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Africa from Forest to Sand 1993

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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.
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