   |
|
Misanet.com / IPS, 27 January - With its population explosion causing an increased demand for wood, Nigerien authorities have been forced to rework forestry policy to find ways to harvest wood more sustainably. The new plan, known as the Domestic Energy Strategy (DES), is based on making rural populations themselves responsible for the management and sustainable development of wood supplies. Village people living near wooded areas learn to manage these areas by selective tree cutting so that forests can regenerate. "How can we rationally and sustainably develop forests to meet firewood needs, while at the same time allow resources to regenerate themselves so there is enough for both city and country dwellers? This is the problem we want to solve with the domestic energy strategy," stated the project's director, Doukia Kaka. Niger is four-fifths desert and has practically no forests. The few woody areas which do exist are being cleared in a willy-nilly fashion. If quick measures are not taken, the woods will be lost and the ecosystem destabilised. According to a 1990 survey, some 250,000 metric tons of firewood, are cut down annually and transported to the larger population centres, mostly Niamey, Zinder, Maradi, and Tahoua, to be sold. In Niger, more than 95 percent of the population uses wood for fuel, according to the Ministry of the Environment. - If wood continues to be cut at this rate, and replanting continues to be haphazard, in several years, the country will most certainly be all desert and completely uninhabitable. That's why this problem is so urgent and why we need to sustainably manage whatever we have left, the Ministry said. According to Kaka, fuel strategy needs to be based on creating rural wood markets and supervising their operations. "Setting up rural wood markets is one way to go from anarchic development, which hurts the environment, to rational development, which respects the renewable aspects of the resource while improving people's lives," he said. Rural wood markets are commercial ventures authorised by a 1992 ordinance. They are organised and managed by local populations from forested areas who own the exclusive cutting rights. Kaka explained that "a rural wood market is basically a village institution. The concession for the market is awarded by the state. The village has rights over a specific forested area, which is a naturally-occurring area or a managed one. It is registered in the name of the local management organisation according to the rules specified in the regulations." - Each village with a rural market is informed of the specific boundaries of their wooded area. The wood-cutting personnel, usually local woodcutters trained and supervised by environmental services personnel, are advised of which kinds of trees they are allowed to cut. So that the forest regenerates itself, they know what they should cut, during what time of year they should cut it, and how much to take in the course of a year, stated Kaka. The project is widely seen as a good idea. "Before the project created our rural wood market, woodsmen chopped down our forests as they pleased without paying any compensation, then went and sold the wood in the city," explained Boureima Harouna, a resident of the village of Niaktire, 90 kilometres south of Niamey. - But now, all that has changed. The forest belongs to us, and as a result, we take very good care of it. No one else has the right to come chop wood in this forest, he added. There are two types of rural markets. The "controlled" rural market is supplied by a specific and managed area. In this area, live trees only from specific species are cut, and then, only according to selection techniques that have been developed by the environment services. The cut wood is then dried before being sold in the rural markets. The second type of rural market is "oriented", that is, supplied by an unmanaged wood lot. For this type of market, woodcutters essentially just gather dead wood. Live wood cannot be cut until it is declared a controlled area. Besides cutting and selling wood for the benefit of village communities, the rural markets are also authorised to charge tax on wood sales. Wood sellers who buy directly from the rural markets pay taxes on the product. The taxes vary depending on the type of rural market it is. For example, it may be 375 CFA francs for wood coming from an ''oriented'' wood lot, but 350 CFA francs when it comes from a controlled wood lot. (Seven hundred CFA francs equal one US dollar.) Taxes collected in this way are shared between the village and the national treasury according to a specific formula. Part of the money the village gets is used to finance community development projects. Such projects could include drilling wells, setting up grain reserves, building schools or mosques, assistance for the disadvantaged, and buying medicines. The rest of the tax goes to the village or a woods management fund to be ploughed back into forestry management, mostly for replanting, soil improvement, and planning. "In 1998, with wood sale receipts, we bought vaccines for the people of our village. We did not wait for the government to do it for us," said Hamani Boubacar, the chief of Tientiergou, a village 80 kilometres south of Niamey. From 1992 to 1998, almost a billion CFA francs were generated by the approximately 120 wood markets located around the country, according to Domestic Energy Project statistics. "The importance of wood revenues should make villagers aware of the monetary value of a standing tree. As a result, they should understand their own self-interest in practising sustainable woodcutting techniques which insure the regular renewal of this resource," said the project director. - Rural market revenues can only be really regular and sustainable if the woodcutters use rational cutting methods, and cut only according to environment services guidelines, he said. "That's why there is an annual quota each year on the total amount of wood available for cutting by a rural market which is set by environment officials, those who manage the programme, and the village people themselves," Kaka added. By Souleymane Anza, IPS
|
