IMPACT OF INTERNAL DISPLACED PERSONS ON THE TREE COVER AT EL GENINA LOCALILTY, WEST DARFUR STATE - SUDAN. By Mohamed Abuelgasim Ahmed Hasan B.Sc. Forestry (2003) Faculty of Forestry & Range Sciences University of Upper Nile A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of M.Sc. in Forestry Supervisor Dr. EL Amin Sanjak Mohamed Ali Department of Forest Management Faculty of Forestry University of Khartoum April 2010 DEDICATION I am proud to dedicate this simple work to:- The Soul of my late father My mother My wife and my son, whom are my life. My brother and sisters. And to the rest of my family. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First let me thank the almighty Allah for the blessing that contributed to the successful completion of this work. Secondly, I would like to express my profound of sense of gratitude to Dr. ELAmin Sanjak Mohamed for his support and valuable follow up, encouraging, supervision, considerable patience and endless advice through this study. I am also grateful for my mother, my wife Arafa Ahamed and my brother Sabrey Abulgasim for their patience, encouragement and support My gratitude are to Dr Mohamed Ali ELhadi & Mr Abdallha Adam Osuman from FNC for their encouraging me to take this Pass and continue my studies. My thanks includes my real brother Idris Sulieman for his help, and all other hands helped to make this work see the light. Many of people, and not all of them can be listed here, have helped in this work. It would be a vain effort to evaluate and list these contributions. Credit of success is to them all. Finally I acknowledge all my colleagues in FNC EL Genina Circle. ii TABLES OF CONTENTS DEDICATION..............................................................................................................i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...........................................................................................ii TABLES OF CONTENTS ...........................................................................................iii LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................iv LIST OF FIGURES.....................................................................................................vi LIST OF PLATES.......................................................................................................vi ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………..………...viii ARABIC ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………..ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background............................................................................................................1 1.2 Scope of research....................................................................................................2 1.3 Research problem ...................................................................................................2 1.4 Objectives of the research ........................................................................................3 1.5 Research questions..................................................................................................4 1.6 Justification............................................................................................................4 CHAPTER II LITRTURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................5 2.2 IDP populations......................................................................................................6 2.3 Definition of IDPs...................................................................................................8 2.4 History of conflict in Sudan. ....................................................................................9 2.5 Natural resource-base conflicts...............................................................................10 2.6 The reasons of the displacement in Sudan ...............................................................12 2.7 Darfur in Perspective.............................................................................................13 2.8 Darfur conflict......................................................................................................14 2.9 Main Causes of Conflict in west Darfur ..................................................................17 2.10 Competition over Resources.................................................................................17 2.11 Administration Units competition and Hakura system.............................................18 2.12 Livestock routes and land use...............................................................................18 2.13 Drought and ecological change.............................................................................19 2.14 Impact of conflict effected ...................................................................................20 2.14.1 Impact of communities...........................................................................................20 2.14.2 Effects on Livelihoods............................................................................................20 2.14.3 IDPs Livelihood options.........................................................................................21 2.14.4 Pastoralists change income level............................................................................22 2.15 Impact of Displacement .......................................................................................22 2.15.1 Impact of IDPs on forest ........................................................................................23 2.16 IDPs and poor urban households...........................................................................25 2.17 The role of natural resources and environment in buttressing peace building.............26 2.17.1 Supporting economic recovery and copying strategies ..........................................27 2.17.2 Developing sustainable livelihoods........................................................................28 2.18 Forest in west Darfur affected by IDPs..................................................................28 iii CHAPTER III STUDY AREA 3.1 Location...............................................................................................................31 3.2 The Population .....................................................................................................31 3.3 The Climate..........................................................................................................34 3.4 Topography and Soil .............................................................................................34 3.5 Natural Resources.................................................................................................35 3.5.1 Forestry.....................................................................................................................35 3.5.2 The pasture ...............................................................................................................36 3.5.3 The animal resource .................................................................................................36 3.6 Socio-economic environment .................................................................................37 3.7 Livelihood systems ...............................................................................................38 3.8 Land Tenure system ..............................................................................................38 CHAPTER IV MEHODOLGY 4.1 Introductions ........................................................................................................39 4.2 Inventory .............................................................................................................39 4.3 Selection villages (comps) .....................................................................................40 4.4 Selection of household ..........................................................................................40 4.5 Construction of the questionnaire ...........................................................................40 4.6 Organization of data..............................................................................................41 4.7 Pre-testing............................................................................................................42 CHAPTER V RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 5.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................43 5.2 General characteristics...........................................................................................43 5.3 Gender and educational level .................................................................................43 5.4 Source of income ..................................................................................................44 5.5 The history and causes of displacement...................................................................45 5.6 Cutting the trees at the beginning of the displacement...............................................47 5.7 Sources of energy .................................................................................................49 5.8 Climate change and variability ...............................................................................51 5.9 Mobilization and sensitization of IDPs in a forestation program ................................52 5.10 Tree species that have been planting and the numbers.............................................54