Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 10.9
Forest Rangers assessing the number of trees cut down to make way for cropping
•
Expanded cultivation of cereals and vegetables, with harvests doubling in some
areas;
•
Many rural producers have doubled or tripled their incomes through the sale of
wood, seed pods, and edible leaves;
•
Improved stocks of fuel wood and fodder;
•
Average time spent by women collecting firewood has fallen from 2.5 hours to
half an hour;
•
An increase of 10-20-fold in tree and shrub cover on about five million hectares
of land, with approximately 200 million trees protected and managed;
•
Soil fertility improved as higher tree densities act as windbreaks to counter
erosion, provide enriching mulch and fix nitrogen in root systems;
•
Increased population of wild fauna, including hares, wild guinea fowls, squirrels
and jackals;
•
New food export markets created, primarily to Nigeria;
•
Creation of specialized local markets in buying, rehabilitating, and reselling
degraded lands, with land values rising by 75-140 % in some areas.
To succeed, development policy must take into account its principal potential
users, in this case, the local villagers from the forest areas. Starting in 1981,
the state initiated and tested a new control policy for the exploitation of wood
while managing the protected forest of Guesselbodi, among others. Other forest
planning developments have been implemented, such as in the forest region of
Gorou Bassounga and Faira, to name but two. Furthermore, the wood consumption
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