Africa from Forest to Sand 1993

Africa From Forest to Sand 1993

A report of a landscape survey expedition through Nigeria, Niger and Algeria

The Leventis Foundation

Sponsors:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3 1. SUMMARY 4 1.1 Objectives 4 1.2 Itinerary & Methods 4 1.3 Main Findings 5 1.3.1 Resource Management 5 1.3.2 People & Projects 6 1.3.3 General Discussion 8 1.4 Conclusions & Future Proposals 9 2. INTRODUCTION 11 2.1 Background 11 2.2 Project history 12 3. OBJECTIVES 13 4. METHOD 14 5. RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 16 5.1 Nigeria 16 5.1.1 Social and historical context 16 4.1.2 Petroleum oil 18 5.1.3 Rainforest 19 5.1.4 Savannahs 20 5.2 Niger 24 5.2.1 Social and historical context 24 5.2.2 Economic Aid 26 5.2.3 Drought 27 5.2.4 Farming 28 5.2.5 Minerals 29 5.3 Water management 29 6. LANDSCAPES 31 6.1 Southern Rainforest. Lagos to Benin. 324km 31 6.2 Southern Guinea Savannah. Calabar to Jos Plateau. 839km 31 6.3 Central Savannahs. Bauchi to Birnin Gwari. 703km 31 6.4 Northern Sudan Savannah 32 6.4.1 The Kano Close Settlement Area 32 6.4.2 Kano to Katsina. 266km 32 6.5 Floodplain in Sahelian Savannah. Kano to Nguru & Gashua along Jama’are/Hadejia river basin. 324km 32 6.6 Sahelian Savannah 33 6.6.1 Kano to Zinder. 240km 33

6.6.2 Zinder to Kogimeri, by Goudoumaria. 300km 33 6.7 Sahelian Steppe. Zinder to north-east of Sabon Kafi. 128km 34 7. PEOPLE & PROJECTS 36 7.1 Nigeria 36 7.1.1 Lekki Conservation Centre, near Lagos (Coastal Swamp Forest) 36 7.1.2 Okomu Wildlife Sanctuary, near Benin (Southern Rainforest) 36 7.1.3 The Cross River National Park, Calabar (Montane Moist Forest) 37 7.1.4 The Pandrillus Project, Calabar (Montane Moist Forest) 38 7.1.5 The Yankari Initiative (YI) (Central Savannahs) 39 7.1.6 The Katsina Afforestation Project (Northern Sudan Savannah) 44 7.1.7 The Hadejia Nguru Wetlands Conservation Project, HNWCP, near Nguru (Floodplain in Sahelian Savannah) 47 7.1.8 The North Eastern Zone Agricultural Development Project, NEZADP, near Gashua (Floodplain in Sahelian Savannah) 48 7.2 Niger 49 7.2.1 Projet de Mise en Valeur des Cuvettes Oasiennes, near Goudoumaria (Sahelian Savannah) 49 7.2.2 SOS Sahel Project, near Takieta (Sahelian Savannah) 50 7.2.3 Bororo pastoralist nomadic camp, near Sabon Kafi (Sahelian Steppe) 52 7.2.4 The Reserve Naturelle Nationale de l’Air et Ténéré, near Agadez (Saharan Massifs) 52 7.3 Algeria 53 7.3.1 The Parc National du Tassili, near Djanet (Saharan Massifs) 53 7.4 Interstate management 55 8. PROJECT RESULTS 56 9. NOMADIC PASTORALISM 57 10. DESERTIFICATION & REGENERATION 61 11. CONCLUSIONS & FUTURE PROPOSALS 66 12. REFERENCES 68

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank wholeheartedly the following people for making this journey possible: Mr A.P. Leventis of the Leventis Foundation. John Moreland, Lady Janet Devyt and all the members of the International Tree Foundation Committee. Henri Brocklebank, who found all those pearls of knowledge and encouraged me. Dr. Charles Stirton, Michael Maunder, John Lonsdale and Francis Cook of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Gerry Judah and Helen Bowers. Nigel Winser of the Royal Geographical Society. Ken and Julie Slavin . Dr. Caroline Ifeka of University College, London. Lloyd Anderson from the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, University of Wales, Bangor Herbert Girardet of Footprint Films. Carol Beckwith. The Nigerian Conservation Foundation. Benedict and Francis Hurst, Jonathan Rudge and all from the Yankari Initiative. Phil and Frances Hall. Helen, my Efik mother in Calabar. Phil Marshall of the WWF Cross River National Park Project. Janus Debsky of the Katsina Afforestation Project. Henri Thompson and David Thomas of the HNWCP. Tim Havard and Ruth from the Overseas Development Administration in Kaduna. Patrick Paris and my Danish host of the Projet Danois. Aissa, my Bororo guide. Claude Mauret, Guy and all of the AVFP. Ahmadu and colleagues from the SOS Sahel Project. My Family in Niamey. All the researchers of the URZA and INRF who welcomed me in Algeria. The whole staff at Business Marketing Services Ltd for their help and the loan of equipment in writing this report. Jo Bowers, designer, for the maps and figures. Mark Nelson, Diana Mathewson and Robyn Tredwell who greatly contributed to my land management education in the Australian savannahs. Linda Leigh and Tony Burges, who taught me some of the basics of terrestrial ecology in tropical biomes. Johnny Dolphin for encouraging me to be, to dare, to think and to act. And Irving Rappaport, raconteur extraordinaire, who inspires me to realise my dreams, to look always beyond the obvious and to tell the tale.

1. SUMMARY

1.1 Objectives

The context and purpose of this journey is to investigate land degradation in the African savannah belt and to assess the work of different types of projects and their attempts to adress this phenomenon 1. To compare different land and people management strategies along the path of the reconnaissance route and to assess their potential long term impact. 2. To foster communication and collaboration between business, conservation, scientific research and aid and development personnel with particular reference to their work of land regeneration. 3. To compare and contrast the two traditional strategies of pastoral nomadism and sedentary agriculture. 4. To investigate the relict plant communities in the Hoggarth and Air and Ténéré mountains as examples of ancient savannahs (22). 5. To assess the relevance of modern research into the economic uses (24,25) and vulnerability (3) of arid and semi arid plants, and into land development theories and their application (23).

1.2 Itinerary & Methods

The route of the reconnaissance traversed the four main vegetation zones within Nigeria and Niger from south to north. The four regions are: Rainforest belt : Coastal swamp, Rainforest and Montane moist forests Guinea Savannah : Southern, Northern and Jos Plateau rim Sudan Savannah : Southern, Northern Sahelian Savannah and Steppe

NIGERIA Lagos - Calabar- Jos - Bauchi - Kaduna - Birnin Gwari - Kano - Katsina - Hadejia - Gashua - Kano.

NIGER Zinder - Goudoumaria - Zinder - Sabon Kafi - Takieta - Niamey.

ALGERIA

Algiers During two months, from March to May 1993, a total of 12 projects and sites were visited and assessed in terms of their: • organisation and decision making process • fire management strategy

• water management strategy • carrying capacity • crops and livestock used by local people • range of plant and animal species considered important for the ecological integrity of the area and the maintenance of people’s way of life. • level of awareness of and relationship to other projects or communities within the region.

Data was collected by direct observation, photographs and interviews while participating in the day to day activities of those projects and communities that were visited. Some of the literature available on each project was also collected and is referred to in the main text of the report.

1.3 Main Findings

My general approach was to consider the process of land degradation as a phenomenon interacting on cultural and technological as well as biological levels. The historical background and socio-political setting of Nigeria and Niger, followed by an overview of the most influential resource management issues, are set out in section 5. Detailed descriptions of the landscapes traversed are contained in section 6.

1.3.1 Resource Management

Nigeria’s situation is determined by five main elements: • its history as a trading partner in the process of European colonisation • its large and rapidly growing population • the fact that it is one of the largest petroleum oil producers in the world • the extenisve corruption and ineffectiveness of its institutions • its variety of ecological zones, a source of great biological wealth

In the rainforest belt, a high human population density is placing great pressure on the remaining forest. Timber extraction, the most lucrative use of the forest, is practised without much restraint or forethought. Though the main responsibles parties are the large independent operators rather than the big timber companies. The plantations (palm oil, cocoa, rubber, pulpwood) and slash and burn farming vie for access to the remaining land. Hunting for bushmeat is excessive. There is a clear contradiction between the level of need for plant material from the forest for food and medicine and the rate of destruction of the resource. In both Guinea and Sudan savannahs there has been a rapid expansion of farming accompanied by a breakdown of the fallow system and an increased reliance on artificial fertilisers. This type of management carries an increasing cost as tropical soils rapidly lose their stucture, nutrient leaching increases during the heavy monsoons and wind erosion severely affects the bare fields during the dry seasons. However, the Kano close-settlement agricultural zone is an exception to this general pattern and demonstrates to what degree sustainable levels of production can be maintained by manuring the fields and intelligent intensive land management. Land tenure security and economic returns influence the difference between these two opposing

farm practices. The vast majority of land tenure is either by access to common land variety or by traditional inheritance granted by village chiefs. Fences erected for exclusion experiments in various projects were always pulled down. Disappearance of woodlands has also been extensive due to the eradication of the tree habitat of the tse tse fly in the 1950’s, the expansion of cities (construction and fuel wood consumers) and the extensive increase in farming. While the Guinea savannah retains a prosperous appearance and continues to produce ever greater amounts of food, it has been put under considerable pressure by the permanent settlement of many Fulani pastoralists, following the droughts since 1972 which have virtually brought to an end their nomadic way of life in the Sahel. Here, and even more in the Sudan savannah and in the Sahelian floodplains of the north east of the country, conflicts between farmers and pastoralists are sharply increasing, sometimes resulting in violent outcomes. Access to water and to grazing land is often the reason behind the friction. Faced with a reduction in perennial grass cover throughout the area, the Fulani are often forced to enter in conservation and game reserves illegaly to find the fodder they need at the end of the dry season. Meanwhile farmers encroach into grazing and forest reserves as shortages of agricultural land increase. In both Guinea and Sudan regions, hunting has been and remains intense, with several species of large mammals having become locally extinct in the last 20 years. Niger is a bankrupt country, totally dependent on French and international aid programmes in spite of the fact that it possesses a sizeable uranium mining industry. France (as the Communaute Franco-Africaine which uses a common currency tied to the French Franc) controls most of its production as well as most other sectors of the economy. Its main economic activity used to be cattle herding but overgrazing compounded with the severe droughts of the last 20 years have totally ruined this industry in Niger. A severe loss of perennial grasses (replaced by short lived annuals and unpalatable invader species) has occured in many places as well as a considerable loss of trees and shrubs. Soil erosion and the activation of sand dunes are widespread.

Water is the ultimate scarce resource in the tropical belt and its availability is extremely seasonal due to the pattern of the once yearly rain season. Traditionally, hydrologists study water cycles above and below the ground but only to the height of the standard British rain gauge. Above that, the water is the concern of meteorologists. Consequently, the total water cycle is not being investigated over the whole tropical monsoonal area in terms of the effect of regional evapotranspiration on rainfall levels or in terms of the rate of ground water recharge. There is an urgent need of research in this relationship. No comprehensive management exists for the drainage basins of Lake Chad or the river Niger. National borders also cut through the main drainage basins and no agreements of resource management exist between the states concerned. Rivers are accessible to everyone for any and often conflicting purposes including drinking, stock watering, bathing, clothes washing, irrigation and extraction of silt for fertiliser. Water born diseases are very widespread.

In the northern floodplains of the Yobe Komadugu Basin in Nigeria, two opposing water management strategies are being used. On the one hand, there is the natural system of seasonal flooding in the valleys draining the Jos Plateau complex which follows the onset of the monsoonal rains. On the other hand, the construction of large earth dams near the source of rivers to provide water security for irrigated agriculture during the long dry season. All the dams built to date are large shallow bodies of standing water which evaporate rapidly. Populations downstream towards Lake Chad are suffering from a sharp reduction in agricultural and fishing productivity. Ground water recharge is being adversely affected and marshland ecosystems destroyed. The general water management situation is that of a ‘free for all’ battle which is becoming more intense with reduced rainfall. In addition, the systematic policy of digging deep wells in the Sahelian region, practised since the 1960’s, is creating unknown consequences for the amount of long term underground water supply.

1.3.2 People & Projects

Presentations of the projects visited are to be found in section 7. and briefly discussed in section 8.

Nigeria The Lekki Conservation Centre, near Lagos (Coastal Swamp Forest) and the Okomu Wildlife Sanctuary, near Benin (Southern Rainforest). Both are conserving (for educational, scientific and leisure purposes) small areas of remaining forest under intense threats. Both are managed by the local Nigerian Conservation Foundation. The Cross River National Park and the Pandrillus Project, Calabar (Montane Moist Forest) are both looking at large scale conservation of forests and/or species of unique biological interest. The involvement of high profile international organisations and the creation of buffer zones and managed species reintroduction areas are common to both of them. Although the first benefits from a large budget whereas the second is funded by a small, self financed, voluntary organisation. The Yankari Initiative (YI) (Central Savannahs) is a highly successful voluntary NGO rapidly setting themselves up as a locally self financing enterprise involved in comprehensive conservation and land management of the central savannah belt. The Katsina Afforestation Project (Northern Sudan Savannah), the Hadejia Nguru Wetlands Conservation Project, near Nguru (Floodplain in Sahelian Savannah) and the North Eastern Zone Agricultural Development Project, near Gashua (Floodplain in Sahelian Savannah) are all very large scale land development projects entirely funded and managed by western organisations on fixed short term contracts operating with varying degrees of success. They all suffer from the unwieldy scale of their operations.

Niger The Projet de Mise en Valeur des Cuvettes Oasiennes, near Goudoumaria (Sahelian Savannah) is a Cooperation Francaise project with a difference in the sense it attempts to involve local people in decision making. It is looking at developing very degraded areas in southern Niger into productive oases to support the local population.

The SOS Sahel Project, near Takieta (Sahelian Savannah) is doing excellent small scale regeneration of forest and degraded agricultural land with the close participation of local people. It is managed by a locally born Nigerien (the only one of all the projects visited to be managed by a local person) The Bororo pastoralist nomadic camp, near Sabon Kafi (Sahelian Steppe) is not a project per se but it provides an insight into the lifestyle that used to dominate land use in this area. The Reserve Naturelle Nationale de l’Air et Ténéré, near Agadez (Saharan Massifs) was not visited but information was obtained from the IUCN office in Niamey who have a project in the Park. It was reported that political troubles fromt the Touareg rebellion against the Niger military government were being resolved with the coming in of the newly elected civilian government and that operations in the Park could hope to resume by the end of the year.

Algeria The Parc National du Tassili, near Djanet (Saharan Massifs) wasn’t visited either but information was gathered from scientific sources in Algiers about its work in the conservation of its unique Saharan relict vegetation.

General Comments In general, communication between projects and knowledge of each other’s work was strikingly poor. Large scale projects, entirely funded and staffed by foreign organisations were especially cut off from local communities and lacked knowledge of other projects. Small scale projects, relying on the entrepreneur flair of a few people had the fastest rate of growth, were the most pragmatic and managed to influence a wider range of people. The scientific knowledge generally available about the ecologically sound principles of semi-arid land management is most often not applied on the ground. Many preconceived and limited ideas are still influencing decision makers at all levels and in most projects. Old and ineffective concepts, e.g. shelterbelts and earth dams, are still the back bone of larger development or aid projects. Only such projects as seek to integrate themselves into and evolve as part of the structure of the surrounding community without a definite cutoff point, and which seek to raise their funding from their own activities after the initial start up investment, have a good chance of success. Of all the ones I visited, only the Yankari Initiative fulfilled these criteria. The Bororo pastoralists lifestyle, although not a ‘project’ as such also met these requirements. Interstate management between different countries is in effect non-existant. In addition, the lasting divide of language and imperial concepts between the previously French and British territories still exists for the westerners involved in the projects I visited. However, I saw a few signs that the coming together of European Community nations was fostering greater contacts between projects in different African countries.

1.3.3 General Discussion

An overview of nomadic pastoralism in the whole of the area traversed is presented in section 9. At no stage during my journey did I ever see a herd of grazing animals of any kind that were not on the move. Nomadic pastoralism is the way of life which has changed most of all in the last 50 years in West Africa and it has paid the highest price for it. Pastoralists have experienced shifting and/or shrinking territory from the vast Sahelian steppes down to the Guinea and Sudan savannah grazing reserves. It is difficult to gather sufficient information about the Fulani. Their territorial range is vast, stretching from Doualla in the Cameroons, to Agadez in Niger, to Chad, Senegal and Guinea. They have been totally marginalised in both development and conservation schemes. The aim of these interventions has been always to make them settle and to intensify cattle production. Much finance and many institutions have been committed to achieving that end. Nonetheless, cattle remain the major traditional means of storing capital. A high rainfall cycle in the early 60’s favoured an increase in herd sizes. When the first drought hit, in 1968, there was already some southerly migration but the pastoralists mostly stayed put, sold their animals to buy food or left only to return in the following season (19). Though rains remained in a low phase, it was the second trough in the cycle from 1972 to 1978, with the almost total drought of 1973, which spelled the collapse of Sahelian nomadic pastoralism. It was also the time when permanent migrations started occurring. Even though the EC and Saudi Arabia funded a programme to rebuild lost herds in Niger, the third trough in 1984 ensured that recovery never took place. The North Eastern Arid Zone Development Project has conducted planting trials on 30 ha with resident semi-settled Fulani in a grazing reserve using locally collected seeds. The results were encouraging, though grazing was allowed too early after planting. It is the opinion of Patrick Paris, linguiste and sociologist of pastoralist tribes of Niger, that ex-nomads like the Peul, Arab and Touareg could assume the practice of seeding grasses and that leases of such replanted areas could be managed on the same basis that water access is granted. The Yankari Initiative is developing a strategy of establishing relations with the Fulani at chief level and making binding agreements as to what routes the herds will be allowed to take and when. In return, they help provide vaccination and other veterinary care to the herd as passes through the corridor in the game reserve. Finally, an assessment of land degradation and land regeneration is given in section 10. There is no technical solution to increasing human overpopulation, possibly the most important factor in land degradation. Religious, health, cultural and educational aspects are more essential in this respect than contraception and must be addressed by all projects. So far, this is mostly ignored by project managers, in spite of the fact that religious, cultural and social taboos are clearly working very strongly against the understanding of the necessity to abandon the freedom to breed. All the proximate causes of land degradation are at work simultaneously and local long term land managers are in agreement that a real change in the regional climate has occurred over the last 50 years though the reasons for this change are not determined. There has been a generalised reduction of rainfall and no return to pre 1968 average figures. The process of land reclamation always requires, in the following order:

1 - a change in awareness in the local population and a recognition of the degraded environment as a threat to their continued livelihood. 2 - a legal framework to enable the work to happen. 3 - an initial financial investment with little expectancy of immediate return. 4 - sufficient know-how to initiate the work 5 - continued long term management involving both maintenance and monitoring. It must be appropriate and stable, give rise to a return on the original time and money investment and prevent a recurrence of degradation.

Most projects have too narrow a focus to fulfil these criteria successfully. The SOS Sahel project and the Yankari Initiative are making the most convincing progress. The priorities to regenerate degraded land would seem to be: • to study and understand natural successions, both in past degradation and in natural regeneration processes, and to seek to apply it to regeneration work. • to evolve techniques to regenerate the perennial grass layer. • to work with and within existing African economic structures and enterprise.

1.4 Conclusions & Future Proposals

Conclusions 1/ There is need of a conceptual transition from land management as a free access ‘commons’ to one of individual responsibility for one’s actions. As stated in Hardin’s seminal 1968 paper, ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’: “The population problem has no technical solutions; it requires a fundamental extension in morality”. (46) 2/ The biological strategy of both people and animal migration within the tropical belt is now very restricted. In the case of migration to temperate countries, it is economically difficult and fraught with political problems. 3/ Though I have given a few examples of how some projects are influencing the people who directly work for them, there is a need for all projects to investigate their link with the health, education and cultural/religious life of the people amongst whom they are working . 4/ A new culture is arising with a young generation of people who were not born or raised under colonial rule. My general impression was that a rapid revolution of attitudes is occurring amongst the Africans I met, especially influenced by access to the media and the changing economics of the land. 5/ I was very impressed by the subtlety of arbitration and decision-making being exercised by many local African leaders. There is a potential there which is not being tapped. 6/ Projects of different kinds need to pool management resources and compete for efficiency. The process of ‘bench-marking’, used increasingly in industry, by which the best practitioner of a particular process is sought out and emulated, would be very usefully applied. 7/ It is crucial to reveal the true scope and “look” of land degradation in savannahs both in Africa and in Western countries (where most of the decisions affecting these regions are still being made). Even more urgently, local decision makers must be shown how to deal with it.

8/ The ultimate effects of human population growth and land degradation are already evident in the Sahel, e.g. the allocation of shrinking resources by the gun . 9/ There is a need for a reassessment of the ‘development’ ethos applied in these regions. The hopes of Africans for a western standard of living needs to be balanced by a realistic appreciation of the contradictions, pitfalls and costs underlying these apparent achievements. A correct understanding of tropical ecology in the long term must be applied to economic models promoted by developers. 10/ Land degradation occurs in pockets and patches (like holes develop in a used cloth) and as a continuous process of changing land use across the whole humid and semi arid savannah region, not as the advancing front of a desert. 11/ Projects with a narrow focus of action tend to fail. 12/ A general synergetic approach to land management involving cultural, technological and biological considerations is necessary to address the present state of affairs.

Future proposals 1/ Organising a workshop to initiate exchanges of expertise and services between projects and people visited and other interested parties. 2/ To follow up on requests from several of the projects visited for advice on the planting or regeneration of perennial grasses. 3/ To combine the resources of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew with investigations of local memory (e.g. SOS Sahel/Panos (19)) and data from landscape surveys to compile a manual of land regeneration and management based on an understanding of succession. 4/ To follow up on a proposal by Henri Brocklebank to investigate the economics of African ungulates outside protected areas with the involvement of local communities and possibly the Yankari Initiative. 5/ To prepare a documentary film proposal comparing “the Look” of healthy and degraded land from the microscopic to the landscape as seen through the eyes of local people as well as soil scientists, ecologists, landscape designers etc etc. 6/ To make an initial review of published research on water cycles and disseminate to managers of all projects visited. 7/ To initiate a joint research venture between the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the relevant Algerian organisations, which have all welcomed Michael Maunder’s proposal for a population study of the Cupressus dupreziana.

2. INTRODUCTION

2.1 Background

The term desertification has been defined as “land degradation in arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from the adverse effect of human impacts” (1). Its proximate causes have been identified as “overgrazing, overcultivation, removal of woody species and mismanagement of irrigated land” (2). However it is defined, in strict ecological terms, as “degeneration measured in terms of the loss of primary productivity and species diversity “ (3). The first two wider definitions translate the observed degradation as directly proportional to man’s impact and seem to imply the existence of an original non degraded state. However, the cost of the loss of primary productivity is often interpreted also in terms of man’s increased difficulty of sustaining his chosen lifestyle. The ancient and continuing presence of Man in savannahs is similarly implicated in the controversy surrounding the relationship of micro climate formation and landscape alteration in the Sahel. Does degradation cause drought or does drought cause degradation ? (4,5,6,7,8,9,10) Furthermore, ecologists and life scientists have been researching whether desertification is a continuous process and to what extent and at what cost it may be reversible in different environments. Combining satellite imagery, traditional ecological data gathering and indigenous knowledge, international organisations such as the United Nations Sahelian Office and United Nations Environment Programme, the Centre International de Recherche Appliquée et de Development in France and the Overseas Development Administration/Nationsl Research Institute in the UK and many others (11,12,13,14,,15,16,17,18,19) have created an ecological monitoring network that is just beginning to build a picture of the complex forces at work. This emerging picture points to the necessity for land management, instead of land use, combining traditional experience, scientific knowledge and sustainable economics. << Picture 1: Oral tradition recording of events by song makers The ecological definition implies that degenerating mechanisms involve all strata of biological systems. My long term field experience suggests an approach based on anawareness of this ecological definition, but coupled with an understanding of man’s culture and technology. This concept was developed by the Institute of Ecotechnics (20) and has some similarities with the ideas of the Commonwealth Scientific International Research Organisation (48). It considers the process of land degradation as a phenomenon interacting on cultural and technological as well as biological levels. In savannahs, even without man’s influence, large fluctuations in environmental conditions such as drought, disease etc.. lead to population crashes or migrations. Due to its inbuilt resilience factor, the ecosystem has the potential to recover when environmental conditions are more favourable. Loss of vegetation may therefore be a normal part of the ecosystem dynamics. Land degradation provides a permanent background to the

savannah biome and is activated wherever and whenever resources, singly or in combinations, are utilised beyond the capacity of the system to provide them. However, where man is the instigating agent, for example around cities or watering points, at intensively used agricultural or industrial sites or following the introduction of a new species or new technology, such permanent and increasing demand on the resource base can prevent or postpone the ability of the system to recover. When both natural and anthropogenic pressures combine, irreversible land degradation may well ensue. (48) Too many conservation and development projects have sprung up which have a narrow focus and which fail to collaborate with each other. Under these circumstances, it is unlikely that they will be successful in attaining their objectives. It is essential that there be a cross-fertilisation between our modern ecological understanding of the processes leading to land degradation and the direct local experience evolved over many centuries in order to create a new savannah land culture. As the recent U.nairas. Africa Recovery briefing papers suggests: “Any grand design to achieve sustainable development must be broken down into small packages of a size and shape that ordinary people can not only comprehend but control themselves. This is now widely accepted, but by no means widely observed “ (21)

2.2 Project history

Between 1980 and 1991, I worked in the Kimberley region of north Western Australia, a region of tropical semi arid savannahs, where I participated in developing a 5000 acre property into a facility for the production of seeds of species of grasses, leguminous herbs and trees for land regeneration. In addition, the central aim of the project (carried out by the Savannah Systems P/L company and advised by the Institute of Ecotechnics, UK) was to manage, in a hands-on enterprise, a combination of complementary resources including cattle, pasture seed and hay, orchard and fodder trees, a market garden, an agricultural machinery dealership and several land regeneration contracts. This approach was aimed specifically at addressing some of the growing problems of land overuse in intensely populated savannahs of the African and Indian continents. In 1989 and 1990, I started to investigate the realities of African land development in Zimbabwe and organised pasture planting trials with seeds produced in Australia. In parallel, between 1988 and 1991, I participated in the design of the tropical terrestrial biomes of the Biosphere 2 experiment in Tucson, Arizona. It was this last experience, helping to design the spectrum of transition zones from rainforest to desert, which sowed the first seed of the idea of looking at land use in Africa with a similar perspective. Furthermore, in early 1992, I researched the findings of an expedition made in 1954 by Richard St Barbe Baker, forester and founder of the Men of the Trees (now renamed the International Tree Foundation), which investigated the causes of desertification along a journey from Algeria to Kenya through Niger and northern Nigeria. The records of his observations provided both the inspiration and a reference in time for my investigation (12). The International Tree Foundation generously became my first sponsors for the broad objective of retracing the steps of the 1954 expedition.

I also greatly benefited from the invaluable advice of Nigel Winser of the Royal Geographic Society and of Ken & Julie Slavin (expedition advisors recommended by the RGS) in planning different possible routes. During a three months internship with the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, I familiarised myself with the unique work of that institution in the conservation and economic uses of tropical and semi-arid plants carried out by the Wakehurst seed bank, the SEPASAT data bank and the Living Collections and Conservation Departments. I received much encouragement and advice at Kew from Michael Maunder, John Lonsdale and Francis Cook. With the indefatigable voluntary assistance of Henrietta Brocklebank, a young zoologist from Liverpool University, research was carried out in France and the U.K. until December 1992 into the geography, existing projects and themes relevant to my investigation. The countries selected to be traversed were Nigeria, Niger and Algeria. A research proposal was prepared. In parallel, the idea of a documentary on the subject had been developed with Irving Rappaport Productions and Herbert Girardet of Footprint Films. Our proposal elicited the considerable interest of the Television Trust for the Environment and Central Television. From the initial approach to potential sponsors, the feedback of prospective broadcasters and the results of our research, it was apparent that a substantial reconnaissance trip would be imperative. Through a series of contacts with Nigeria based projects and with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, the Leventis Foundation was approached in January 1993 for sponsorship for this initial journey and agreed most graciously to fund the project. The Royal Botanical Gardens Deputy Director for Science, Dr. Charles Stirton, gave financial support in the form of a contract to gather data prior to further collaboration in the project. Irving Rappaport Productions provided financing for recording and photographic equipment. The reconnaissance journey took place between March and May 1993.

3. OBJECTIVES

To compare different land and people management strategies along the path of the reconnaissance route and to assess their potential long term impact. To foster communication and collaboration between business, conservation, scientific research and aid and development personnel in reference to their work of land regeneration. To compare and contrast the two traditional strategies of pastoral nomadism and sedentary agriculture. To investigate the relict plant communities in the Hoggarth and Air and Ténéré mountains (22) as examples of ancient savannahs. To assess the relevance of modern research in the economic uses (24,25) and vulnerability (3) of arid and semi arid plants and into land development theories and their application (23).

4. METHOD

I do not think it is possible to understand the nature of semi arid land degradation without taking into account the fundamental link provided by the seasonal monsoon between the southern rainforest and the arid region of the Sahel. I therefore traversed the four main vegetation zones within Nigeria and Niger from South to North at the end of the dry season at the time of maximum stress. The four regions are: Rainforest belt : coastal swamp, rainforest and montane moist forests Guinea Savannah : Southern & Northern Sudan Savannah : Southern & Northern Sahelian Savannah and Steppe

Figure 1: The vegetation zones of Nigeria

Within each of these regions, various sites and projects were visited and assessed in terms of their: • organisation and decision making process • fire management strategy • water management strategy • carrying capacity • crops and livestock used by local people • range of plant and animal species considered important for the ecological integrity of the area and the maintenance of people’s way of life. • level of awareness of and relationship to other projects or communities within the region.

Data was collected by direct observation, photographs and interviews while fully participating in the day to day activities of those projects and communities that were

visited. Some of the literature available on each project was also collected and is referred to later.

Timing This journey took place between March 8th and May 9th 1993. As I left Calabar, Nigeria, on the 15th of March, the first heavy rain of the season had just broken. Upon leaving Niamey, Niger, on the 3rd of May, the first rain had just fallen, coming a full month earlier than the average start time. Itinerary

NIGERIA Flying from London, I stayed in Lagos for 2 days where I visited the Nigerian Conservation Foundation and the Lekki Conservation Centre. I then travelled by land to spend 2 days at the Okomu Forest Reserve and back to Lagos. A second flight took me to Calabar for two and a half days, where I visited both the Pandrillus Project and the WWF Manager of the Cross River National Park Project. A day and a half of bus ride took me to the Yankari National Park, where I met the representatives of the Yankari Initiative to remain with them for two and a half weeks. They took me to visit their second project at the Kamuku Game Reserve before coming back to Yankari for a more complete tour of the area. I then travelled to Katsina to visit the Katsina Afforestation Project for 3 days. Back in Kano for one night and on to the Hadejia Nguru Wetlands Conservation Project and the North East Arid Zone Development Project which took 8 days. After a rest of 3 nights in Kano, I crossed into Niger.

NIGER I arrived in Zinder to stay for a day. I then travelled east to Kogimeri and visited the Projet de Mise en Valeur des Cuvettes Oasiennes for 3 days. Back in Zinder for a day, I started out the next day northwards to visit a Bororo nomadic camp near Sabon Kafi for 3 days. I then travelled from Zinder to Takieta to visit the SOS Sahel project for a day, and the next day embarked on the long ride to Niamey, where I arrived 24 hours later. I spent 7 days in the city, visiting the IUCN and the Volontaires du Progres and arranging my visa to Algeria.

ALGERIA I then flew to Algiers where I remained for 6 days and visited the Algiers University and the Institut National de Recherche Forestiere.

5. RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

5.1 Nigeria

5.1.1 Social and historical context

History In 1472, when the first Portuguese ships sailed to the Guinea Coast, the region of what is now Nigeria contained four major kingdoms or empires; the Yoruba kingdom to the south west whose territories stretched into what is now Ghana; the Ibo and Efik kingdoms to the south east, extending into what is now the Cameroons; the large Hausa-Fulani empire in the centre and the north west stretching into what is now Niger; and the Kanuri’s Bornu- Yobe kingdom in the north east extending into Lake Chad’s surrounding. “The emergence of centralised and powerful European states, the development of naval technology and the quest for wealth from far places led to the discovery of West Africa and its trade potentialities. The occasional exchange of goods for raw materials, spices, gold, etc. grew into a regular trade; the colonisation of the off-shore islands and the establishment of factories and ports followed. The Portuguese first attempted the Christianisation of the region. They were followed by the Spanish, Dutch, English, French and other European nations and by the 18th century the peaceful trade escalated into fierce rivalries. Chartered companies and naval might became the backing power of a new massive trade in African slaves, in which Britain had the predominant role. The early trade provided political and economic power and expansion opportunities for the European countries involved and increased their interest in the African continent. This situation had profound effects on the social, economic and political development of the West African peoples and drew them into the international system of trade and politics.” (47) This European ‘scramble for Africa’ grew until, following the 1884 Berlin Conference, the whole of the continent was carved up into colonies between 1885 and 1910. “The Lagos Observer of 19th February 1885 commented on this situation thus: ‘The whole world has perhaps never witnessed a robbery on so large a scale’. (...) The European entrepreneurs were able to accumulate the capital needed in launching the Industrial Revolution in their countries, while the African coastal settlements, playing the role of middlemen, grew into rich city-states, their rulers controlling a widespread network of trade routes and markets.” (47) Britain made the slave trade officially illegal as early as 1807, but its enforcement and the actual transition to fully legitimate trade wasn’t accomplished until the 1890’s, “ ... only after European nations entered into a new technological stage, which made slave labour unprofitable. (...) To the African middlemen bewildered by the sudden change, Britain offered subsidies and demand for new trade commodities. (...) Some new crops (maize, cassava, pineapple, pepper, potatoes, tobacco, peanuts) were introduced in West Africa. (...) Complete English industries functioned on the basis of producing cheap merchandise for the African trade or processing African raw materials and souvenirs.” (47). Palm oil

from Elaesis guineensis, the native oil palm, in particular became a very important trade good, essential in the manufacture of soaps (hence the famous Palmolive), margarine, cosmetics, machinery lubricants and candles, with Nigeria producing 70% of world trade by the beginning of the 19th century. Increased production and trade led to increased European penetration in the interior by the all powerful Royal Niger Company. But in 1899, the local people’s growing opposition to this private company and its methods, led to its charter being withdrawn and to the take over of the territory’s administration by the British Government. In 1902, the city of Kano fell to the British. The following years saw the establishment of Indirect Rule which “acknowledged and used the position of traditional rulers for cheap and convenient administration. Where there were no powerful central rulers, they [the British] quickly nominated chiefs and used them as agents of the new imperial government, controlled by several tiers of British administrators.” (47). The ideology of British Imperialism was based on the desire to expand trade in an orderly fashion and the theory of the ‘White Man’s Burden’, a moral duty to educate and civilise. The three Colonies and Protectorates of the region were welded into the country of Nigeria in 1914. During the colonial times, large monopolies of trade were created by a few British and French companies. Taxation was always vigorously resisted and had to be abandoned in many parts after the 1920’s. Agriculture, mining and transport systems were rapidly developed and an influential Western educated elite grew. “The two World Wars experience helped thousands of Nigerian soldiers find a new outlook as participants in the British Government activities in defence of ‘the wishes of all subjugated people to live under the political system they choose themselves’.” (47) After the war, the British launched a 10 year equivalent of the Marshall Plan in Nigeria. But in 1960, the lobbying for independence led by the Western educated Nigerians succeeded and, in 1963, the Federal Republic of Nigeria was declared and remained a member of the Commonwealth. Civilian rule did not last long however, and the vast differences between the kingdoms hastily welded by trading and a mere 50 years of common administration, erupted into the Biafra Civil War in the late 1960’s when over 3 million people were killed. Its origin was a rebellion by the south against the powerful military northerners which eventually left the Ibos, now abandoned by their allies the Yorubas, fighting alone against all odds as Biafra. The British had always concentrated their army battalions around Kano and Kaduna and had trained more Hausa Fulani into them than Yorubas or Ibos. Since then, the country has mainly been ruled by the military. The most influential event in its history to the present day has been the discovery of petroleum oil in the mid 1970’s, leading to a decade of oil boom economy.

Politics and economics Nigeria is the most densely populated modern African country with a growth rate estimated at 3.8%. The last census of 1992 was expected to reveal the population number to be around 110M. However, the itemised figures have never been released yet and there is a lingering doubt that the results might have been arrived at for effect rather than for accuracy. Since then, the official population figure has remained at 88.4M. In mid-1993, the country’s arrears on external debt and trade payments were put at more than $6bn (45). << Picture 2: The fast expanding city of Lagos, Nigeria

Though Nigeria is one of the largest oil producers in the world (production estimated at 200,000 barrels a day (45)), the kleptocratic tendency of its government and the corruption of its public legal and financial institutions mean that its average yearly budget is no greater than £5bn, which is wholly inadequate to provide for the needs of such a large population. The majority of businesses fail to pay taxes helped by the laxity of the tax collector. Furthermore, the more successful ones take their earnings overseas. The scale of this drain on the country’s economy was brought to light in 1984 when the De la Rue world minters who print the Nigerian currency suddenly changed the colour of all bills by order of the government. The aim was both to reduce the amount of currency in circulation and to catch all corrupt businessmen who wouldn’t be able to justify their earnings. But so much currency came flooding in that De la Rue couldn’t keep up with the demand for replacement. This situation continues in spite of the fact, or perhaps helped by the fact that all companies operating in the country must be 40 to 60 % owned by Nigerians since the Indigenisation Act of 1977. In reality, a large part of this ownership is in the hands of government representatives and the economy remains largely dominated by parastatal companies. In return, many companies gain free access to land. The Nigerian economy is dominated by trading where Nigerians excel. Apart from some foodstuff, brewing and textiles, manufacturing is very weak. The most dynamic and influential expatriate traders are Middle Eastern family businesses started at the time of the British colonial era. The military despot General Ibrahim Babenguida came to power through a bloodless coup in 1985. Out of self preserving interest he sought to weaken the power of state governors. He divided the oil revenues (given to each State on a per capita basis) 50 % to the State and 50 % directly to local government representatives, thus making the latter much more independent. He also created new states along the lines of old Emirates to break up the power bases of the governors and to give additional autonomy to local communities. In many ways, this has been a return to the Indirect Rule system of the British. Between 1986 and 1989, he independently launched the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) to forestall its imposition by the IMF. The main elements of this programme were a steep devaluation of the naira, the abolition of import licensing, deregulation of prices, restructuring of tariffs, the launching of a privatisation programme and monetary reforms. He was forced to dismantle the programme in 1989 because its implementation threatened to destroy his power base. However, the agricultural industry still benefits from the legacy of the programme and neither import licencing nor direct price control have been reintroduced. In June this year, long postponed general elections were held. These were brought about largely by the pressure of Western international opinion. During my travels, many Nigerians I talked to had expressed fears that the country might be headed towards a violent upheaval because “people and government do not know each other” (28). However, when the election results were invalidated, the country at large demonstrated great restraint. Riots were few and the preferred means of action seem to have been strikes. The voting had not succeeded in choosing any leader sufficiently representative to satisfy all three great cultural/political groups: Yoruba, Hausa/Fulani and Ibo/Efik. This can also be attributed to two further factors. First, the fact that all politicians having participated in previous civilian governments were banned from running, and secondly due to the widespread feeling that the military would not abide by the results. Last August, General Babenguida installed an interim civilian government while apparently stepping down from power himself.

The difficult task of governing such a diverse and populous nation is being exacerbated by the decay of the teaching of the English language, still the official as well as the only unifying language of Nigeria. This also means that all training and further education is hampered by basic incomprehension of the English language. Furthermore, the devaluation of the naira has made it increasingly difficult for young Nigerians to seek education overseas While all the educated Nigerians I encountered stated that the world must follow the lead of the “great countries” (America, France, Germany and especially the UK) there is still great uncertainty about how to transpose certain western concepts to their African cultures. At present, there are many people who quite openly regret some aspects of the British colonial time, when “things worked”. The respect shown to the ‘Baturi’, the Westerners, (which translates as ‘the learned ones’) is palpable everywhere. In Nigeria there are many newspapers which tend to be quite uncontroversial, taking their cues from radio and television news. This is because West African culture is based on oral tradition and eloquence is highly prized. Radio, in particular, reaches everywhere and every nomadic pastoralist has a transistor tucked under his arm. I verified for myself that televisions and VCRs are widespread, even in households of very modest income. Cable TV is also now widely accessible in Nigeria.

Religion Islam is the major religion of northern and part of western Nigeria. Christianity, manifested through many different churches and sects (over 50 in Calabar), is the other major faith and a substantial minority adhere to traditional tribal beliefs. These are often also integrated in the two other religions. Nigerians change their religious allegiance fairly readily but are intense practitioners of the rituals involved. There have been recent instances of religious riots, following the rise of fundamentalist elements amongst both Moslems and Christians. I entered central Nigeria at the end of the Ramaddan period which was followed by widespread and impressive devotion, and had the occasion to see and participate in the celebrations of Sallah which mark the end of the fast.

5.1.2 Petroleum oil

Nigeria exports the highest quality light crude in the world at very low extraction costs. It also the contains the largest deposits of natural gas in Africa. Oil refined in Nigeria is sold, in theory, strictly on the domestic market at a subsidised price. Tim Havard, of the Overseas Develpoment Administration, suspects that the Nigerian Petroleum Co. is at most selling to the government at cost. No productive business can function on this basis indefinitely because no income is available to cover depreciation or finance new development. Though it is illegal to sell refined fuel outside Nigeria, there is a brisk trade with all French speaking bordering countries who rely entirely on it for their needs. The World Bank and IMF will not allow Nigeria, which is a big debtor, to sell petrol at below world price levels. Nigeria doesn’t sell all its crude production to big companies. Much of it is bartered in exchange for foreign goods. This oil forms part of the spot market oil pool, is shipped from port to port and might have been bought and sold 10 times before arriving at a European based independent refinery. The spot market is outside the regulations set by OPEC.(27)

5.1.3 Rainforest

The rainforest belt of Nigeria is very densely populated and intensively used. Neither time nor the main objectives of the reconnaissance allowed for more than a cursory investigation of the management of this biome. Consequently the picture painted below is only sketchy.

Timber Timber is at present by far the most lucrative resource of the forest. In general, both large companies such as African Timber and Plywood Ltd, and independent operators exploit it without much restraint or forethought.

Estimates of extraction rate A.T&P, who are part of the Unilever Group, manage the concession of the Okomu Forest Reserve on a 25 year rotation basis. Their replanting programme uses only fast growing exotic species. In the 1300 sq. Km of this reserve, they estimate to have a pool of harvestable 2.5 million timber trees or 7 per acre. From Benin to Lagos in 2 hours driving, 20 timber trucks were sighted, each carrying from 2 to 7 tree sections. A sellable section of timber is 80ft minimum (26m). If there are 2 sections in each mature tree (60 to 200 years old depending on species), and 4 sections on each truck, we have 2 trees per truck or 40 trees in those 2 hours. At least 3 times that much could be shipped in an 8 hour day or 120 trees/day. At 300 working days/year = 36,000 trees/year. However, a majority of the trees felled in these coastal areas are floated on the rivers and lagoons to the large coastal ports. So this estimate could be more than doubled to maybe 80,000 trees. The exercise had to stop there, as it was impossible for me to push it further without more factual information. However, it will now provide a context for the descriptions of the two methods of forest timber management described below:

The Tungya farming system This system was developed by British forestry officers in Burma, then brought to East Africa and Nigeria. Local farmers are allowed to clear a piece of rainforest to grow crops so long as, in the first year, they plant timber trees and grow their crops around them for 4 to 5 years. After that, they must move on to another piece of land, letting the trees grow and other forest species regenerate. The area reverts to the management of foresters until the timber crop is ready to harvest. This practice has now often been terminated here because farmers refuse to do it if they are not paid for planting and caring for the trees. The Tropical Shelterwood System ( TSS ) A system developed by the British Forestry Dept. and continued by the Nigerian one. This description is from a diary of 1958 of the newly appointed Forest Officer of the Sapoba Forestry Station which was established in 1926 by R. St Barbe-Baker and lies a dozen km’s from the Okomu Forest Reserve : In virgin tropical forest, economic timber trees are only about one per acre (though of about 20 species) and foresters want to “improve” the forest by increasing the frequency of the trees. The TSS is practised on a 7 year basis : Year 1 :

The area is cut into strips by cut lines, and climbers, lianas, shrubs and saplings of non economic species are cut at ankle height over the whole area. Year 2 : A count of economic species of young trees is made. Then repeat the process of year one is repeated until there are more than 40 young trees of economic species per acre. Then trees in the middle and upper storeys of the forest are poisoned by pouring sodium arsenate in the bark around the base of the trees so they rot and fall to pieces on the spot and do not grow again. Year 7 : All climbers are cut again as well as non economic trees and it is hoped then to have 20 exportable trees per acre. (30) In conclusion, it would appear that the current management of the forest resource for timber is characterised by systematic reduction of diversity, replacement with exotic fast growing species and no consideration for the long term sustainability of the resource. The main responsibility for this state of affairs must be laid on independent Nigerian timber operators, who have much more impact than even large companies like A.T.&P. In addition, there are other users competing for forest soil, such as planters and farmers.

Plantations The second biggest use of rainforest areas is for the establishment of tropical plantations. The ones observed were: pulpwood, oil palm, raphia palm, rubber tree. Cocoa is also one of the largest export crops of the country. In most cases, the establishment phase requires the complete removal of the existing natural vegetation.

The Rubber Plantation The Michelin Corporation is clearing forest adjacent to the Okomu Sanctuary for a rubber plantation. When it applied to the Benin State Government for land, it was first given farmland but villagers stopped the bulldozers. The old ladies sat naked in front of the drivers, the ultimate insult in local social behaviour. The State had to back down. Michelin reapplied for land and were granted a piece of the Okomu forest reserve. The following explanation was given by the local Belgian Manager on site: In the clearing process, they first fell all the vegetation except for the few very large trees. They burn all the felled material, pull up the remaining trees and sell them off for timber. Then plow and furrow the soil to plant the rubber trees which will be ready for first harvest within 7 years. The average productive life span of a plantation rubber tree is 30 years.

Forest use Natural animal and plant resources are vital to people’s lives in the rainforest belt and also in the country at large. People as far north as Sokoto (2000 km) come to collect plants from the rainforests. Plants are used extensively as food for sauces and vegetable supplements and as medicinal remedies. Bushmeat hunting is very intense, both as a protein source and for trade. There are extensive professional hunter networks, supplying the illegal trade and town bushmeat

restaurants. The local farmers hunt mainly to supplement a desperately low income, often hunting at night with lamps to devastating effect.

5.1.4 Savannahs

Food production is the main activity in the central and northern savannahs. According to Tim Havard (Overseas Development Administration) and Janus Debsky (Katsina Afforestation Project), it is the source of the North’s political power. Since the 1950’s, the population of the country has quadrupled to the present day. Consequently, the proportion of farmland has grown at the expense of grazing or wooded land.

Land ownership From my conversation with Al Hadji Abdul Kadir Jibrilu, Wazirin Birnin Gwari Emirate, farmland is acquired in one of two ways. The first way and by far the most common, is that land is granted or given through the traditional hierarchy by the Emir or his representative the village chief. Such land cannot be taken back unless a time limit was originally set in the process of granting it. These land rights are very deeply rooted. People will react vigorously if they are threatened as the unwritten system of inheritance would be endangered were they withdrawn. The second way is through the Local Government Council. It is the official representative of the State Government and has the power to give a certificate of occupancy to the land holder on paper. However, these titles are only leases, never unconditional, and can be taken back when the lease runs out and given to someone else. They cannot be inherited. There is only a small amount of government owned farm land in Nigeria. From 1968 the military government initiated an agronomy programme involving the clearing of large tracts of land, provoking considerable soil erosion. Often this land wasn’t even farmed. This inappropriate large scale strategy was repeated when Agricultural Development Projects were implemented, funded by the World Bank. They also resulted from the creation of the River Basin Authorities (28). By the 1980’s, the government made it compulsory for all Nigerian public limited companies to buy and develop land for agriculture. This policy was particularly targeted at those companies co-owned by foreign interests. Mostly, the experiment failed because lack of experience and infrastructure forced many companies either into bankruptcy or simply to abandon farming. The vast majority of land holders remain the owners of small 3 to 5 acre farms.

Farming The traditional farming technique of the semi arid farmer relied on the bush fallow system, quite different from shifting cultivation. It is an organised system of land blocks being farmed on a 20 to 60 year rotation, with shrub vegetation being allowed to regenerate fully and support the farmer’s stock in time of drought. Nowadays, the pressure for land, stemming both from population growth and cash cropping, is so great that farmers are lucky if they maintain a 3 to 5 year fallow rotation. They are also forced onto poorer lands. So they increasingly use inorganic fertilisers to maintain nutrient levels. In addition, they plant more cash crops to provide drought security in the form of money rather than in the form of fallow land.

But inorganic fertilisers do not maintain soil structure. Furthermore, the practice of burning crop residues to reduce insect pest larvae increases the loss of soil structure. This causes water to sink more rapidly requiring farmers to plant faster growing crop strains which have to be purchased from seed merchants rather than being gathered from previous year’s crops. In my view it seems likely that many disadvantages of modern agro-business agricultural practices are being transferred to African countries in established, though incorrect, models of development. In addition, the attraction of growing cities, luring people away from the land, creates a shortage of farm labour. (27) Farming technology is still predominantly fire, the axe and the hoe; or oxen and tractor traction amongst richer farmers or as a shared resource. Modern agricultural machinery doesn’t significantly feature in this part of the world. In the Hadejia valley, there are trials with donkey traction, widely used in Niger, as a cheaper alternative to both tractor and oxen. The lack of access to credit at the appropriate time of the year is a limitation. There are a few exceptional areas in northern densely populated Nigeria, often around stable ancient capital cities, such as the Kano Close Settlement Zone, where better soils, greater land tenure security, a dynamic market system and traditional practices of close planting and heavy manuring of the land (dating back several centuries) have enabled high population densities to maintain intensive agricultural production levels in annual cultivation or continuous cropping systems. (29)

Fertiliser Nitrogen is obtained locally by processing natural gas (a by-product of the oil industry) into ammonia then urea. Potash is imported from Eastern Europe as muriate of potash. Phosphate is imported from Western and Central Sahara as phosphate rock. It is all mixed in 3 or 4 factories across Nigeria on contract to the Federal government. Federal employees distribute it to the State-run ADPs (Agricultural Development Projects) in each State at subsidised prices (e.g. if the world price is £260 per ton, it is sold at £40 per ton) In reality, up to 40 % of the total fertiliser produced disappears between the factory and the ADP warehouses to be sold outside the country. Within the country the small land holders make their fertiliser last a long way, using little capfuls (from bottles of detergent) on each individual plant, and varying the amount depending on the plant and its size. They are accustomed to the ADPs never having enough fertiliser at the right time so buy very little from them. The few bigger farmers buy stocks for the next season at prices even below the subsidised price.(27)

Tree cover, Tze-tze fly, roads and town growth Half way between Birnin Gwari and Kaduna, the vegetation suddenly reduces to short shrubs or small trees when the rainfall would indicate that we should still expect to see tall wooded Guinea savannah. There are a number of reasons for this: There are four main species of tse tse fly, each associated with different tree stands from rainforest to savannah. The common element in their behaviour is to rest in the heat of the day along the undersides of big tree branches.

In the 1950’s, the British started an eradication programme of the fly to eliminate sleeping sickness. DDT was sprayed on the underside of every tree. Simultaneously, and perhaps more logically, trees were being cut down for construction and fuelwood to feed the growth of the towns of Kaduna and Zaria. This meant less habitat for the flies and, since they do not fly very far between tree canopies, further destruction through isolation into shrinking pockets of woodland. Road creation also meant that wood sellers and seekers could go further from towns to gather. Hence the scarcity of trees around Kaduna. (27)

Grazing & Forestry The use of these two resources is intimately connected. Forest and grazing reserves are often the same tract of land and are used as a common. Towards the end of the dry season or where overgrazing has been excessive, browsing supplements or replaces grazing. On average, more than 70% of woodlands in both Guinea and Sudan savannahs have been cleared for farming. In northern Sudan savannahs and in the Sahel, forest reserves and large areas around cities are mostly devoid of native tree cover due to excessive removal for fuel and construction wood. In particular, the narrow band of rainforest along the southern escarpment of the Jos Plateau, where rainfall averages 1800mm, has been mostly destroyed. Despite having been declared a Biosphere Reserve, the trees are still being burned and logged randomly by opportunistic individuals causing severe erosion damage. The grazing resource, already considerably depleted by the rapid spread of farmland, is overused in both Guinea and Sudan Savannahs to the point where perennial grasses have been reduced to a vestige of their former range. In Sahelian savannah and steppe they have often disappeared altogether leaving a cover of short-lived annuals, shrubs and unpalatable invader species. Section 8. will deal with the subject in more detail in the context of nomadic pastoralism. Although a number of reafforestation programmes have been started since the 1960’s, grassland regeneration has been mostly ignored up till the last 2 or 3 years. Even these afforestation efforts have only recently begun to depart from a policy of monoculture plantings of fast growing exotic species such as the Neem Tree, Azadirachta indica (introduced to West Africa from India in 1917) and Eucaluptus camaldulensis from Australia. Both of these trees are reputed to be heavy ground water users which can result in the desiccation of neighbouring native tree species.

Wildlife “Wildlife management is 80% people management. Comment”, was the subject of Phil Marshalls’s final examination essay. He is now the current Cross River National Park WWF project manager. His 20 year career in conservation, which has included the creation of the Tai National Park in Cote d’Ivoire and 4 years management of Yankari Game Reserve, have convinced him that it is, in fact, 99%.

Hunting Until 20 years ago, hunting was a traditional activity and a main source of protein in most of Guinea and Sudan savannah. Weapons were spears and bows and arrows supplemented with the use of poison. Only colonials were allowed to carry guns.

The commercialisation of hunting, both for meat and trophy, started in earnest in those last 20 years. Non-Africans, such as the Lebanese, used it as a way of generating capital to start a business career and local Africans followed suit. This development, compounded by human population increase, has resulted in wildlife numbers being drastically reduced with many species becoming locally extinct. Yankari became a game reserve in 1969. From an interview with the son of a recently deceased Chief Hunter of the area who decided to apply to become a Game Guard, I learned that: • The abundance of game has declined so much that the profits from being a professional hunter are no longer great enough to hire labour to work the farm (cotton cash crop in this case), or even to afford the costs of running a family of 1 wife and 3 children. • Both skills and prestige are being lost as a result of this depletion of the game resource. The son was not re-elected to the position of his father and had not mastered the knowledge of poisons because he was given a gun at an early age. • Taboos against the killing of certain animals, such as the elephant, are less and less respected as the lure of financial gain becomes greater. The father never killed an elephant. The son killed at least three and sold the tusks. • Law enforcement against poaching in the Yankari Reserve has consistently been so ineffective that the son told us that he’d never met a game ranger in nearly 30 years of hunting. Although it is highly likely that many rangers take money from hunters to close their eyes at the right time. Today, law enforcement is still very lax. Guns are mostly home made so that although it is compulsory by law to obtain a licence most people avoid procuring one. If apprehended, the offender will be referred to a local court where he will be sentenced, not according to set punishments for set infractions, but according to his personal situation and means of livelihood.

Fishing “Generally speaking, people do not appreciate aquatic wildlife because what’s out of sight is out of mind”. (Dr. Reed, Chester Zoo) And so the changes occurring in the fishing communities of Sahelian floodplains have received little attention until recently although lower rainfall patterns are necessarily going to affect them substantially. The following comments are based on notes from an interview with fishermen from one fishing village in the Hadejia-Nguru valley of north-east Nigeria conducted by Ph.D. human ecology student, David Thomas (Cambridge University, UK) Flood levels have fallen to less than half the average in the last 10 years due to a combination of reduced rainfall and the creation of large earth dams upstream (see section 5.3). Traditionally, fishermen have had equal access to village land as long as it is under water. Even farmland will be treated as a common as long as water covers it. The farmer whose right it is to work it having no more right of access than any other village fisherman. Access for these fishermen to other common areas of the floodplain involves a fee of 10N/man which is collected by their head fisherman, the Sarkon Rua, chosen unanimously to represent their intrests to the Local Government. Fishing goes on continuously so long as the water is high enough, each man taking his turn. Every man or boy in the village will be involved in the activity at some time but only about 20 are full time professionals. Others will grow crops of rice and flood recession vegetables. The

present intense commercialisation of fishing started only 10 years ago. Previously, fishing was a hobby that supplemented people’s diet. The change came in 1984, when the long drought reduced the grazing resource so much that the price of meat became very high. People turned to fish as replacement protein. They also appreciate it as a healthy alternative to meat which is often diseased. From then also dates the election of the Sarkon Rua and regular migration to other fishing grounds as far afield as Lake Chad. Simultaneously, crop prices have come down and fishing creates a welcome alternative income. The sealed road to the village was also built in 1984 making it possible to ship fresh fish as far as Jos and Kano instead of having to smoke it. A few figures: A fish meal cost 5N, a meat meal 20N. Two baskets of fish sold for 1N ten years ago, now they go for 500N. A box of a thousand fish hooks costing 25 kobos (1 niara = 100 kobos) ten years ago, today costs 175N. Conflicts between different groups of fishermen are arbitrated by the Sarkon Rua (who has supplanted the village chief in that role) by referring to neighbouring villages, with the threat of Local Government authority only brought in as a last resort. Though so far these villagers have always allowed free access to strangers as long as they abided by certain practices, they are now considering levying a fee in the future. Depletion of the fish population is perceived as having been both great and rapid. The Sarkon Rua estimated that there is now less than 1% of the amount of fish there used to be 10 years ago on the floodplain and that fishes are smaller. Some types have disappeared and villagers are now eating species they never ate before.

5.2 Niger

5.2.1 Social and historical context

History Niger’s tribal territories are roughly divided thus:

Figure 2: Tribal territories in Niger Touareg, Toubou, Arabs and Peul (Fulani) are all nomadic pastoralists. The Touareg are thought to originate from the Magreb and the Sahara. They have a rigid caste system, are exceptionally skilled metal workers and have long practised theft and slavery as well as

trade as part of their resource management strategies. The slave caste are great oasis cultivators. The Toubou, a very fierce people also well known robber barons, originate from the Tibesti area. The Arabs have only come in the last hundred years from Chad and Lybia and are camel herders. The Peul (Fulani) are discussed in detail in section 9. The Hausa, Kanuri and Songhai are agricultural people. Both the Hausa and Kanuri populations were originally part of the two great kingdoms of the same name mentioned in section 5.1, the greatest part of which now lies in Nigeria. Similarly, the Songhai to the west belonged to the legendary Gao Empire, now mostly part of neighbouring Mali. Islam was introduced as early as the 8th century amongst the noble Kanuri and Songhai but it was the Peul (Fulani) conquests of the 18th/19th century which truly spread the faith amongst the masses. The first European explorers reached these mysterious parts, often only to die as soon as they’d arrived, in 1806 and 1822. Real surveys of the region started only between 1857 and 1891, when the line was drawn that was to become the Franco-British border with Nigeria. French military conquest was carried out between 1895 and 1921. It was mostly violent, not to say ruthless, and frequent conflicts and revolts occurred. Only in 1922 was Niger considered secure as a colony. “The French colonies were regarded as an extension of France in which French rule and culture were to be forcefully implanted. In West Africa, the French tried to destroy the traditional system of government by concentrating all power in the hands of French officials, applying French laws, thus depriving the local chiefs of effective authority and enforcing a policy of cultural assimilation.” (47) Consequently, the territory was subdivided and administered in the style of a French metropolitan ‘département’, with one, then two representatives sent to the French National Assembly. The Referendum of 1958 proposing the project of the “Communauté Franco-africaine” won a ‘Yes’ majority and in 1960 official independence was proclaimed. A civilian government was in place until it was brought down by a military coup after the drought of 1973. Despite several other coup attempts and growing opposition from student movements, the austere military regime remained in power until March 1993 when democratic elections took place.

Politics and economics Niger’s population was estimated at 7M in 1990, residing mostly in the south west quarter of the country. Half of the population is under 25 years of age. (38) The day I crossed the border into Niger, the 16th of April 1993, was the day when the new democratically elected civilian government took office, ushering in the Third Republic and signalling the ending of a two year conflict between Government and Touareg separatists. Here is an explanation of the conflict given by Patrick Paris, French social anthropologist and linguist born and raised in Niger, married into a Bororo Peul family and a life long student of the pastoralist nomads of the area: The Touareg “revolt” in the north of the country has a dual genesis: Before the French colonials, power resided in the hands of the Touareg. They were and still are, like the Toubous, the Arabs and the Peuls, a minority group compared to the majority agricultural tribes.

With the creation of the Colony, the Touareg were forcibly “pacified”, in so far that their power to conquer and rule the southern tribes was removed. Furthermore, they were barred from holding government office by the French who then handed power over to the southern tribes after Independence. Improved education, which they took to readily since they have a high written literary and poetic tradition, together with military support from Lybia and increased sense of identity with the Touareg of Mali, escalated their discontent into open warfare after years of austere and repressive military rule from the south. In the week before I arrived, however, the situation eased considerably with the official hand over to the new civilian president by the military ruler who declared himself ready to continue to serve his country as a soldier. Touareg politicians were included in the new cabinet and all hostages and prisoners held on both sides were released. Even so, the process of securing the north again will be slow because : • Bandit groups have prospered under the cover of being rebel forces. Now, at least they should be easier to spot and arrests will be swift without the fear of endangering the life of hostages. • The Niger government had hidden the fact that many soldiers had died in the conflict and is now having to gradually reveal the names of people lost in battle.

But the second and most important aspect of this dual genesis is that the rebellion is part of a growing tendency to manage shrinking ecological resources by violence. Twenty years of drought, combined with the population explosion and increased governmental control of land, has meant that resource allocation is increasingly decided by the gun. In the Chad basin especially, the country is awash with weapons from Lybia, Sudan and Chad each costing only a few kilograms of meat. This trend was already starting before the 1950’s in some Toubou tribes.

5.2.2 Economic Aid

The French like to present Niger as the ‘Canada of West Africa’, a land of untapped resources beset by a pitiless climate, north of the economic giant that is Nigeria. Nothing could be further from the truth. The control exerted by French economic policy is a wonder to behold anywhere in the Communaute Franco-Africaine zone, with crates of French food and products being delivered daily to the furthermost parts of the bush. The Cooperation Francaise and other foreign development aid is Niger’s primary economic resource. The country would go hungry without it. Between 1981 and 1985, 90% of the country’s budget was financed from external aid. Between 1978 and 1981, the total aid given to Niger came to over $1 billion. (38) Correspondingly, here is a list of countries and organisations funding aid and development projects based in and around Zinder: Denmark, France, Italy, Sweden, USA (Peace Corps), Russia, Japan, Norway and United Nations Environment Programme. The general feeling of the population towards this state of affairs seem to me to be quite well represented by these comments from Ahmadu, the Manager of the SOS Sahel Project in Takieta: “From my own experience, I can say that it is much easier to work with other European nationals or with Americans than with the French, who always come on with this superior attitude that they know better, that things should be done as in France and that they are

here to civilise us. The administration is very stifling here. Every time one wants to do something, one has to go pay visits and seek permission with several layers of authority going from the ‘chef de village’ to the ‘chef de poste’ to the ‘chef de canton’ to the ‘prefecture’ before one can even think of starting. Americans are the best to work with. They come and live with us and share our ways. They would be more active in investing here if France wasn’t making it so difficult for them to do so. There is a growing notion here that western type development has its flaws and that we shouldn’t take it all lock, stock and barrel but there isn’t much analysis yet as to what is detrimental and why.” This situation has continued unchanged to this day and is described in a recent Financial Times edition as one of “silent crisis”, where a decaying infrastructure and stifling overblown bureaucracy combine with an overvalued Communaute Franco-Africaine currency, tied to the French Franc, to foster rapidly increasing poverty. In Niger at present, the total Civil Service wage bill exceeds tax revenue. (45) Niger’s economy is also entirely dependant on that of neighbouring Nigeria on whom it relies for the supply of most of its electricity (from the Kainji dam on the Niger River) and all its fuel and fertiliser. Just a few days before my arrival, the customs department, in one of its periodic shows of force, had tried to stop and seize trucks of fuel and other goods coming from Nigeria. Violent riots erupted immediately all around and the customs posts were burned to the ground. Once again, I will relate Ahmadu’s comments on this subject: “We look to Nigeria for everything: for 90 % of our goods and commodities, as the main market for our produce and as a model of organisation. Nigerians are extremely enterprising and hard working. It would be a great country if its economy wasn’t preyed on by all French speaking African countries surrounding it. Whereas we, in ex-French colonies, are too passive and lazy, turning to the government for everything and dependent on foreign help. We are aware that British colonisation was more beneficial and less oppressive than the French. Nigerians are not as alienated from their cultural roots as we are here. One big difference though, is that their education system is much laxer than ours. People who fail their exams here go to Nigeria where they never fail to obtain a diploma of some sort. In Nigeria, you can set up deals and start projects pretty much anywhere without problem but when authorities want to bother you at random, you don’t have much protection. It is only a few years since the British have started to make small in-roads in the development scene in French speaking Africa. I recognise the different judicial basis they function on. That of being presumed innocent on arrest. We see the difference in Nigeria.”

5.2.3 Drought

The French administration has kept rainfall records since 1921. In addition, oral history investigations reveal an early drought in 1914 (19) which seems to have helped the coloniser’s conquest. Another series of rain deficit years occurred from the 1930’s until 1946. The population was then estimated at 1M. When famine came, people resorted to the well vegetated bush around them to collect leaves and roots for emergency food (19). Since 1968, the rains have consistently been in deficit, leading to an apparently permanent southern shift of the isohyet limits by several hundred kilometres.

Figure 3: The isohyet limits of Niger When the near total droughts of 1972/73 hit, the population was already over 4M, and much of the knowledge of emergency wild foods was reported to be already forgotten. This was exacerbated by the increasing removal of wildlife (19). Pastoralism was, until 1972, the second most important economic activity in the country. More than half the surface area of the land is best suited for it. The drought of 1972/73 precipitated the death of between 30 and 70% of the herd, depending on the type of animals and the source of the estimates. The various economic Aid programmes launched to rebuild the herd concentrated on sheep, goats and camels with the result that their numbers have grown to levels greater than before 1971 whilst cattle numbers have remained lower. (38) The successive droughts from 1968 to the present were catalytic in creating a strain in the relations between Touareg and other groups in Niger. Whereas the Peul adapted quite readily to their loss by turning to agriculture, small trade or city employment, the Touareg reacted poorly. A matter of different cultures. The Touareg are too proud to take on certain occupations. Besides the lack of rainfall, agriculturists also have to contend with the recurrent population explosions of locust or other animals that accompanies the break-down of the ecosystem’s integrity.

5.2.4 Farming

Figure 4: Land use map of Niger Dryland forest covers only 1.5% of Niger. A cotton and groundnut cash crop industry was created by the French and continued by the Niger Government. But, after 1982, production collapsed due to soil exhaustion and the drought. In traditional farming systems, the average farm size is of 6 ha. Land ownership bestowed by village chiefs is much less prevalent than in Nigeria and all trees belong to the State. Cutting down of trees is forbidden by law so people cut tree roots on the north side until it falls and can be consumed. Any private person who plants a tree for regeneration purposes cannot own it. Millet and sorghum are the main crops and the staple food. Around Niamey rice and vegetables are produced under irrigation. All major food producing schemes are in the hands of the Government which also controls most food distribution. There is a plan for a Code Rural to be implemented in 1994. It will accelerate the move towards private property. Fallowing has practically disappeared in southern Niger or, if practised at all, it will be for 2 to 3 years, never 10 to 15 as before. This is to be attributed the “population explosion” according to Ahmadu. Traditionally, producing many children meant having labour to work large fields and to generate wealth. Now attitudes are very slowly changing due to ecological pressure. As in Nigeria, conflicts with pastoralists stem from land shortages. Farmers are expanding northwards beyond the 300mm isohyet line into what was exclusively pastoral land 50 years ago. Agricultural land might thus surround a patch of grazing land and control access to it.

The fashionable perception amongst the western environmental and development community is that the African women are having to take over an increasing burden of farm work because their husbands are growing only cash crops or working in the towns. However, this is not applicable here as it is in East Africa and to the “women of the coast”. In Niger, men do all the farming work and women keep to food preparation and household care. Purdah is not always kept as strictly as one would think as it takes additional wealth to keep a wife at home.

5.2.5 Minerals

The main mineral resource of Niger, which has attracted investment, is uranium found in the area of Agadez. France owns the greatest share of the mining and processing sites in operation. Japan, Germany, Italy and Spain also control substantial shares. Until 1983, production grew to supply up to 10% of world demand. Since then, the environmental scare against the use of nuclear fuels has provoked a crash in the industry. (38) A much lesser mineral resource financially, but more important traditionally, is that of mineral salts (‘natron’), now mainly sold in Nigeria. But camel caravans are also taking it up and down the old trade routes.

5.3 Water management

Water is the ultimate scarce resource in the tropical belt. There is an extreme seasonality of water availability due to the rain season pattern. The beginning of the monsoon occurs approximately from early March at the level of Calabar. The depression front moves steadily northwards to reach the Sahelian zone in late May or early June. Similarly, the receding of the rain front occurs between the end of September in the Sahel and the end of October in the southern Guinea zone. Outside of those dates, essentially no rain falls in this part of the world. Traditionally, hydrologists study water cycles above and below the ground. They gather data by water heights in boreholes and wells, water composition comparisons, flow rates, evapotranspiration rates & infiltration rates to build a model of the water flow. Their realm of investigation starts from the height of the standard British rain gauge. Above that, the water is the concern of meteorologists. Consequently, the total water cycle is not being investigated over the whole tropical monsoonal area in terms of the regional evapotranspiration effect on rainfall levels or in terms of the rate of ground water recharge. Meanwhile, no comprehensive management exists for the drainage basins of Lake Chad or the river Niger. The River Basin Authorities created in Nigeria cover different sections of the same river and can neither agree on common management programmes, nor enforce any meaningful regulations in their own areas. National borders also cut through the main drainage basins and no agreements of resource management exist between the states concerned. Rivers are accessible to everyone for any and often conflicting purposes including drinking, stock watering, bathing, clothes washing, irrigation, extraction of silt for fertiliser. Water born diseases are very widespread.

In the northern floodplains of the Yobe Komadugu Basin in Nigeria, two conflicting water management strategies are being used. On the one hand, there is the natural system of seasonal flooding in the valleys draining the Jos Plateau complex which follows the onset of the monsoonal rains. On the other hand, the construction of large earth dams near the source of rivers as advocated by the 1960’s US River Basin Authority development programme. Its aim was then to provide water security for irrigated agriculture during the long dry season. Six small earth dams are already built in Katsina State, and two large ones in Kano State where the construction of a third has been been resumed amidst increasing controversy. All of them are large shallow bodies of standing water evaporating rapidly. Populations downstream towards Lake Chad are suffering from a sharp reduction in agricultural and fishing productivity. Ground water recharge is being adversely affected and marshland ecosystems destroyed. The facts of the case are explained in section 7.1.7. The general situation on water management is that of a ‘free for all’ battle which is becoming more intense with reduced rainfall. In addition, the systematic policy of digging deep wells in the Sahelian region, practised since the 1960’s, is creating unknown consequences for the amount of long term underground water supply.

6. LANDSCAPES

This section describes the changing features of the landscape as I travelled north from Lagos.

6.1 Southern Rainforest. Lagos to Benin. 324km

The country is gently hilly. Ground cover rich and continuous with: 30% pockets of regenerating forest dominated by palms (oil and raphia) 60% vine thicket with isolated phanerophytes, many leafless or burned dead 10% mosaic of fields of cassava, palms, bananas, cashews etc. .. 10% recently burned areas. Villages of “mud and wattle” huts every 3 to 5 km and small towns of brick and cement buildings 30km apart. Many wood sellers along the road. Occasional plantations of oil palms. Those recently burned show soil completely bare. FIRE is clearly the main tool shaping the landscape. Halfway between the two cities of Lagos and Benin, an extensive area of big blocks of uniform stands of totally leafless trees, mostly on higher ground. It is in stark contrast to the surrounding areas which are still lush and leafy even though it is the end of the dry season. These are pulpwood plantations of teak for a big factory on the coast funded by the World Bank but not yet operational.

6.2 Southern Guinea Savannah. Calabar to Jos Plateau. 839km

Going north from Calabar, tree height lessens immediately. The first 100km show evidence of large human population with stretches of 10 km of continuous villages and farm landscape. Houses with tin roofs are made of brick and painted. Occasionally small patches of moist forest with bamboo clumps and vines. Progressively more evidence of recent burning (up to 70% of the landscape). After 200 km, grass covers over 50%. The landscape takes on a dense “park land savannah” look. Trees peak at 15 m and make up to 15% of cover with many new species. Still plantings of palms, cassava, yams and cocoyams, but increasing sights of open fields of cereals and freshly plowed fields. Houses range from adobe mud walls round or square huts with thatched roofs, to solid brick buildings with corrugated roofs. It has rained recently and heavily, and the sky is still cloudy and low. Perennial grass clumps show new growth 7 to 8” high. Mats of seedlings are emerging and shrubs are shooting from the base of burned parts. After another 200 km the landscape is totally grassland with very many farms and spacing of 50 m between trees. New growth is minimal and the aspect of the grassland very yellow still. Little signs of recent fires and clouds have disappeared. Many cashew and citrus orchards. Round huts are now the majority of habitations. An air of ease, order and cleanliness prevails, in striking contrast to villages in the forest belt which were looking very run down, poor architecturally and quite trashy. A healthier atmosphere is palpable. Sighted several Fulani cattle herds of up to 30 animals, always with a cowherd in attendance.

6.3 Central Savannahs. Bauchi to Birnin Gwari. 703km

Traversing “the solid farm belt” of Nigerian savannahs. 70% of the landscape is either : • cleared and plowed, or farmed, with 50% fallow fields showing waist high tree or shrub coppicing regrowth but no grass. • grazed and/or burned The remaining is highland with rocky outcrops and shallow soils. In the Jos area, the percentage of farm land is even higher. This land is basically bare at present with scattered trees at 100 m intervals, native or exotic species of economic value. Very little stubble on the ground, grazed by goats . Few grassland/woodland areas, except for one major one of over 10 km upon leaving Kaduna. No clumps of perennial grasses there either and widespread recent burning. Between Kaduna and Birnin Gwari : • an extensive re-afforestation planting of pure stands of Eucalyptus spp and Pine, financed by World Bank and Japanese Government. Trees are very close planted and the pines are looking rather poor. • little boys by the side of the road waving for sale the roasted carcasses of the famous cane rats.

6.4 Northern Sudan Savannah

6.4.1 The Kano Close Settlement Area

Michael J. Mortimer, an English researcher in northern Nigeria for 35 years, describes the unique system of high productivity and self sustaining quality of agriculture in the Close Settlement Zone around the century old city of Kano (29). This reality is visible even in the most cursory drive through the landscape. Apparently, it is also clearly noticeable from space as a near perfect circle of denser green. There are still well spaced broad leaf trees (20 to 100 m apart) through the agricultural fields but now many Acacia spp and even more Adansonia digitata of imposing proportions. The one tree which is entirely new is the date palm, now coming into the classic village varieties which still include Azadirachta indica and Eucalyptus camaldulensis as uncontested kings but with the number of mangoes and cashews declining and almost total disappearance of papayas. Fields are delineated from one another by incipient hedges of Euphorbia balsamifera, Commiphora africana or grass, Andropogon gayanus. Little piles of animal manure are spread at regular interval in the plowed fields. Cattle are penned at night to collect their dung in enclosures with thorn hedges, or a combination of a low mud wall with thorns on top. Cattle herds are conspicuous by their absence. There is an increase in the number of donkeys used to carry people and goods. Very few animals are seen wandering free to browse or graze, implying some control is being kept on them. It is hard to fathom why all those practices are not widely applied elsewhere in other northern States or even through the entirety of Kano State itself. According to Mike Mortimore, it would be the economic incentive of the ancient and lucrative Kano market in itself which was the centre of the Hausa-Fulani kingdom: “A close web of economic ties between town and country plays an essential part in the rural

economy of the central close-settled zone. The principal commodities are firewood, which is derived from cutting farm trees in rural areas and sold in the town, and manure which is produced in the city and exported to the fields. These involve approximately 1,800 and 1,300 donkey loads respectively on a typical day in the dry season. Kano city contributes some 25 per cent of manure inputs to farms within a radius of about 5 miles.(...) a growing density of population has encouraged the intensification of agriculture and, in association with the presence of Kano itself, the commercialisation of the rural economy.”

6.4.2 Kano to Katsina. 266km

Going north west towards Katsina, 20 km from the Niger border. After 100 km, a reduction in the amount of farm trees. Increasingly, areas totally devoid of real phanerophytes, only shrubs. Halfway through journey, first small herd of 7 camels. Thorny species becoming dominant. Slight increase in goat numbers roving the bush in the classic posture of grazing upwards into shrubs.

6.5 Floodplain in Sahelian Savannah. Kano to Nguru & Gashua along Jama’are/Hadejia river basin. 324km

Approaching Nguru, farm tree density falls to 1%-3%, though percentage of fallow land remains high. Numerous thick shelter belts of Azadirachta indica and Eucalyptus camaldulensis 200 to 300 m apart, 6 to 10 rows thick, succeeding each other for 5km in some places. A lot of recent replanting (or “beating up”) in older ones. No apparent difference to soil or vegetation aspect between them. First big Acacia senegal or Acacia seyal plantations for the production of arabic gum. With woodlots, they make up 50 % of the land between villages Start of loose sand drift areas. Native tree cover less than 0.5 % though almost all country is covered in regrowth of fallow land. Coming to Hadejia, increasing drifts of loose sand and windswept soil. The sand, blond and loose, lies as a sheet overlay or in drift mounds over the grey or reddish loam. For the first time, big flocks of grazing goats and sheep tended by a sheperd . Entering the flood plain, uncultivated bare ground looking terribly overgrazed accounts for 70 % of the landscape. Loose sandy areas where the slightly raised root base of sparse bushes is visible make up 20 %. Tree cover around 0.5 % . Dominant trees are Adansonia digitata and Hyphaene thebaica. Descending in the valley, bigger broadleaf mature trees increase to 3 or 4 %. In areas still flooded, the water lies in shallow lakes or marshes surrounded by mats of green grass heavily grazed by cattle, goats and sheep.

6.6 Sahelian Savannah

6.6.1 Kano to Zinder. 240km

The rise in the amount of native trees is striking as soon as you cross the border from Nigeria into Niger. Both in the higher density and in the range of sizes from young to really imposing mature trees. Acacia albida forms a magnificent continuous cover, present in villages as strongly as Azadirachta indica. Grass layer is mostly absent on a very loose

sandy soil apart from occasional patches of harvested Andropogon gayanus. 50 % bare ground and scattered shrubs. No sign of cultivated fields. Occasional small numbers of camels, donkeys, cattle and goats. Human population density has dropped dramatically from one big village every 3 km in Nigeria to very small hut groups every 2 km in Niger. Going towards Zinder the land shows a regular pattern of stabilised very blond sand dunes, alternating with greyish clay loam depressions where proto-oasis of date and doum palms occur. With passing km’s, trees become less dense and younger looking. 30 km past the border, trees drop to less than 0.3 % of the landscape while Leptadinia pyrotechnica becomes very dominant and holds the whole dune landscape, single- handedly in places. First sand drift across half the road. Still pockets of Acacia albida occasionally lengthening into continuous stands of mature trees where big villages and small fields occur. But the rows of millet are struggling under sand drifts. Numerous birds nests in the trees.

6.6.2 Zinder to Kogimeri, by Goudoumaria. 300km

Until Maradi, dense stand of Acacia albida (Goa in Hausa) very varied in age. In the days of the Emirate of Zinder, the penalty for cutting a Goa was to have your head chopped off. In clay soil depressions between dunes (referred to as ‘cuvettes’ in French), populations of Hyphaene thebaica and Adansonia digitata. Entire area is covered in millet crop residue on totally bare sand with very occasional lines or patches of Andropogon gayanus. Enter an area of rocky round grey-red hills encircled by stabilised dunes. Pass the oasis of Giddimouri with intensive irrigated cultivation of tropical fruits and vegetables and date plantations, very lush green, like an eye of emerald in the blond skin of the surroundings. Futher on, Acacia stands are very sparse again and Leptadenia pyrotechnica vastly dominant and is grazed by camels. A short annual grass covers the pink sandy loam where there is no millet cultivation which is now considerably reducedto, occuring only as small patches more than 10 km apart. These are recent clearings in the last 3/4 years when law enforcement became more lenient. The very seldom spotted single or little groups of trees indicates there might have been more before. After Goudoumaria, first vast expenses of short annual grass, sometimes still in association with Leptadenia pyrotechnica but increasingly on its own. 20 to 30 % of de stabilised dunes, some still with a few big trees or clumps of grass barely holding on. Some criss-crossed with palisades made out of Leptadenia pyrotechnica in square grids to hold the slopes where a town or road is threatened. In parallel with grassland increase, trees (Acacia spp, Balanites aegyptica) become even more widely spaced, growing to a maximum of 20m. The sand, yellow around Zinder, has taken a peachy colour. Very high incidence of Pergularia tomentosa , an invader species of unpalatable herb of degraded range lands. Around Kogimeri: The typical layout of the region is of valleys or ‘cuvettes’ of grey clay alternating with sand dunes more or less destabilised. Invader species are the dominant vegetation: Pergularia tomentosa, Calotropis procera and Leptadinia pyrotechnica.

The sparse cover of annual grasses, such as Cenchrus biflorus, is still licked from the ground by roaming goats and sheep (which also strip the unpalatable Calotropis procera as high as they can reach) when it is not raked by farmers to bring into villages to feed horses and camels. Few very rare patches of clumps (6 to 12) of Aristida longiflora on sandy soils. Together with Andropogon gayanus and Cymbopogon gayanus on clay soils, they were described as the dominant perennial grasses and land cover in the area in the report of the Foureau Mission of 1902. All remaining Acacia spp and Balanites aegyptica show extensive amounts of bare root ball as the sand is being blown away from their base by wind erosion or dug out by constant trampling of animals seeking shade, or browsing branches cut down by pastoralists. There is a high incidence of mature dead trees laying on the ground, with a trunk diameter wider than most of the living specimens around, up to 30 inches. Often, they are surrounded by a group of up to 5 young saplings, regenerating from the seed of the dead tree. From hearsay, north of the area between Diffa and Zinder one can see tree cemeteries, with dead trees very close to each other due to two combined drought periods in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Hyphaene thebaica is the essential building material. All parts are used. Many stands are cut excessively and disappear, sometimes to make place for millet fields. Their blackened trunk remains dot the landscape. Everywhere there is excessive use of all resources, without any effort to replace, apart from very small gardening initiatives in the cuvettes, often associated with some initial impulse from the outside.

6.7 Sahelian Steppe. Zinder to north-east of Sabon Kafi. 128km

Heading up the road towards Tanout, the terrain is gently undulating without ever really forming hills. Through the Zinder Emirate the landscape is dotted with Gaos (Acacia albida) of good proportion, regularly spaced. These become smaller and shorter along the first 30km and millet fields less carefully laid out, until area is nearly devoid of trees. Millet culture continuously takes up 80 % of the landscape and is the ultimate destabilizing factor. Planting is haphazard, up and down slopes without any hedges, in big fields of several hectares, in widely spaced rows, leaving the sandy soil all loose. At the loosest places, it blows across the road and needs to be piled up on the sides. This culture is practised until regions where rainfall falls below 200 mm. Beyond that, one will find trees again and a more stable steppe vegetation. 30 km from Sabon Kafi, millet fields become rarer and pastures start to dominate. These are mainly of annuals, mostly Cenchrus biflorus, but little patches of Andropogon gayanus still occur on clay soils, some in millet fields. The ‘cram-cram’ (Cenchrus biflorus), so called because of its painfully spiky seed, has only recently become the dominant grass since the perennials disappeared in the 80’s. At first, it was thought to be useless pasture but now it is highly prized. Some perennial grasses, one looking like an Aristida spp and another like a Pennisetum spp are visible in places. A couple of stretches of Leptadinia pyrotechnica, the occasional Calotropis procera and a fair number of Percularia tomentosa.

In the shrub layer, Boscia senegalensis is the dominant species. Occasional single Acacia, less than 0.01 % of the vegetation cover, or in regenerating little clumps in low laying areas. Trees are young, from 5 to 10 years old or less in appearance. Driving due east from the town of Sabon Kafi, leaving the sealed road behind, we enter the Sahelian “steppe”. Trees become the odd rarity. Millet fields continue to reappear, looking this time like no more than sand blown wastes, the stubble often uprooted and laid on the surface. In the middle of these cultivated areas, always atop a slight hill, sit little villages of mud bricks and thatch, peppered with well tended trees. At their periphery is a circle of a few meters diameter of thick goat and sheep dung, where the goats are tied up on individual sticks and the sheep are corralled in thorny enclosures at night.

7. PEOPLE & PROJECTS

7.1 Nigeria

7.1.1 Lekki Conservation Centre, near Lagos (Coastal Swamp Forest)

The centre consists of 78 ha of the only remaining coastal swamp forest donated by the Government under a 99 year lease agreement. It was created in 1989 and is entirely funded by the Chevron Corporation and managed by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation. Even though it is a biologically impoverished area, 120 bird species have been recorded, including palearctic species and interafrican migrants. e.g. : the White Throated Bee Eater, which comes to feed in the rainforest in November and leaves in April to go breed in the Sahel. The University of Ibadan completed a survey of economic trees but no survey of other plants has been made yet. There are wide areas of grassland derived savannah where Hyperrenia spp are dominant. These were created by slash and burn activities for the cultivation of cassava and abandoned after 2 to 3 years. There are a few remaining specimens of economic trees such as Parkia spp, Symphonia spp, an Iron Wood tree, Elaeis guineensis the oil palm, and Raphia ruffia the raphia palm. The local people who have a right to the land were paid compensation for their loss of access to the resource of the trees as a result of the setting up of the conservation reserve. Animal species in the park include: Monitor lizard, duiker, Mona monkeys. The centre is used as an education and relaxation place for Lagos city dwellers. A raised boardwalk path enables them to walk through the park easily and in all seasons.

Picture 3: The coastal rainforest >>

7.1.2 Okomu Wildlife Sanctuary, near Benin (Southern Rainforest)

The sanctuary is set in an old forestry reserve, close to the Sapoba Forestry Station founded by R.St Barbe-Baker in the same area, managed by the African Timber & Plywood Company. It is a secondary forest estimated to be 300 years old. There are approximately 200,000 people living in the 1,285 sq km of the Forest Reserve or 155 persons/sq. Km. The size of the inviolate wildlife sanctuary is 110 sq km. It is home to the White Collar Monkey, one of the only two endemic monkeys of the area. Even in the sanctuary area, the African Timber & Plywood company (A.T.&P.) had a concession to extract timber until 1988. Now the company is funding the activities of the Okomu Sanctuary Project under the management of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation. The Sanctuary and it’s history by Sylvester Oriere, current Project Manager: In the late 1880’s, a White Collar Monkey was brought to a zoo in the USA. An American professor became interested in it and found out that it came from the Nigeria area. Ninety

years later the same USA university sent out an expedition to Africa, found more of these monkeys in a zoo in Benin and determined that they had been captured in the Okomu Forest Reserve. Blood samples taken from those animals showed that their blood type made them suitable subjects for medical experiments in search of human remedies. In 1985, the wildlife sanctuary was created and in 1988, A.T.&P. ceased logging in the area. However, illegal logging still goes on at a rapid rate but as the project base has only one car to patrol the area it is very difficult to police. Since Nick Ashton-Jones, the representative of the new Pro Natura international conservation organisation in Africa arrived one week ago, they have caught one major timber dealer from Benin red handed at 4 a.m. and have seized his two chain saws. He has been back three times, first begging, then threatening, then offering 10,000 naira (£ 250). A replacement chain saw costs about 25,000 naira. Animal poaching is also rife. It is the local villagers who carry it out, to make ends meet or raise their income. They come at night with head lamps and kill the mesmerised animals who stare at the lights.

Survey Trip in the Okomu Forest Sanctuary The project management have created a walking trail in the forest which enables visitors to see some of the main tree species of the area. Economic species seen on the walk : Sputenia elastica Bush Rubber, latex Etandraphragma selidicum 1st class timber Tepekitus lezelo Obeche, timber Hypodaphnis zenkeri porcupines feed on it Guaria cadrata timber Lovoa trichiloides Apopo, 1st class timber Khaya ivorensis Mahogany,1st class timber Teak Drapek, induces bleeding after delivery Myrianthus arboreus edible fruit and leaves Piptadeniastrum africanum Ejimi,timber,100 y Lophira alata iron wood Ephima tekapoides , timber Ebony Alstonia contiensis , associates with honey bee Anonidium mannii elephants eat & plant the fruit Pichinantus arbolensis, makes teeth fall Aneatae laeta medicinal use against yellow fever Macrolobium spp

7.1.3 The Cross River National Park, Calabar (Montane Moist Forest)

Overview from Phil Marshall, current WWF Project manager. The Park is over 3000 sq km. It adjoins the Korup National Park of Cameroon to the south and was created to connect with it across the border (see map Fig 5). The WWF project has been to assess the biological resources of the Park and to establish the size and parameters of a buffer zone around it where agricultural and land management will be “improved”. Farmers are helped to understand the value of the Park so that they do not abuse its resources. Several preparatory studies have been made on the area in terms of wildlife, plant surveys, soil and climate. WWF has been promising for over 3 years that “great things are going to happen” but now the local people are growing impatient and even somewhat hostile. The Park is divided into two sections: the Oban and the Okwango divisions.

Oban Division : Surface Area : 2,800 sq. Km The EC has provided a 16 million ecus budget over 7 years to develop the buffer zone. Experts from western consulting companies take over the management in July 1993. They will all be white personnel coming only for the duration of the project. Phil Marshall

thinks the success of the project will depend on how well the communities living in the Park can be relocated outside. Resettlement will be compulsory but compensation will be paid. Timber extraction exists in this division of the Park.

Okwango Division : Surface Area: 920 sq. Km The management plan includes: • Regional watershed protection • prevention of savannization • protection of biodiversity (elevations in that division range from 150 to 1700 m) • Tourism potential: the division is home to the only West African populations of gorilla, drill, Preuss’s Guenon and many rare bird species. No timber extraction has ever taken place in this division. There are 36,000 people living in the buffer zone in 66 villages around this division. (31) A budget of 00 million nairas will be allocated for 7 years to develop this buffer zone. 35 villages surrounding the division will be involved in order to provide education and improve their land use. There will be three aspects to the program : • rural development • biological research • park protection and management A Nigerian will be advertised for to head each of these aspects. One hundred staff will be working on the project altogether. In this division, resettlement will be voluntary by offering the incentive of better living conditions elsewhere. There are 3 villages within the confines of the Okwango division. One of them is composed of people culturally akin to other Nigerians north of the park but people of the two villages have similat customs and langusges to those who live over the border in Cameroon. This will make resettlement difficult because across the border there is another wildlife reserve from which the Cameroonians wish to exclude any further settlement.

Figure 5: The Cross River National Park At present, WWF has 160 staff in both divisions (including 20 security men and drivers alone) with village liaison officers in all the villages. After hand over to EC consultants in July 1993, WWF will only keep 2 people at the Oban Division and take on the agricultural buffer zone management for the Okwango Division

7.1.4 The Pandrillus Project, Calabar (Montane Moist Forest)

Two Americans, Liza Gadsby and Peter Jenkins, both zoologists, came to Nigeria as overlanders in 1989 and stayed on to start the Pandrillus Project, a rehabilitation and breeding centre for drills (Pandrillus spp.),which were fast disappearing as a result of bushmeat hunting. This information was given during a tour of their facilities: Drills are very beautiful forest baboons with a greenish lush fur and a range of soft rainbow colours on their large black faces. They are endemic to south east Nigeria and south west Cameroon mountain forests. They are hunted heavily because of their particularly good meat

The Pandrillus Project has been rescuing captive animals in Nigeria and Cameroon with the aim of forming a group which could be rehabilitated in a large protected forest enclosure. They are now looking for suitable land. Pandrillus is also conducting a survey of populations of drills in Cameroon by interviewing hunters. They view this as the only practical method of gaining information because drills are rare and difficult to see in the wild. The old hunters had understanding, respect and knowledge of the animals but the young hunters do not and kill indiscriminately. Pandrillus now keeps 7 drills : • one mature male on loan from the Calabar Zoo. • 4 juveniles • one old female • 2 young females Each of these groups or single animals are kept in separate cages. There has been little behavioural work on drills but the hope is to weld this group little by little into a cohesive troop. In the wild it is known that drills move in relatively small number tribes which are highly territorial and do not mix at all. But it has been reported that they gather into supertribes for brief periods of time. These meetings could be essential to the genetic health of the species. Project funding comes from fund-raising in America and from company or individual sponsorships in Nigeria. Recently they received a grant from the Oryx 100% fund of the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society in the U.K. All their staff are volunteers except for Nigerian drivers and guards and they use regular informers amongst the hunters who collaborate with their effort. They operate as a close community and eat large meals together every night!

7.1.5 The Yankari Initiative (YI) (Central Savannahs)

The Yankari Initiative was started in 1989 by two British brothers, Benedict and Francis Hurst, as a trust in the UK and a company in Nigeria to assist the management of the Yankari National Park, Bauchi State, in Sudan Savannah. Project funding is raised through three channels : • UK based charitable environmental groups such as Elifriends • businesses based in Nigeria but international in scope such as Sheraton’s Going Green Fund. • British Council grants, through their collaboration with a UK NGO, Voluntary Service Overseas. This organisation also provides them with a pool of voluntary personnel to employ. This enables them to bypass a Nigerian law which stipulates that one cannot employ more than a set number of expatriates per company.

In 1991, the YI set up operations in a second game reserve, Kamuku, Birnin Gwari Emirate, in Guinea Savannah. In 1993, they have been asked to help the management of 2 other game reserves in central and northern Nigeria. Their aim has expanded from that of conserving the integrity of wildlife reserves to that of fostering sustainable management of land resources across the central savannah belt of Nigeria. Since my visit, they have acquired a small farm to grow cash crops and started

another registered company, Savannah Conservation Nigeria Ltd. to address these wider aims under the chairmanship of the Wazirin Birnin Gwari.

Kamuku Game Reserve, near Birnin Gwari (Guinea Savannah) This reserve of 120,000 ha, is contiguous in the north with the 260,000 ha Kwiambana Reserve in Sokoto State and the YI wants to link their management to create a suitable area for wildlife migrations over 250 km from north to south and rainfall variations from 1200 mm to 600 mm.

Picture 4: The Guinea savannah >> Rapid progress has been made with the support and keenness for change of both local government and the new Emir of Birnin Gwari and his brother, the Waziri. An official agreement has been signed by all parties. Jonathan Rudge, who manages the reserve, is both a YI member and the wildlife ecologist employed by the Ministry for Agriculture and Natural Resources. They are moving into general land development issues and making arrangements to obtain a piece of land to operate a horse ranch and farm from, so as to maintain a stock of horses (to patrol the reserves more efficiently) and to experiment with better farming techniques with local people. They also envisage operating profitable enterprises in Nigeria instead of relying solely on U.K. funding , which depends very much on changing environmental attitudes in Europe. But they are worried by the current inflation rate. Prices of fuel, public transportation and most goods are soaring and shortages are increasing.

Social context in Birnin Gwari area Jonathan was presented with a recurring problem. One of his workers wanted to marry a second wife so he asked the Waziri to ask Jonathan to make him a loan of 3000 nairas. Upon enquiring what the money was for, it was discovered that it was for the price of the bride to be which is 4500 nairas (£ 100). Jonathan says that he will make the loan but with one condition: that his worker doesn’t have another child for the next two years. The problem with loans, which he often makes, is that inflation is now so high that he can never actually recover all the capital let alone any interest. Trip into Kamuku game reserve with New Zealander wildlife ecologist & VI staff, Jonathan Rudge: It is a lovely wooded Guinea savannah (1200 mm average rainfall). But farms are rapidly expanding right up to the edge of the reserve boundaries. Jonathan is building a field station in the reserve from mud bricks and tree branches with the help of a traditional local architect. The brick making “factory” is right by the site, at a permanent water pond on clay soil. The millet straw and cow dung needed to mix with the mud is brought from nearby farms. Women from builders families hand water and tend a small fadama vegetable garden. Jonathan estimates the density of wildlife in the area by looking at dung and tracks. We find the body of a squirrel shot dead by poachers. He also practices early burning to discourage Fulani from grazing and lighting hot fires late in the dry season. He is well aware of the controversy associated with burning practices and the long term risks to the ecology.

FLORA LARGE MAMMALIAN FAUNA

Burkea africana leopard Panthera pardus Butyrospermum paradoxum lion Panthera leo Daniella oliveri aardvark Orycteropus afer Isoberlinia doka spotted hyena Hyaena hyaena Isoberlinia tomentosa african wildcat Felis libyea Raphia sudanica hyrax Procarvia rudicaps Entander africana jackal Canis adustus Khaya senegalensis elephant Loxodonta africana Anogeissus leiocarpus warthog Pacochoerus Ceiba pentandra aethipicus waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymus bushbuck Tragelaphus scriptus roan antelope Hippotragus equinus bubal hartebeest Alcelaphus buselaphus buffalo Syncerus caffer brach.

The above are some significant flora and large mammalian fauna species from Kamuku Game Reserve (33):

Yankari National Park, near Bauchi (Southern Sudan Savannah) When the YI was set up, it was a game reserve under the management of local and state government. In 1992, following a recommendation by the WWF, it was made a National Park under the management of the Federal Government. The Park contains famous natural hot springs, around which a tourist camp (Wikki) has been created. Wikki Camp is operated by the Nigerian National Parks for visitors to come and view game, especially the elephant population which is the largest remaining in Nigeria. << Picture 5: Elephants in Sudan savannah It boasts 11 mosques, 60 chalets for rent, a restaurant/bar and a swimming pool but the facilities are way below international tourist standards. In its comprehensive survey report on the Park in 1986, WWF warned that the population of mammals was falling steeply but declined to take on its management. The Park is seen as a symbol of national pride for Federal Nigeria and political rivalries beset its management. The current manager of the Park is a Yoruba, with as little experience of dealing with local issues as a Westerner and often even less inclination to do so. The YI do not yet have any written agreement with the management of the Park although they have the support of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation. The YI’s work has three objectives: 1/ Providing a fleet of vehicles to patrol the Park and teaching rangers to maintain them at the Wikki Camp base 26 km inside the boundary (previously, rangers had no method of transport except by foot). 2/ Assisting with the management of the Park on a “deal with the crisis” basis. For example: • the death of a large proportion of trees has been attributed to a combination of the recent droughts and years of hot fires at the end of the dry season, often lit by

pastoralists illegally entering the Park and seeking to promote ‘green pick’. The YI, in conjunction with the Wildlife Officer, runs a programme of early burning at the start of the dry season. • conflicts between farmers and elephants leaving the Park, following long established migration paths. With land shortage increasing, farmers have moved into these paths and elephants are damaging crops as they pass by. A young British volunteer graduate in Natural Resource Management is carrying out an investigation of the facts of this conflict for a month with his room & board provided by the YI. Ben Hurst has also convinced a U.K. organisation to donate satellite traceable collars to fit on elephants so their movements can be followed and their migratory paths eventually understood. Meanwhile, the official Nigerian Scientific Advisory Committee of the Park, without even looking at the area at all, have recommended the digging of an elephant deterrent trench across the valley, 9 Km long. Ben Hurst is presenting a counter argument that it will be extremely expensive to dig and to maintain and very damaging environmentally from an erosion point of view alone. Besides, it will probably be ineffective since elephants manage to cross very steep gullies in the Park. 3/ Assisting the park rangers to prevent poaching and illegal grazing of domestic stock in the Park.

Some significant flora & large mammalian fauna species in Yankari Park The following is not an exhaustive species list as Yankari has a large variety of biological environments including river valleys, gorges, natural springs, steep gradient variations, four different soil and substrate types, and rainfall variations from 600 to over 900mm/year over its surface area and between different seasons. Yankari has a very rich diversity of birds, with a total of 350 species documented in previous reports from 1960 to 1987. Fishes, amphibians and reptiles are well represented too, with two species of crocodiles. (32) FLORA LARGE MAMMALIAN FAUNA

Trees baboon Papio anubis Acacia ataxacantha lion Panthera leo Adansonia digitata hippopotamus H. amphibius Afzelia africana elephant Loxodonta africana Anogeissus leiocarpus warthog Pacochoerus Balanites aegyptica aethipicus Borassus aethiopium waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymus Burkea africana bushbuck Tragelaphus scriptus Cassia sieberiana roan antelope Hippotragus equinus Combretum spp (5) bubal hartebeest Alcelaphus buselaphus Daniella oliveri buffalo Syncerus caffer Khaya senegalensis brach. Pteleopsis habeensis Terminalia spp. Ziziphus spp

Grasses Andropogon spp (2) Hyparrhennia spp (3) Digitaria spp Loudetia spp

Local Extinction Since the creation of the Game Reserve in 1959, 8 animal species are known to have become locally extinct: Ostrich, hunting dog, cheetah, giraffe, western kob, kerrigum, red fronted gazelle and bohor reedbuck. (32)

Plant products sold in local market places WILD CULTIVATED

Adansonia digitata Tamarindus indica pods Parkia spp as gum and seeds mangoes, ground nuts, millet, rice, other gums from leguminous trees maize, beans, tomatoes, peppers, bananas, ginger, limes, papayas, onions

Health care in the Yankari area This account is based on a chat with an Irish nurse and midwife of the British NGO, Voluntary Service Overseas, who is doing a health community project based in a village near Yankari. She came a year ago and has helped finish the construction of a maternity/care centre which was started with funding from the Canadian government. Construction was interrupted for two years when the new Nigerian local government appointee decided to stop their part of the funding. Now it has just been completed with more funding from the Canadians. There was only a dispensary there so far. Women have an average of 8 children and lose 2 to 3 of them. People are very matter of fact about the death of their children. Women space their children by two years since they breastfeed for about that amount of time. It is considered a shame to become pregnant again before two years are up but obviously it does happen from time to time. Family planning, in other words contraception, is a widely unpopular subject and even if some families are practising it they wouldn’t talk about it. Children die of measles. When there was an epidemic recently in one village, the nurse asked the local health government department to send her large amounts of vaccine to immunise as many children as possible. She received two phials (both out of date) and a lot of other things she couldn’t use but no vaccine.

7.1.6 The Katsina Afforestation Project (Northern Sudan Savannah)

The Project The project was started following the 1977 Lome United Nations Environment Programme conference when the Nigerian Government officially requested help from the EC to fight desertification. It covers 3/4 of Katsina State and is considered the most successful project of its type in northern Nigeria. The area is under the traditional leadership of two Emirs. The Emir of Katsina (who is next in power to the Sultan of Sokoto) and the Emir of Daura. Neither are involved in the project as it is run by the Federal Government.

Funding is from the EC with a 9.4 Million ecu budget. The management contract is run by the Danish Land Development Service. The manager is British, the extension officer Polish and the accountant a Dane. The hundred other staff are Nigerians. The project has been going since 1987 and has been extended several times during the last 3 years. It is supposed to end in April and no one is sure what will happen next. They operate on 16,000 sq km with around 34,000 farmers and 800 villages. Their objectives are to establish: • shelter belts, to reduce wind erosion • woodlots, to provide fuel and construction wood • trees on farms, for multipurpose farm use and soil stabilisation • nurseries, to provide the trees • education programmes with young forester clubs in schools • training programmes for women in tree nursery and planting • improved wood stoves

See opposite Figure 6: Map of the Katsina Afforestation project Figure 7: Total seedling numbers for 1993 There have been preparatory talks for several years now on a follow-up Nigerian managed project to be called “Katsina Rural Development Programme” with an expanded approach to incorporate more than agroforestry. They intend to start addressing the question of livestock management because: • at this time and for the next 3 months, there is hardly any food left anywhere for the stock. • Farmers hold more cattle than they own, keeping some for northern farmers from Niger and they lie about numbers constantly

The new project will want to encourage farmers to keep crop residues for their stock at this time of year and to keep livestock enclosed and grow food for it. Also they will seek to provide veterinary care which is non-existent at present beyond what farmers know themselves.

Meeting with Janus Debsky, Extension Officer Janus Debsky is in his mid 50’s and came from Poland to escape communism. He has worked in Nigeria for 35 years, 18 of which as Commissioner of Forests for Nigeria during and after the British colonial period. After 35 years in Kano, Katsina, Sokoto and Borno states, he enjoys seeing his work on satellite pictures and from the plane flying out of Kano. He has worked on this project since the summer of 1992 after doing similar work in Kano state. The practice of growing hedges of grasses or shrubs around fields, common in Kano state, is starting to gain ground with farmers here who just had never thought of it. Farmers do not communicate well between different areas. For instance, the practice of encouraging tree regeneration on farmland is now copied from Niger where trees are protected by law. Janus’s personal point of view is that nurseries are indispensable while a project continues but rarely last afterwards. Nursery programmes he started 10 years ago when in the government’s employ are now totally derelict.

Government organisations have been doing next to nothing since the departure of Western management personnel after Independence in 1969, partly through lack of money and partly due to the “stay in the office” syndrome. Hopefully, school or home run nurseries will last longer. Shelter belts and woodlots (the latter are about 1/4 of an acre in size on average within the village area and fenced) are not adopted by farmers because young plants have to be constantly protected from grazing animals and they can’t afford the time or the fencing material. They are much more enthusiastic about natural regeneration in their fields because it is easier to manage. They follow up on it very eagerly once you open their eyes. The root systems and seed bank are everywhere just waiting to be “depressurised” and regenerate vigorously. Transplanting nursery trees always incurs a high percentage of loss, especially native species which tend to establish long tap roots first. As these are broken when transplanted, the plants are often retarded for several seasons afterwards. But Janus’s own British project manager is not in complete agreement with this scenario. Many writers on development say that Moslem women cannot participate in management of such projects but according to Janus the opposite is true.

Meeting with Dr. Reid, Project Manager Dr. Reid has been managing this EEC project since its inception. He has had a 48 year career in forestry in Africa, both in wet and semi arid tropical areas. The programme here started with strict old forestry guidelines of set spacing between trees and ‘rule book’ notions of shelter belts, woodlots and farm trees as developed in Europe. It has since become more flexible in order to gain the collaboration of farmers. It even expanded to include a women’s programme three years ago. It is now in its second year extension and it is very difficult to manage because they never know from quarter to quarter whether they are staying on, leaving or handing over to another programme. There is a total absence of trees in local forest reserves in this area and he holds not much hope for their future regeneration. Dr. Reid believes that the shelterbelt programmes are totally useless for the prevention of wind erosion and are just nice monuments to a limited idea of agroforestry in arid lands. The way they are designed with double rows of Azadirachta indica , no undergrowth at all and positioned on their own in an otherwise bare landscapeis certainly not effective. In any case, it is very difficult to plant the same trees continuously over kilometres as terrain conditions change along the way. There are supposed to be some contacts with Niger but nothing like joint management occurs in reality. There have been some meetings when Babenguida (the ex-military ruler of Nigeria) initiated a tree planting campaign 3 years ago at which “prefets” of Niger attended but no more.

Meeting with farmers near Baba Mutum, Daura Emirate The following information was gathered during a 45 minutes question and answer session which occurred spontaneously under a Bauhenia tree as farmers and extension workers of

the Katsina Afforestation Project were walking back from the fields and examining natural regeneration techniques. These essentially consists of selecting one regrowing coppice from a bush or a tree and cutting out all the others so thar all the energy of the mature root system will be channelled into rapid regrowth of a full size plant. • They grow maize, millet and cowpeas as staple food and vegetables in fadama land or irrigated fields. • About the sand drifts they say: “Our soil is a loam but these last 10 years the sand has come in more and more, though our soil has always been loose. We think it comes from the north east with the trade winds”. • They are interested in natural regeneration techniques because, as they do not have any forest reserves in their area anymore, they need a rapid turnover of wood supply on their own lands. Also they see that it helps nutrient cycles. • They decide on the timing of planting using a traditional rule of thumb which is to wait 7 months after the end of the last harvest of the last crop from the previous season. This is supposed to guarantee germination. • They use their own harvested seeds for planting and select the best and biggest looking ones for that purpose after the harvest. But (and there is much joking and laughter at this point) they sometimes end up eating it because it is also the best food. • They find they have better harvests in years of less rainfall and the harvest id best when there are 3 or 4 day intervals between rainfalls because if there is too much water plants don’t grow. • Nobody here grows grass or plants it. Everyone finds the idea quite amusing. They just keep some around the edges of the fields.

Wood stove Testing Programme A visit to the nearby village of Tigirmas to follow a training session and to experiment in cooking time and the amount of wood used with different stoves. Four stoves are being compared : • the traditional 3 stone open hearth which is the norm in local households • a simple metal ring pot holder stove villagers make themselves. • 2 different designs of improved metal stoves fabricated and sponsored by the EEC project. All stoves will be started at the same time and with the same weighed amount of wood. All the ingredients of the rice dish are also weighed at exactly the same amounts for each stove. Fires are started with kerosene poured directly onto the wood. Recipe: Pour palm oil first. When hot, add cold water, onions, tomatoes and spices mix, then sodium monoglutamate and salt. Cover and when boiling, add rice. Simmer till cooked and all water is absorbed. The two traditional stoves needed more wood to start the fire and went out half of the time. The two improved stoves needed less wood and didn’t go out at all. All these preparations are done in front of an audience of all the women of the village with some of them taking part. Out of the 19 women present, 6 are pregnant and 6 are carrying babies on their backs (3 of these are pregnant as well). One is pointed to me by the extension lady as being only 12 or 13 years old with her second child already.

The two improved stoves start boiling at 30 and 33 minutes respectively. The rice is added and is finished cooking 25 minutes later still at 3 to 5 minutes interval between each other. The two traditional stoves only start boiling after 1h & 15 minutes and the rice is finished cooking 45 minutes later. At the end of the cooking, the unburned wood for each stove is weighed. Each stove was given 5 kg of wood : • the improved stove no 1 has used only 1.5 kg • the improved stove no 2 has used only 2.2 kg • the two traditional stoves have used 4.2 kg of wood each The women all discuss these matters and there is much laughter when some try to make the traditional stoves go faster or borrow wood from the improved stove’s pile. Then we eat the rice dish all together and have millet flour mixed with yoghurt and ice afterwards. The women of this village will keep the 2 stoves and each woman will use them for one week in turn. They are already all asking where they can then buy their own. These new stoves cost 80 nairas each and one blacksmith can make four of them a day or twenty a week. Local blacksmiths are now being trained in their fabrication. The original design for the stove and the training for the blacksmiths came from a programme called Energy Save in Niger.

7.1.7 The Hadejia Nguru Wetlands Conservation Project, HNWCP, near Nguru (Floodplain in Sahelian Savannah)

Background The wetlands have been a very productive area for a long time. Before the 1950’s, they were cultivated on a 20 year fallow rotation. Now, it is 3 to 4 years at most. Local farmers are very efficient, planting several crops per season. The productivity of the wetlands is constantly growing in terms of food output. But the human population is also growing. People locally are still proud to have up to 12 children. Since the 1975 drought, thousands of displaced farmers and Fulani have come in from the North. They need more land and more firewood and cut more trees. If their crops fail due to lack of, too much or ill timed flooding, they often turn to making charcoal from wood as a quick way to make money and save themselves from ruin. In the 1960’s, a grandiose plan was designed for the Nigerian Federal Government by the US River Basin Commission to create a whole series of large earth dams on the river systems of northern Nigeria, with planning assistance from the World Bank and big European engineering companies. The stated objective was to provide all year round water security because the farmers greatest problem is always the unpredictability of floods and knowing when and what to plant where. Thirty years later, this dream has proved to be a total failure: • dams were created on upstream impermeable substrates where soils are shallow and of naturally low productivity. • evaporation rates are very high • silting rates are very high • the engineers didn’t succeed in accommodating the high fluctuations of water levels due to heavy monsoonal rains

• agricultural production, where it actually occurs, is at a very high cost e.g. at Tiga Dam (completed in 1984) on Kano river, a tributary of the Hadejia river.

Figure 8: Large scale irrigation projects in the Hadejia-Jama’are and the Komadugu-Yobe basin In 1992, another major dam on the Challawa tributary of the Hadejia river came into operation, the Challawa Gorge Dam, bringing flood levels in the valley downstream to a new low. The water shortage in the floodplain is compounded by increased water use between 1970 and1990 due to: • increased local population & immigration from the north with droughts. • increased irrigated farming with the Nigerian Federal Government giving away thousands of small pumps. • Increased rice farming by big Kano based owners wanting to monopolise the water in Kano State. • Increased wheat production after Babanguida set a ban on wheat imports in 1989. This ban is now lifted. Now, yet another dam, planned since the 1970’s, the Kafin Zaki Dam, has resumed construction on the Jama’are river. The German based engineering company building it, Julius Berger, has on its board General Babanguida himself and other pundits of the northern Nigerian States.

Project History The HNWCP project was initiated in 1985 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), then entrusted to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSBP) to manage in collaboration with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) and the several state governments whose land the project is situated on: Kano, Yobe (previously Borno), Bauchi and Jigawa (created in1989) The area of the project covers the confluence of the two rivers Hadejia and Jama’are coming together in the flood plain to form the Yobe river beyond Gashua which flows only barely into Lake Chad due to the problems outlined above. The RSBP started its mandate as a bird conservation organisation, surveying the significant populations of paleartic migrants using the wetlands and instructing rangers and locals in the recognition and conservation of birds. It quickly became apparent that the real threat wasn’t to the birds but to the water cycle itself.

In 1987, a hydrological survey lasting 2 months was commissioned at the request of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation with the Geography Department of University College London (UCL) and of the University of Cambridge and gave rise to the Adams-Hollis report which made a comprehensive attempt at creating a hydrological model of the entire flood plain from 1964 to 1987 and highlighted the dangers of curtailing flooding by creating more and more dams upstream. (37)

Figure 9: Flooded area of the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands from 1964 to 1986

Figure 10: Groundwater storage estimates in Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands from 1964 to 1986 The UCL studies (continuing since 1987) and the 1991 economic valuation of the benefits of wetlands assessed jointly by UCL and the International Institute for Environment & Development (IIED) (36) are starting to be heard. It looks inevitable that the Kafin Zaki dam will still be built. However, Julius Berger are considering altering their design to fit the “best scenario for minimum damage” being proposed by the HNWCP team. It is hoped that the new Nigerian project director, Dr. Amino Kano, a respected scientist and a member of a Kano ruling family, will help cool the heated political power struggles which brought about this difficult situation in the first place.

7.1.8 The North Eastern Zone Agricultural Development Project, NEZADP, near Gashua (Floodplain in Sahelian Savannah)

Project history

Presented by John Williamson, Technical Adivisor Initiated in 1991, the project is in its second year. The first year was mainly devoted to building an extensive accommodation compound area outside Gashua, complete with offices, guest houses and swimming pool! The management approach is designed to have five technical components: • agriculture • agroforestry • health • education • rangeland

The rangeland programme is run by a Nigerian who studied in Australia. He started work last year with three objectives: • Exclusion fenced areas to monitor natural plant regeneration. Their implementation was contracted out to the Centre for Arid Zone Studies (CAZS) at the nearby University of Maiduguri. But enclosures were not supervised, fences were pulled down in most places and areas invaded by farmers or Fulani. • Planting trial of 20 ha with Dolichos lab lab beans, Stylosanthes spp and Andropogon gayanus. These areas were were also grazed more than intended by passing Fulani herds as they are situated within the main grazing reserve in the project area where there is a permanent water borehole. The manager of this rangeland experiment does not yet want to use exotic grasses but will consider it in the next season. The planting was done by the resident semi settled Fulani. They plan to plant 100 ha this season with locally collected seeds. • In the extreme north of the project area, next to the Niger border where dunes are actually moving over village land, the villagers were given grass seeds and Euphorbia seedlings to stabilise the dunes. Growth has so far been good, but severe dust storms just before the rains could destroy the new plants.

Other technical components of the programme are equivalent to the ones practised in the Katsina Afforestation Programme

Research Neil Pratt of Silsoe College, UK, works in association with the CAZS of Maiduguri to quantify land degradation by comparing three sets of aerial photographs from the 1950’s, 1960’s, 1980’s and recent satellite imagery with current surveys of sample sites across the project area.

7.2 Niger

<< Picture 6: Microcatchment tree plantings of SOS Sahel, Takieta (see overleaf)

7.2.1 Projet de Mise en Valeur des Cuvettes Oasiennes, near Goudoumaria (Sahelian Savannah)

Ecological setting & history Temperature at this season Minimum : 21•C Maximum at noon: 47•C. Daily differential of 26•C. Average yearly rainfall from 1988 to 1992: 286 mm, with yearly variations of up to 100mm in overall amount. Duration of the rainy season can vary from 3 to 5 months. From 1988 to 1992, French research scientists working for the Niger government looked into the physiology and behaviour of the local varieties of date palm. These were introduced to the area by caravans in the last 100 years. The French Foureau Mission of 1902 reports no date palms in the south of Niger. The peculiarity of this area is that 20 % of the date palms produce two flowerings and two sets of fruit per year. This, together with the great number of varieties occurring sided by side, was seen as an opportunity to capitalise on. Reports were produced on the agricultural development potential of the cuvettes. It was also understood that during the last 10 years, water levels in the cuvettes had dropped in many places to 4 m below ground, too deep for local farmers to reach easily with hand dug wells. A rangeland study of the surrounding Mainé-Soroa county researched by a Danish organisation (DDRA, 1993), shows that current permanent grazing herd requirements are 14% above the average carrying capacity of the rangeland. Furthermore, this study did not include the additional requirements of nomadic herds which graze the area during all the dry season.

Aims Launched in late 1992, the project is funded by the French government (Cooperation Francaise) via a French NGO, the Association des Volontaires Francais du Progres and a Nigerienne NGO, managed by Frenchman Claude Mauret, with a staff of 3 other French and 5 volunteers from Niger. Total budget is 12M FFr for 4 years of which 60,000 FFr is for installation of offices and houses. These have been situated in renovated buildings in Goudoumaria, thus reducing the initial cost and the time lapse fro the start up phase. The project objectives are to : • develop the agricultural potential and raise the water level of the cuvette oases with pumps. • improve date palm cultivation to the standards and level of productivity of North Africa. • diversify the production of fruits and vegetables in the cuvettes for commercial markets. • help farmers to evolve from their traditional land rights a functional land policy and land map of properties which will be compatible with the new Code Rural which comes into effect in 1994 (following the election of the new civilian government in April 1993). • study economic markets in Nigeria and gear production towards them.

• work on the maintenance of cuvette oases (including the prevention of sanding-in) by addressing the soil destabilisation caused by large scale overgrazing. • weekly monitoring of ground water seasonal recharge levels in two cuvettes.

Picture 7: Activated sand dune in overgrazed Sahelian savannah >> This project’s managers do not know of the existence of the Hadejia Nguru project less than 100km south over the Nigeria border (though one of them has visited the NEZADP project). neithr have they heard of the hydrological cycle studies there which point to the fact that water table recharge in their area could be dependent on the floods of the Komadougou-Yobe basin. Their own monitoring shows a progressive water recharge phase from December to February, a full 2 months after the sharp drop in level occurring at the end of the rains in early October. They attribute this mainly to rain water trickling down from the Koutous and Termit hills west and north of the area. (39) They were very interested in the hydrological studies and requested information to be sent to them. They also wished to experiment with grass and legume seeds from Australia for rangeland regeneration. The management structure of the project will be the first in the history of Cooperation Francaise funded programmes where the decision to give a grant to some specific endeavour will be decided by and with the people concerned. The implementation, whether of a well, a house or a road, will be entirely carried out by local people with a contribution from their own funds. Thus, it is hoped to return a sense of responsibility and decision-making to their lives.

7.2.2 SOS Sahel Project, near Takieta (Sahelian Savannah)

Meeting with Ahmadu, Nigerien Project Director Budget, raised by the UK based NGO SOS Sahel: 4 million Fr for 4 1/2 years. The project started in 1990 and involves four aspects :

Forestry • Agricultural field plantings of Acacia albida and hedges of Prosopis juliflora and Parkinsonia aculatea. This year they will also try local species like Acacia senegal. • Their most extensive regeneration work is in the Takieta classified forest reserve (6720 ha). It is done on an ad hoc basis since there is no overall plan for the reserve’s management, which serves three cantons. Begun in 1992, the work consists of the creation of microcatchment earthworks planted with trees and grasses. Digging is from March to May and planting starts in July. The catchments are dug at the rate of 7/day/person by surrounding villagers who work in exchange for food. In 1992, 30,000 microcatchment plantings were done on 278 ha. In 1993, 21,000 have been dug up till the end of April.

This development is situated around a semi-permanent pond to protect it from silting. Microdams of stone have also been built along the erosion gullies leading into the pond.

The plantings are then under the supervision of a guard equipped with a bicycle for a minimum of 5 years. In the earliest plantings, initiated in 1989 by US Aid, villagers are now allowed to harvest some grass and wood again. The trees are now taller than a man, and grass cover is up to 70% on ground which used to be a totally bare hard pan. Villagers are very impressed and the project now works with 100 volunteers a day. Ahmadu recognises that ‘food for work’ schemes can become addictive but says sometimes it is necessary to kick start the process.

Agriculture Demonstrations are organised with a group of peasants in each village. They are given technical guide-lines and are asked to continue with their usual methods so that results can be compared later. e.g. Combined millet/bean plantings versus pure millet or pure peanut stands. Seeding rate variations Nowadays the benefits of inorganic fertiliser no longer need to be demonstrated. But the only way to procure it is on the large parallel black market from Nigeria. So the project buys bigger quantities from supply controlling merchants to resell it to peasants in quantities they can afford to buy with cash each season. Often, it will be used only to boost production in that part of a field with a poorer soil.

Water and soil conservation In eroded or hard pan fields, stone walls are built to redirect water. In sandy fields, lines of Andropogon gayanus are planted.

Women’s work • Raising of a small animal stock is encouraged. Ten women are given credit to buy 3 to 4 ewes and to pay back within two years, so that another ten women can benefit from the scheme. • Encouraging the use of an improved stove, a baked earth stove, the Banco which can be made very cheaply by women with sand and clay on top of the traditional three stone hearth. This scheme was started in 1992. • Creation of small nurseries of 100 to 200 pots around a well and managed strictly by women raising Moringa oleifera, Andansonia digitata and the Henna plant. • Independent teaching programme of reading and writing in Hausa for both men and women .

The project started with 6 villages and, having now built up to 19 villages, will include the 26 villages of the canton by the end of 1994 when this project phase ends. There is already talk of continuing the project and taking on other cantons.

7.2.3 Bororo pastoralist nomadic camp, near Sabon Kafi (Sahelian Steppe)

Until 20 years ago, millet and other rainfed cultivation was prohibited by law beyond a boundary line set mainly below the 300mm isohyet line. This line used to be at the level of the towns of Tanout and Tahoua (see Figure 3). Nowadays, the average rainfall at this latitude has dropped to 200mm but farmers have continued to expand into these marginal

areas previously used exclusively for pasture. Their colonisation was aided by the sinking of many deep wells in the area by Cooperation Francaise and other aid programmes. See section 5.7 for a description of the resulting Sahelian steppe landscape. Arriving at Boulnara well, approximately 20km south-east of Tanout, it is a shock to see it surrouded by a great herd of animals after crossing a country for many hours which, by average Australian rangeland standards, could not carry any stock at all in its present state. The animals are gathered in groups of their own kind and are watered in a set order. The watering of the nomadic pastoralist’s herds takes place every 2 days. Water is hauled in a plastic tarp bucket pulled by a team of donkeys from its present depth measured at 80m, and poured into cement troughs around the well. The process takes a full day. The rest of the time, the water is used for the needs of the nearby Kanuri farmers’ village. At the camp I visited there were 20 people, 75 head of cattle, 12 donkeys, 10 camels, about 30 sheep and 30 goats and 1 dog and her pup. All unweaned calves, camels and goats are kept at the camp all day , tied if necessary. When the mothers come back from grazing in the evening, they are allowed to suckle for a few minutes and are then tied up again while women and children take some milk. They are then let free to suckle again to their heart’s content. Later, the cattle go out to pasture for the night with the calves. The staple diet is cow or camel milk and millet paste with various sauces. More substantial meals involve rice or macaroni in tomato spicy sauce, roasted peanuts, and on feast occasions, goat or mutton. See section 8. on Nomadic Pastoralism for further information on the context of the situation of these Bororo cattlemen

7.2.4 The Reserve Naturelle Nationale de l’Air et Ténéré, near Agadez (Saharan Massifs)

The cease fire agreement and the complete release of all hostages in the conflict between Touaregs and government in northern Niger had occurred only in the last two weeks prior to my arrival in Zinder. This, combined with time and budget pressures, led to the decision to forego a visit to the Air and Ténéré, and concentrate on building contacts in the capital, Niamey. At the IUCN/WWF office, a meeting with Dr Thomas L. Price, Adviser in Human Science, was arranged at which the following was established: • The road across the Algeria/Niger border was in effect re-opened and Dr. Price had met an American hitch-hiker who’d come down on it only one week previously. • The IUCN/WWF projects in the Park had been on hold for over a year and the organisation would be very wary of starting up operations again in the area unless it was confident of the long term management possibilities and safety of its staff. • However, they were at present considering holding a meeting in Ifrouane in the coming 2 months to investigate the possibility of restarting work, following the recent accords between Touareg rebellion leaders and the newly elected government. • The Park has recently been put on the World Heritage list, and it is hoped additional funding and attention will ensue. • Arrangements were made to obtain copies of some publications about the Park from the IUCN office’s library in Niamey.

7.3 Algeria

7.3.1 The Parc National du Tassili, near Djanet (Saharan Massifs)

Meeting with Park Directeur Mr Karzabi. The Park is under the management of the Ministry of Culture. Until recently, their only concern had been the preservation and study of the prehistoric cave paintings for which the Tassili plateau is famous. But the administration is now launching and developing the identity of the Park as a natural environment. Le Tarout is the local name of the Cupressus dupreziana. There are only 230 trees remaining, all well documented and numbered. But the tree is under great stress in the Park because of nomadic refugees. Czechoslovakia and the Institut National de Recherche Forestiere (Algeria) have experimented with germination of the tree since the 1970’s and have discovered that sterility of seeds is due to a fungus disease. By neutralising the disease, reasonable germination rates can be obtained and plans for propagation have been considered such as a project to regenerate a big nursery near Djanet. The dream would be to produce it in quantity and plant it in stable settlements in the area because it is impossible to re-establish the tree without human care. A monogram of nine articles on the Park’s vegetation is planned for publication by the end of 1993. Conventions for research exist with different initiatives in Algeria, notably with the University of Algiers and the Institut National de Recherche Forestière. Mr Karzabi is very enthusiastic to help with any research on the Tarout. There are many war refugees in the Tassili, mainly from Mali and Niger. The locals often take advantage of them, either making them work for a handful of food, hiring them for a pittance or forcing them into illegal contraband activities. Mr Karzabi himself has often met contraband caravans carrying fridges and televisions on their backs but he has never been in danger. In his opinion, reported troubles and attacks on travellers have been widely exaggerated. Meeting with Mr. Brac de la Perriere, Unite de Recherche des Zones Arides (URZA), University of Algiers There are various initiatives to monitor or palliate land degradation or ‘desertification’ in Algeria, such as the station of Al Golea of the URZA and the Barrage Vert tree planting government programme on the southern slopes of the Atlas mountains. There is also an “Observatoire du Sahara and du Sahel”, created in the 70’s under President Mitterand’s initiative, which collects data of the main parameters of change in the French speaking region. The UNZA’s work is mainly research and raising public awareness of the considerable phytogenetical resources of the Sahara for land regeneration, food and fodder production (44). It is also involved, through the work of Mr Mounir Bencharif, in starting a project to conserve, and possibly breed, Gazelles in the Tassili. Meeting with Mr. Bouabdallah El-Hadi, Responsable du projet de recherche sur les resources phytogenetiques des zones arides, Institut National de Recherche Forestiere

Their programme will run from 1991 to 1996 and aims at setting up a centre of propagation and conservation of Saharan phytogenetical resources. It will be a two stage process: • Inventory of vegetation ensembles in the Hoggarth mountains as an update of Dr. Koesel’s 1940’s inventory using modern phytozoological technology, and Mr. Grim’s 1977 inventory and description of the Cupressus dupreziana. • Creation of a propagation nursery on site in the Tassili. A research laboratory already exists.

Furthermore, Mlle Sahli Fatiha is making an inventory of existing populations of propagated seedlings in different places from 1959 onwards, to describe their state and gather what is known of their growth habits and cultivation. All these plantations were developed under different bio-climates: Sub-humid, 600 mm (Bainer, Baraki); Semi arid 200 to 400 mm (Aia Oussera and Djelfa) ; Saharan below 200 mm (Djanet and Tamanrasset). She will also be overseeing the germination of seedlings from collections currently being made in the Tassili. The hypothesis is that local populations, Mediterranean, sub Saharan or Saharan endemic, have a higher potential resistance to drought or arid conditions and this potential needs to be verified, investigated and developed.

Figure 11: Distribution map of Cupressus spp in North Africa and the Sahel: In the case of the Cupressus dupreziana, since there are so few individuals left, each tree is treated as a separate population and the priority is to collect both seed samples and

vegetative samples of each specimen to reconstitute a total gene pool of the species in one place, safe from predation for future propagation. So far, all collections and propagation had been done piece meal without any research plan. Population viability assessments are therefore of great interest to the Institute. The guiding rule in the propagation work so far is not to tamper with the growth of the seedlings and to observe what happens naturally. The widely reported seed sterility is due, in their view, to the poor quality material collected and the little attention paid to the selection of germination techniques. Indeed, we examined a bank of bags planted two months previously at 10 seeds per bag in which 3/4 of the bags did show one to two seedlings visible. We saw two rows of maturing trees, over 10ft high at 7 years old and a quarter taller at 12 years. Two documentaries were made on the Cupressus dupreziana itself and on Saharan vegetation by the national television channel and the Institue.

7.4 Interstate management

Effective management of resources or land across national boundaries of any of the three countries I visited does not exist. In addition, the lasting divide of language and imperial concepts between the previously French and British territories still exists for the Westerners involved in the projects I visited. However, I saw a few signs that the coming together of European Community nations was fostering greater contacts between projects in different African countries. A ‘Commission for the Chad Basin Water Management’ exists between the four countries sharing the Lake but, by all accounts, it is powerless and ineffective. In any case, its jurisdiction doesn’t extend to the watershed areas draining into the Lake. A ‘Commission Nigero-Nigeriane’ exists to foster collaboration between the two governments. In 1991, one of its research team investigated land degradation problems for the making of a television documentary. They visited a whole range of sites between Maiduguri, Sokoto, Zinder and Maradi. From my own experience, with the exception of a few check points on the roads, crossing the Niger-Nigeria border is very free, especially since so many people still travel on horse or camel back. From the account of Mr. Karzabi in Algeria, the same applies to the Niger- Algeria border.

8. PROJECT RESULTS

It is impossible, with the small amount of hard data that could be collected on this short reconnaissance journey, to make a comprehensive comparison of results from such a disparate range of projects. However, the following is a list, by no means exhaustive, of criteria which come into play in determining the success rate of any of these endeavours: • Duration of the project • Budget amount/source • Number of targets • Production levels • Growth rate • Staff levels • Scale of land worked on • Level of regeneration work • Range of people influenced • Level of relationship to the surrounding community and to other projects.

On this basis, a few general observations can be made: In general, the level of awareness, interest and knowledge amongst projects about each other’s work was strikingly low. Large scale projects, entirely funded and staffed from foreign sources were especially cut off from local communities and lacked knowledge of other projects. Small scale projects, relying on the entrepreneurship of a few people, had the fastest rate of growth and were the most pragmatic in their actions as well as influencing a wider range of people. I observed by and large a great gap between the scientific knowledge available in the ecological management of semi-arid lands and the realities of management approaches I met on the ground. It seems that a lot of limited ideas are still influencing decision makers at all levels. Of course, difficult communication and transport methods contribute to this problem. Finally, only such projects as seek to integrate themselves in the structure of the surrounding community and evolve as part of it without a definite end point and which seek to raise their funding from their own activities, after the initial start up investment, have a good chance of success. Of all the ones I visited, only the Yankari Initiative fulfilled these criteria. The Bororo pastoralists lifestyle, although not a ‘project’ as such also met these requirements.

9. NOMADIC PASTORALISM

At no stage during my journey, did I ever see a group of grazing animals of any kind that were not on the move. Nomadic pastoralism is the way of life which has changed most of all in the last 50 years in West Africa and it has paid the highest price for it. Though there are other nomadic pastoralists (Touaregs, Toubous), the dominant group is the Fulani (also called Peul in French speaking countries). They are thought to originate from the Egypt/Ethiopia area and to have been the main inhabitants of the southern Sahara savannahs for the last 5000 years. They were also the major influence in the mass Islamisation of Sub Saharan Africa during their conquests of the Hausa kingdom in the 18th and 19th century. It is difficult to gather sufficient information about the Fulani. Their territorial range is vast, stretching from Doualla in the Cameroons, to Agadez in Niger, to Chad, Senegal and Guinea. They have been totally marginalised in both development and conservation schemes. The aim of these interventions has been always to make them settle and to intensify cattle production. Much finance and many institutions have been committed to achieving that end. Nonetheless, cattle remain the major traditional means of storing capital. The following account was written from various sources or from observations made throughout the journey. The pastoralist’s story of the last 50 years has been one of shifting and/or shrinking territory. Before 1950, the Fulani rarely came down to graze below the level of Kano. They kept only cattle in large herds which they would pasture in the Sahelian steppes during and immediately after the rains and in the floodplains of the Lake Chad catchment area during the dry season. This provided them with a salt cure from the mineral salt deposits of the ‘cuvette’ areas on the way, much in the same way as mineral lick supplements are given to cattle in northern Australia. They would be prevented from coming further south by the presence of the tse tse fly, carrier of bovine sleeping sickness, except for a few corridors where it was not prevalent which they used only so that they could sell their cattle in the south where animals would be butchered before they could develop the disease. A high rainfall cycle in the early 60’s favoured an increase in herd sizes. Simultaneously, under colonial government, an expansion of rainfed semi arid cash crops like groundnuts and cotton had taken over much of the agricultural fallow land used for dry season grazing, whilst millet and sorghum culture had also expanded to cater for a fast growing population.

The shock wave of the long drought When the first drought hit, in 1968, there was already some southerly migration but the pastoralists mostly stayed put, sold their animals to buy food or went only to return in the following season (19).

Though rains remained in a low phase, it was the second trough in the cycle from 1972 to 1978, with the almost total drought of 1973, which spelled the collapse of Sahelian nomadic pastoralism. It was also the time when permanent migrations occurred. Even though the EC and Saudi Arabia funded a programme to rebuild lost herds in Niger, the third trough in 1984 ensured that recovery never took place. Here are some of the details of the story which have come to light during my research: • The Institut d’Elevage et de Medecine Veterinaire Tropicale in Paris carried out a thorough annual survey of the condition of the rangeland in the Sahelian steppe of the south Tamesna region in Niger from 1985 to 1989 (18). They combined satellite and ground data. After the total rain failure of 1984, all pastoralists and their surviving herds left the area and did not return until 1987. The study’s main observations were: • no vegetation growth was recorded in 1984 • annuals predominated everywhere but, by the end of the 5 year period, some perennials not seen in the area since before 1984 were appearing again in very small numbers. • the tree and shrub layer had been very adversely affected and showed little sign of recovery by the end of the study period. • returning pastoralists were rebuilding their herds by replacing cattle with sheep and goats, or camels, both requiring less start up capital and lesser pasture quality. • Ahmadu, the current manager of the SOS Sahel project in Takieta, south Niger, recalls the 1974 drought as a farmer’s boy growing up just north of the Nigerian border: “There were animals dying everywhere. The Peul (Fulani) were trying to sell the meat but no one wanted to buy it as it had no taste at all. Most of them had lost all their animals and would come to us for seeds to plant. But they had no idea how to do it. We would find them on their hands and knees, digging in the seeds with their fingers and had to show them how to use a hoe and make furrows. It was very strange and very sad.” • In the floodplain area of the Yobe Komadugu basin, I pieced together the following story from Lone Mouritsen, a young Danish MSc student studying production strategy changes of the Fulani, and Ismael, a Nigerian researcher with the Hadejia wetlands project: In !972, farmers started to leave the floodplain area and migrate south. The traditional local Fulani Woodabe tribe expanded their herds. In 1974, they too had to leave the area as their herds were too big to be maintained there. They moved south to the northern Sudan savannahs of Bauchi State and east to the shores of Lake Chad. Other Fulani tribes with smaller herds came in to take over the floodplain from both Kano and Borno States, from where they were being pushed by pressure from overfarming. When the original farmers started coming back in 1976, these Fulani, now also owners of larger herds, refused to go. Furthermore, these were not the Fulani Woodabe with which these farmers might have had deals going back several generations. So tension in the valley has been greater ever since. • From the Wazirin Birnin Gwari and Tim Havard, further south, in Guinea savannah: Between 1975 and 1978, the Fulani started coming into the area. Many settled and started to farm, often giving the ownership of their herd over to the richer farmers in exchange for rights to the land. Thus, the local Hausa who kept only goats previously, started to keep cattle. It should be noted that the eradication of the tse tse fly and the removal of woodland made it possible for the Fulani to remain in these areas for long periods of time. Furthermore the building of roads made it easier for the Fulani to travel across the whole of Guinea savannahs. Only a few men and boys need to follow the herd. Women and children travel ahead by car or bus to set up camp. I often saw live cattle being transported in the back of cars as well.

The Relationship between farmers and pastoralists Access to land, in the Fulani system, is determined by rights to water points which are owned by clans. Breakdown in the relationship occurs when: • farmers crop around a water point and monopolise it permanently. I witnessed an example of this at a well during my stay with the Bororo Peul in Niger. When the Bororo were reluctant to agree to carry an elder of the Kanuri farming village to town in their Landrover which was already overloaded, the farmers threatened to refuse them access to the well. • in the harsh conditions since the drought, an increasing number of Fulani have become clanless. These people act outside the traditional laws, securing access to water by violence.

Traditional exchanges between Fulani and farmers are:

Fulani to farmers: milk, meat, dung in their fields Farmers to Fulani: crop residue, grazing, millet and vegetables, access to water and fallow land. Breakdown in the relationship occurs when: • farmers decide that it is more lucrative to sell crop residue and buy fertiliser at subsidised prices than to use the dung brought by the Fulani. • demand for fallow land exceeds supply with the increasing need for farmland, continuous cropping and the shortening of fallow cycles.

These frictions have become very severe, leading to murders in some places.

Nomadism and sedentarisation Today, only a very small proportion of the Fulani remain truly nomadic. The majority have been forced to become semi or fully sedentary, either as farmers or as city dwellers. Despite this, most of the Fulani interviewed by Lone Mouritsen declare that they would rather go back to their nomadic lifestyle. In Niger, according to Patrick Paris, only 5,000 out of 70,000 Fulani remain fully nomadic. The main reason is the loss of grazing resources, whether it be from overgrazing, drought, farming expansion, or government intervention. On the subject of overgrazing, here is the closest notion a pastoralist nomad may have of carrying capacity according to Patrick Paris’s experience in the Bororo Peul clan into which he married: “A good pastoralist is always looking at his cattle closely. As soon as he detects the slightest drop in condition he will move and look for better pasture. Apparently, they can detect changes too tiny for any laymen to notice and they look first at the calves. Such a move would often coincide with the dying out of grasses which would then be left early before extensive trampling occurred. But not all are good pastoralists. Some will stay to hold the territory around the water hole even though it isn’t good for the stock.” The Sahelian grass steppe, the fringe between savannah and desert, is immense. This wet season domain of nomadic cattlemen has been badly degraded through the long drought. Though annual grasses keep coming back, the loss of the perennials means that nutrients are leaching faster. Patrick Paris explained that even though the rains and grass growth in

1992 were apparently good, the nutrition value was low. Cattle started to lose condition early while older and pregnant animals even lost most of their hair. The loss of these rainy season pastures to the north, combined with the eradication of the tse tse fly in the south means that most Fulani now live permanently in the Sudan and Guinea savannahs, the farming belt where their herds have expanded. The Nigerian government created grazing reserves to give them a certain security of resources. In reality, farmers are often encroaching into these lands to farm or graze their animals and the Fulani in turn encroach into game reserves and wildlife conservation areas to find the fodder they need at the end of the dry season. At both Kamuku and Yankari, rangers are waging a hard battle with pastoralists, with no efficient means to apprehend them and their stock or enforce deterrent measures. Fulani herders hard to see in the savannah bush, hard to catch, can easily buy back confiscated stock and there is not enough jail space to keep them when apprehended.

Future possibilities It was impossible for me to estimate when pasture degradation had taken place in Sahelian areas but I saw evidence of naturally resiliant plants and rich seed banks could yet regrow into rapid natural regeneration in some places I visited in southern Niger. However, unless the pressures causing degrdation are reduced or removed, natural regeneration is unlikely to be sufficient. I saw experimental exclusion fenced areas to monitor natural plant regeneration in Nigeria, both in Katsina State and at the North East Arid Zone Development Project (NEAZDP) near Gashua. The one I walked through in Katsina State was showing intense Andropogon gayanus regrowth. Unfortunately, the enclosures were not supervised and fences were pulled down in most places. The NEAZDP project has also conducted planting trials done with resident semi-settled Fulani in a grazing reserve on 30 ha using locally collected seeds. The results were encouraging, though grazing was allowed too early after planting. They are intending to plant 100 ha this season. It is the opinion of Patrick Paris that ex-nomads like the Peul, Arab and Touareg could take on the practice of seeding grasses and that leases of such replanted areas could be managed on the same basis that water access is granted. In the Katsina Development Project which will soon follow on from the Katsina Afforestation Project, they intend to encourage farmers to keep crop residues for their stock, keep livestock enclosed and grow fodder to store for the end of the dry season. Veterinary care is often non-existent at present beyond what pastoralists or farmers know how to do themselves. In Niger the problem is compounded by rigid laws which forbid anyone who is not a registered veterinarian to even own a syringe. Several projects are talking about including this aspect in their work. The Yankari Initiative is developing a strategy of establishing relations with the Fulani at chief level and making binding agreements as to what routes the herds will be allowed to take and when. In return, they help provide vaccination and other veterinary care to the herd as it goes by the corridor in the game reserve.

10. DESERTIFICATION & REGENERATION

Human Overpopulation The first point to address is that of human population growth, this being one of the major causes of land degradation and perhaps the single most important factor. In both Nigeria and Niger, the majority of Moslems I interviewed on the subject of birth control answered with this fundamental dogma of Islam: “Allah will provide” or “Every mouth Allah creates, he feeds”. The Efik Christian community I spent a day with seemed also to see no reason to question their dogmas on the sanctity of creation. Both dominant religions therefore support and encourage population growth. Although I was told that Christian communities are the most sensitive to it. There are two other ideas which result in this laissez-faire attitude and that came to light in my conversations with Ahmadu, the manager of the SOS Sahel Project in Niger and with the Wazirin Birnin Gwari: • Africans seeking to emulate lifestyles in Europe and the USA find population densities there to be much greater than their own and see original landscapes transformed to a greater extent than African ones. Despite all this, Europe and the USA still appear to be rich nations. When I pointed out to Ahmadu that their respective climates were very different he agreed but still thought that ecological regeneration was possible even though the population continues to increase. • the equating of many children with the ability to amass great wealth.

There remains a strong taboo against talking about contraception in general, especially between men and women. Nigeria’s government programme is very euphemistically called the “Child Spacing Programme”. Billboards publicising the campaign are very prominent throughout the towns but there is little sign of impact amongst people. Now, however, due solely to the pressure of dwindling resources rather than to any propaganda, family planning or AIDS scare, people are slowly beginning to realise more children means more mouths to feed. It is the ecological pressure that is bringing change by duress. The main manifestation so far is a reduction of the incidence of polygamy throughout the country and a slight reduction of family size in the cities. In the region of ‘cuvettes’ below Goudoumaria in Niger where degradation is intense, the birth rate is very low averaging 2 children per family with high sterility and celibacy. Woman’s freedom of choice, especially with regards to reproduction, is an essential link in improving resource management. With exception of the ‘women of the Coast’ who are often traders or property owners and can be very materially independent, the majority of women I met had litle power to make decisions. In most places my situation of being unmarried and childless at the age of 34 was considered either highly abnormal or shameful or both. In both Nigeria and Niger some marabous (holy men) of Islam are still cursing women who dress in skirts and do their hair in a Western fashion. In Zinder there have been instances of fundamentalists going around beating up girls dressed like this.

However, I wish to report three experiences that illustrated very forcefully the rapid change of mentality that information is generating in modern African ladies. • When discussing the subject of contraception with both Ahmadu and his female colleague extension worker, she felt quite shy to challenge his point of view that women in their area were not overworked but she finally said: “It is high time that the African woman get a break”. • At the Katsina Afforestation Project, Mariam, who runs the improved stove programme, is her husband’s third wife. She is in her late 20’s and preferred to complete her university studies before getting married. She is the first woman manager employed by the Project. However, she is put under pressure by her two co- spouses for not having produced a child yet. I was told that her husband could divorce her for that reason. • I stayed in Niamey for one week in the house of a family consisting of two widows of the same husband and their children. The first widow had 7 children. Her second eldest daughter was still unmarried at 21 and wanted to have no more than 4 children. Her next daughter of 18 did not want to have more than 2 children.

Picture 8: Young girl from Niamey, Niger >>

Land Degradation The following testimonies or verifications of the processes recognised as the proximate causes of land degradation were gathered along the journey. In addition, I have included elements which, I have observed, influence the evolution of the landscape .

Overgrazing In the Sahelian savannah of northern Nigeria and southern Niger I was able to refer to two scientific descriptive records of the landscapes. These were the Anglo French survey of 1957 which explored the Nigeria/Niger border region and the Foureau French survey of 1902, conducted at a time when the area was still in the throes of the war of conquest. According to the descriptions of the Foureau survey between Zinder and Diffa the main differences between 1902 and today are: In 1902, this region was still solely used by pastoralist nomads who would come down between October and January to collect mineral salts. Their method was to evaporate the permanently standing water by using grass and tree branches as fuel. Today, almost 100 years later, there are cattle, goat and sheep herds kept permanently by sedentary villagers as well as extensive millet cultivation. In addition, Bororo cattlemen and camel caravans are very numerous even the end of the dry season. As a result: • the perennial grass layer which was described as dominant in 1902 has disappeared. I saw Andropogon gayanus clumps only once in 30 km driving, and the Aristida longiflora and Cymbopogon proximus perennials of sandy soil are also difficult to find too • a formidable expansion of unpalatable invader species such as Leptadinia pyrotechnica, Calotropis procera and Pergularia tomentosa has taken the place of the perennial grasses. • there are now live dunes over a majority of the area where none were mentioned in 1902.

Removal of woody species

Both Janus Debsky and Dr. Reid of the Katsina Afforestation Project stated having seen immense destruction of forests in their 35 to 48 years as foresters in Africa, both in wet and semi arid tropical areas. Aerial and satellite photographs also show a massive removal of woodland over the last 50 to 70 years. I witnessed for myself the state of the forest reserves of north Katsina State in Nigeria and that of Takieta in Niger where no true tree layer was left at all.

Overcultivation I have described in sections 5. and 6. the spread of farmland in both Nigeria and Niger and the break down of the fallow system which is not being replaced by any other form of long term nutrient and soil structure maintenance. However, there are big differences in farming practices between states, Kano State having by tradition the highest standard of farming in the north. Katsina State farmers on the other hand have a rather backward and thoughtless attitude towards the land. In addition, many of the sedentarised pastoralists who have turned to agriculture practice it to a very poor standard. Dust storms are reported as bigger and more frequent than in the past in northern Nigeria and Niger. The incidence of heavy dust haze in the atmosphere during the months when the north eastern wind of the Harmattan blows is also reported as higher. In Niger, there are now many permanent villages practising millet cultivation in rainfall areas below the 300mm average with devastating erosion consequences.

Drought The last 25 years of rainfall deficit in the whole of the monsoonal zone has contributed to the changing of land use patterns. This has brought about a retreat of populations to the south: Fulani cattlemen now mainly reside in Sudan and Guinea savannahs. The tremendous increase of farmland is leaving a majority of the land surface bare during most of the dry season every year and wind erosion is increasing. Widespread ‘savannization’ through burning and cultivation of forest land is reported in the southern forest belt. In the Sahelian region around Goudoumaria, the ‘cuvettes’ are being developed into oasis systems in to which the cultivation of the date, introduced only 100 years ago, is being encouraged, while the surrounding sand dunes are losing their last vegetation cover and starting to move. Is this pattern akin to the changes and the retreat of pastoralist and early agricultural people from the Sahara in the last 6000 years recorded in the rock paintings of the Tassili mountains?

Economics and technology Inappropriate use of technology (dams, agricultural equipment, inorganic fertilisers) and short term/high return economics (oil and timber extraction, excessive cash cropping) have a negative influence on the conservation of the primary resources: soil and water. Linked with these developments, the ‘debt mentality’ is often sapping the will of people.

The ‘Look’ of land degradation

The expectation of the mind’s eye of the aspect of a landscape, or the memory of it in the past, both have a great influence on people’s actions towards the land. Janus Debsky tells of having been to many conferences and always laughing somewhat at people who try to measure the advance of the desert in meters and centimetres per year. Land degradation, he says, cannot be measured that way. There are some places where one can see sand dunes moving, otherwise there is mainly the replacement of woodland and scrubland systems with farmland or of perennial grassland with annuals and invader species. Everywhere I went throughout this journey, degradation occurred in pockets or patches, like holes developing in a used cloth.

Climatic change This is a controversial subject but one that needs to be investigated urgently. Here are the questions raised by land management practitioners I met in the field: • Tim Havard, Overseas Development Administration, wasn’t convinced that desertification was anything resembling a fact, but admitted that he was interested in the fact that vegetation cover had an influence on climate patterns. He wanted to know over what sort of an area and whether agricultural and climax vegetation landscapes had a different effect in the semi arid or the wet tropics and how it might be measured. • Janus Debsky was questioning why there was no sign of a return to pre-1968 rainfall figures and that the rainfall averages seemed to be decreasing for the entire area of sub Saharan semi arid regions. Witness the Katsina rainfall records from 1922 to 1992.

Figure 12: Katsina rainfall records from 1922 to 1992 In Janus’s opinion there is a great need to study the hydrology of the entire tropical zone, especially the semi arid areas, as all existing data are very superficial. To try to understand the effects of dams, floods and wells and removal of vegetation in relation to the whole water cycle.

Land Regeneration Definition: “The accelerated and directed re-establishment of a self-sustaining ecosystem by human intervention”. (49) The process of land reclamation always requires, in the following order: 1 - a change in awareness in the local population and a recognition of the degraded environment as a threat to their continued livelihood. 2 - a legal framework to enable the work to happen. 3 - an initial financial investment with little expectancy of immediate return. 4 - sufficient know-how to initiate the work 5 - continued long term management involving both maintenance and monitoring. It must be appropriate and stable, give rise to a return on the original time and money investment and prevent a recurrence of degradation.

At present, nothing is being done in the southern forests or in Guinea savannah except for the natural regeneration occuring in conservation reserves. In this area, the work of the Yankari Initiative was the most promising because of its involvement with local decision makers and entrepreneurs to fulfil all the above criteria. The only reclamation efforts are occurring where loss of productive capacity is hitting hard and no other alternatives are left. These are mainly attempts at treatment rather than prevention. In northern Nigeria, reclamation work is dominated by the foresters tree planting approach (Katsina Afforestation Project) and the big EC/UNEP ‘fight the desert’ projects with their unwieldy large scale and ‘five year plans’ strategy. In Niger, foreign NGO’s are multiplying, often as rivals. Many are involved in crisis management, like the Volontaires Du Progres building palisades of Leptadenia pyrotechnica to try and hold back dune slopes which threaten the towns. Others, like the Projet Danois, are involved in bringing more appropriate technology, like solar powered pumps. The best ones, like SOS Sahel’s work with the Takieta Forest Reserve, are addressing long term regeneration of soil resources using native species, relying totally on local co- operation and managed entirely by Africans. Once again they seek to fulfil the criteria outlined above. My conclusion so far is that the priorities are: • to study and understand natural successions, both in past degradation and in natural regeneration processes, and to seek to apply it to regeneration work. • to evolve techniques to regenerate the perennial grass layer. • to work with and within existing African economic structures and enterprise.

In the context of understanding long term succession, I met Dr. Steven Stokes, a sedimentary biologist and lecturer at Oxford University. He was initiating a project in northern Nigeria which aims to recreate a paleohistory of the sand formations south of the Sahara from the point view of anthropogenic influences in the activation of sand dunes. There is a new laser technology available for the last two years which, unlike carbon dating, will allow science to trace exactly the time of formation of sand dunes in arid lands.

11. CONCLUSIONS & FUTURE PROPOSALS

Conclusions 1/ There is need of a transition from land management as a free access ‘commons’ to one of individual responsibility for one’s actions. As quoted from Hardin’s 1968 paper, ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’: “The population problem has no technical solutions; it requires a fundamental extension in morality”. (46) 2/ Migration is either no longer possible or, in the case of migration to temperate countries, economically difficult and fraught with political problems. 3/ Though I have given a few examples of how some projects are influencing the people who directly work for them, there is a need for all projects to investigate their link with the health, education and cultural/religious life of the people they are working amongst. Picture 9: Hausa-Fulani nobleman at the feast of Sallah,the end of the fast >> 4/ A new culture is arising with a new generation of people coming of age, who were not born or raised under colonial rule. My general impression was that a rapid revolution of attitudes was occurring amongst Africans I met, especially influenced by access to the media and the changing economics of the land. 5/ I was very impressed by the subtlety of arbitration and decision-making being exercised by many local African leaders I met. There is a potential there which is not being tapped. 6/ Projects of different kinds need to pool management resources and compete for efficiency. The process of ‘bench-marking’, used increasingly in industry, by which the best practitioner of a particular process is sought out and emulated, would be very usefully applied. 7/ It is crucial to reveal the true scope and “look” of land degradation in savannahs both in Africa and in Western countries (where most of the decisions affecting these regions are still being made). Even more urgently, local decision makers must be shown how to deal with it. 8/ The ultimate effect of human population growth and land degradation, allocation of shrinking resources by the gun, is already evident in the Sahel. 9/ There is a need for a reassessment of the ‘development’ ethos applied in these regions. The Africans hopes of a Western standard of living need to be balanced by a realistic presentation of the contradictions and pitfalls lying behind these apparent achievements. A correct understanding of tropical ecology must be applied to economic models promoted by developers. 10/ Land degradation occurs in pockets and patches and as a continuous process of changing land uses across the whole humid and semi arid savannah region, not as an identifiable ‘edge’ near a desert. 11/ Projects with a narrow focus of action fail. 12/ A general synergistic approach to land management is necessary to address the present state of affairs.

Future proposals 1/ Organising a workshop to initiate exchanges of expertise and services between projects and people visited. 2/ To follow up on requests from several of the projects visited for advice on perennial grasses planting or regeneration trials. 3/ To combine the resources of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew with investigations of local memory (e.g. SOS Sahel/Panos (19)) and data from landscape surveys to compile a manual of land regeneration and management based on an understanding of succession. 4/ To follow up on a proposal by Henri Brocklebank to investigate the economics of African ungulates outside protected areas with the involvement of local communities and possibly the Yankari Initiative. 5/ To prepare a documentary film proposal comparing “the Look” of healthy and degraded land from the microscopic to the landscape as seen through the eyes of local people as well as soil scientists, ecologists, landscape designers etc etc. 6/ To make an initial search of published research on water cycles and disseminate to managers of all projects visited. 7/ To initiate a joint research venture between the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the relevant Algerian organisations, which have all welcomed Michael Maunder’s proposal for a population study of the Cupressus dupreziana.

12. REFERENCES

(1) UNEP (1991) “Technical expert consultation on global data on the extent of arid lands and desertification” UNEP/GEMS, Nairobi. (2) NERC (1992) Final report by the NERC Expert Review Group on Dryland Degradation. (3) BARROW, C.J.(1991) “Land Degradation: Development and Breakdown of Terrestrial Environments”. Cambridge University Press. (4) COWIE J. “Anthropogenic climate change - causes, consequences, and certainty” Biologist 1991-38 (5) EL-BAZ FAROUK “Do people make deserts?” New Scientist (6) ELLIS W.S. “Africa’s Sahel : The Stricken Land” National Geographic Vol 172, no 2 August 1987 (7) HULME M. “Is Environmental Degradation causing Drought in the Sahel? An Assessment from Recent Empirical Research” Geography 1989 (8) MONOD T., TOUPET C. “Land use in the Sahara-Sahel region” from “A history of land use in Arid Regions” UNESCO 1961 (9) MOORE P.D. “Ups and downs in the Sahel” Nature Vol 343 Feb. 1, 1990 (10) ROGNON P. “Les Secheresses au Sahel replacees dans l’evolution climatique des vingt derniers millenaires” Secheresse no 3 - Vol 2 Sept 1991 (11) BOOTH F.E.M. & WICKENS G.E. “Non timber uses of selected arid zone trees and shrubs in Africa” FAO of UN conservation guide 19 - 1988 (12) BARBE BAKER R. “Sahara Challenge”- 1954 and “Sahara Reclamation for Freedom from Hunger, a report on my second Sahara Expedition and what it teaches” - 1970 (13) AGNEW C. “Green belt around the Sahara” Geographical Magazine - April 1990 (14) IUCN “The IUCN Sahel Studies” 1989 (15) IUCN “Conservation in Sub Saharan Africa and its islands” 1990 (16) NEWBY J. “The role of protected areas in saving the Sahel” World National Parks Congress, Bali 1982 IUCN/WWF (17) UNSO/UNDP “Ecological Monitoring - The Senegal Model” Technical Publications Series No 1, Spring 1990 (18) WISPELAERE G. DE, PEYRE DE FABREGUES B. “Evaluation et suivi des resources pastorale par teledetection spatiale dans la region du Sud - Tamesna (Niger)” Rapport Final IEMVT/CIRAD Feb 1991 (19) CROSS nairas. & BARKER R. “At the Desert’s edge. Oral stories from the Sahel” Panos 1991 (20) NELSON M. Institute of Ecotechnics “A conceptual model for the management of semi arid savannahs” in “Management of World Savannas”, International Symposium on Savannah Management, UNESCO MAB, CSIRO, Australian Academy of Sciences, Brisbane 1984 (21) SHARP R. & M.KONE “A future rooted in Africa’s soil” Environment, development & the search for sustainability - Africa Recovery Briefing Paper no 5 June 1992 (22) STEWART P. “Cupressus dupreziana. Threatened Conifer of the Sahara” Biological Conservation Vol 2 no 1, Oct 1969

(23) TOULMIN C. & CHAMBERS R. “Farmer First: Achieving Sustainable Dryland Development in Africa” IIED Drylands Network Programme Paper no 19 - June 1990

(24) WICKENS G.E., GOODIN J.R. & FIELD D. “Plants for Arid Lands” proceedings of the Kew International Conference on Economic Plants for Arid Lands 1984 (25) ROYAL BOTANICAL GARDENS, KEW “Forage & Browse Plants for Arid & Semi arid Africa” 1989 International Board for plant genetic resources. (26) MARTIN R.B. “Elephant conservation outside of protected areas & rural community involvement” from the ‘Elephant Utilisation in the southern African region’ Conference, November 1991, Malawi - Oct 1990 (27) HAVARD T. , Overseas Development Administration, Kaduna, Nigeria, 1993, private communication (28) AL HADJI ABDUL KADIR JIBRILU, the WAZIRIN BIRNIN GWARI Emirate, Birnin Gwari, Nigeria, 1993, private communication (29) MORTIMORE M.J. “Population Densities and Systems of Agricultural Land-use in Northern Nigeria” Ibadan University Press, Nigeria - 1971 (30) LOWE R.G. “Experiences of a forest officer in Western Nigeria: Sapoba Forest Station” The Nigerian Field - April 1992 - Volume 57 - part 1-2 (31) WWF “Cross River National Park Project Plan” - 1989 (32) WWF “Yankari Game Reserve” - Report 1987 (33) RUDGE J. “Kamuku Game Reserve - Annual Report” - 1992 - Birnin Gwari Wildlife Conservation Unit (34) EEC/FGN “Katsina Afforestation Project - Annual Report” 1992 (35) ICRA “Analysis of the Farming Systems in the Hadejia Jama’are Floodplain” - Working Document Series 20 - 1992 (36) BARBIER E.B., ADAMS W.A. & KIMMAGE K. “Economic Valuation of Wetlands Benefits. The Hadejia Jama’are Floodplain, Nigeria.” - LEEC paper DP 91-02 - IIED - April 1991 (37) ADAMS W.M. & HOLLIS G.E. “Hadejia Nguru Wtlands Conservation Project. Hydrology and Sustainable Resource Development of a Sahelian Floodpain Wetland” - 1987 (38) DONAINT P. & LANCRENON F. “Le Niger” Col. ‘Que Sais-je’ - Presses Universitatires de France - 1984 (39) “Rapport sur le Projet de Mise en Valeur des Cuvettes Oasiennes” - Niger 1993 (40) FOUREAU F. “D’Alger au Congo par le Tchad” - Masson 1902 (41) HAMMEL D.J. “Traditional Gardening Systems in the Air Mountains of Niger” - Conservation and gestion des Resources Naturelles dans l’Air et le Ténéré - Série des Rapports Techniques No 13 - UICN/WWF (42) LHOTE H. “L’Ancienne Forêt de Cyprès du Tassili N’Ajjer” - Journal d’Agriculture et de Botanique appliquée - Jan to Mars 1964 (43) BARRY J.P. et al “Essai de monographie du Cupressus Dupreziana A.Camus, cypres endémique du Tassili des Ajjer” - Bulletin de la Société d’Histoire Naturelle de l’Afrique du Nord - Alger - Tome 61 - 1970 (44) BOUNAGA NAIRAS. & BRAC DE LA PERRIÈRE R. “Les Resources Phytogénétiques du Sahara” - Institut National Agronomique, El Harrach - Vol 12(1), 1988, T1, p79 (45) ‘Africa, a continent at stake’ - Financial Times Supplement - Sept 1993 (46) RAPPAPORT I. S. “Animals have common access to herbage. How has evolution solved the ‘commons’ problem and what can humans learn?” (unpublished) - M.Sc. Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor - 1993

(47) Dr EKPO OKPO EYO et al “The Story of Old Calabar. A guide to the National Museum at the Old Residency, Calabar” - 1986 (48) GRAETZ R.D. “Desertification: A tale of Two Feedbacks” - Ecosystem Experiments - Sope 45 Ed.: Mooney, Median, Schindler, Schulze, Walker. Pub.: John Wiley - 1991 (49) RAPPAPORT I. S. “Ecology and the Reclamation of Derelict Land” (unpublished) - M.Sc. Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor - 1993

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The vegetation zones of Nigeria 14

Figure 2: Tribal territories in Niger 24

Figure 3: The isohyet limits of Niger 27

Figure 4: Land use map of Niger 28

Figure 5: The Cross River National Park 38

Figure 6: Map of the Katsina Afforestation project 44

Figure 7: Total seedling numbers for 1993 44

Figure 8: Large scale irrigation projects in the Hadejia and the Komadugu-Yobe basin 47

Figure 9: Flooded area of the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands from 1964 to 1986 48

Figure 10: Groundwater storage estimates in Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands from 1964 to 1986 48

Figure 11: Distribution map of Cupressus spp in North Africa and the Sahel 54

Figure 12: Katsina rainfall records from 1922 to 1992 64

TABLE OF PICTURES

Picture 1: Oral tradition recording of events by song makers 11

Picture 2: The fast expanding city of Lagos, Nigeria 17

Picture 3: The coastal rainforest 36

Picture 4: The Guinea savannah 40

Picture 5: Elephants in Sudan savannah 41

Picture 6: Activated sand dune in overgrazed Sahelian savannah 49

Picture 7: Microcatchment tree plantings at Takieta Forest Reserve 50

Picture 8: Young girl from Niamey, Niger 62

Picture 9: Hausa-Fulani nobleman at the feast of Sallah,the end of the fast 66