. There are today c. 15 million ha of bare wasted land in the central clay plains which were once covered with forests. Most of these lands fall within the four States Sennar, Blue Nile, Gezira and Gedarif. Communal land refers to unregistered land managed under traditional leadership based on local administrative leaders who were responsible for land allocation to individuals or families also in the past. These leaders, in collaboration with community members, protect the natural resources and resolve conflicts. Systems have changed since 1970 following the issuance of the Unregistered Land Act. However, since the mid-eighties, community forest continued to be reserved under communities’ title managed by the communities. The Sudan Forest Policy of 1986, and the new one of 2006 (under process), emphasised these facts concerning forestry tenure: Recognised and encouraged the establishment of community, private and institutional forests; Stressed the role of people participation in forest plantation, management and protection; Conceptualised the multiple uses of forests in the comprehensive National Strategies; and, Encouraging local populations to participate in the preparation of forestry and environmental

projects and their execution. Table 13 shows the forest area under different ownership patterns and management/use systems. Table 13: Forest ownership (tenure) and management/use systems. Source: FNC reports. Category of owner and management system

Area, ha (rounded) Percent of total

Government/public forests 15 000 000 70 Privately managed: 1. Gum Arabic producers (societies/families) 2. Individual farmers 3. Private companies

6 006 000

49 000 126 000

28 0.2 0.6

Community managed 166 000 0.8

Total

21 347 000

100

4.2 Impacts of forest/tree tenure on poverty alleviation and SFM There are three types of forest and tree tenure which could have a potential positive impact on poverty alleviation through production and sale of goods and services, viz. government forest

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reserves, community forest reserves and private forests. Generally, the integration of forestry with agriculture is well advanced in Sudan, as is the use of trees and shelter belts to increase crop yield. The impacts of forest tenure and its contribution to poverty alleviation is well recognised in the field of gum Arabic sector, particularly in area where small producers are empowered and well organised and trained. NWFPs, such as gum, have a major impact on the economy of rural communities. Findings from a recent survey show that, on average, 19% of household earnings come from activities related to gum Arabic (FAO, 2005). It is a critical source of income in rural areas where opportunities are very limited. Collaborative, participatory or joint forest management (JFM) are initiatives arising from the 1986 National Forest Policy. They involve sharing of forest benefits and forest management responsibility between FNC and communities, and are currently implemented in many managed forest reserves. Collaborative management provide for forest uses by people. Participatory or JFM arrangements for the conservation and regeneration of degraded forests are now well established in Sudan. This led to greater decentralisation and benefit sharing with communities. JFM has created increased employment for local people, provided land for landless people to cultivate crops through agroforestry systems, ensured rights to collect NWFPs and fuelwood needs from reserved forests. This now constitutes a significant proportion of the overall rural and poverty alleviation. A good example can be seen in the Elrawashda model II, where selected blocks of degraded parts of the Elrawashda forest reserve in eastern Sudan were allocated for integrated land use involving a rehabilitation process and a participatory approach (Glover, 2005). The model includes partnership between FNC and the local people in planting, protecting and getting benefits from forest reserves. The collaboration has been developed since 1994 on the basis of a contract between the two partners granting the farmers security of land tenure for crop (e.g. sorghum, millet and sesame) cultivation inside the reserve. The system grants each farmer land for cultivation each year, in a way that 75% of the land is used for crops and 25% for forest stand establishment. This is continued for four years until the whole piece of land is reforested. Then another piece of arable land within the forest reserve is targeted. 4.3 Suggestions for improvement of tenure system It is suggested that national strategies and legislation put more emphasis on securing tree and forest land tenure systems that encourage communities, the private sector and development institutions to invest in forestry and agroforestry. For enhancing sustainable management of forests in these sectors, it is necessary to issue clear statements which aim at reducing tax on forest products from these sectors. In addition, fixation of prices and good incentives would encourage further developments in forestry, particularly in the area of gum Arabic. Simplifying the registration process needed for community and private forests will enhance the adoption and diffusion of such tenure systems and the government should waive at least part of the fees/taxes necessary for completion of land registration.

5. Financial and human resources for plantations and out- growers/woodlots

5.1 Current financing mechanisms FNC is self-financing and relies on the collection of revenues from fees prescribed for the royalties from outside the reserved forests and returns on investment and the proceeds of sales from the forest reserves (Table 14). FNC’s accomplishments during the last two decades in the areas of reservation and afforestation could have resulted in doubling the availability of funds for the promotion of sound management and sustainable development. But unfortunately this did not materialise as a result of lack of finance from the three sources defined by FAO (26 % from own resources, 33 % from the national budget and 41 % from foreign donors). The contribution of the national budget during the past five years did not exceed 5% and foreign aid did not exceed 9%. The ratio of the corporation revenue during the past five years was 86% of the expenditure. Fifty five percent of the revenue is used to meet the expenditure for personnel and 45% to meet operational costs (forest reservation,

39

afforestation, protection and desertification control). Much of this is for establishing and managing of plantations. Insufficient financial and other resources do not permit FNC to fully respond to the forestry needs of the country, and forest staff is dissatisfied with the low remuneration and lack of facilities to put into practice intended activities in an appropriate way. The transition of FNC from a governmental department to a parastatal organisation raises a multitude of issues related to the functional flexibility and autonomy of the organisation in the context of the traditional concept of government accountability. In theory, FNC has much more operational freedom and it has been permitted to retain the revenue it collects. However, in a number of areas, as in the case of prescribing service conditions and salary structure of personnel, accounting instructions, and recruitment procedures, it is subjected to governmental controls. Given these limitations, there is still considerable scope for simplification of procedures and systems without affecting accountability. This has to be interpreted in a broader sense and should not be equated to adherence to traditional and often outdated procedures. Effective functioning of FNC will depend upon striking a balance given the constraints imposed upon it (Nair, 1995). Table 14. FNC annual budget million SDG (2005-2009). Year Collected revenue

Million SDG/US$ Used for – million SDG (% of total revenue)

Personnel Administration Operations 2005 21.9/8.8 12.6 (58) 5.5 (25) 3.2 (15) 2006 26.2/10.5 14.2 (54) 5.9 (22) 2.4 (9) 2007 29.6/11.8 16.3 (55) 6.2 (21) 5.8 (20) 2008 30.9/12.3 17.8 (56) 6.4 (20) 6.6 (21) 2009 31.6/12.6 18.1 (57) 6.5 (21) 7.1 (22) Notes: 1 US$ = 2.5 SDG; Data on budget for out growers is not available 5.2 Potential financing mechanisms There are three basic financing mechanisms, i.e.: Self finance mechanism from FNC’s own resources: The National Development funding mechanism which finances development projects; and, Projects funded by other donor organisations and private sector forestry investments. The available financial resources are well below the amounts required to plan and to implement SFM. FNC is entirely relying on its own resources to finance plantation, protection and management activities. The wide range of products and services derived from forests is fully acknowledged although FNC is often not positioned to fully capture the benefits from management of forests. FNC should mobilise resources through international and/or regional initiatives. In particular, there is a need for the country to evaluate the suitability of the UNCED/IPF/IFF/UNFF, REDD, CCD, CBD and UNFCC recommendations and to assist in setting off sound national forest programmes. FNC should improve the revenue system through different mechanisms, e.g.: There is a good potential for revenue-sharing with local communities, the private sector and

civil society such as taungya and managed grazing; and, Conversion of FNC into a more business fashioned enterprise which could ultimately be self-

supporting and enjoy full autonomy. National opportunities through country-led initiatives, e.g.: Allocation of government funding from the public budget or from government investment funds

going to forestry; Agricultural development (forestry, natural resources and agriculture); Poverty alleviation strategy; and, Strategies for development of other sectors (agriculture, livestock, energy, mining, exploration,

irrigation and rural development).

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5.3 Human resources There are three main categories of work that the activities of FNC can be divided into. They are named sectors and are as follows: 1. The Technical Affairs Sector is comprised of: The Headquarters’ Technical Affairs Sector

(HQTAS) and the Regionally Stationed Technical Affairs Sectors (RSTAS). 2. The Investment Sector. 3. The Finance and Administrative Affairs Sector. There is a definite drain of technical staff from forestry. This is especially serious in the case of experienced professional and sub-professional foresters some of whom are outside the country, several in related jobs inside the country and a number having given up the profession entirely. Staff members that are engaged in non-forestry activities are employed in FNC on secondment from the Ministry of Finance with possibility of being fully transferred to FNC. The accomplishments of the corporation during the past two decades in the areas of reservation and afforestation give good reason for increasing the number of the technical staff, which falls far below international standards. The number of FNC positions was diminished from 5 529 at its start to 4 774 today, of which 405 are specialists. This means that one forester should look after over 200 000 ha of the national forests that cover 70 million ha. This is several hundred folds greater than the international standards. An agricultural specialist in Sudan, as a comparison, looks after 250 ha of irrigated agriculture and 1 250 ha of mechanised rainfed agricultural lands. Table 15 shows the FNC workforce distributed on categories of staff. Table 15. FNC workforce in Sudan by staff categories.

Category/Nos.

Professionals/209 Accountants/87 Sawmill workers/66 Technicians/104 Storekeepers/32 Support labourers/115 Supervisors/259 Guards/1227 Drivers/131 Clerks/116 Forest workers/618 TOTAL: 2 964 The types of education/qualification is used as a basis of classifying occupational levels in the civil service of Sudan in that professionals are normally corresponding to degree holders and technicians to post-secondary diploma holders. The number of staff is expected to increase to implement the new strategy of the forestry sector and the future expansion of reservation, protection and management of Sudan’s forestry resources, especially after the division of the country. Table 16 shows numbers and qualifications of staff in HQs and at decentralised offices and Table 17 displays human resources in the forestry sector in Sudan. Table 16. Numbers and qualifications of staff at HQ and in decentralised offices 2009. Staff level HQ Regions Total % female Vacancies M.Sc. and above 29 27 56 30 120 B.Sc. (university level) 26 203 229 28 1 145 Technical (diploma level) 61 477 538 0 269 Forest guards/labourers 86 2 111 2 197 15 10 985 Table 17. Human resources in the forestry sector in Sudan. Institution Up to 1988 1989 –2009 Dipl. B.Sc. M.Sc. Ph.D. Total Dipl. B.Sc. M.Sc. Ph.D. Total CFA/FNC 195 138 - - 333 151 170 43 4 365 Private sector - 2 - - 2 - 5 3 - 8 Forest research 1 5 12 1 19 8 9 15 3 35 Forest education Univ. of Khartoum

2 4 7 8 21 3 7 5 14 29

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SUST Juba Kordofan

2 3 3 2 10 1 6 17 5 29 - 4 4 - 8 - 5 6 3 14 - - - - - - 4 2 1 7

Total 200 147 26 11 393 136 201 88 30 490 Studies conducted in 1974 indicated that the ratio of technical to professional staff in the field of forestry was 4:1. This ratio declined with time, particularly after establishment of the 14 forestry education institutions at University level that exist today. The situation has been exacerbated as a result of increasing numbers of university graduates and the promotion of the Technical College in Soba to the level of a university institute. Moreover, the majority of the technical graduates have promoted their levels to B.Sc. in forestry. Forestry education at the diploma level was available in Sudan since 1935. Professional academic training was entirely in overseas universities up to 1975 when a Department of Forestry was established within the Faculty of Agriculture in the University of Khartoum. By the end of the seventies, professional forestry training was an option also in the Faculty of Natural Resources of the University of Juba. In the meantime, the Institute of Environmental Studies together with the Department of Forestry in the Faculty of Agriculture, both of University of Khartoum, started to provide training at post graduate level. The latter also continued at overseas universities. The recent expansion in higher education has rendered forestry training at diploma and degree levels available in nine universities. Most of the donor assisted projects in the fields of forest education or research, which were implemented through FNC, had staff development/capacity building components that lead to certificates or degrees. Forestry research in Sudan dates back to the 1940s. The Forestry Research Centre (FRC) was established in 1950, as part of the Forestry Department. In 1973, FRC was affiliated to the Agricultural Research Corporation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and recently it came under the Ministry of Science and Technology with headquarters in Soba, Khartoum. Today, FRC comprises five research sections: Tree Seed Centre; Arid zones; Wood technology; Botany; and, Agroforestry. About 25 M.Sc. and Ph.D. scientists at present work in FRC in nine research stations in northern Sudan. Five of these stations are within the Gum Belt (Neyala, El Obied, Kadugli, Wad Medani, Gedaref and Damazin). The main research activities are silviculture, desertification control and environmental conservation. Gum Arabic research is a major activity in the FRC research programme, especially in El Obeid and Damazin Research Stations. FRC has field sites in all above-mentioned locations. The Damokia and Khor Dunia forests are main gum Arabic research sites in western and eastern Sudan, respectively. Potential capacity. The following recommendations are applicable as authenticated by the Institution Revised Reports: The solution of FNC’s staffing requirement is closely related to the role it is supposed to play. If

FNC is to hold all the strings, as it is doing now, then its staff requirement will be far beyond existing figures. However, if other partners are to participate in forestry activities, then a redefined role of FNC should be clearly identified with consequential results on its staffing requirements;

Improvement of FNC terms of service is vital since it is one of the prime factors for the exodus

of a large number of professional foresters to universities and other institutions offering better packages;

Professional foresters monopolised almost all FNC jobs. However, this is an established culture

in all professional organisations of Sudan. There is a need to open FNC to professionals from other disciplines to fill jobs with specific requirements which cannot be found in the forestry profession; and,

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Determination of staff numbers and distribution should be related to the reserved areas,

activities and the area of the physical resource and also the nature of the community around forests.

5.4 Other resources Employees from the private sector (oil companies and other companies), NGOs and civil society (Universities and Research Centres), staff seconded to other government institutions (Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources, Wildlife General Protection Administration) and staff working in donor funded projects (IFAD, World Bank, FAO, UNDP) are considered as other human resources supporting the forestry sector development.

6. Incentives for plantation establishment by public/private sector and out-growers 6.1 The rationale behind incentives In Sudan the frequent occurrence of droughts during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, coupled with increased pressure on forests due to the high dependence on wood as a source of energy, a rapid increase of population, degradation and desertification problems, decrease in agricultural productivity, limited government budgets and other environmental problems, prompted the government to engage all stakeholders in the rehabilitation, conservation, investment and sustainable management and use of forest resources. Several characteristics of plantation investments strongly influence investors, among them the long-term nature of forest investments where a very high proportion of expenditures occur early on and most of the revenues come only at the end of a rotation, in addition to the uncertainty and risk of plantation investments in general (Enters et al., 2003). Many scientists, such as Meijerink (1997), argue that incentives should only be applied for public goods, where plantations provide environmental services such as soil or watershed protection, prevention of land degradation or carbon sequestration. In such cases, incentives are appropriate because private net returns are often lower than overall social returns. The potential long-term role of forest plantations in the forestry sector and the national economy in Sudan was not recognised until recently. As a result, no direct incentives were offered to encourage plantation development until the 1980s. As time progressed and natural forests diminished, the government introduced various incentives to promote forestry and forestry-related activities. One of the clear challenges in forest management, and especially in community-based approaches, is to ensure that local communities are provided with sufficient economic incentives to become involved in SFM. On the one hand this requires that tangible local-level economic benefits are generated from forests — an important reason why communities in the past have failed to become involved in SFM is that there have been few benefits to gain from it. However, it also requires identifying, and overcoming, the broader economic conditions and forces that drive people to degrade forests in the first place, because they make it an economically necessary or attractive option (Mogaka et al., 2001). 6.2 Current incentives: impacts and effectiveness Enabling investment environment: The business environment is handicapped by the low quality and inadequate infrastructure in the country. In the past, Sudan was characterised by efficient railway and river transport systems, connecting together the various parts of the country with the outside world. That is why, in old records, the country was known as a trading partner for countries from all over the continent. Due to negligence for maintenance and rehabilitation requirements, they now carry less than one tenth of the goods they used to do three or four decades ago despite the magnitude of traded goods (exports and imports) which have increased substantially. In order to establish a positive business environment, a large number of actions at the macro level are to be

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implemented to assist the business and exporting community. As it is usually repeated: “business trades, not governments” (Dingle, 2007). The crucial actions needed to keep private sector interest in plantation development are related to the reduction of obstacles and the removal of structural impediments and operational constraints. Generally, investments in strategic and non-strategic projects in Sudan are exempted from tax on profits for a period of ten years. Benefits also include free land and exemptions from other taxes and fees. In relation to exemptions from other taxes and fees, the investment law article 11: (1) States that subject to the provisions of section 19, each of such strategic and non-strategic projects, as may be specified in the regulations, after registration thereof, in accordance with the laws organising the same, shall enjoy such customs privileges, as the Council of Ministers may prescribe. (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of sub-section (1), customs privileges shall, with respect to cars, salon cars, box cars and station wagons, be granted as the regulations may specify. (3) The Council of Ministers may, upon the recommendation of the Minister, amend the prescribed customs privileges as he may deem fit. Projects granted the privileges of allocation of land and a depreciation account. In article 12 it states that the Minister may grant such strategic and non-strategic projects as may be specified in the regulations: The land necessary for the strategic project free of charge, and at the encouragement price for

the non-strategic project, in co-ordination with the bodies concerned, from such lands, as may have been planned by the competent bodies;

The privilege of a depreciation account of the assets, as to such renewal value, as may be

specified by the regulations, and in accordance with the circuits of operation work; and, Deeming any such loss, as may have occurred, during the period of exemption, provided for in

sections 10, as if it is such loss, as may have occurred during the last year of such period. The Ministry of Investment acts a “one stop shop” for investors. It can issue a final license within 72 hours of receiving completed documents for concessions, exemptions, and facilities. The investment law has guarantees against the expropriation of property. Any expropriation of property must be conducted through the legal system and “reasonable” compensation must be paid. Profits can be remitted but proper documentation is required before funds can be transferred out of the country. Capital transfers must be approved by the government (Anon, 2010). Various measures have been undertaken to involve the civil society, private sector, NGOs and women organisations in forestry matters. This is perhaps due to a deeply rooted tradition of caring for trees around homes and in the agricultural system, particularly in the gum belt, the overall rising environmental awareness or the deliberate steps taken by the official forestry institutions to involve these stakeholders. Examples of how efforts by the government have facilitated this and incidents of involvement of civil society in forestry, particularly after the implementation of the national forest programme, include: Provision of seeds/seedlings, extension packages, soft or non-interest loans, and sometimes

food support through such schemes as food for work for community woodlots and individual gum orchard stocking through donor assisted projects like those for gum belt rehabilitation and Fuelwood for Energy; and,

Provision of seeds as part of agricultural credits for mechanised rainfed farmers in the clay

plains of Eastern and Central Sudan. The annual celebration of arbour day in the capital city and states, where seedlings are issued to school children, farmers, etc. The Umda (Mayor) of Um Kaddada, on the desert fringe in Darfur used his social and charismatic influence to protect forests around the village (FAO, 2003).

The availability of land for forestry is, as stated previously, in principle quite substantial. It is to be seen in the context of the following possibilities, facts and incentives:

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Reserved forests - use partnership with FNC or rent at a very low price for 99 years; The allocation of 5% of irrigated and 10% of mechanised rainfed agricultural schemes,

respectively, to forestry provide additional land for investors in partnership with the agricultural schemes;

Stable and well-defined institutional frameworks for forest tenure and use rights; Strong and consistent demand and markets for forest products in Sudan; Tax and regulatory systems that recognises the long-term nature of forestry investments; Strong forestry institutions that support information delivery; Tax was reformed for community and private forests (reduced by more than 50%); Increases in per capita income for gum producers encouraged investment in the forest sector

as the case of gum Arabic; and, There is a potential to mobilise further financial resources for forestry in the future, e.g. in

relation to the role of forests in connection with climate change. Recently, a series of preferential tax policy and decisions for NWFPs, particularly gum Arabic, were issued to attract private sector and individual investment into forestry and encourage public-private partnerships. The reform package includes: Liberalising the gum trade; Removal of floor price; Formation of gum Arabic and other non-wood products boards to support the new issued

policies to improve the forest products sector; Reform of taxes and charges imposed on gum Arabic; and, New financial policies were issued to facilitate access to credit by small Gum producers through

the Microfinance Mechanism. Incentives under social forestry programmes are provided by FNC to promote social and farm forestry in Sudan. They have varied between different states and include subsidised seedlings and private nurseries through encouraging community forestry. Community woodlots are also among the earliest attempts. These were first developed as an attempt to create a set of economic and social incentives that would motivate rural communities to participate in tree planting, management and prevention of illegal off-take. The first community woodlots were initiated in the late 1980s by the FAO FDEP Project in FNC and started in the Elgizera Area (Central Sudan). These first experiences provided interesting lessons in the evolution of a community based management system. Since then, related programmes have been initiated in most parts of the country and now community forestry is practiced in many states. FNC used to provide extension, technical know-how and follow-up advisory visits. Seedlings raised in private nurseries were purchased in some cases (River Nile state FNC, Sahel forestry project) and distributed to farmers or used by the forest office when planting on public land. 6.3 Suggestion for improvement of incentives More incentives to promote forest plantations in Sudan are needed, and could include: A new tax incentive regime should be established to promote the development of large-scale

forest plantations covering planting and harvesting stages; Forest plantation investors should be granted a 100% tax exemption on statutory income for

ten years commencing from the first harvest; New financial mechanisms to ensure the cash-flow requirement of investments with long

gestation periods; The forest plantation sector should be supported by new land tenure systems and non-tax

incentives; There is an urgent need to provide economic incentives for communities to become involved in

SFM, including:

• Ensuring that the full economic value of forests is appreciated and reflected in both economic and forestry decision-making, paying particular attention to economic costs and

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benefits that accrue at the community-level. The current system for registration of community forestry is inefficient due to the lengthy process and the many steps required for final registration. It is suggested to cut down these steps and one agency should take the responsibility and lead for completing all these procedures to reduce cost and time.

• Identify and dismantle economic disincentives and misguided incentives that macro-economic and sectoral economic policies provide and that hinder community involvement in SFM; and,

• Develop and test economic incentive measures within the context of on-going attempts at community-based forest management, which generate tangible benefits in forms and at levels that are at least equal to compensate for the economic costs that accrue to communities (Mogaka et al., 2001).

7. Supply and demand of forest products 7.1 Supply scenarios and projections Taking 1994 and 1997 as base years, at which wood supply and wood consumption were intensively surveyed at the national level, the total wood consumption in Sudan was estimated at 16.0 million m³ (FNC, 1995) while the allowable removal (supply) was estimated at 11.0 million m³ (FAO/FNC, 1998). The consumption will be increasing at a rate proportional to the rate of increasing population in general and urbanisation in particular. Judging by the current annual deforestation rate, annual allowable removal is expected to decrease by the same rate. Based on the total per capita wood consumption estimates of 1994, the consumption will approximate 40 million m3 by 2015. It is very difficult to project supply scenarios due to the complexities in government procedures to control deforestation and create an enabling environment for expansion of forest plantations and separation of Southern Sudan (Table 18). However, the consumption rate exceeds the supply side by 45.5%. It is expected that this deficit will increase with an increasing rate of agricultural expansion which results in an increasing rate of deforestation and reduced forest area. The reforestation rate is very low compared with the high rate of forest conversion and many studies indicate that the ratio of reforestation to deforestation is 1:29. This situation is not expected to change drastically and will increase the possibilities for consumption satisfaction over time but at the expense of forest stock. Based on the above information, Tables 18 and 19 show different scenarios for supply and consumption projections. Table 19. Wood production and consumption in Northern Sudan 1998. Source: National Forest Inventory, 1998. Region Total wood

volume (1 000 m³)

Annual increment (1 000 m³)

Wood consumption (1 000 m³)

Surplus/(deficit) (1 000 m³)

River Nile 672 47 452 (405) Eastern 3 234 226 2 026 (1 800) Central 29 531 2 067 7 475 (5 408) Kordofan 44 218 3 095 2 551 544 Darfur 89 097 6 237 4 018 2 219

Total 166 753 11 673 16 522 (4 849) It can be noted that: The NFI covered only about 25% of the country’s area, excluding the highly forested areas in

the southern parts of Blue Nile, Kordofan and Darfur states. The allowable cut is therefore expected to be higher than the NFI figure. This will result in a lower deficit; and,

FNC estimates that wood fuel coming from outside the inventoried area, namely from Upper

Nile and Unity states, to be 8-10% of the national consumption.

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Using the figures in Table 18 as points of departure, three future supply/consumption projection scenarios were defined for the national forestry strategy as shown in Table 19. Table 19. Wood production and consumption scenarios. Year Total wood volume

(1 000 m³) Allowable cut (7% of stock) (1 000 m³)

Wood consumption (increases 15% every 5

years) (1 000 m³)

Scenario 1: The present situation persists and inputs required for achieving the targets of forest reservation, afforestation and formulation of management plans for sustained production are not made available. 1998 166 753 11 673 16 522 2005 173 236 12 127 19 000 2010 166 363 11 645 21 850 2015 156 157 10 931 25 128 2020 141 950 9 937 28 897 2025 103 116 7 218 33 232 2030 62 666 4 387 38 217 Scenario 2: Inputs will be made available and the strategy targets are achieved. 2015 171 157 11 981 18 846 2020 188 273 13 179 21 673 2025 207 100 14 547 24 924 2030 227 811 15 947 28 662 Scenario 3: Reduction of wood fuel demand by 25% by using LPG. 2015 156 157 10 931 18 846 2020 141 950 9 937 21 673 2025 103 116 7 218 24 924 2030 62 666 4 387 28 662 In all scenarios and at all points in time, the predicted consumption of wood far exceeds the wood potentially available from sustainably managed internal sources of wood. 7.2 Demand scenarios and projections Wood demand in Sudan: In 1994, the FNC in collaboration with FAO conducted a study on the consumption of forest products in Sudan. The per capita consumption figures deduced by the study seem realistic, and are in line with those of neighbouring and other countries of similar ecological and social set-ups and they provide a good basis for rationally assessing the contribution of the forestry sub-sector to the GDP in Sudan. Aggregate consumption of forest products: The main wood products are fuelwood and round wood for construction and sawn timber. Smaller quantities of wood, but of great importance, are used for turnery, handicrafts, tool handles, utensils, beds, saddles, etc. Sudan consumed a total of 16-20 million m3 round wood in 1994. Of the various economic sectors, the household sector has the highest share of consumption, approximating 80-90% of all wood products consumption. The remaining 10-20% is distributed among the industrial (6.8%), commercial and services sectors (2.5%), and some other uses. The analysis of aggregate consumption by product shows that wood fuel (firewood and charcoal) formed the bulk of the consumption, and was estimated to be 87.5%. Construction, maintenance and furniture wood made up 7.2%, 3.8% and 1.5% of the 1994 consumption, respectively. Annual

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wood per capita consumption for all products combined was estimated to be equal to 0.973 m3 of round wood based on total consumption figures and estimated population. Per capita estimates however, exhibited wide variations between States, between urban and rural people, and was also affected by income level and education. At the aggregate level, the following conclusions could be made regarding per capita estimation in 1994. The annual household wood per capita consumption constituted the highest component of the overall national wood consumption and was estimated to average 0.685 m3 for urban households and 0.627 m3 for rural households. Furthermore, per capita estimates also tend to vary with income, ecological zone and education. Survey analyses reveal tendencies of decreased wood consumption with income rise and rise in education level because of changing towards alternative energy use such as LPG. However, despite these overall aggregate levels, distinct variations between products were observed. Whereas consumption of firewood and construction wood tended to decrease with income, charcoal and furniture wood consumption showed the reverse. On average, charcoal was the highest component of annual household wood consumption (43% of the total). Firewood made up 41.8% of the total annual per capita consumption. Construction, furniture and maintenance wood consumption compounded constituted 13.5% of the total household per capita annual consumption (Table 20). Table 20. Annual (1994) per capita wood consumption in the household sector (m3 round wood). House-hold

Firewood Charcoal Dukhan wood

Construc-tion

Main-tenance

Furniture Total

Urban Rural

0.117 0.354

0.493 0.162

0.016 0.009

0.028 0.064

0.021 0.029

0.010 0.009

0.685 0.627

Total (%)

0.273 (41.8)

0.281 (43.0)

0.013 (1.7)

0.051 (7.8)

0.026 (4.3)

0.009 (1.4)

0.653 (100)

Wood consumption by industries: During 1994, industrial consumption of wood accounted for 6.8% of total wood consumption in Sudan and 98.5 % of this was used as firewood. This is largely due to the predominance of traditional industries like brick making, bakeries, lime curing, vegetable oil processing, all of which rely mainly on wood for energy. Wood consumption for brick making in Sudan varies from 0.13 to 1.10 m3 per 1000 bricks, which indicates the technological issues in brick making. Already there are modern brick kilns and bakeries which use no firewood. Firewood consumption in the industrial sector varied between 0.062 m3 per ton of soap produced to 0.865 per ton of flour (baked). Ideally, industrial wood consumption has to be estimated taking into account the anticipated growth of the industry based on the demand for the product, existing capacity, and technological ratios based on input-output relationships. Such a theoretically elegant exercise is difficult on account of the extensive data requirements. Furthermore, these estimates will be crucially dependent on the technology adopted. Given such uncertainties, a simple and straightforward approach would be adequate to provide broad magnitudes. Since development of industries and urbanisation are closely linked, it is not unrealistic to assume that industrial growth is more or less similar to that of urbanisation. This, however, could be disputed, especially in the situation in Sudan where urban growth is partly attributable to the influx of people displaced from other areas in the country. Non-Wood Forest Products (NWFPs): Gum Arabic, which is obtained from Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal, is the most important NWFP in the Sudanese economy, both as a cash earner for farmers and as a foreign exchange source for the country. It provides employment for approximately 2.5 million of the rural people in the Gum Belt of the country during the dry season (November–March) when other cash-earning opportunities are scarce. In respect of foreign trade, gum Arabic used to rank second to cotton among the country’s exports until the early 1970s. Since then, it changed to the third rank after livestock exports, but its earnings remained significant, with a record US$ 78.8 million earned in 1987 (see Tables 25 and 26). The world market, however, witnessed a decline of gum consumption for various reasons, a situation that caused Sudan’s exports to fall from an average of 45-50 thousand tons per year

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during the mid-1950s to only 14-20 thousand tons in recent years. This does not only affect the national economy but has also presented a devastating blow to farmers who for centuries relied on gum Arabic as a cash earner. Also the decline of gum Arabic consumption threatens to generate an environmental catastrophe as farmers are now tempted to cut down their gum trees for sale as fuel wood and to use the land for agriculture. Other NWFPs of economic importance include resins, fibres, honey, bees wax, fruits, leaves, foods, game, fisheries, and aromatic and medicinal plants that grow in the forests. Most of these products are harvested for home consumption, local sales and, to a limited extent, for export. Fibres constitute important raw materials for the cottage industry and items of domestic trade, especially for making ropes and mats. Browse leaves, twigs and fruits contribute to sustenance and productivity of livestock. It is more important during the dry season and during drought years for animal survival, contributing 30–37% of animal feed. That is why nomads move over long transhumance corridors from the semi-desert areas of northern Sudan to the savannas of central and southern Sudan. Such movements constitute means of economic exchange of animal products for agricultural products between the nomads and the settled cultivators. There is a diversity of indigenous tree species that produce NWFPs used by various communities for consumption at household level and for income generation. Fibres provide raw material for cottage industries including hats, food covers, baskets and decorations. Various fruits are used for soft drink preparation and for food. A long list of species can be managed in natural forms and plantations to provide non-timber material (Elsiddig, 2004). In addition to gum Arabic, there are some others NWFPs, like tannin from A. nilotica and oil from Vitelaria paradoxica, which are potential commodities for local markets and for export. Except for gum Arabic and other gums, systematic studies and research on non-wood products are not available. One of the major first studies that gave general indicators and statistics on the importance of such products for the Sudanese economy is the study conducted by Mahir and Eldoma (1995) on the utilisation and marketing of NWFPs which was presented within the framework of the national survey of consumption of forest products in 1995. This study provided data on the use and marketing of 18 such products and where and how they were marketed. Demand projections for various wood products by households and industry were made in the earlier quoted study by FAO/FNC (1995) based on actual estimates of the consumption/ demand in 1994 and then using various sets of assumptions to construct different scenarios of consumption projections for the different products. Since these projections were for years which have already passed (with the exception of some that had 2015 as a final projection year) and there appear to be no actual follow-up of whether the predictions actually became reality, they are just briefly summarised here to indicate rough magnitudes. Among basic assumptions made were that demand for wood and wood products, especially for construction and other non energy uses, was expected to increase in view of the high population growth rate and the rapid urbanisation taking place in Sudan. The latter was also assumed to modify the type of household fuel demand, affecting the total wood demand as well as the type of wood consumed and the sources from where it is obtained. Recent projections revealed that there will still be an increase in demand of total quantities of wood fuels, even if the level of substitution of petroleum fuels for cooking in household sector is increased. Poverty will be a determinant factor affecting the degree of substitution (Abdelsalam et al., 2000). The continuation of the patterns of wood fuel consumption will have adverse impact on the environment. According to the study and the projections, household firewood demand for different scenarios was expected to be between 4.8 and 8.0 million m³ in 2010 and between 4.6 and 9.1 million m³ in 2015. Likewise, the household consumption of charcoal in different scenarios was predicted to be between 4.7 and 14.1 million m³ in 2010 and between 4.1 and 17.8 million m³ in 2015. Except in the lowest scenarios, which are also quite unlikely to occur, the production of charcoal will need to increase dramatically. The demand for construction wood is directly related to the increase in the number of new houses and the extent of wood used in maintenance and repairs of existing houses. There is a substantial difference in per capita consumption between rural and urban areas, which has been factored into the different scenarios. In summary, the predictions for consumption of construction wood in 2010 fall between 1.4 and 1.7 million m³ (there were no predictions for 2015). The

49

demand for wood for repair and maintenance follows the same pattern as that of construction wood. In 2010 the prediction scenarios are around 0.79 million m3. Consumption of wood for furniture was predicted to fall around 0.28 million m³ in 2010 and 0.32 million m³ in 2015. Using two scenarios, with different assumptions about the way the rate of urbanisation develops, the 1995 study predicted the demand for firewood and other wood products by industry. The estimates for firewood consumption in 2010 falls between 1.4 and 1.7 million m³, and for 2015 between 1.6 and 2.2 million m³. For other wood products, the industry was predicted to use 0.02 million m³ in 2010 and 0.03 million m³ in 2015. The wood consumption by the service sector (formal and informal), which comprise a range of institutions like schools, hospitals, restaurants, commercial establishments, and informal activities like tea vending and sorghum food making, accounted for 2.5% of the total wood consumption in Sudan in 1994. As in the case of industries, the services sector activities are concentrated in urban areas. Hence, two alternative rates of urbanisation were used as scenarios for wood consumption. The forecasts for firewood and charcoal use by the service sector thus fell between 0.48 and 0.65 million m³, and for other wood products between 0.11 and 0.15 million m³, both in 2010. Finally, a summary of the projections for the most used types of wood, i.e. fuelwood, construction wood and wood for furniture were made, using the 1994 actually measured volumes as the point of departure and taking the average of predictions for different scenarios. This is shown in Table 21. As pointed out above, there is no confirmation whether the predictions for those years that have already passed actually turned out to be correct. Table 21. Wood demand projections 1994 to 2020. All figures in million m³. Source: FAO/FNC, 1994. Type of wood

1994 2000 2005 2010 2020

Fuelwood 12.0 13.3 13.8 14.7 15.5 Construction 1.3 1.2 1.0 1.4 1.5 Furniture 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3

Total 13.5 14.7 15.1 16.4 17.3 A somewhat different set of figures are found in the very latest Sudan country report of the Forest Resources Assessment report from FAO (FRA, 2010), which is based on information provided by FNC. These are shown in Table 22 for 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010, and as predictions for 2020 and 2030. It is not quite clear if the figures are based on actual measurements of wood consumption or on further extrapolations and predictions of earlier figures. Table 22. Wood removals/supply and consumption (million m3) from plantations and natural forests in 1990-2010, and projections for 2020 and 2030. Source: FRA, 2010, and reports from FNC. Year Industrial wood Woodfuel Total

Million m³ 1990 1.8 16.3 18.1 2000 2.2 16.7 18.9 2005 2.2 17.7 19.9 2010 2.2 21.5 23.7 2020 2.2 25.7 27.9 2030 2.2 29.9 32.1 Comparing the two tables, it is obvious that there are contradictions, e.g. the woodfuel consumption for all corresponding years is 3.4 (2000) to 10.2 (2020) million m³ higher in Table 22 than in Table 21. Although Sudan is a significant oil producer, woody biomass still constitutes the bulk of total energy used in the country. The household sector still depends almost entirely on wood and charcoal, particularly in rural areas. There are many studies and estimates, by several departments

50

and agencies and for different periods, of the relative and absolute magnitude of various components in the national energy mix. Many of these studies are confusing and quite often contradictory. For example, the National Energy Administration (2001), stated that out of about 11 million tons oil equivalent (TOE) of primary energy consumed in 1999 in Sudan, 71% was in the form of woody biomass. At he same time they say that the total amount of biomass energy consumed as final energy is equivalent to 6.5 million TOE (which is 59% of 11 TOE, not 71%). FNC (1995) claims that forests contribute a total of 4.11 million TOE representing 70-81% of energy supply in the country. The Ministry of Energy and Mining says that for 1993/94 wood made up 9.02 million TOE, or 81%, of the total energy use in Sudan. However, all these figures are old and obsolete, and the only conclusion that can be drawn is that fuelwood, in all likelihood, still today accounts for close to 70% of total energy use. The social impact of wood production is significant. Charcoal production, for example, is an important industry in providing employment opportunities. In 1984 in the Blue Nile Province, for example, the charcoal industry provided more than 65 000 person-months of occupation at the production sites. Other opportunities were also availed in administration, handling, transport, storage, marketing and distribution (Ali, 1986). Whereas people in rural areas normally freely collect their fuel wood needs from natural woodlands, people in urban centres are supplied with firewood and charcoal by large and small traders. This trade employs large numbers of itinerant casual or semi-skilled labourers among the rural poor. Dependence on fuel wood trade by the poor becomes greater during drought years, which frequently occur in the central and northern parts of the country. 7.3 Forest products trade Sudan’s import of forest products is mainly wood of soft types and wood products for construction and furniture manufacture, together with paper and paper products for the printing and publication industry, and also to cover the needs of other industries. Most of the imports of sawn wood, pulp, and paper comes mainly from China, South Korea, Malaysia, Italy, Turkey and Egypt. As shown in Table 23 there are large discrepancies between the local and international market prices. Table 23. Prices (US$) of local and imported timber and wood products and country of origin (2010). Forest product

Price (local) Price (imported) Countries of origin

Industrial roundwood (m³) 130 767 China, S. Korea, Malaysia, Italy, Thailand, Turkey, Egypt, Emirates

Sawnwood (m³) 320 1306 Pulp for paper (tons) - 331 Paper and paperboard (tons) - 700 Apart from the industrial wood material shown in Table 23, Sudan also imports a range of other wood derived products, e.g. furniture, charcoal, doors and other details for buildings, etc. There is also a considerable importation of NWFPs, e.g. bamboo, fruits, pods, conditioners, etc. The total import value of all wood-based products and NWFPs is shown in Table 24. Table 24. Value in million US$ of all legally imported wood and non-wood forest products to Sudan. Items/year

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Wood products

293.5 289.1 332.6 173.7 343.7 No figure available

477.9

Non wood products

123.3 248.5 177.4 60.6 2.8 0.8 2.2

Total

416.8 537.6 510.0 234.3 346.5 n/a 480.1

The export value of forest products from Sudan was more than the value of imported forest products, which indicates the positive effect of the forest sector on the balance of payment. The most

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important forest product in Sudan is gum Arabic, which is found mainly in the gum belt of the central part of the country, where climate conditions for its production are ideal. Gum Arabic is one of the main export commodities from Sudan and plays a significant role as a foreign exchange earner. Although Sudan's share of the world production of gum Arabic has been declining sharply over the last thirty years, it still has a competitive advantage in producing and exporting gum Arabic over other African countries, which are competing with Sudan in foreign markets. The total volumes and value of gum Arabic export for the last four decades are shown in Table 25. Table 25. Gum arabic export 1970-2010. Decade

Export (tons) Value (million US$)

1970-79 348 120 356.5 1980-89 247 902 504.7 1990-99 198 477 387.3 2000-10 307 818 454.7 Note that there is one more year in the 2000-2010 period. Although gum Arabic makes up an average of c. 85% of the export value of NWFPs (different for different years), Sudan also produces other NWFPs such as garad pods, bees wax, incense, aromatic plants and natural honey for export. The total value of this export, including the gum Arabic, for the last couple of years is shown in Table 26. Table 26. Total export value in million US$ of all NWFPs from Sudan. Items/year

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Gum arabic 30.1 54.0 19.5 47.2 49.1 73.2 78.0 All other NWFPs

19.9 50.8 35.6 25.3 20.8 3.6 2.5

Total

50.0 104.8 55.1 72.5 69.9 76.8 80.5

8. Forest royalties and other revenues

8.1 Forest royalties and licenses 8.1.1 Structure and amount of forest royalties and licences In Sudan, royalties are collected from forest products gathered from natural forests outside forest reserves with the exemption of products collected by households for their own consumption. Royalties on all traded wood and NWFPs products constitute the major source of revenue for FNC, and they apply regardless of the source or the tenure arrangements prevailing. The problem is that there is no definition of the minimum quantities to be exempted and this opens opportunities for escaping royalty payment. Since1988, studies have been carried out on revenue collection systems on forest products, including royalties, and the first of these studies was carried out by Hunter et al. (1988) under pre-project activities for the UTF/SUD/043/SUD forestry project supported by FAO. Some of the conclusions and recommendations of the studies pointed at the importance of looking at the economy and values of the different types of forest resources. Natural forests carry no silvicultural costs and are often thought to be a low-cost source of round wood while neglecting their other, environmental and social, values. However, the charges paid for round wood from forests owned by the government are very low compared to forest values, round wood production costs and the costs of management and replanting. That is partly caused by the fact that royalty tax has not changed over time. Moreover, there is no differentiation between the value of royalties on products from natural forests and plantation because royalties are collected on transported products on road and not on site.

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The royalty collection system is used to charge forest products obtained from outside forest reserves, in accordance with the Royalty Order of 1939. In order to encourage people to use forest reserves, in which regeneration is guaranteed, and to prevent uncontrolled exploitation of the woodlands of Sudan, licenses on the other hand are pre-paid fees for obtaining approval for cutting of forests or gathering of NWFPs and use the products for sale at local markets. The wood is usually obtained in forest reserves or in areas allocated for agriculture. With reference to consumption of forest products at the aggregate level (N. Sudan) only 28% of the firewood consumed is purchased. The remaining 72% is collected as a free good. This has various economic, social and environmental implications (Table 27). Table 27. Household firewood collection and purchase, 1994. Source: Wood products consumption survey (FNC, 1995). Households Purchased

(1 000 m³) Collected

(1 000 m³) Total

Urban 731.6 125.1 856.7 Rural 899.6 4 145.7 5 045.2

Total Sudan (%)

1 631.2 (28%)

4 270.8 (72%)

5 901.9 (100%)

In economic terms, such sizable free collection can be viewed positively as household savings as long as the opportunity cost of labour needed for collection does not exceed market supply cost. For the forestry authorities and state it represents a loss of revenue. Revenue that accrues from the sale of forest products collected from outside forest reserves is based on licenses obtained from FNC. In the case of acquisition of forest products from inside reserves, e.g. riverine forests or irrigated forest plantations, usually a tender system is used. There are no specific forest charges on processed forest products such as sawn wood, wood-based panels and paper products. Rather, charges are levied on the wood raw materials used to make these products. However, a general sales tax is levied on the sale of processed forest products. Wood raw material can be used for a number of end products. These vary in value according to the properties of the wood, its quality and its dimensions. FNC also collects revenue through a range of other charges. There are regulations, acts and laws which encourage forest conservation, development and utilisation on a sustainable basis. These laws and regulations prohibit harvesting of forest products without written permission from FNC. Fines and penalties are levied on such off-sets. Forest products that are produced illegally can be confiscated and sold by the government. Such products are often sold by auction and official receipts are issued for these sales. In Table 28 some current charges are shown. Table 28. Royalties, fees and taxes for 2011 (all figures in SDG; 1 US$ = 2.5 SDG). Forest product Unit Value

(SDG) Charcoal Per 40 kg sack 10 Fuelwood Cubic meter 35 Wood fuel carried on camel back Per camel load 4 Wood fuel carried on donkey back Per donkey load 2 Wood fuel for Brick Kilns In 1000s 6 Group a) Mahogany (Khaya senegalensis), Tectona grandis, Milicia excelsa, Pseudocedrela kotschyi, Cordia sinensis and Afzelia africana

Cubic feet 10

Group b) Sclerocarya birrea, Cupressus lusitanica, Terminalia brownie, Prosopis africana, Olea hochsetteri, Daniellia oliveri, Albizia aylmeri

Cubic feet 7

Group c) Sunt and other big logs of 128 cms or more. Cubic feet 7.5 Butchers log Per unit 12.1 Doum building pole for construction purposes of 5 m or more Per unit 27.5 Sunt building pole of less than 5 m Per meter 6 Eucalyptus building pole of 5 m Ordinary meter 15

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First class building pole from eucalypts Per unit 13 2nd class building pole from eucalypts Per unit 8 Acacia nilotica medium class Sunt building pole Per unit 6 Sawn Doum building pole Per unit 6 Anogeissus leiocarpus and other types Per unit 7 Construction timber made of sawn Pterocarpus lucens building pole Per unit 10 Forked pole Unit 5 Bamboo (Oxytenanthera abyssinica) In 1000s 250 Withy pole In 100s 8 Sunt posts (1.5 m length) One 2.5 Fencing posts One 1 Light pole (Korki) One 2 Doum and palm leaves In 100s .5 Reeds roll One 100 Oil mill One 100 Dalbergia melanoxylon Cubic Meter 100 Handles of agricultural tools One 1 Well bedding One 7.5 Camel saddle One 7.5 Donkey saddle One 6 Acacia seyal (Sauna) Per 50 kg sack 10 Acacia seyal (Sauna) Per head load 5 Pseudocedrela kotschyi Per 50 kg sack 10 Terminalia brownie and Syzygium guineense Per meter 10 Acacia mellifera seeds Per guantar 5 Acacia senegal seeds Per guantar 18 Acacia senegal gum category 3 Per guantar 6-5 Acacia seyal gum for FNC Per quantar 4 Boswellia papyrifera and other gums Per quantar 4 Balanites aegyptiaca fruits Per quantar 4 Adansonia digitata fruits Per quantar 8 Tamarindus indica fruits Per quantar 8 Cordia abyssinica fruits Per quantar 4.5 Grewia tenax fruits Per quantar 15 Other forest fruits Per quantar 5 Honey from forests Per quantar 15 Bees wax Per quantar 7 Palm leaves Per 10 package box 10 Ropes Per box of 50 ropes 4 Palm mats Per box of 50 5 Normal mats Per box of 10 5 Big baskets 50 6 Small baskets 50 4 Pestle & mortar for sorghum Per unit 4 Small pestle and mortar Per unit 1 Wooden bed Per unit 6 Small wooden bed Per unit 4 Small wooden stool made of palm leaves Per unit 2.5 Barbed branches for fencing Bundle of 10 branches 2 Storing fees (% from royalties) 25% Recreation fees Per vehicle 3 Sawmill license fees 1000 Renewal of sawmill license 250 The value of some sawn timber products delivered from FNC sawmills is shown in Table 29 and some export fees for forest products are shown in Table 30.

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Table 29: Value of some sawn timber products delivered from FNC sawmills. (all in SDG; 1 US$ = 2.5 SDG). Product

Unit Price 2011

First class sawn timber Cubic meter 5 Second class sawn timber Cubic meter 712 Beams 6.5 x 6 x 2.5 6 x 6 x 2.5 5 x 6 x 2.5 4 x 6 x 2.5

Unit Unit Unit Unit

Sawn plate Saw dust Cubic meter Table 30. Export fees for forest products. (all in SDG; 1 US$ = 2.5 SDG). Produce

Unit 2008 2010

Mesquite charcoal Ton Talh charcoal Sack 40 kg Ebony Cubic meter Antiques unit Sawn timber Sunt Mahogany

Cubic meter 9 11

25 50

NWFP Ton 5 10 8.1.2 Suggestions for improvement of forest charges and licenses Nair (1995) confirmed that FNC has been set up to provide both services and products and its designation as a service-oriented corporation reflects the importance attached to the former. The principle of charging replacement costs for forest products has been accepted as has the retention of forest fees by the FNC. However, the method of financing the service functions is yet to be decided. In a situation of extreme environmental deterioration, the cost of service functions is expected to be substantial, far more than the surpluses, if any, from revenue generating activities. Expanding the service functions would necessitate mobilisation of additional resources, by increasing fees and royalties for forest products and by seeking a government grant as has been done in certain countries. Given the low charges on forest products, service functions can be supported by higher royalty rates and fees up to a certain level. But beyond a certain level, increasing the fees would imply that those who consume forest products bear the cost of services, not necessarily provided to them. With the highly skewed distribution of forests between regions, this approach could lead to several problems. On the other hand, reliance on government grants to support service functions makes FNC unduly dependent on the vagaries of budget allocations, defeating the very rationale of establishment of FNC. While no ready-made solutions are available, maintenance of accounts distinguishing the two functions would be helpful to determine the increase in charges and the level of subsidy required. Improvements in the system of revenue collection from royalties and licenses require institutional strengthening of FNC such as the creation of an independent and efficient marketing or investment directorate to enhance the important functions of selling wood from forest reserves and to ensure coordination of royalty collection. Revenue improvement from royalties and licenses on forest products may necessitate the calculation of marginal growing costs (replacement cost) used to determine royalty levels and license values on the standing trees, and that both annual indexation and further research into costs be used to up-date the royalty.

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The marginal replacement cost approach to calculate royalties is preferred to the more traditional residual value appraisal. Long experience with the latter system by governments in both developing and developed countries has shown that the forest owner invariably fails to capture the full economic rent because the system tends to preserve cost and profit margins of the processing and distributing sector intact, contrary to normal problems with the marginal cost approach such as multiple forest products, rotation length determination or allocation of overheads. A forest product price index is useful for annual indexation of royalties and under no circumstances should the law state actual figures for royalties. Rather, it should simply state that FNC has the right to change the rates annually. Preparation of the index will require a team continuously sampling prices of products in major markets and a useful supplementary effect will be the considerable increase in market intelligence for FNC. Experience from other countries and exchange of information may increase opportunities for revenue collection and fulfilment of conservation of natural forests. Charging a stumpage, i.e. royalty on a standing tree basis, requires a large improvement in forest inventories to divide up the forest outside reserves into forest types and values. In this way, knowledge on type of forests and stocking will enable charging to be done more efficiently. 8.2 Administration of forestry revenue system Revenue accrues from the sale of produce from forest reserves, and usually the sealed tender system inside forest reserves is administratively used. Royalties are a category of levies payable to the Government to be collected by the staff of FNC in different sites of the country. Collection of royalties for forest products was first legalised by the 1939 Royalty Ordinance. The charge rates are revised annually through meetings of the senior staff of FNC who discuss rates proposed and submitted by FNC offices in the states based on the current situation of markets in their respective areas. New rates are only valid after approval by the Minister of Finance according to the forest act. For harvesting material outside forest reserves, a permit is issued from the nearest FNC office, and the permit serves the function of a certificate of ownership for a person found with cut material. The produce may not move until royalty has been paid, whereupon a receipt is issued. This receipt (Form No. 15) is a Ministry of Finance document standardised for use by all government departments. However, document No. 47 (removal pass), an FNC form, is given to anyone wishing to transport forest products and has evidence of having paid royalty. Sometimes royalty is payable at the production site if the amount involved facilitates this, and no royalty is paid if goods are for home consumption. Check posts managed by FNC staff are sited at strategic points between the forest and the likely market where checking is administered. Selling produce from reserves involves either inviting sealed tenders for a defined coupe, or setting selling prices for particular product types, which can be revised at intervals. A committee chaired by senior forest officers examines tenders, and also is expected to have knowledge of market conditions when setting prices. The total Government forest revenues collected in the period 2000-2010 from royalties/licenses/ penalties on wood products and NWFPs and services are shown in Table 31. Table 31. Government revenue from forest products and services 2000-2010. (all in SDG; 1 US$ = 2.5 SDG).

Year

Total revenue (million SDG) Year Total revenue (million SDG)

2000 6.9 2006 26.2 2001 9.8 2007 29.6 2002 8.6 2008 31.9 2003 11.6 2009 31.6 2004 19.7 2010 36.6 2005 21.9

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8.3 Suggestions for improvement of revenue collection system The Forest Act of 1989 (presently amended to the Forests and Renewable Natural Resources Act of 2001), provides some level of authority to FNC to develop or alter tariffs on royalties on forest produce and collect fees according to regulations published from time to time (Mahir and El Doma, 1995). This requires FNC to look into the possibilities of increasing its share from the total value of the trade and coordinates efforts towards the development of both traditional and modern industries based on wood and NWFPs. It is also necessary that FNC should coordinate its efforts with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to facilitate exporting procedures and fetching new international markets for Sudanese NWFPs. The improvement of the situation of the social forestry and extension sections at FNC is necessary to enable FNC to explore possibilities of developing production and management of wood and NWFPs. In this connection, the extension section could contribute to the promoting of appropriate harvesting techniques. Forest reserves are, in principle, the most reliable source of income. They offer economies of location, greater potential productivity per unit area, control of yield over time, the ability to sell at competitive market prices and, in addition, they are under better protection compared to non-reserves. As a long term ideal, it is recommended that the major income-earner for FNC should be based on revenue systems on products from forest reserves, with a gradual reduction of the dependence on royalties related to areas outside forest reserves. It is recommended that calculations of marginal growing costs (current replacement costs) be used to determine royalty levels, that the charge be on the standing tree, and that annual indexation and further research into growing costs be used to up-date the royalty levels.

9. Processing of produce 9.1 Ownership and types of industries Forest industries in Sudan are normally owned by the government or by private enterprises. There are both wood-based forest industries, including sawmilling and furniture (traditional and modern), pulp and paper (private) and veneer (private), and NWFP-based forest industries, including gum processing and other NWFPs for other forms of processing like soft drinks, cottage industry and oil (traditional and modern). The sawmilling industry is considered to be the most important forest-based industry. With reference to the furniture industry in Northern Sudan, Mahmoud and Abdelgadir (1995) stated that the workshops are classified into three classes, viz. large, medium, and small according to the applied type and level of technology. The class 'small' consists of all workshops that depend solely on hand tools. The class 'medium' consists of all units that possess up to five machines. The third class, 'large', consists of the workshops that contain more than five machines. The machines in the industry are working under poor conditions and are old types of low efficiency and conversion factors which ranges within 35% to 65% for local wood, which is mostly hard wood. For imported wood, which is mostly softwood, the conversion factor varies from 70% to 80%. The lower conversion factor for the local wood is due to wood quality containing faults, seasoning problems and poor saw machine capacity, in additional to inherent biological defects. The annual production of the furniture industry is estimated to be just over 90 000 m3 per year, whereas the installed capacity is estimated to be c. 460 000 m3 per year. However, the workshops work at only 20% of their installed capacity. Most of the woodworking shops are still on the artisan level and the furniture producers are mainly custom furniture makers (craftsmen). Table 32 shows current potential capacity of forest industry using plantation and natural forests products. Table 32. Current and potential capacity of forest industries utilising plantation and natural forest wood and NWFPs 2009. Owner

Type of industry Current capacity Potential capacity

Government (FNC) Sawmilling 24 000 m3 30 000 m3 Private sector Sawmilling 5 000 m3 8 000 m3 Private sector Gum processing 40 000 tons 200 000 tons

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Firewood and charcoal industry processing, based on traditional technology applied by the private sector, is characterised by low efficiency and high waste. The felling of trees and cross-cutting of logs for firewood and charcoal may result in up to 10–12% waste (Elsiddig, 1986) while improved felling techniques may reduce the waste to 5%. On the other hand, the efficiency of traditional charcoal production technology, particularly earth kilns, may not exceed 30%. However, there are pilot works on charcoal that indicates possibilities for improvement. Mahir and El Doma (1995) reported that, based on type of the produce, production areas and category of producers, the following three production systems for NWFPs in Sudan could be identified: Production of NWFPs as an incidental activity; according to this system, farmers/

pastoralists collect the products alongside their main jobs of farming and watching livestock; Small-scale production; in this case, members of households (mainly women and children)

are involved in collection of the NWFPs as a discrete activity; and, Large-scale production; according to this system, teams go on collecting forays that can last

days or weeks, for example tapping and collection of gum loban. In this case, traders might pay advance working capital for one or more commission agents. In such cases, the trader visits production areas at the beginning of the collection season and negotiate the advancement capital to those who need it based on an agreed local price for a minimum harvest. The trader returns to the production areas after collection and arrange for packing and transporting the produce to trading towns.

9.2 Raw material supply and quality Wood for industry is supplied in the round form to be processed for sawn timber, construction wood in buildings, for firewood and charcoal industries, handicrafts and for simple handles for agricultural tools. Sawn wood used in railway sleepers is produced from high quality timber provided by some of the most valuable species like Acacia nilotica (Sunut) and Albizia sp (Arad). Raw material for the different types of sawn wood used comes from many sources, e.g. from species like Khaya senegalensis, Cupressus lusitanica, Cordia abyssinica, Balanites aegyptiaca and Tectona grandis, i.e. from both plantation and natural forests. The quality of wood from these species is variable, contributing to the low efficiency in most cases because of the large percentage of waste. Wood provided from plantation species like Tectona grandis and Cupressus lusitanica is of very high quality as a result of good management while wood from natural forests is to a great extent of poor quality (Table 33). Wood for the production of matches, sticks and other building purposes comes from different species in natural and plantation forests. Table 33. Production of sawn wood and other products from FNC mills. Source: FNC records. Year Production of sawn wood (m³)

Other products

Sleepers (Nos.)

Boards Total Fuelwood (m³)

Charcoal (tons)

Logs (m³/Nos.)

Building poles (Nos.)

2002 2 448 (44 200)

1 346 3 794 59 700 2 180 9 554 (-)

90 400

2003 1 264 (20 000)

2 474 3 738 49 900 - - (45 000)

75 100

2004 1 333 (21 900)

3 724 5 057 57 800 1 600 8 443 (45 500)

215 700

2005 1 086 (17 700)

2 916 4 002 93 000 3 880 8 938 (48 200)

43 300

2006 1 411 (22 100)

1 638 3 049 56 900 5 530 10 288 (52 500)

111 100

2007 2 231 (34 800)

1 737 3 968 50 000 7 520 7 382 (29 500)

16 100

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The role of forests in the provision of a wide range of NWFPs for industry and other related services has been emphasised in local and international literature. Most of the NWFPs, like gum, fruits and seeds provide the food industry with raw material for oil, soft drinks, protein-rich food, and other products. Gum Arabic is an important forestry commodity from the Acacia woodlands in the dry lands of Sudan. NWFPs usually provide essential food and nutrition, medicine, fodder and other related domestic requirements to rural people, as well as to urban consumers. They are particularly important in relieving hunger periods in the agricultural cycle, can provide employment during slack periods and act as a buffer against risk and house-hold emergencies. The demand for these types of services from the forest is normally modest and rarely constitutes a threat to the forest. Most NWFPs have a low value as raw un-processed material because of poor post-harvest practices and processing (Tchatat and Chikamai, 2010). Quality measures for NWFPs are almost lacking, except for gum Arabic, and this includes basic grading and cleaning operations. Except for export supplies, products are hardly graded. In general, there are no processing or quality requirements to be observed by producers. Large quantities are sold according to weight or volume, regardless of quality. However, producers have developed experience and some skills by which they could differentiate between good and inferior quality products which, in most cases, is based on the origin (source) of the produce. Nevertheless, there are no bases for carrying out grading and standardisation processes. In general, the quality of the product alone doesn't influence the pricing system. 9.3 Constraints facing the sub-sector Royalty and tax rates for forest products in raw, processed or semi-processed state are the same and bear poor relation to the abundance of or the market value of the products (Mahir and El Doma, 1995). Lack of information on material quantities and production sources and trading constitutes an important constraint for forest-based industrial development. Sources are scattered and there is no coordination between the sources. Even when the information is available there is no consistency and this has negative impact on any analysis, estimation and projection. However, it is worth mentioning that remarkable efforts have been made by FNC in collaboration with FAO to survey Sudan’s consumption patterns and volumes of forests products (1995). In spite of the increasing recognition of the importance and wide use of NWFPs, lack of information about the quantities, values, areas of production, producers, marketing and distributing chains and other related information is a major constraint. Drought and desertification made access to the northern third of Sudan difficult. Extended conflicts and war have made access to the southern third of the country difficult or impossible, not least as a result of landmine infestation since the mid-1950s. Ecological constraints, including environment degradation, desertification, erratic/non-dependable rainfall and successive dry spells, particularly north of latitude 12 degrees, have slowed down the expansion of afforestation and reforestation. The unsustainable extraction of fuelwood is a major problem in northern and central Sudan, as well as in refugee and displaced persons camps all over the country and particularly in Northern Darfur. Mechanised farming in Sudan has, in effect, degenerated into a crude form of extensive shifting cultivation with a tractor, exploiting land to exhaustion. The resultant suite of environmental, social and economic consequences, which has been highly damaging, includes the destruction of forests and pre-existing agricultural and social systems, soil erosion and increased flash floods, soil depletion and a collapse in yields (UNEP, 2007).

The present critical situation in the Sudan with regard to forestry trigged an initiative by the government (on June 2011) to establish a special fund for afforestation and reforestation of 1.2 million hectares in the existing irrigated and rain-fed agricultural schemes during the period 2012-2014 9.4 Potential for future investment Sudan enjoys a huge potential for forest-based industries. In addition to the timber trees species presently used for the sawmill industry, it is worth mentioning that Sudan has so many different

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trees species that are potentially suitable for use in the sawmilling industry. The majority of these species are presently used as firewood and charcoal. There are also other trees of potential value, like Acacia seyal and small shrubs like Dichrostachys cinera, Cadaba rotundifolia, Bauhinia rufescens, Indigofera oblaongifolia, Leptadenia pyrotechnica and others in the Savannas belt. There are many monocotyledon plants like Cymbopogon nervatus, Cyprus papyrus, Panicum turgidum and Oxytenanthera abyssinica which are characterised by the length of their fibres, which make them technically and practically useful for the paper industry in Sudan. They could be cultivated in wide areas in the country and expected to have high yield. Agricultural residues, like bagas, cotton sticks and others can also be used as possible raw materials for the paper industry. According to statistics released by the Ministry of Industry, the annual production of the five sugar factories approximates 0.78 million tons of bagas.

10. Socio-economic and environmental contributions of forests 10.1 Income generation and employment Sudan’s economy is predominantly based on the agricultural sector, including crop production, livestock, forestry and fisheries, which together contribute about 48% of the Gross Domestic Product. However, most of the country is under dry conditions with fluctuating and uncertain rainfall. That makes agriculture, forests and other natural resources activities highly vulnerable to droughts and famines. Forests play significant socio-economic development and environmental protection roles in integrated land use systems in Sudan, in addition to provision of needs and livelihood support to people (Elsiddig et al., 2007). However, of the total population of 39.2 million, nearly 70.5% is rural, many of which are considered as forest dependant for their livelihoods, and their wood energy and round timber for buildings needs. The contribution of the forest sector to the national economy is under-estimated, with the formal national accounts revealing an under estimation of the forestry sector to the GDP in the range of 1-3%. The energy consumption study confirmed that the per capita consumption of fuel wood is 0.7 m³/annum which, when converted into Ton Oil Equivalents (TOE) could be valued at nearly US$ 2.0 billion. Moreover, NWFPs are very diverse and make substantial contributions to livelihoods at household level and to the national economy. Income generation from forests in Sudan include income at the government level (Table 34), and at household and private sector levels. Various sources of income generation, at present under government control, can be listed including direct sales of wood products such as fuel wood, construction timber and sawn timber. Of the non-wood products, gum Arabic represents the major commodity where Sudan contributes 80% of world trade. The majority of Sudanese rural households are dependent on forest products for livelihood support and income generation. They obtain their income from sales of firewood and NWFPs, mainly gum Arabic. The private sector on the other hand shows a diversity of income generating activities. Fuel wood traders obtain wood from auctions at government forests blocks and wood yards and distribute the fuel wood at small scale depots in big towns. The private sector has developed forest-based industries, including sawmilling and paper making, as well as non-wood based industries using gum Arabic and tannin material. Table 34. Government income from forest plantations, natural forests and penalties. Figures in 1 000 US$

Year

Forest plantations

Natural forests Penalties Total

1995 388.0 276.0 188.0 851.9 1996 302.8 698.0 103.3 1 104.1 1997 402.4 704.8 302.4 1 409.5 1998 654.3 748.2 243.0 1 645.5 1999 788.7 762.5 255.3 1 806.5

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2000 806.9 703.3 200.0 1 710.2 2001 637.5 519.0 312.5 1 469.0 2002 209.1 418.1 209.0 836.1 2003 1 811.8 2 087.8 755.6 4 655.2 2004 3 473.6 2 619.7 1 768.5 7 861.9 2005 4 709.3 2 887.3 1 163.5 8 760.2 2006 4 703.8 3 609.3 2 181.0 10 494.2 2007 4 904.6 3 183.5 3 908.8 11 831.7 2008 5 560.7 3 381.0 3 800.7 12 742.4 2009 5 871.7 3 448.0 3 571.5 12 891.2 2010 5 654.0 3 804.0 4 108.6 13 566.6

There are many potential sources for income generation from forest products that have not yet been tapped at the local and national levels. The forest-based industry in Sudan is still at its infancy. Although forest-based industry started to be set up in Sudan in the middle of the twentieth century, it is limited to traditional practices confined to sawmilling and to some extent pulp and paper milling. Sudan imports large volumes of furniture, plywood and veneer. Sudan’s forests produce a diversity of NWFPs that constitute many potential sources for industrial development for local use and for export. At local level, small-scale cottage industry production takes place in many households but they require interventions to be technologically improved and modernised. The traditional cottage industry supplies the market with many products that are attractive to tourism. Sudan exports about 60–80 000 tons of gum Arabic as raw material used globally as a component of industries in pharmaceutical, confectionary, textile prints, film development and in food preservation industries. There are pilot projects for the using gum Arabic in Sudan for such types of industries, but at small scales. Forests provide a wide range of opportunities for employment in the government and private sectors. For example, plantation activities, forest protection and industry were estimated to account for 15% of employment in many rural areas. Generally, NWFPs in Sudan provide the main employment and income sources for the elderly, women and children in rural areas. The most important roles of NWFPs are their provision of self-reliance and employment, with many communities in Sudan receiving income from collection, processing and marketing of these products (FNC, 2000). Gum Arabic, in particular, is an important off-farm activity for inhabitants of the gum Arabic belt. In this activity, all members of the family are employed for about four months of the dry season. In addition, seasonal labourers from other parts of the country migrate to the gum Arabic belt area seeking employment. The development of the forestry sector was identified as an important component in potential employment creation in the 25 year National Strategy. The aims of the strategy are defined as: Maximising the production of wood and NWFPs; Improving the existing processing capacity and establishing new large scale industrial wood

processing capacities; Large scale afforestation and reforestation (including industrial plantations); Rehabilitation of existing forest plantations; Establishment of forest industry (processing and value addition); Sustainable Forest Management; Conservation of natural forests; Private and community involvement in the management and ownership of forest plantations;

and, Enhancing the employment capacity of the gum Arabic belt through intensive afforestation,

improving business and marketing skills of gum producers and giving them access to financial services as an alternative to the traditional system.

10.2 Plantations in forest conservation Plantation designs with biodiversity conservation considerations are usually rare and biodiversity under forest plantations is limited. Plantations are normally, but not always, monocultures with pure stands of one species. There are obvious risks in designing plantations as monocultures if biodiversity conservation is a supplementary goal even if the total areas of such plantations are

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normally quite modest in relation to more biodiversity rich natural woodlands. However, there are situations where mixed forest plantations are raised with the partial objective of biodiversity conservation (examples can be found in the riverine forests and other rainfed forests in central and southern Sudan) supplementing that of wood or NWFP production. In some cases, as plantations mature, they develop into more diverse systems when other trees and ground vegetation naturally expands into the plantations. Examples of the later case are mentioned from the Jebel Marra softwood and eucalypt plantations where indigenous species took root in such plantations. In the majority of agricultural schemes, predominantly in the irrigated areas, the need to protect crops and livestock from dry winds is usually acknowledged. FNC stresses the significant role played by shelterbelts and windbreaks in crop production. Yields are reported to be markedly higher in fields protected by such protective rows of trees (Foggie, 1967; Masson and Osman, 1963; Elfadl, 1997; Abdel Magid, 1995; Ahmed, 1993; Ali, 1979 and 1986; Ali and Sidhmed, 1985; Semizoglu and Abdel Magid, 1986). Sudan's achievements in the establishment of woodlots, windbreaks and shelterbelts typified the important "support" function of forestry to agriculture. The need to protect agricultural crops from environmental damages is recognised among the objectives of forestry policies. Woodlots and trees along water courses (rivers, khors canals water depressions), urban areas, wet lands and dry lands play important roles in soil and water conservation, in the production of significant quantities of timber and fuelwood, and in the provision of animal feed during critical periods of drought. In the drier areas of the Sudan, scattered trees such as Faidherbia albida and Acacia senegal add nutrients to the soil and provide protection to grasses and shelter to people and livestock from heat and sand storms. In Sudan, agroforestry has been practiced for many years under the traditional gum Arabic production system. In the irrigated areas, the need for fuelwood and the production of other non-wood products, such as honey, have generated interest in tree planting along canals and as windbreaks (Armitage, 1985). The extent of environmental protection and conservation of biodiversity in relation to plantations or natural forests is very wide. The forest types follow the ecological and rainfall gradients in Sudan, from the dry arid conditions in the north to low and high rainfall savannah regions towards the south. In each zone, the forests play protective roles from environmental points of view. Forests in the form of bushland and scattered trees and shrubs in the north constitute the defence lines against desertification and drought impacts. The large blocks of dense forests in mixtures of acacias and broad-leaved trees in the savannah and montane regions southward, where the major land use is for agriculture and animal husbandry, play important roles in protecting the agricultural environment. The composition of forests across the different zones from north to south is characterised by a diversity of tree species, including c. sixteen species in the dry arid to semi-arid zone, to nearly fifty species in the savannas region. The existence of these forest zones increases the diversity of range plants which provide fodder and browse for the livestock, in addition to medicinal products. The Nile basin traverses the Sudan from south to north constituting the main drainage line for the watershed area across the different environmental zones. The forest cover of the watershed of the Nile Basin and the riverine forests along the Nile and tributaries constitute special ecosystems that are characterised by their roles in protecting the Nile and the watershed areas. The mangrove forests are also an important ecosystem along the Red Sea coast, covering an area of c. 42 km2 in 19 forest areas (FNC, 2000). Water use by plantations and natural forests varies. Most forests are natural and depend on rainfall as the only source of water. These forests are often characterised by low productivity, which increases from the northern semi-arid to the southern savannas zones as a result of the increasing rainfall. Limited areas are covered with plantations which use flood waters as in the case of the flood basins riverine forests extending along the Niles and the tributaries. These forests are normally in better condition compared with other forests in the dry areas. Small areas of forest plantations in Sudan depend on irrigated water in the irrigated agricultural schemes which constitute 1.5 million ha. There are also nearly 2.0 million ha of potential irrigated plantations in schemes presently under planning. There are small pilot projects in different parts of Sudan which have adopted water harvesting techniques in regeneration and plantation establishment inside forest reserves and community forests. Successful results have been obtained but the pilots have not been scaled up.

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The role played by plantations and natural forests in climate change is valuable in adaptation and mitigation approaches but could also be negative when deforestation and forest degradation are not controlled. Although net GHG emissions in Sudan did not exceed 15.8 GgC during 1995 to 2005, the contribution to GHG emissions in Sudan from deforestation and degradation was the highest compared with other sectors, amounting up to 75% of total emissions. This may result in adverse impacts and crises, reflected in declining agricultural productivity, scarcity of forest products, decline in palatable range plants and loss in biodiversity. The large area clearance within the savannas zone for agriculture increased the vulnerability to climate change and has already resulted in various adverse consequences. GHG emission trends vary between the different geographical zones in Sudan where the Savannah is characterised by the highest rates of annual emissions as a result of high rates of deforestation. Figure 3 indicates such variations in GHGs emissions between zones in Sudan. The major use of wood in Sudan continued to be for energy which amounts to 65–80% of the total wood consumption in the country, with the major part of fuelwood being used in rural areas as raw firewood. However, much of the wood energy is wasted as a result of using non-efficient cooking stoves at the household level and at some industries like bakeries and traditional cooking oil refineries and as a result of on-site burning in relation to land preparation for agriculture. Recently, tree planting is increasingly perceived as a climate change adaptation/mitigation activity as well as a means for contributing to improving agricultural environments and livelihood support, but funding for implementing large scale plantation schemes remains a constraint. Figure 3. Annual GHGs emission trends on regional basis in Sudan. Source: Outline of CDM National Strategy for the Republic of Sudan, 2011.

11. Conclusions and way forward 11.1 Conclusions Forest products constitute a significant foundation for both local and national economies in Sudan, in addition to environmental and social services provided by the forests. Wood constitutes the major source of energy in Sudan providing about 70-80% of the energy needs of the country for almost all segments of the population and institutions. The high rates of population growth and urbanisation in Sudan contribute to the increase in the demand for construction timber and wood energy. Sudan possesses valuable forest resources that provide suitable opportunities for development of forest-based industries from timber (pulp and paper, plywood, particle board and veneer) and from non-wood products including gums, fruits, seeds and fibres.

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Although natural forests cover nearly 70.0 million ha (28.5%) of the country, the forest reserves area at present is c. 13.5 million ha (4.5%) of the country area. Plantation forests are considered as an approach for addressing the recurrent problems of over exploitation of the natural forest resources, but the area of planted forests in Sudan is rather small and has a limited capacity to adequately and sustainably deliver wood and non-wood products in addition to other services. There is, however, a good potential for forest developments through increasing the public and out growers’ forest areas at community, institutional and private sector levels in the form of plantations, shelterbelts, woodlots and in social forestry and agroforestry. Forest resources attract various investors in plantation resource developments, as in irrigated systems and for industries, and this will also generate increased employment and enhance economic development. Plantations, mostly fast-growing eucalypts, developed by outgrowers provide considerable employment, in addition to supply the market demand for poles and fuel wood. Sudan is facing many challenges including serious environmental problems, such as deforestation, land degradation, desertification and climate change that threaten the Sudanese people’s wellbeing and peaceful life which are strongly linked to food security and sustainable development. Several factors have contributed to the degradation of forest resources in Sudan leading to over-exploitation of the natural forests resulting in high rates of deforestation and forest conversion to waste land. 11.2 Recommendations It is recommended that consideration should be made for: An up-to-date forest classification and analysis of the distribution of forest types within

different zones and in relation to rainfall distribution, should be developed and adopted in order to have a basis for sound management and conservation;

Monitoring and evaluation of deforestation and forest degradation and provision of rates and

conversion figures for forest cover and biomass changes using successive inventories; Increasing the area of forest reserves with respect to government forest reserves, community

forest reserves and outgrowers’ forest reserves and develop detailed management plans for each forest;

Surveying production and consumption of different types of forest products every five years in

order to link the supply and demand for forest products to the forest inventory and forest growth data;

Sustainable Development in forestry and forest products to be integrated with agriculture and

animal husbandry in order to support successful community-based practices through private and public partnerships;

The Nile basin watershed area in Sudan, with an emphasis on protection and sustainable

management and consideration of trans-boundary relations bearing in mind the importance of conflict resolution;

Implementation of the comprehensive national strategies for development (1992–2002 and

2003–2027) which stated forest and other natural resources policy objectives that aim at conservation, environmental protection and poverty alleviation at national and community levels;

Land use planning to enable reservation of forests and natural resource areas up to 25% of the

country’s area; Sudan should develop forest policy reforms in order to lessen the degradation of the forest

ecosystems and this contains measures to enhance sustainable management of public forests and to encourage forest outgrowers to establish forest reserves and plantations;

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Adoption of alternative energy sources such as LPG and enhancement of efficient use of energy technologies represented by improved cook stoves, brick ovens and efficient charcoal kilns should remain a policy priority;

More consideration of the use of wastewater resources for irrigated planted forests, while

taking into consideration the potential risks for health and groundwater contamination; Baseline surveys of forest resources are essential for planning and monitoring but are today

used in very limited ways as tools for measuring forest development; hence, it is recommended that Sudan should be concerned about forest resource inventories and development of baseline information at local, regional and national levels;

There is a need for incorporating forest resources in the diversification of income generating

activities and adding value for FNC and outgrowers through processing of forest products and developing markets;

Sudan should seek donor partnerships and funding mechanism for developing forest-based

projects in order to increase forest cover, diversify forest product and increase forestry and biological resources intervention in income generation, poverty reduction and sustainable development;

Comprehensive policies and plans at different levels are indispensable to ensuring that demand

for wood and wood products remain at a manageable level. General policies on land rights and new laws to regulate resource access are needed to respond to post-conflict realities, particularly, in areas coming out of conflict and war or currently undergoing persistent demands and contentions related to issues of land possession on statutory or customary basis;

Enhancing investment of the forestry sector can be done by enhancing the income from its

activities through appropriate pricing policies and strengthening the efficiency of revenue collection systems;

The findings of the 1994 study on consumption of forest products in Sudan and complimentary

studies have showed the important role of NWFPs in local trade. FNC so far is giving due consideration to gum Arabic. The remaining non-wood products are given minor development attention. It is recommended that the FNC makes more efforts to institutionalise this aspect in its programme;

The current forest revenue sharing procedure between the FNC, state Governments and the

Federal Authority should be further analysed and structured to allow for more funds for development of the resource, and,

Encourage regional cooperation especially in the field of tree breeding programmes and germ-

plasm exchange. 11.3 Way forward Improvement of plantation returns through reduction of establishment costs and increasing its profits will encourage expansion of plantations, particularly for sustainable forestry based industry. Since more than fifteen million ha of forest land is owned by FNC, establishment of partnerships with the private sector and communities is required to encourage their involvement with forest plantations. Improvement of budget availability for forest plantations is badly needed to expand plantation areas inside and outside forest reserve. The budget available for FNC for plantation establishment has been declining in the absence/shortage of national and foreign financial support, which has led to reducing the efficiency of FNC to plant considerable areas. FNC should look for alternative sources of funds, such as environmental services fees, polluter fees, etc., to generate additional budget to implement its mandate. The government should also encourage forest plantations in reserved forests by removing or reducing the rents and also offer subsidies to communities for establishing plantations. The government could also consider introducing Forestry Encouragement Loans at a very low annual interest rate.

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Capacity building and networking with regional and international institutions for information sharing and technical expertise in SFM is very crucial. There is a need for closer collaboration with the international community to foster economic growth and build peace and stability; FNC should look at such potentials for developing forestry resources, especially after the separation of Sudan. Forests exist within a larger landscape, and are vitally connected to other sectors. It is, therefore, important to recognise related institutions constituting part of the forestry sector and to appreciate the cross-sectoral and interdependency relationships that exist between the different sectors. Of prime importance is that FNC should incorporate and implement the commitments of the international conventions in all its policies for promoting and developing the forest ecosystem. The following actions should be part of the mission of FNC and other related institutions for the upcoming period after the separation of Sudan: Dissemination of awareness amongst the officials and citizens in matters relating to forests and

natural resources; Conducting studies and research in order to lay out the necessary plans for assessing forests

and natural resources all over Sudan and developing them; Increasing the forests, range and natural resources areas by reserving more areas and by

increasing the required areas at a ratio not less than 25% of the total area of the country; Investing in sustainable livelihoods and environmental management as conflict prevention

strategies; Integrating environmental considerations into all UN relief and development projects in the

country; Combating environmental degradation and encourage rehabilitation of degraded forest lands

should be comprehensive endeavours aiming at formulating and implementing a land rehabilitation strategy integrated in other sector strategies within the framework of the national development strategy; and,

Sudan’s national forests programme should include rehabilitation of degraded lands, and FNC

should collaborate with other sectors to incorporate minimum standards in their activities affecting forests. This entails building ‘s capacity to render support to other sectors contributing to that effect.

Provide incentives for the forest-based industry. Establishment of accurate data and statistics of the forest resources in terms of quantity, quality and allocation are considered to be of crucial importance in establishing a forest based industry. In Sudan, there are still not enough incentives to encourage the private sector to invest in forest industries. The forest industry, particularly the wood based industry, has been taken care of by FNC. A specific forestry based industry policy should be issued to: Provide more incentives to the forest-based industries such as access to capital, tax removal on

imported machineries and equipment; Rotation tax exemption on land for plantations; Provision of incentives in terms of subsidy in plantation development; Provision of tax relief to farmers, private sector and communities who have forest plantations; Introduction of Export Grants and manufacturing allowances; and, Imposing tax on imported timber products. Moreover, the government should provide facilities near plantations, such as roads, energy supply, establish railway lines to link the plantations with the industrial sites and ports, etc. It can be concluded that an appropriate combination of policies, strategies and incentives would provide the driving force to motivate all partners to invest in forest plantations in Sudan.

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Mahir, S.S. and A.M.A. Eldoma, 1994. Use and marketing of non-wood forest products (excluding gum Arabic). Consultancy Report. Study on Consumption of Forests Products in the Sudan. Forestry Development in the Sudan. Mahmoud, A.E. and A.Y. Abdelgadir, 1995. Study on the consumption of forest products. The economic importance of the wooden furniture industry in the Northern States of the Sudan. Masson, J.L. and S. Osman, 1963. The Gezira irrigated plantations. FAO, Rome, Italy. FAO/SACAFTECH Field 3, 11 pp. Meijerink, G.W., 1997. Incentives for tree growing and managing forests sustainably. IKC Natuurbeheer Working Document No. W-140. Wageningen, the Netherlands, Stichting BOS. Metz, H.C. (ed), 1991. Sudan: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991. Mogaka, H., G. Simons, J. Turpie, L. Emerton and F. Karanja, 2001. Economic Aspects of Community Involvement in Sustainable Forest Management in Eastern and Southern Africa. IUCN Eastern Africa Regional Office, Nairobi. Nair, C.T.S., 1995. Experience in the Establishment of Forests National Corporation. Forestry Development Project. Nimir, H.B. and A.A. Abdelsalam, 2005. Oil sector development and forestry in Sudan: Issue Paper. Assistance to the Revision of National Forestry Policy, Legislation and Institutional Reorganisation. FAO. Semizoglu, M.A. and T.D. Abdel Magid, 1986. Potential areas of irrigated forest plantations in Sudan, with special reference to central Sudan. Plantation Section, Fuelwood Development Energy Project. Sudan Government, 1989. The Forests National Corporation Act, 1989. (1989 Act No. 13). The Forests Act, 1989 (1989 Act No. 4), Supplement No. 1. General legislatives, Sudan Government Gazette. Sudan Government, 2002. Forests and Renewable Natural Resources Act 2002. Tchatat, M. and B. Chikamai, 2010. Forest management for Non-Wood Products and Services in Africa: Lessons Learnt on Sustainable Forest Management in Africa. Kenya: Nairobi. pp 34. UNEP, 2007. Sudan post environment assessment. Main Report. World Bank, 2003. Sudan: Stabilisation and reconstruction country economic memorandum (In Two Volumes). Volume II: Statistical appendices. Prepared jointly by the Government of Sudan and the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Dept., WB, Africa Region. Report No. 24620-SU.

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Annex 1. Sudan land cover. All figures in 1000 ha. Source: Africover data base State

Agriculture Forests Range Urban Bare Water Total

Khartoum 171.9 37.8 1 695.3 58.4 195.2 21.6 2 180.3 Jazerz 176.2 5.3 667.3 29.0 0 10.9 2 474.4 Blue Nile 2 042.1 1 071.8 1 075.4 4.3 0 24.8 4 219.4 Sennar 1 976.9 626.4 931.5 3.6 24.7 19.2 3 582.1 White Nile 1 459.9 609.8 186.0 8.1 21.4 47.2 4 006.0 North. State 158.1 20.5 467.3 7.9 35 661.5 127.6 36 442.9 River Nile 162.6 212.5 3421.0 10.4 7 497.2 52.7 12 937.7 Gedarif 3 221.5 522.1 2 079.9 13.9 9.6 2.0 5 849.0 Kassala 797.5 900.0 2 849.6 42.0 403.7 9.9 5 002.6 Red Sea 100.4 331.4 2290.2 8.7 18 899.0 0.2 21 630.0 N. Kordofan 3 025.1 637.1 8 899.4 32.3 6 257.6 1.6 18 853.1 S. Kordofan 1 213.7 4 139.3 2 607.0 6.3 71.1 0.9 8 038.3 W. Kordofan 3 474.4 3137.9 4 629.2 20.4 23.5 0.4 11 285.8 N. Darfor 2 181.1 830.5 7 845.7 17.2 18 676.4 0.1 29 551.1 S. Darfor 3 441.5 6 009.3 482.2 17.2 40.7 0 13 871.0 W. Darfor 624.1 2 734.5 3 877.5 1.5 638.3 0.6 7 880.3 Upper Nile 652.3 453.1 2 666.8 2.3 0 20.0 7 879.7 Jungoli 326.6 9 627.1 2 256.1 0 0.8 50.3 12 273.5 El Buhairat 15.7 336.0 38.8 0.3 0.5 7.4 4 211.7 El Wuhda 72.6 2 236.0 1 338.9 0 0.5 22.3 3 670.2 Warab 681.5 2 347.0 582.6 2.6 0.3 2.6 3 615.1 N.B. Al Gazal 287.5 2 516.5 584.9 0.3 4.2 0 3 370.9 W.B. Al gazal 152.0 6 747.5 1 808.8 3.5 5.0 0 8 717.4 Bahr Al Jabal 1 028.7 3 169.8 226.4 4.0 7.9 8.3 4 444.5 E Equatoria 412.4 4 591.4 2 371.2 0.3 40.7 0.7 7 614.6 W Equatoria 676.1 6 667.7 511.7 0 52.5 0 7 908.0 Total

30 118.4 60 518.3 56 390.6 550.4 88 532.3 431.1 251 509.7

Percentage 12.0% 24.1% 22.4% 0.2% 35.2% 0.2%

Annex 2. Major donor assisted forest projects in Sudan. Source: Abdel Magid 2008. Project

Donor Duration State Objectives/Achievements

Fuel-wood Development for Energy in Sudan

Netherlands 1983-90 Gezira Sennar Gedarif Kassala

Development of fuelwood resources through conser-vation measures and tree planting under irrigation mostly and partially under rainfed conditions. Management and protection of model natural forests. Phase I and II of the project covered nearly all aspects of forestry development so it became a "core" project within the Forests Administration.

Forestry Rehabilitation and Social Forestry

Irish Aid 1992-96 Gezira Sennar

Management and protect-tion of model natural forests. Forestry extension and community development.

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Forestry Development in Sudan Netherlands 1992-96 Kassala Gedarif Gezira Sennar Blue Nile

Management and pro-tection of selected natural forests. Promotion of community forestry. Promotion of wood energy conservation.

Sudan Finland Afforestation Project

FINNIDA 1979-91 Gezira White Nile Blue Nile

The project included many activities such as exten-sion programmes at White Nile; agroforestry models have been established in the form of Acacia senegal plantations, farm nurse-ries and village woodlots.

CARE assisted Eastern Refugee Reforestation Project

CARE International

1983-89 Kassala Gedarif

The project adopted a diverse programme of agroforestry and exten-sion for small farmers.

Women Rural Development Project

UNFPA 1994-2000 Sennar Promotion of social development. Women empowerment.

Forests Assessment CIDA 1981-1986 Blue Nile Forest inventory. Forest utilisation. Capacity building.

Natural Production of Silk Korean International Development Agency

1996-1998 Gezira Blue Nile Sennar

Capacity building. Forest utilisation.

Community Forestry Project CONCERN

Irish Aid 1988-1991 Sennar Promotion of community forestry. Soil conservation

Community Forestry Project CONCERN

Irish Aid 1988-1991 White Nile

Shelterbelts planting. Sand dune fixation. Village woodlots.

Labour Intensive Project ILO 1988-1992 White Nile

Shelterbelts planting. Sand dune fixation.

Gutaina Shelterbelt Project SOS Sahel International

1993-1995 White Nile

Shelterbelts planting. Soil conservation. Extension and awareness

Forestry Research and Education Centre Project:

UNDP 1961:1965 Khartoum The purpose of the project is to assist the govern-ment in establishing a Forest Research Institute and to provide improved facilities for training at the Forest Rangers' College.

Department of Forestry Project:

UNDP 1975-1978 Khartoum Establishment of Forestry Department within the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum; provision of teaching facilities, field and labora-tory equipments; in service training and transport.

Shelterbelts Project, Dongola, Northern Region

UNDP 1988-1990 Northern State Establishment of a central nursery, school nurseries, shelterbelts planting in farm lands and extension programmes.

Restocking of the Gum Belt for Desertification Control:

UNSO/UNDP 1989-1994

Darfur Establishing decentralized nurseries. Farmers were trained on improved techniques for planting and maintenance of Acacia senegal (gum trees) plantations.

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Restocking of the Gum Belt for Desertification Control, Donor:

UNSO/UNDP phase I (1981-85), phase II (1986-90), phase III (1991-96)

Northern Kordofan

Restocking of Gum Gardens. Development of an extension service. Establishment of village nurseries

Support Project for Food Security, Poverty Alleviation and Land Degradation Control in African Countries producing Gums and Resins (Acacia Operation):

Italian Government.

2003-2005 North Kordofan and Senar States

The project aims at improvement and increase sustainability of agri-cultural and pastoral systems, and diversifying and increasing sources of household income, and thereby contributing to the food security of people involved

Revision of National Forest Policy, Legislation and Institutional Re-organisation:

FAO

2003-2005 Khartoum To assist the government in the revision of the National Forest Policy and legislation, taking into account the changes in economic and social con-ditions in Sudan and also the anticipated future changes within Sudan and the in world at large

Management of Jebel Marra Forests

Government of Germany GTZ

July 1989 Darfur State Management and utilisa-tion of Jebel Marra forests. Strengthening and sustainable yield of forests

Revitalizing the Sudan Gum Arabic Production and Marketing

Multi-donor Trust Fund and IFAD

On going Eight Localities in Blue Nile, Sennar, White Nile, North and South Kordofan states.

To increase the production and income of small scale gum producers in selected areas of the gum belt through improved performance of the production and marketing systems.

Programme of Rehabilitation of refugees hosting areas in eastern Sudan

(UNHCR) in collaboration with (COR). ENSO

1985 Eastern Sudan Environmental rehabilitation activities including reforestation landscape restoration, awareness raising with full community participation

Annex 3. Total area of community, state and private forest plantations. Figurers in ha (rounded). Source: FRA, 2010 State

Community plantations

State plantations

Private company

plantations

Total plantations

Sennar 19 500 425 500 650 445 650 Blue Nile - 6 350 27 800 34 150 Eljaziara 500 30 600 5 800 36 900 Kassala 3 200 9 950 - 13 150 Elgadriff 135 700 381 500 4 650 521 850 White Nile 26 050 9 100 3 150 38 300 N. Kordufan - 37 900 84 050 121 950 S. Kordufan - 26 750 - 26 750 N. Darfur - 10 400 - 10 400 S. Darfur - 78 950 - 78 950

Total 184 950 1 017 000 126 100 1 328 050

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Annex 4. Main biotic agents affecting Sudanese forests. Source: FRA 2010 Category/agent

Sub-category, species, genus Type and extent of damage

1. Man Many types of damage caused by irrational and careless behaviour, e.g. fire

2. Vertebrates Domestic animals, e.g. goats and camels Browsing branches, twigs, leaves, leaflets, buds, flowers, fruits and seed Goats browse sprout and seedlings beside soil compaction, which impairs soil permeability and consequently its suitability for seed germination

Wild animals, e.g. elephant, giraffe, antelope, rabbit, baboon and other monkeys, warthog

Browsing tree parts, elephants sometimes uproot or break trees or shrubs.

Rabbits, baboons and monkeys eat sprouts and seedlings. Warthogs damage young trees when they excavate for roots and grubs.

3. Birds Quelia quelia aethiopica (Zarzour, Gaddoum Ahmar)

Roost or nest in huge numbers in young A. nilotica plantations, causing stems or branches to break under their weights. Render trees unsuitable for timber production.

4. Invertebrates Bruchid seed borer (Coleoptera, beetle) Damage Acacia seeds especially Sunt (Acacia nilotica) and Hashab (A. senegal). Impede afforestation and reforestation

Buperetidae, Sphenoptera, Chalcicroa arenosa (all Coleoptera, beetles)

Dieback of Sunt in the Nilotic forests from Khartoum to Roseires, Dinbder, Rahad and Abu Habil. Causes mortality of complete forests.

Talh borer (Sionxylon senegalense) Infests talh wood immediately after felling, renders it useless even for fire-wood or charcoal let alone for building poles. Infests most sapwood of species and bamboo.

Longhorn beetle (Cerambicydae) Harms sawn hard wood especially Homeid (Sclerocarya birrea).

Isoptera (termites) of the genera Microtermes, Odontotermes and Psamotermes

Harms trees at any stage from seedling to mature tree. Destroys wood of most tree species. Found in areas with rainfall more than 400 mm. Subterranean with no obvious mound. Spread all over Sudan.

Orthotera (locusts and crickets), e.g. Night wanderer (Sari el Lail), Anacerdium, Melanorhodon

Damages gum Arabic production Eats newly germinating seed and young seedlings to an extent that can hinder afforestation/reforestation in the planting season.

5. Plants Grasses and herbs, e.g. wild sorghum (Adar), Ankoj, Nagil, Siaada, Rubaa, Soreib and Phyllanthus spp.

Competes with newly germinating seedlings. Removed through weeding.

Creepers, e.g. Cucurbits, watermelon, pumpkin, leef (Lufa aegyptiaca), and others.

Competes with newly germinating seed and seedlings. Spirally wind round shrubs and trees and lean on them in search of sunlight. Weaken trees, spoil their form and break them.

Epiphytes, e.g. Loranthus acaciae

Grows on branch axils of thalh, sunt, heglig, habil and others. Depends on host for supply of water and nutrients. Synthesises its own food but lives on the host for exposure to sunlight, which might weaken the host or completely smother it.

Invasive alien species, e.g. Mesquite (Prosopis chilensis)

Threatens agricultural schemes, causes genetic pollution and displaces indigenous plants.

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6. Micro-organisms Bacteria, fungi Causes wood rot and sap staining; weakens and discolours wood. Renders the wood unsuitable for some uses, therefore chemical treatment is necessary.

Contact us at: African Forest Forum

P.O. Box 30677-00100 Nairobi GPO KENYA Tel: +254 20 722 4203 Fax: +254 20 722 4001

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