FAO SECRETARIAT
SINCE ITS INCEPTION, the FAO Forestry and Forest Industries Division has been concerned with arid zone problems and various projects have been undertaken in arid or semiarid regions.
In 1954 the Fourth World Forestry Congress gave special attention to reclamation of degraded soils and deserts and, after having recognized that the precise role that forests can play in desert reclamation has still to be determined, recommended various kinds of research to be undertaken and proposed that a regional body be formed to promote and coordinate such research. As a result, an FAO Committee for the Coordination of Mediterranean Research was started. At the 1966 World Forestry Congress a technical commission again drew the attention of the Director-General of FAO to the need for the Organization to pursue further its studies on the utilization of desert and semi-desert lands and the possibilities of halting the advance of desert conditions, especially in the lands south of the Sahara where the problem appears particularly urgent.
Following this expression of interest, FAO further explored appropriate measures toward the rehabilitation of conditions in the Sahara. In view of the political nature of part of the problem FAO, as a first step, approached the Organization for African Unity (OAU) to determine whether the various countries were interested and there was some talk of OAU taking the question up in discussion at its Scientific and Technical Commission. The matter is still being pursued.
In the meantime, FAO continues to be called upon from time to time to comment on, support or take active leadership in Saharan reclamation schemes; these requests are normally based on the idea of planting trees in the desert as a rather oversimplified solution to the whole Saharan problem.
At the Fourteenth Session of the FAO Conference in 1967 a group of foresters from ten countries bordering the Sahara met informally to discuss the problem and make action recommendations to the Forestry and Forest Industries Division. They particularly recommended that the results of their discussions should be drawn to the attention of the next session of the African Forestry Commission. This 1967 meeting was called to obtain the advice and opinions of individual experts on the best way FAO should deal with problems of stabilization or reclamation, or ultimately the development of new and more acceptable forms of land use in the Sahara.
The marginal areas bordering the Sahara may be among the best examples in the world of the need for developing and elaborating the concept of multiple land use, developed by foresters in other parts of the world. In these marginal areas, with the emphasis on the conservation concept of stabilizing the limited capacity of the country, one must turn to the idea of developing a combination of uses to keep the economic value of the land as high as possible.
It was recognized by the 1967 meeting that the Saharan problem is infinitely complex and its solution is certainly not merely a matter of planting trees. Some important elements to be considered are as follows:
1. It is recognized that the Saharan edge is in fact spreading; that the Sahara is getting larger, and that more land is going permanently out of production.2. It is acknowledged that much could be done toward solving the Saharan problem; it is within the technical capacity of man at least to stabilize the edges and arrest the further spreading of the desert.
3. The matter is not so simple that planting trees would solve all the most important Saharan problems, even if the trees would grow wherever planted.
4. The issue is of such size and complexity that to stabilize and develop some form of enduring productivity one must meet local social and economic requirements, as well as ecological requirements, that is, the biological limitations imposed by the climate and physical environment.
5. Technically, much of the trouble has been due to overgrazing and patterns of too frequent burning, and these two causes are usually combined.
6. In certain countries in recent years, the Saharan edges are showing signs of improving in condition rather than deteriorating, and this is important to document and understand.
7. The Sahara has a potential for development along several lines, including trees (wood, charcoal, gum arable); meat (domestic animals or wildlife); tourist potential (desert scenery, wildlife, tourist safaris, old towns or markets, handicrafts); minerals and perhaps other natural resources.
8. Finally, the difficulties encountered during the resettlement of nomadic peoples in various areas are to be considered.
A technical meeting of the Conservation Section of the International Biological Programme met in Hammamet, Tunisia, in March 1968, to discuss problems of desert formation and reclamation; a review of several concepts presented at this meeting served to clarify understanding of the basic Saharan problem.
Attempts have recently been made to set up standards for determining the limits of the Sahara desert and the various climatic subdivisions of the Sahara (Dubief, 1968), but country by country, and region by region, and throughout the limits of the Sahara, the desert still has not been clearly defined. This seems an urgent problem.
"There is evidence in favour of the idea that the present vegetation is in a deteriorated condition attributable to a decreased rainfall and a misuse of the natural vegetation through excessive grazing and cutting of fuel. " (Tadros, 1968.)
"Seasonal change in arid lands is the background of nomadism: man and his animals travel for hundreds of kilometres to take advantage of the growing season of vegetation. " (Kassas, 1968.)
It is easy to see how such a tradition could start and be maintained for hundreds of years. It is also easy to see how reduction or destruction of vegetation in one part of a nomad's yearly travels could have disastrous consequences on other parts of the range, on the animals and on the existence of nomadism itself.
One of the aspects of the environment that makes it so difficult to plan ahead for normal types of stable land use is an extreme -variability in rainfall, a variability that makes it difficult to depend on resulting vegetation. It has been generally accepted as obvious that this type of rainfall regime is unsuitable to even the most drought-resistant types of crops. It should be equally obvious that a good part of the land is unsuited for the normal type of grazing.
It is clear if the same new source of water could be made available both for the plants on which the animals depend and for the animals themselves, then one could visualize the development of a long-term type of land use, based on domestic animals of various types.
It is true that, by putting down boreholes or making dams or conserving water by other wise means, it is possible to make water available to stock which could doubtless survive for a time if water were in fact the only limiting factor. However, as people in the African countries bordering the Sahara are well aware, making water available simply allows animals to exist long enough to destroy the remaining vegetation which depends on rainfall. This artificial condition of overstocking cannot last for long, and the animals inevitably decline in condition and eventually have to be removed from the so-called drought areas, once the basic vegetation has been removed.
Thus, as present approaches are unsatisfactory, it is necessary to search for alternative forms of land use.
Present forms of pasturage or agriculture leave much to be desired. The solutions to local and regional problems will require imagination, normally a multiple-use approach, and be designed carefully within the terms imposed by existing human and biological resources.
Under these circumstances, and since the Sahara is one of the largest single areas of marginal and unused land in the world, it is important to come to terms with the problem. For FAO this would mean defining the problem of the Sahara, where it is, where are its edges or marginal zones; in which direction are they moving, and why. But, from an individual country's point of view, this may not seem so practical since, although countries recognize the movement of the Sahara as important politically and ecologically, they must also face the reality that economically it may make only a small contribution to the national economy; it may therefore be difficult to give priority for development, even though it is realized that present practices are destroying land permanently, so there will be even less land to use in the future.
There are of course certain differences of interest in the Saharan question in countries bordering the Mediterranean, compared to those countries of the southern Sahara. In consequence, an important aspect of the problem is to develop appropriate administrative structures within the countries which are able to deal adequately with the entire problem. It is important to make a start and, since forest departments have in fact jurisdiction over a good part of this land, it is worth visualizing types of programmes that would be of value to forestry in the region and to which forest departments could contribute.
Already FAO has assisted several countries by initiating, operating or participating with United Nations Development Programme (Special Fund) development projects in semiarid areas bordering the Sahara: one is the Savanna Forestry Research Station in Northern Nigeria. In Algeria and Morocco afforestation and erosion control works are assisted through World Food Programme projects.
The 1967 FAO meeting concluded that most countries which include a part of the Sahara within their national boundaries are well aware of the seriousness of their own national problems in this complex matter. They see a real need to be kept informed of work elsewhere in the Sahara region which may be of value to their own specialists. They recognize the need to give first priority to the stabilization of the desert edges and of bordering zones, rather than to pure reclamation projects.
The question was further considered by the FAO African Forestry Commission when it met in Togo in January 1969, as recorded in tire last issue of Unasylva. Several measures were there considered for further action:
1. Individual countries were asked to consider assembling a small integrated team of specialists of several disciplines to propose a phase-by-phase plan of development, taking particularly into account the local human, biological and economic: factors.2. Further ideas could be exchanged on a regional basis within the framework of, for example, the African and Near East Forestry Commissions.
3. Exchanges of ideas and experiences in regard to current multilateral or bilateral aid projects and future projects could be coordinated.
4. Although ultimately desirable, it is premature to think of all countries bordering the Sahara coordinating their many efforts on the entire Saharan front. FAO does not have the resources to assist with this now, even if asked. It would take very considerable financing to form a team of men to survey the countries bordering the Sahara, to define the problem on a Sahara-wide basis, or to develop plans for stabilizing the spread of the Sahara, country by country, initiate demonstration projects and develop some ecologically acceptable patterns of land use within the special socio-political and economic framework of the individual countries.
5. Countries were encouraged to link Sahara stabilization and reclamation with other projects; the World Food Programme is already involved and can increasingly be used to strengthen existing projects and other projects developing in these semiarid areas.
It was decided most practical to start on a national project basis, to make every effort to link and coordinate the work of various projects, mounted by the United Nations and its specialized agencies, and to increase the understanding of the Saharan problem by exchange of ideas and experience between these projects.
DUBIEF, J. 1968 Essais sur la détermination des limites climatiques du Sahara et essais sur les subdivisions climatiques du Sahara. International Biological Programme, Conservation Section, Technical Meeting, Hammamet, Tunisia, March 24-31, Paper No. 9: 17 p.
KASSAS M. 1968 Dynamics of desert vegetation. International Biological Programme, Conservation Section, Technical Meeting, Hammamet, Tunisia, March 24-31, Paper No. 15: 26 p.
TADROS, T. M. 1968 Vegetation studies accomplished and problems conceived in the coastal strip of the north westhern desert of Egypt. International Biological Programme, Conservation Section, Technical Meeting, Hammamet, Tunisia, March 24-31, Paper No. 14: 24 p.
