Problems facing the forestry industry in East Africa

Deforestation due to the increased need for land for agriculture and settlement.
Wild animals graze freely in the forests leading to their destruction e.g. elephants.

Wild fires caused by either lightening or careless farmers leading to loss of extensive forested lands.

Scarcity of rainfall and prolonged drought due to increased desertification leading to short and stunted trees.
Population increase hence the need to create more land for settlement leading to clearance of forested land.
Limited alternative power sources have led to high demand for wood fuel and charcoal hence destruction of forests.
Increased urbanization has led to destruction of forests e.g. road construction and industrialisation.
Mining and quarrying activities have also led to the destruction of forests due to the need to expose mineral bearing rocks.

Occurrence of tree pests and disease that attack specific tree species leading to their depletion.
Long gestation of some tree species has also led to shortage of wood fuel.
Inadequate labour force to carry out forestry management.
Inadequate capital for investment in forestry management.
The bulky nature of some tree logs makes it difficult to transport them to saw mills.
Inaccessibility of some forests has made it difficult to exploit some of them.

Corruption and embezzlement of forest funds by some forestry officials.
Limited valuable commercial tree species which leads to importation that is very expensive.
Insecurity and wars due to rebel activity has led to destruction of forests that are used as hide-outs for rebels.
Unfavorable government policies e.g. giving forested land to private investors to set up plantations hence clearance of forests.
Low levels of technology for exploiting forests e.g. use of axes and pangas.

Hostility of local communities towards forest staff hence creating insecurity for the forest guards.

FORESTRY IN MALAWI

It is mainly done by the forestry department.

The forestry department looks after two types of forests and these are the indigenous and the exotic forests.

Most of the indigenous forests which are under the forestry department are forest reserves.

Forest reserves are forests set aside by the forestry department where people are not allowed to cut down trees anyhow. These are four different purposes.

Forest reserves in Malawi are found throughout the country especially in the northern part of the country.

The found in indigenous forests are hardwood trees, they do not grow in pure stands, and they have slow growth and do not grow straight.

CONSTRAINTS TO FORESTS

Late burning of the forests
Deforestation through charcoal burning and visoso type of agriculture
Diseases and pests which attack the tress
Frequent droughts or unreliable rainfall

EFFORTS MADE BY THE GOVERNMENT TO BOOST FOREST

Allowing people to export timber to other countries
Employment of forest guards to control deforestation
Encouraging early burning of the forests
Establishment of the forestry department to control forestry
Establishments of sawmills in the entire plantation in Malawi
Introduction of Licenses to all those willing to burn charcoal or cut timber
Introduction of stiffer penalties to all those found cutting timber or production charcoal without permission
To encourage people to plant trees during the tree planting day

REASONS WHY GOVERNMENT’S POLICY HAS BEEN TO ENCOURAGE REAFFORESTATION

For the constant supply of timber
Promotion of tourism
Protection of the catchment areas
Protection of the soil from the Sun’s rays
To reduce soil erosion in the country.

FORESTRY IN ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe has large areas under savanna woodlands

These woodlands provide the people of Zimbabwe with forest needs e.g. charcoal and fuel wood

They savanna woodlands have limited supply of timber due to the following reasons:

Few savanna trees yield timber that is commercially valuable
Timber yielding plants such as teak, mukwa or muchibi do not grow in pure stand
The rate of growth of trees is slow.

Zimbabwe’s indigenous yielding timber trees are found in the following places:

North of Bulawayo on the Kalahari sands
On the slopes of Chimanimani in the Eastern Boarder Highlands

Zimbabwe’s exotic trees are planted in the following places:

North east of Bulawayo on the water-holding Kalahari sands
Staple Ford.

The Eastern Boarder Highlands are suited for the growing of exotic trees because of the following reasons:

Have a high annual rainfall of over 1,000mm
Have cool temperatures which are ideal for the exotic trees like pines which are temperate trees
Have reduced annual evaporation rates
They are a highland area.
The establishment of the expensive plantations has enabled the country to set up a pulp and paper mill at Mutare.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF VEGETATION

There are a number of natural and human factors which influence the growth of vegetation. These are:-

Careless cutting down of trees especially for fuel wood
Clearance of vegetation for agricultural purposes
Clearance of vegetation to accommodate urban development and expansion.
Destruction of vegetation by fires caused by people
Rainfall-water is responsible for the survival of all plant life.
Soil- The medium ii which plants grow
Temperature-This determines the environment in which plants grow because certain temperature levels promote plants growth whilst others retard it or even prevent it altogether.
The main controlling factor is climate, especially the rainfall and temperature.
The nutrients and water essential for plant’s growth are stored in the soil

DEFORESTATION OF THE NATURAL WOODLANDS

Deforestation means the removal or destruction of forest and woodland. The reasons for deforestation are as follows:-

Population increase demands that more forests and woodlands are cleared for timber, farming, building of houses and wood fuel.
For instance, the most useful species of trees such as Msasa were rapidly cut down because they are hard woods which make good fire wood
Large-scale land clearance for commercial agriculture. This affected roughly a quarter of Zimbabwe’s total area or nearly 100,000km.
Increasingly demand for wood in industry and in urban areas e.g. for tobacco curing, fuel in towns, pit props in mining, sleepers for railways, and furniture.
Destruction of wood lands by animals, especially by elephants which were much more widespread.
Fire: man’s use has been described earlier on and fires caused by lightning have added to the areas destroyed.

THE EFFECTS OF DEFORESTATION

There are many of these but the most obvious ones are:-

Areas experience reduced rainfall and increase in average temperature.
Reduction in the amount of rainfall and water supply. Low rainfall is received due to low transpiration.
Shortage of wood fuel, tree around urban areas of Zimbabwe e.g. Harare, Bulawayo and people travel long distances to look for fire wood.
There is a reduction in the quality of the environment, it loses its beauty.
There is general destruction of biodiversity, few trees survive bush fire.
Wildlife like birds and animals loose homes when trees are cleared.

TYPES OF TREES FOUND IN ZIMBABWE

They include the following trees:

Acacia
Mahogany
Cedar
Msasa

The central highland veld grew deciduous forests and tree savanna consisting:-

Msasa
Mubvumira
Mupaka (tree wisteria)
Muzeze ( African wattle)
Munyuna (yellow wood)
Mufuti
Mutobwe (snotapel)
Teak
Mukwa
Mucluibs.

REFORESTATION IN ZIMBABWE

Reforestation means the planting of trees on land where there was once forests or woodland which has been destroyed

Each year some 750,000 families use 3.6 million tones of wood for fire wood, building and fencing poles. To replace this many villages have planted eucalyptus trees

The total area of eucalyptus is only about 3,700 ha and 300 ha are planted additionally each year

It has been estimated that, to secure Zimbabwe’s wood fuel supplies, a planting program of 10,000 ha a year for ten years increased to 40,000 ha a year until the year 2000 would bring the total areas under eucalyptus trees to 600,000 ha.

The National Tree Planting Day (every first Saturday in December) introduced by government since independence is a national wide collective effort to plant trees which will also help meet the great demand for wood

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