Woodland Resources Research Articles

Direct-use values of woodland resources consumed and traded in a South African village

SUMMARY This paper examines the contribution of secondary resources harvested from a savanna ecosystem to household income in Thorndale village, South Africa. The valuation of these resources provides a key tool for adopting sustainable development practices. The study shows the relevance of the dependence of rural people on secondary resources and implications for social and economic equity. Fuelwood, edible herbs and thatch grass contributed 80.6% ($492.53) of the total gross direct-use value ($559.46) of all the resources per household per annum. The net direct-use value of eight directly harvested resources was $455.11 after accounting for the opportunity cost of labour. The value of secondary resources traded amounted to $126.62 per household, equivalent to 22.6% of values from direct consumption, suggesting a high degree of dependence of villagers on natural resources harvested for household consumption. There were high relative direct-use values for fuelwood (44%) and edible herbs (25.9%) reflecting the high energy requirement, and substitute for cultivated vegetables, respectively. It was generally perceived that resources were in short supply probably due to the level of dependence, and as a coping strategy.

Use Patterns and Value of Savanna Resources in Three Rural Villages in South Africa1

Abstract Rural communities in South Africa harvest a diversity of wild resources from communal woodlands for home consumption and sale. The contribution these resources make to the rural economy has been little recognized, and few studies have attempted to place a monetary value on this use. This paper describes three case studies which aimed to determine the value of savanna resources for the livelihoods of rural households. Use patterns and values of resources in three villages of differing socioeconomic status were determined using household interviews, PRA techniques and key informant interviews. Questions were designed to establish the types of products used, frequency of use, quantities used, seasonality of use, longevity of durable resources, local prices, and the extent of trade. All households were procuring at least some woodland resources, with the most frequently used being fuel wood, wood for implements, edible herbs and fruits, grass for brushes, and insects. Patterns of resource use varied ...

Impact of crop producer price change on quantities of woodland products collected by communal households in Chivi, Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe woodlands are an important part of the rural households' livelihood system as they meet requirements for food, energy, construction materials and cash. This study uses linear programming approaches to understand how households best allocate scarce resources in meeting their requirements for food, energy, construction materials and cash, from woodland resources and agricultural production. Based on these relationships further analysis is done to understand how changes in output prices of different commodities produced by these households will affect quantities of woodland products that are harvested. The data used for this study was mainly collected in a questionnaire survey that covered ten villages in the Romwe community in Chivi District, southern Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Science News Volume 36 (1+ 2) 2002, pp. 37-41

Use of woodland resources within and across villages in a Zimbabwean communal area

A topical issue in natural resource management is that of scale, in particular, the organizational entry-point to community-based systems of natural resource management. This study investigated access to woodland resources from the perspective of the relevance of units (traditional villages) enjoying policy attention and the nature of boundaries of resource management units as espoused in academic debates. The relevance of the boundaries was investigated from the perspective of flow of resources across boundaries of the recommended units, and resource use relations among communities residing in contiguous units. The study used questionnaire surveys, informal interviews, and personal observations to explore woodland resource use patterns within and across the villages. People acquired woodland products from both within their own villages and from adjacent ones. Most people extracted resources from within residence villages but varying proportions of the people extracted various products from other villages. In general, members of the ruling clan – those holding exclusively ancestral beliefs, those with traditional main house types – were more likely to acquire resources from neighboring villages. People extracted lighter products like wild fruits, mushrooms, and medicinal herbs from other villages compared to bulkier products like fuel wood, kraal (cattle pens) and fence posts, wall and roof poles, and brushwood. The main reasons why people did not extract woodland products from other villages were availability of the products in their own villages, the long distances to walk to gather the resources from other villages, and, to a small extent, availability of substitutes and exclusion to some products by members of other villages. Overall, people did not deny woodland resource users from other villages access to resources in their own villages, although this applied less so in the case of extraction from areas under ritual designations or extraction for commercialization. The study argues that instead of aspiring for ``hard'' or ``distinct'' boundaries, policy needs to recognize ``diffuse and soft'' product use boundaries as a given, so as to promote resource management formulations/options that are more in phase with the operational contexts.

SOCIAL BENEFITS OF NATURAL WOODLANDS AND EUCALYPTUS WOODLOTS IN MUKARAKATE, NORTH EASTERN ZIMBABWE

ABSTRACT The social benefits of indigenous miombo woodland resources and exotic Eucalyptus camaldulensis woodlots were investigated in Mukarakate, North Eastern Zimbabwe. The availability of woodland resources and the importance of those resources to different social classes and genders were studied by using Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods. Semi-structured interviews were used to clarify the benefits from natural woodlands and exotic plantations, as well as any management problems for eucalyptus woodlots owned by private individuals, educational institutions, and woodlot co-operatives. The availability of most woodland resources had decreased very quickly between 1980 and 1998 and will likely continue to decrease in the future. This has caused problems especially for the poor and women because they were the primary users of many of the non-wood forest products from the miombo woodlands, and these products were getting more and more difficult to find in the area. People from all social classes had established eucalyptus woodlots in the 1980s, but eucalyptus woodlots were not able to provide substitutes for many of the non-wood products that had come from miombo woodlands.

Mapping woodland vegetation in SW Ethiopia based on a hybrid model

SUMMARY Despite the fact that indigenous inhabitants have sustainably managed the forests and woodlands for centuries, Ethiopia's woodland resources are now under severe pressure. At the request of the Ethiopian Government, in 1996/97 the Savanna Woodland Management Study Project was initiated by the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ). A detailed analysis of the woodland resources in SW Ethiopia and a vegetation map were produced. The map was generated using multispectral remote-sensing data, and provides details of the variety within Ethiopian woodlands. A hybrid data classification procedure was applied to incorporate relief and climatic conditions. After analysis of the remote sensing data by image processing, a spatial overlay was performed to incorporate the additional site condition factors. The vegetation map shows the spatial distribution of all existing woodland types in the area and enhances our knowledge of the rich biodiversity of SW Ethiopia. Such mapping gives us a better understanding of existing ecosystems and indigenous land-use systems, and hence, can lead to more sustainable management of the natural resources in the future.

Energy transition and its implications for environmentally sustainable development in Africa

SUMMARY Energy transition is the process whereby there is an increase in the volume and proportion of commercial energy, to the extent that it replaces traditional fuels as the main source of energy and having enormous implications for the physical and biotic environment. This energy-environment process has rarely been the focus of research investigation in Africa. Using cross-national data drawn from the African continent, this paper examines and accounts for intercountry variations in the nature and extent of the energy transition process. The empirical analysis reveals that, for the continent as a whole, the extent to which commercial energy replaces traditional fuels is quite low. It varies between 33% and 39%. However, inter-country variations were found to be as high as 90% in countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and South Africa; and less than 15% for such countries as Benin, Burkina Faso, The Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Lesotho and Uganda. The key factors explaining intercounty variations in the energy transition process are the level of urbanization and the extent of forest and woodland resources. Other factors of secondary importance include economic growth, incidence of poverty, affordability of electrical appliances, energy trade status of the country in question and the price of commercial fuel. Finally, the paper shows that the identification of these key energy transition-inducing variables is a necessary prerequisite to an effective energy and environmentally sustainable development policy formulation in Africa.

Native Tree-ring Chronologies from some Scottish Medieval Burghs

Very little site-oriented dendrochronology has been undertaken in Scotland, possibly because of the absence of a locally based dendrochronological facility until recently. However, timbers found during the excavations of several medieval burghs in the late 1970s and 1980s were saved for future analysis and had been stored in museums around the country. During a project to locate suitable samples fir a Scottish tree-ring database the potential of these assemblages was recognised. Although relatively small assemblages, their analysis has expanded and strengthened the tree-ring database within Scotland, thus facilitating future work. Evidence fir synchronous development in the early burghs in the late 12th century and the nature of the woodland resource at times during the medieval period is presented. An 'event horizon' in the early 10th century, signalled by the birth dates of marry of the dated timbers, has been recognised and possible causes are discussed. The projects reported on here were all funded by Historic Scotland.

Forum Moving to Local Control of Woodland Resources- Can CAMPFIRE Go Beyond the Mega-Fauna?

Devolution of authority over natural resource management is now well advanced for the mega-fauna in Zimbabwe, through the CAMPFIRE program. We ask whether models like CAMPFIRE can be applied to a broader spectrum of woodland resources. Problems in applying CAMPFIRE to woodland resources relate to a legal and policy framework that is not enabling to local management; weakened local institutional structures; a high degree of differentiation with respect to wood land resource use within communities; problems of defining resource user groups; and, the potentially low market value of woodland products. In identifying circumstances where CAMPFIRE may be applied successfully to woodland resources, economic, sociological, and ecological circumstances must be considered.

Seeds of Civilization: Bronze Age Rural Economy and Ecology in the Southern Levant

This paper considers the economic and environmental impacts of emerging regional commerce that accompanied the rise and collapse of early Near Eastern urbanism. We integrate regional data on settlement and vegetation with detailed evidence of rural agriculture from two Bronze Age villages in the Jordan Valley. This approach is explicitly rural, in light of the largely rural character of Levantine civilization, and in response to more orthodox analytical perspectives focused on the first cities. Long-standing interest in the advent of agriculture now reveals that intensive localized depletion of woodland resources followed the aggregation of sedentary agrarian communities in the eighth through sixth millennia B.C., while the development of specialized pastoralism established one potential source of more extensive, subsequent defoliation. We argue, however, that regional human impacts on Levantine vegetation were triggered only with the genesis of Bronze Age cities and urbanized economies in the third and second millennia B.C. Thereafter, these regional impacts molded an ever-shifting mosaic of anthropogenic and natural landscapes. Rank-size analysis illustrates the modestly integrated, largely rural nature of Bronze Age settlement in the southern Levant. In this context, Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Tell el-Hayyat provide appropriate examples of the resilient agrarian villages that persisted through the dramatic collapse and rebirth of early Levantine cities. Excavated plant remains and animal bones show that their inhabitants responded to the development of Bronze Age urbanism with a shift toward increased management of taxa with greater market potential, tempered by some retention of local economic autonomy. Shifts to greater sheep husbandry and, most significantly, cultivation of orchard crops like olives, figs, and grapes, signal a second wave of economic innovation that fundamentally altered the agricultural strategies of village farmers and their exploitation of the surrounding countryside. Thus the mixed cultural and natural landscapes that have supported long-term agriculture in the Levant reflect a legacy of discontinuous changes in rural economy and ecology in response to the waxing and waning of urbanized society and regional mercantile exchange.

An Introduction to the Conservation of the Eastern Arc Mountains

It is 19 years ago, that I, as the organiser for the 4th East African Wildlife Symposium, which was hosted in Arusha by the University of Dar es Salaam, dared to add a section on forest biology and forest conservation. The conservation agenda then was concerned with issues of managing elephants and lions and other large hairy wildlife. Conservation then was about National Parks not Forest Reserves, it was about savannah grassland not forests, it was about elephants not camphor trees or African violets. Conservation then still had not got to grips with the involvement of people. Conservation was centred on wilderness areas, not on the people resource interface! Whilst the 1978 conference also had 150 participants from all over the world, few of them cared about forests. It is a sobering thought that today we can host a major conference on the Eastern Arc Forests alone! (Has the world changed? And are we about to see an era of real conservation?). In 1978, most participants were from overseas. In today's workshop, Tanzanians make up over half the active audience! It is instructive to think back 20 years and consider forest conservation issues in Tanzania in 1978: • The word 'conservation' was not in the University Forest Curriculum (not once!). • Forest students did not go to natural forests for training (not once in three years!). Logging and on-farm agro-forestry were the focus topics then. • Intense mechanical logging was underway in the East Usambara Forests, supported by government and foreign aid. • The word biodiversity did not exist. • The human population of Tanzania was half that of today, and the demand for forest products was less than half. Woodland resources were still available to meet much of that fuel wood need. • There were conservation arguments in the Usambara Forests. Much of the canopy had a cardamom understorey. We noted that Kenya with no cardamom growing areas exported twice our national output! • The Forest Department had money and capability-but little conservation concern. But now, there is much greater concern, but lost capacity and no money!

The conservation of a fragmented ecosystem within a cultural landscape—The case of ancient woodland in England

Ancient woodland (land continuously wooded since ad 1600) was identified in the 1970s (and confirmed in the 1994 UK Biodiversity Action Plan) as the most important category of woodland for nature conservation. It predominates within special protected sites, but the bulk of this resource (85%) lies outside such protection. Ownership by government and non-government bodies ensures that areas outside the protected site system are managed sympathetically, but the distribution of sites in such sympathetic ownership is very patchy. Hence, the nature conservation value of ancient woods must also be recognised in national forestry policies that apply to all such sites. In cultural landscapes such as in England, not all woodland species survive within the fragmented ancient semi-natural woodland resource. Plantations of introduced species and other, recent woodland must also be included in the conservation strategy. This paper explores the implications of these factors in the development of nature conservation policy and practice in England over the last 15 years.

Forced migration, environmental change and woodfuel issues in the Senegal River Valley

There is increasing international concern about the environmental impacts of refugees on host areas, with governments calling for compensation for environmental damage, particularly concerning the loss of woodland resources as a result of demand for wood for fuel. In addition to an obvious increase in the population of host areas, concern about refugees' woodfuel-use centres on the notion that they are 'exceptional resource degraders'. Since they view their stay as temporary, it is argued, they therefore do not have any incentive to use resources in a way that is sustainable in the long term. This study examined refugee migration to the middle valley of the Senegal River, and compared woodfuel use by refugee and local populations. Drawing on a household survey and direct measurement of woodfuel use, little or no evidence is found to support the expectation that refugees use more wood for fuel than local people, or that they are more destructive in their collection or use of wood. This is important since it suggests that policy measures developed to reduce what is perceived as excess demand by refugees, notably through the introduction of fuel-efficient stoves, are unlikely to be successful. Reforestation schemes have been relatively unsuccessful in addressing supply or demand for wood.

Sustainable Harvesting of Timber from Woodlands in Southern Africa: Challenges for the Future

SYNOPSIS Woodlands covered > 50% of the land area in southern Africa, but only 57% remain today and only 7% occur in protected areas. Mean population density in the region is 17 people/km2 and urbanisation is increasing. In several countries subsistence agriculture is still the main contributor to the GDP. The main challenge in the region is to develop a sustainable contribution to the industry and service sectors of the economy from the woodland resources while improving the conservation status of the vegetation resources. A wide range of timber and non-timber products are harvested from the woodlands, often with no concern for the maintenance of the resource, or to optimise and economise the utilisation of the trees that are felled, or to pursue multiple-use systems. Very few species are utilised, and some of the harvested species are relatively rare, or are over-utilised, and the management systems to not favour their regeneration. Sustained-use management of woodlands require the maintenance of 1) the essential ecological processes of disturbance and recovery, and 2) the balanced and optimal utilisation of species. The options and requirements for sustained, multiple-use management of the woodlands of southern Africa are discussed with examples, and include the following elements: * policy for sustainable, integrated, multiple-resource use; * assessment of socio-economic needs at local and regional levels; * assessment of resource potential; * yield regulation and harvesting; * appropriate logging and timber transport systems; * strategic marketing of products; * regeneration, rehabilitation and reforestation; * monitoring of resource-use impacts; * training and education of people; * ecological and socio-economic research programmes.

Local-Level Valuation of Savanna Resources: A Case Study from Zimbabwe

This paper values the savanna woodland resources of two neighbouring villages in Zimbabwe. Households receive a diverse range of products from a variety of ecologically contrasting sites, and a large number of products are marketed. Whilst the rules and regulations regarding tree-based resources are similar in the two villages, there is a greater degree of enforcement in Jinga, where ecological sustainability is also more promising. Using a derived demand approach, it was found that, in both villages, fuelwood for household cooking, wild fruits and poles are the most important in terms of contribution to total value. The total values obtained for the woodland products investigated are sizeable by comparison to annual cash income. Non-market values (water retention, rainmaking functions, etc.) were ranked highly during participatory rural appraisal techniques. The valuation of a select range of products based on market prices is thus a small component of total economic value.

The effects of sex, season and habitat availability on patterns of habitat use by fallow deer (Dama dama)

Diurnal habitat use by fallow deer Dama dama was studied between 1986–9 by direct observations from transects of eight populations in sites of differing environmental structure and composition. Sites chosen differed in the overall proportion of woodland cover, and ranged from virtually continuous woodland areas in the New Forest, southern England, to open agricultural sites with only scattered woodland copses.Within both New Forest and agricultural areas, individuals in male groups and female groups showed similar patterns of habitat use. In the New Forest, the habitat used most overall by both sexes was open woodland, with extensive use also made of grassland, woodland clearings and closed woodland. In agricultural areas, most extensive use was made of closed woodland, with open woodland, arable land and grassland used to a lesser extent. Individuals in mixed‐sex groups in the New Forest but not in agricultural areas made more extensive use of grasslands than those in single‐sex groups.Individuals in female groups in the New Forest showed pronounced seasonal variation in habitat use with utilization of open woodland higher in autumn and winter and grassland higher in spring and summer. Individuals in female groups in agricultural areas showed little seasonal variation in habitat use. There were insufficient data to investigate seasonal variation in habitat use by individuals in male and mixed‐sex groups.Availability of habitat types varied widely between study sites. Use of either open or closed woodland remained high in each site reflecting increased selection for woodland resources when they were of limited availability. Fallow deer appeared able to satisfy their ecological and behavioural requirements from a variety of environments through: (i) changing strength of selection of particular habitats to compensate for differing availability; and (ii) substitution of one habitat in one area for a different habitat in another area which offered the same effective resources. This flexibility in resource use parallels observed plasticity in other aspects of fallow behavioural ecology.

The environmental impact of prehistoric mining at Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, Wales

A recent upsurge of interest in early mining and metal working sites in Europe led to experimental quantification of their apparently prodigious demand for fuelwood. However, the real impact of prehistoric mining on woodland remained unknown. Excavation of a prehistoric copper mine at Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, from 1986-91, afforded an opportunity for linked palaeoenvironmental investigations. Pollen analytical methods were applied in a pilot study of blanket peat deposits adjacent to the prehistoric mine at Copa Hill. Results provide circumstantial evidence linking prehistoric human activity at the mine in the Early Bronze Age both to selective woodland removal and to upland peat initiation close to the site. Woodland clearances seem to have been relatively small-scale during the inferred period of mining, with limited overall impact, suggesting either protracted small-scale mining operations, or active management of woodland resources. Future directions for study of the impact of early mining on woodland are suggested.

Charcoal production and environmental degradation: Environmental history, selective harvesting, and post-harvest management

This paper examines the environmental impacts of continued tree harvesting for charcoal production to supply the urban areas in Tanzania. Woodlands appear to recover relatively well following harvesting for charcoal production. Selective harvesting, where the high quality, low cost fuel production species and specimens are culled first from a piece of land, serves to maintain the viability of the woodland resource while providing charcoal. This recovery period can be prolonged through any number of human induced activities, such as heavy grazing, multiple burns and extended cultivation periods. At the same time, post-harvest management techniques, such as coppice management, sprout protection and fertilization, can also improve the ability of woodlands to recover following harvesting. The environmental history of a given area determines why certain areas continue to be strong suppliers of woodfuel while other are not. For example, Shinyanga started from a low productivity base and has been degraded by successive waves of tree harvesting compounded by heavy grazing pressure. It is this multiple complex of pressures over a long period of time on land which is intrinsically of low productivity, and not the harvesting of woodlands for fuels, which has led to the environmental degradation in these areas.

Inventory of Indigenous Forest and Woodland in Southern Africa

SYNOPSIS An inventory is an important component of a series of activities to ensure the sustained use of natural forest and woodland resources. Three levels of inventories are considered: national level to determine general forest policy: regional level to provide a basis for integrated multiple-use management: and local level for detailed working plans. Different approaches to mapping resource areas are discussed, with particular emphasis of the use of satellite imagery. Sampling design requirements are discussed with particular emphasis on accuracy and precision, stratification of the resource area. shape and size of the sampling units, random and systematic distribution of sampling units, sampling intensity and the allocation of sampling units to stratified vegetation units. Requirements for sampling variables, and analyses and presentation of inventory results are briefly discussed. Several examples are used from inventories conducted in forest and woodland in southern Africa.

The Williamson Site and the Late Archaic Eldorado Phase in Eastern Kansas

The Williamson site is a Late Archaic El Dorado phase occupation located along Eagle Creek, a tributary of the Neosho River in east-central Kansas. Artifacts, features and faunal remains indicate that the Late Archaic deposits represent a series of seasonally occupied residential extractive camps focused on the resources available in the vicinity of Eagle Creek and the Neosho River ca. 3500-3600 radiocarbon years B.P. Other El Dorado phase components in eastern Kansas include larger occupations on alluvial terraces, smaller camps located on tributary streams, and upland burial mounds. These sites are characterized by projectile point assemblages including lanceolate, notched, and stemmed forms. El Dorado phase subsistence patterns were focused on prairie and riparian woodland resources. Mortuary data suggest the presence of differentiated social status within El Dorado phase society. The El Dorado phase adaptation can be viewed as a western variant of a broader Late Archaic tradition. Other expressions of this tradition include Late Archaic manifestations in eastern Kansas and the Nebo Hill and Sedalia phases located to the east along the Missouri River drainage.