Fuelwood and desertification: Sahel orthodoxies discussed on the basis of field data from the Gourma region in Mali

Geofonun, vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 397409.1993 Printed in Great Britam

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oold-7185193 $6.00+0.00 1993 Pergamon Press Ltd

Sahel Fuelwood Orthodoxies’ Discussed on the Basis of Field Data from the Gourma Region in Mali

TOR A. BENJAMINSEN,*

Oslo, Norway

Abatraetr Until recently orthodoxies on fuelwood and desertification have formed the cornerstones of mainstream views in research and development related to natural resources in the Sahel. Based on an empirical study of the fuelwood situation in the Gourma region in Mali, this article throws a critical light on these viewpoints. There is no relationship between deforestation and domestic fuelwood consumption in the Gourma. The fuelwood used comes from dry wood collected from dead trees. Collection distances are, however, getting longer; so people need to use more time for the collection of wood, or more of their liited incomes have to be spent on buying fuelwood. Therefore, the fuelwood problem in the Gourma is of a social and economic rather than an ecological character. Sahel orthodoxies, which are manifested in the national Malian plan to fight desertification, are used by the Water and Forests Service to justify their policy of harassment towards the rural poor. These orthodox beliefs about environmental issues in drylands are generalizations which tend to gloss over important regional diversities. The data presented should therefore not be used to create new orthodoxies. They should rather be regarded as a warning not to use generalizations on local realities about which there is no reliable information.

Introduction Generalizations about Africa’s ‘fuelwood crisis’ have been labeled the fuelwood orthodoxy (CLINECOLE et al., 1990b). These generalizations are built on the assumption that general and widespread deforestation caused by household fuelwood consumption has taken place. Deforestation is here seen to be spreading out from centres of habitation, in wider and wider circles. The fuelwood crisis is interpreted as a

[by, for example, HAMMER DIGERNES (1977, 1978, 1979), IUCN et al. (1980) ECKHOLM et al. (1984) TIMBERLAKE (1985), ICIHI (1986) and HARRISON (1987)]. The desertificationorthodoxy gives an image of long-term land degradation in the Sahel’ caused by local resource utilization mainly represented by overgrazing and cutting of trees. One idea has been that deserts are spreading as a result of human misuse of the environment: The southward encroachment of the Sahara Desert is legend, but it is also fact. . . . The spread of the Sahara has probably been measured most precisely in Sudan. There, as elsewhere, vegetational zones are shifting southward as a result of overgrazing, woodcutting and accelerated soil erosion . . . desert creeps into steppe, and while steppe loses ground to the desert, it creeps into the neighbouring savanna which, in turn, creeps into the forest (ECKHOLM and BROWN, 1977, p. 9).

problem of a growing gap between a populationdriven demand and diminishing resources. This view has been presented in a large number of publications

*Department of Geography, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1042, Blindem, 0316 Oslo, Norway. Present address: UNDP, P.O. Box 9182, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 397

398

Many Sahel researchers have now abandoned this hypothesis of human-caused desert encroachment. However, it is still the dominating popular belief. Another, and in the last few years more common presentation of desertification, is that serious degradation is generally occurring around villages and wells, also through overgrazing and wood cutting (IUCN et al., 1980; GIRI, 1983; TIMBERLAKE, 1985; ICIHI, 1986; GOUDIE, 1990). As seen, this viewpoint converges with the fuelwood orthodoxy when it comes to deforestation as caused by wood cutting around habitation centres. Since the focus of this article is on fuelwood, the overgrazing controversy will not be discussed here. This study was undertaken because it appeared that there are few data on the environmental and socioeconomic aspects of fuelwood use at the local level in rural Mali (TRANSENERG, 1985). In fact, this seems valid for the Sahel and drylands of Africa in general3 CIRAD-CTFT et al. (1990, p. 3) say, for example, that: Les conuaissances sur les consonunations rurales de bois de feu au Mali . . ., comme en zone s&he africaine en g&&al sont peu nombreuses et fragmentaires. I1 n’existe pas ou peu d’informations fiables. I wanted therefore to provide local data on the fuelwood situation in an area of the Sahel, and to investigate whether general presentations, like the orthodoxies mentioned, are valid when confronted with these data. The area chosen for this purpose was the Gourma region in Mali, which is situated in the northern part of the Sahel. This is an area often referred to as the worst hit by a general and widespread deforestation which is related to household fuelwood consumption (DNEF, 1985; TRANSENERG, 1985; UNDP-WORLD BANK, 1992). The importance of fuelwood in poor countries is well known. Wood represents over 90% of the total energy consumption in the poorest developing countries (FOLEY, 1987). In Mali, fuelwood (firewood and charcoal) contributes between 93 and 97% of the total rural and urban energy consumption (GIRI, 1983; SOUMARE, 1985; FOLEY, 1987). Fuelwood is consumed by households and other economic units, but African household consumption,

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even in urban areas, is far greater than the nonhousehold consumption (CLINE-COLE et al., 1990b). In this study, households are defined as the units of consumption, that is, persons who share the same stock of wood belong to the same household. Considering the regional context, this implies in practice that people who eat together and get their food from the same cooking pot are members of the same household. The present focus is on the use of wood for cooking, which is considered the most important use of wood resources and thus of fuelwood in both rural and urban areas. KOENIG (1986) estimated, for example, that 79% of all wood consumed in the San area in central Mali was used for cooking.

The Study Area The Gourma is the area confined by the inland delta of the river Niger to the west, the bend of the river to the north and east, and the international borders of Burkina Faso and Niger to the south (Figure 1). It is here considered as a geographical region, not to be confused with the administrative regions in Mali. Rainfall is highly irregular and varies on a northsouth gradient from 157 mm as a yearly average in Gourma Rharous (for the years 1928-1989) to 380 mm in Hombori (for 1936-1989). The northern limits of rainfed cultivation will normally be just north of Hombori, with annual variations depending on rainfall. Since the 195Os, which were unusually good years in terms of rainfall (Figure 2), the Gourma has seen a worsening of climatic conditions. The years 1973 and 1984 were extremely dry years, having catastrophic consequences for the population, which then suffered from a lack of sufficient pastures and crop failure. The main ethnic groups in the area are the Kel Tamasheqs, also called Tuaregs (nomads), the Songhays (sedentary cultivators), the Maures (nomads, merchants) and the Fulani (semi-nomadic pastoralists and cultivators). This division does not, however, seem to be important for the purpose of this study. Furthermore, the region may be divided into four subregions by its main productions (Figure 1): (1) the alluvial plain of the Niger river (paddy rice, fishing, pastoralism);

f

Figumt 2. Mean annual rainfall (mm) by decade in faur different places.

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(2) the area of the now dried up lakes (millet, pastoralism, gathering); (3) the interior of the Gourma (nomadic pastoralism, gathering); (4) the lower Gourma (millet, pastoralism, gathering) .

Methodology

Because of the heterogeneity of the region and the large proportion of nomads and semi-nomads, it is difficult to undertake a representative sampling of the population. Since neither the total population nor its spatial distribution are well known, it was decided to choose the most important centers of habitation. Nine villages and one so-called ‘fixation point’ were chosen. The latter is a place by the river Niger where nomads have been granted rights to land and where they stay part of the year to cultivate paddy rice and the bourgou plant (Echinochloa stagnina) used for animal fodder. The fixation point chosen, called Banguel, is one of the largest of its kind along the river. The five most important villages in the Gourma were included in the study (Hombori, Bambara Maounde, Gossi, Gourma Rharous, Madjakoye). In addition, three more villages were selected from the river plain (Gourzougeye, Banikane, Minkiri), since this is the zone with the most important sedentary population. One combined village and important watering point for nomads (Ndaki) situated in the lower Gout-ma was also included. Actually, except from Banguel, nomads where virtually excluded from the sample, due to their lack of fuelwood problems compared to the sedentary population. The large supplies of dry wood in the Gourma are easily observed by going off the main road and outside the circumference of the few villages. Visiting nomad camps, one notes the presence of dry wood close to the camps or even inside the camps themselves. This is explained by the fact that nomadic pastoralism is based on mobility of people and herds as a response to the fluctuating resource base (grass and water). The choice of concentrating on the most important centres of habitation was taken after these field observations.

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for one of the subregions. The aim was to get a representative sample for each site. A household questionnaire was used to identify the mean household size, the share of households collecting or buying the wood needed for domestic energy purposes, and to get information on the expenses per capita on firewood and charcoal, on charcoal consumption and on where wood is collected. Furthermore, fuelwood sellers, resource persons and the local administration were interviewed. Field observations together with these interviews were important in order to verify whether there is a relationship between deforestation and household fuelwood consumption. A survey of firewood consumption completed the picture. This latter survey was undertaken to identify the consumption level in the Gourma compared to other similar studies and to find the proportions of the total energy consumed as charcoal and as firewood. The household survey was carried out in two periods, the first in February and March 1990, and the second in November 1990. All households were chosen by a random walk. The interviewer starts at a central point in the village. Then she throws a pen in the air to decide which way to go. Each time she arrives at a crossing, she throws the pen again to choose the direction. To guarantee an adequate spatial coverage of the village, every third household was chosen. Between 15 and 79 households were interviewed in each place, adding up to a total of 453 households. The persons interviewed were mainly women responsible for the cooking. Female interviewers speaking tamasheq, songhay and fulfulde were used. They were thoroughly followed up and supervised throughout the survey. At the same time, other field assistants visited a number of households to measure the daily fuelwood consumption. The household’s stock of wood was weighed one morning by spring balance and the people were asked to burn only wood from that bundle. At the same hour the next morning the stock was weighed again and 1 day’s consumption could be calculated. Deforestation

Considering the heterogeneity of the Gourma and the sampling strategy adopted, the samples were not aimed at being representative for the entire region or

The Gourma region saw a decrease in rainfall since the wet 1950s (Figure 2). Drought years in the 1970s

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and 1980s ravaged areas of woodland. Today, one encounters ‘cemeteries’ of dead trees everywhere in the Gourma, where just a few years previously there were forests. This is the case in places far from fixed habitation, which are very little exploited by people and livestock and where causal factors other than drought are excluded (BENJAMINSEN, 1991). We have earlier quantified the changes in tree density following different soil conditions by comparing the only aerial coverage existing over the Gourma from 1955-1956 (l/50,000) and photos taken from low altitude in 1984-1986 by the International Livestock Center for Africa (ILCA) (BENJAMINSEN, 1991). A significant decrease in tree density was found on sandy soils and also on gravel/rock. In clay depressions the density had increased. Likewise, on silt plaines an increase in density was found, but there had been a shift from trees to bushes. Since sand dominates in the Gourma, all in all an important level of deforestation has taken place in the region since the 1950s.

powerful organization having national responsibility for the management of water and forest resources, would not give people permission to cut trees near the villages. Such permission would not be reasonable since there are large quantities of dry wood some kilometres from the habitation centres. Also, there are very few traces of trees that have been cut down, so the wood consumed as energy is dry wood from the collection areas.

Collection

and Sale

Even if the mode of exploitation of wood in the Gourma does not represent an ecological problem, in the sense that this exploitation does not have a degrading effect on the woody vegetation, people experience problems related to the collection and sale of wood. The collection distances are getting longer, increasing the time taken for collection and making the task more and more strenuous. In Bambara Maoundt for example, the WFS official said that collection distances had increased from a few hundred metres to 5 km in 10 years.

After the relatively good years, in terms of rainfall, of 1988, 1989, and lately in 1991, there has been an important regeneration of the woody vegetation on many localities. This is shown in the annual reports from ILCA’s research programme, which has been documenting the dynamics of the vegetation at selected sites in the Gourma since 1984 (HIERNAUX et al., 1989, 1990).

When a natural resource is becoming scarce, it is often converted into a market good. Firewood in the Gourma is also following this economic principle. Thus, as collection takes place further away from the villages, wood is becoming more cornmodified.

Since rainfall in the Sahel is fluctuating, dry periods of varying duration leading to some degree of deforestation seem to be part of the Sahelian ecosystem. Therefore, the availability of dead wood for fuelwood consumption is a logical consequence of the ecological conditions in the Sahel.

The way wood is supplied varies from place to place. In the largest villages most of the people buy the wood they consume. In Hombori, for example, only 10% of the households collect, whereas in smaller places like Minkiri, Banguel and Ndaki all households collect dead wood for their own consumption.

In this study I wanted to find out whether the deforestation observed is caused only by the decrease in rainfall, or if, in addition, there is a relationship between domestic energy consumption and deforestation. The data indicate that people are not cutting trees for domestic fuelwood consumption. The wood collected in the Gourma for energy purposes is only dry wood picked up from the ground. This was recognized unanimously by all the persons interviewed, including the local officials representing the Water and Forests Service (WFS) (Le Service des Euux et For&s). In addition, the WFS, which is a

According to the Forestry Laws (Code Forestier), it is illegal to cut trees or collect dry wood for sale without permission from the WFS. It is, however, allowed to collect dry wood for one’s own consumption. It is commonly known in Gourma, and in Mali in general, that the local WFS representatives profit from their positions as controllers by arbitrarily giving fines (SANOGO, 1990). By pocketing a portion they have become among the richest people in the local communities. In, for example, the villages of Gossi and Madjakoye, many of the women inter-

Geoforum/Volume viewed said that they do not collect wood for their own consumption, for fear of getting fined, even though this is allowed according to the Forestry Laws. Collection frequency depends on the distance to the dead wood and the means of transport available. Approximately 90% of the wood collected by the households for their own consumption is transported on foot. The rest is transported by donkey or by boat along the river. Where the wood is easily accessible (less than 1 km: Banguel, Ndaki), it is collected more

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frequently. If the collection distances are longer (4-9 km: Bambara Maound6, Gourzougeye, Gossi, Hombori, Gourma Rharous) and means of transport are available, wood is collected less frequently. However, as already mentioned, most of the households in the largest villages in the Gourma actually buy their wood. Figures 3 and 4 show the mean expenses per person on wood and charcoal in the different villages. As a comparison, in Bamako, the daily expenses per person on wood are on average

16

L6-

14

-

4

-

2

-

i ! .I.

.I,

0

Banguel n= 40

Banikone 14

Gossi 79

Gourzoug 20

Modjakoy Minkiri 42 29 Site

- 5 % interval Figure 3.

*

.L Rharous 61

Hombori 68

Bombora 69

Ndaki 26

Mean

Firewood expenses: mean and confidence interval.

16 14

-

4 2

-

o-

*

>c

* Bonguel Bonikane n= 40 15

4

i

.L Gossi 78

Gourzxg -

Figure 4.

Modl;koy Mi;r$ri Site

5 % interval

*

Rharous 62

$

ff

Hombori 69

Bombaro 69

Mean

Charcoal expenses: mean and confidence interval.

1Ndaki 26

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18.55 F CFA,4 charcoal not included, according to a study referred to by TRAORE (1989). Data in the same study imply that the expenses on firewood represent 17.5% of the household budget in Bamako. In other African capitals, like Ouagadougou, Bujumbura and Nairobi, poor families spend 20-30% of their revenues on fuelwood (HARRISON, 1987). If the expenses on charcoal in Bamako were added, the mean fuelwood expenses probably would be in the same range. These expenses in four of the villages in the Gourma (Gossi, Hombori, Gourma Rharous, Madjakoye) are 11 F CFA/capita/day. The mean household size in these villages was found to be 6.3 persons, which makes the mean daily fuelwood expenses per household to be 69 F CFA. This is a large sum, considering that the household monetary revenues in the Gourma are extremely low.’ Because of the eagerness of the WFS to impose fines, there is an important clandestine wood market in the Gourma. Wood is bought either on the market or from wood traders selling at home or moving around with their merchandise. Some of these persons sell legally, but most of them do not have a permit. One has to buy apermi.r de coupe6 to get permission to sell wood or charcoal, even when one collects only dead wood to trade, as all wood and charcoal traders in the Gourma do. Among the 41 sellers interviewed in Gourma Rharous and Gossi, 34 were be&as. They are the former slaves among the Kel Tamasheqs, and are now either servants of the noble Kel Tamasheqs or they have formed independent households. Of the 34 belh interviewed, four were men and 30 were women. Although the sample of vendors is not a probability sample, the majority of wood and charcoal traders in the Gourma are probably bella women. The wood and charcoal business is so closely connected to this social group that in September, during the harvest of fonio (P&cum Zuetum), which is a wild grain almost exclusively harvested by the bellus, it is difficult to find wood on the Gossi market, except on Sunday, the market day, when thefonio collectors go to Gossi to buy new provisions. They then bring with them wood to sell. However, the quantity of wood on the market in Gossi is always small. By asking the households where they buy their wood, it appeared that only a quarter of the wood bought in Gossi is bought on the market.

403 Most of the traders interviewed started their activities in 1985,1986 or 1987, that is, after the last drought. The crisis of pastoralism and of the gathering of wild grainsin the Gourma has probably caused a rise in the number of fuelwood traders. DE WAAL (1989) shows how this was the case in Darfur in Sudan after the drought in 1984-1985. After the crop failure of 1984, there was an important increase in the number of people involved in low-status trades. This activity must be seen as a coping strategy with a clear seasonal component, because, as mentioned, there are far less people trading fuelwood in the Gourma in the rainy season, when other activities are more profitable, than in the dry season. Equally, there is reason to believe that there might be fewer wood and charcoal traders in good years than in bad years, even though we do not have data to support this. The people selling fuelwood in good years are either equipped with trucks or donkey carts, or they are the absolute poorest, carrying the wood on their head to the market. In the latter case, they have few alternatives even in good years. In Gossi, we met several bellu women who went 7-9 km each way to collect dead wood, transporting it by foot to sell it secretly in the village. One of them used to place some pieces of wood outside her straw hut from time to time, in order to show people that she had firewood for sale, Afraid of being fined, she would constantly watch out for WFS officials. Donkeys are essential to low-status trades. People with donkeys can transport far more wood than others and donkeys also are indispensable for the transport of charcoal. Thus, people with donkeys can earn far more money than people without. About half of the traders interviewed in the Gourma have a donkey for transport. One day’s income for a wood seller varies from 75 to 1500 F CFA depending on the means of transport available. If the trader also sells charcoal, 50-750 F CFA is added to the daily income. This depends on whether the trader has a donkey for the transport of the charcoal, or if the charcoal is bought from a transporter to be resold. The importance of donkeys is also reflected in the answers given to the question: “Are you afraid of a wood crisis in the years to come?” One trader answered: “As long as I have my donkeys, I am not

404

GeoforumNolume Table 1.

Firewood

Household fuelwood consumption (kg/capita/day) in different comparable areas

Charcoal*

1.3-1.4 1.35-1.52 1.1 1.14 0.97 2.38 0.83 1.28 1.13

0.53 1.10 0.7

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Area

Reference

In two villages in Southern Mali In two villages in Mali near the Mauritanian border Niono town in Mali Turkana in Kenya Amboseli in Kenya In 14 villages in Kordofan in Sudan Bara village in Kordofan in Sudan In the three most important villages in Gourma, Mali In four villages in Gourma, Mali

CAUDE (1977) BONNET-MADIN et al. (1979) WILSON (1980) ELLIS ef al. (1984) JENSEN (1984) OLSSON (1985) HAMMER DIGERNES (1978) This study This study

*The weight of wood before carbonization. afraid.” Others answered: “If I had a donkey I would not be afraid.”

Consumption

As mentioned earlier, for the estimation of firewood consumption in the Gourma region, a weight survey method was adopted. The results are given in Figure 5. Except for Bambara Maounde, where the consumption during the survey was very low, the results are in agreement with other studies undertaken in comparable ecosystems (Table 1). This should mean that the lack of relationship between deforestation and domestic fuelwood consumption can not be explained by a limited fuelwood consumption in the Gourma, since it is at the same level as most of the other cases given from rural Africa. The situation in Bambara Maounde during the survey in November 1990 was somewhat special. Grasshoppers had caused destruction of a large proportion of the millet harvest of 1989. In 1990, the rains in the area of the ‘lakes’ were insufficient, which led to extremely low crops. These two bad years in the Bambara Maounde area were the cause of the very limited wood consumption observed. When people Gourmo

Rharous

1.49

Gossi Homborl Bombaro

Moounde Mean

Mean without

Figure 5.

‘3.M m

,,28

Firewood consumption in Gourma.

,

have little to eat, they consequently use little firewood. In fact, the firewood consumption in Bambara Maounde was, in November 1990, about one-third of what would be expected. This situation underlines the temporal and spatial variability of the Sahelian environment. It can be added that only 100 km further south, in the Douentza area, the harvest in 1990 was considered good and that rains in 1991 in the Bambara Maounde area, as in the Gourma region in general, were plentiful, resulting in excellent millet harvests. Consumption of charcoal is usually not included in studies of fuelwood consumption in the Sahel, because charcoal consumption is considered to be marginal compared to wood consumption. TRANSENERG (1985, p. 37) speaking of Mali says, for example, that: On sait qu’en zone rurale, la population utilise quasi exclusivement le bois de feu, l’usage du charbon de bois &ant reserve &certains emplois artisanaux . . . D’une man&e g&r&ale, il n’y a pas lieu de parler en zone rurale d’une consommation de charbon de bois.

In Mali, Bamako included, wood seems much more important than charcoal as energy provider since a clear majority of the people use wood and not charcoal for cooking. Among the households included in this study, only 4% said they use charcoal for cooking more often than they use wood. Thirty-nine per cent may use charcoal to heat the sauce while the rest of the population only use it for tea making. Charcoal is often taken from the burning fire in the households. However, in the largest villages in the Gourma, charcoal is also commercialized. The very simple pit kilns actually in use in the Gourma and dominating in the Sahel in general have an efficiency of between 15 and 20% (VON MAY-

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DELL, 1983). To quantify the consumption of carbonized wood, it is necessary to multiply the weight of the charcoal by a certain factor. If an efficiency average of 17.5% is selected, this factor would be 5.7. Because of the low efficiency of the carbonization technology used, the amount converted to charcoal is perhaps larger than what one would expect. This means that to get an estimate of fuelwood consumption, even in rural areas, it would be necessary to include consumption of wood converted to commercialized charcoal. This consumption was found to be 0.7 kg/capita/day7 in the three most important villages in the Gourma (Hombori, Gossi, Gourma Rharous), where the firewood consumption is 1.28 kg/capita/day.’ This implies a total fuelwood consumption of about 2 kg/capita/day, which means that 35% of the wood resources exploited had been converted to commercialized charcoal. By comparison, OLSSON (1985) found that 18.3% of the wood consumed in the Kordofan region in Sudan had been converted to charcoal, while according to HAMMER DIGERNES (1978) 56% of the wood consumed in Bara village in Kordofan was consumed as charcoal (see Table 1). Among other sources of energy, cow dung is the only one of importance in the Gourma. The significance of butane gas and kerosene is minimal, due to lack of financial resources.

Sahel Orthodoxies and National Policy As stated, deforestation caused by cutting of trees for household fuelwood consumption, one of the main assumptions of fuelwood and desertification orthodoxies, is not a reality in the Gourma region. Concerning the rest of Mali, there are few studies, if any, describing local relationships between modes of exploitation and wood resources. The few local studies that have been carried out seem to take orthodox assumptions as a starting point. The impression is that one probably has to go to the southern parts of Mali, in the Sudanian zone or even in the transition to the Guinea zone, to find places where cutting of trees for household energy purposes has some importance. This should, however, be verified by further research.g

The need for detailed data is also an important conclusion in CLINE-COLE et al. (199Oa,b). They analysed field data from the Kano area in Northern Nigeria and their results directly contrast with the situation presented by ECKHOLM et al. (1984, p. 28) who claimed that: rising fuelwood demands in Kano (over the last 25 years) encouraged farmers to overcut trees, selling off their biological capital; now farmland within a 40 km (25-mile) radius of the city has been largely stripped of trees. But,

according

to CLINE-COLE

et al. (199Ob, pp.

522-523) : . . . the zone with highest tree densities (the inner CloseSettled Zone) is not only that which supports the highest rural population densities-up to 500 people per km*but that closest to the urban center of Kano with its estimated one million plus inhabitants . . . Remarkably, this zone recorded a 2.3% per annum increase in tree density between 1972 and 1981, in the wake of the disastrous drought of the late 1960s and early 1970s when pressure on woody vegetation from several sources must have been very intense. The increase in tree density happened because peasants had been maintaining the tree stocks by planting and by protecting spontaneous seedlings. Seventy-one per cent of the respondents in the Kano Close-Settled Zone planted trees on their own farmland (CLINE-COLE et al., 1990a). The great majority of this tree planting was for economic use, and not for firewood alone. The tree giving the mango fruit (Mungifera in&u) was the most popular species for tree planting. Also, ANDERSEN (1993) found that tree density in an area near Jinja, the second largest town in Uganda, had increased from 1955 to 1988.

It is often presumed that areas which have been deforested suffer serious fuelwood scarcities. DEWEES (1989), denying that this is the norm, distinguishes between economic andphysicalscarcity. In the Gourma, there is no physical scarcity in the region as a whole. However, collection distances are increasing, so there may be an economic scarcity in some villages in the way that the household’s access to labour or to income limits its access to fuelwood. Interventions in the fuelwood sector should, in such cases, aim at decreasing economic scarcity instead of focusing on physical scarcity.

406 Based on generalizations about Africa’s fuelwood crisis, and on lack of detailed data, present Malian policy concerning the management of natural resources [see DNEF (1985)] is built on the presumption that deforestation is generally caused by an overexploitation by local populations. This policy has necessarily been influenced by fuelwood and desertification orthodoxies which have been the dominating views in the international debate on environmental questions in African drylands. Important international policy documents on environment and development-related questions, such as IUCN (1980) and WCED (1987)) also echoed these orthodoxies. The existing Malian policy plan on the fight against desertification (Plan National de Lutte Contre la Dt%ertijkation et de I’Avancke du Dhert, 1985-2000) (DNEF, 1985) considers deforestation as one of the human causes of desertification. The image of an advancing Sahara and of a general destruction of the biological potential of the soils caused by drought and human pressure is presented. The process of desertification and of the advancing desert is even considered the main cause of underdevelopment itself: (La desertification) est la base de la crise alimentaire et energttique, de la migration des populations et de leur mauvais &at de Sante, de la riguer, du climat. Bref la desertification est le bon catalyseur de notre sousdeveloppement. Le phenomene est si important qu’il met en cause le fondement m&me de notre existence (DNEF, 1985, p. 1). During the last few years there has been a considerable amount of literature discussing what is happening with the environment in the Sahel. The debate has focused on the aspects of reversibility/irreversibility and resilience of the Sahelian environment, and on the extent, seriousness and causes of land degradation, as desertification is often preferably called. Some critics of the orthodox view (BIE, 1988; HELLDEN, 1991) see few signs of large-scale irreversible land degradation. They relate the changes in the natural resource base mainly to climatic fluctuations. lo The lack of a relationship between deforestation and household fuelwood consumption observed in the Gourma region supports this opinion. The international attention that has been given to the importance of stopping the desertification process, which has also been manifested in the national Malian

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plan to fight desertification and the advancing Sahara, is being used by the WFS to justify their policy towards rural populations. The national Malian environmental policy focuses on the importance of preventing rural populations from degrading their own environment, which in the present case should mean cutting of trees for fuelwood. However, the problem is that, by arbitrarily fining people, the WFS officials have become a constant threat to local populations. Therefore, people do not see them “as defenders of nature but as money-grabbers” (SANOGO, 1990, p. 3). The harassment of fuelwood traders by the WFS officials has become an obstacle to the fuelwood trade, making it necessary for households buying fuelwood to have personal contacts with the traders, who come to their house after dark with their merchandise. In Madjakoye, almost 90% of the fuelwood trade was hidden when the survey was done in November 1990, and, in Gossi, about 75% was hidden. In other villages the secret trade was less important (30-50%). Also, nomads, who do not have a problem at all of finding dead wood and whose migrations lead to less pressure on the resources, but who often are blamed for degrading the environment, are often harassed by the WFS officials. The WFS gets extra income by visiting nomad camps by Landrover and fining people for one reason or another. Nomads, like everybody else, also risk being fined for not having wood-saving stoves, which are, since 1987, an obligation for all Malian households. Because of this policy and the lack of dialogue with local communities, the WFS is badly regarded by rural populations. After the Tamanrasset peace agreement of January 1991, agreed between the Tuareg and Maure rebel movements in the north and the government of former president Moussa Traore, several public meetings were held in the northern regions in order to explain the contents of the agreement, which should give more autonomy to these regions. People then felt they could speak freely and a lot of the interventions concerned the WFS. Later, after the demonstrations for democracy in Bamako and the fall of Moussa Traore in March 1991, the newly established newspapers started to write about the WFS harassment of the rural populations. After new attacks by the rebels in the north, the WFS officials temporarily left the Gourma in the summer

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Geoforum/Volume 24 Number 411993 of 1991, and, in other parts of the country, the WFS reduced its activities considerably. Finally, it must be stressed that the present situation of fuelwood supply and demand in the Gourma region will not necessarily continue in the future. If the collection distances and money spent on fuelwood increase further, sooner or later one reaches a threshold where the exploitation of wood resources takes a new direction. One possible scenario is a situation with extensive cutting of trees near the villages. Another scenario is a continued specialization among fuelwood traders and transporters towards more use of donkeys, carts and even lorries. There are big quantities of dry wood available some distance from the villages (7-9 km from the most important villages). Therefore, the second scenario would be the most probable in the foreseeable future, although some limited cutting of trees also may take place. However, this scenario now depends, to a large extent, on the national environmental policy of the new president Alpha Oumar Konare, elected in general elections in April 1992, and his new government. A collaboration with the vendors and. transporters and a better organization of the exploitation of the dry wood, also recommended by others (UNDPWORLD BANK, 1992), would be an important measure to prevent pressure on the living woody vegetation.

Conclusions The main conclusions to be drawn concerning Gourma region in Mali are:

(5) The collection, transport and sale of commercialized fuelwood is carried out by low-status groups, that is, in the case of Gourma, the bellas, especially the belh women. Due to collection distances, donkeys are essential to these activities. (6) The WFS, by arbitrarily fining people, represents maybe the biggest “fuelwood problem” in rural Mali. Their activities have been justified by the importance of fighting desertification and the advancing desert. These ideas, manifested in the national plan to fight desertification and the advancing desert, are clearly influenced by fuelwood and desertification orthodoxies. (7) The fuelwood crisis in the Gourma is not a problem of a growing gap between an increasing demand and diminishing resources. Therefore the fuelwood problem is not an ecological one (deforestation), but rather of a social and economic character. Collection time is increasing and so is money spent on fuelwood. Interventions in the fuelwood sector in the Gourma should therefore focus on the economic scarcity. (8) Fuelwood and desertification orthodoxies are generalizations which tend to gloss over important regional diversities. Data from the Gourma region in Mali should therefore not be used for a complete rejection of these generalizations. They should rather be used as a warning not to use them in local and regional situations about which there is no reliable information, Acknowledgements-I

the

(1) There is no relationship between deforestation and household fuelwood consumption. The fuelwood used comes from dry wood collected from dead trees. The deforestation observed is only caused by drought. (2) As collection distances are getting longer, more and more people depend on buying wood instead of collecting it themselves. (3) The cornmodification of fuelwood in rural Sahelian areas is probably more advanced than usually presumed. (4) The consumption of commercialized charcoal is also probably more important and it constitutes a bigger proportion of wood consumption than normally supposed, at least in rural Mali.

would like to thank the interviewers and field assistants participating in this study: Salma Walet Sidi, Fatoumata Hama Sylla, Fatoumata Dao, Ousmane Djitttye and Alou Cisse. The fruitful comments received from Jon Pedersen and Hanne Svarstad are also acknowl-

edged. The work was supported by the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs through the Sahel-Sudan-Ethiopia Program.

Notes 1. According to the Longman Compact English Dictionary ‘orthodox’ means “conforming to established, dominant or official doctrine”. This is what is here understood by the term. 2. The Sahel is here defined as the zone south of the Sahara desert with KlO-600 mm of long-term annual rainfall (LE HOUEROU ,1989). 3. In the Information Kit presented in relation to the IUCN Sahel Studies-1989, the following question is asked: “Are fuelwood supplies sufficient in the Sahel?”

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4. 5.

6. 7.

8. 9.

10.

The answer given is: “There are no data on the subject, and we simply don’t know” (IUCN, 1989). 50FCFA= 1FF. There are no data quantifying the mean household monetary revenues in the Gourma. This would have required a study for itself, due to methodological problems of obtaining reliable data. This is called a “permission to cut”, but it often means a permission to collect and sell dry wood. This was calculated as follows. According to the results from the survey, the mean expenses on charcoal are 2.3 F CFA/capitalday in the three villages, and, according to weight measures of charcoal sacks, the mean weight of a sack is 13 kg. The mean price of a sack is estimated to be 250 F CFA. Consequently, the mean consumption per person would be 0.12 kg of charcoal per day, which should imply (according to the average efficiency of the pit kilns in use in the Sahel) a consumption of 0.7 kg/capita/day of carbonized wood in the three villages. Bambara Maounde is excluded because of its particularity, at the time of the survey. I.T.POWER (1988) compares an estimated firewood consumption of 1,626,802 tons/year and a yearly production of woody biomass of 4,182,500 tons/year on the national scale, and concludes that accessible wood resources in Mali are by far satisfying existing demands for firewood. In addition, an important proportion of the wood consumed is not cut green wood, but collected dry wood. On the other hand, the consumption figures of I.T.POWER (1988) do not consider charcoal consumption or cutting of trees for construction or other purposes. The total demand for wood resources in the country as a whole would still be far below the yearly production of woody biomass. However, these figures should only be taken as an indication, since an evaluation of this kind is only tentative. PEARCE (1992) gives a popularized version of this view.

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