By Almahady Cissé
BAMAKO, Mar 28 2007 (IPS)

The figures tell the story. In 1990, forests in Mali extended over more than 14 million hectares. But by 2000 they covered 13,117,643 hectares, according to a national report on the state of the environment made public in 2005. This marked a reduction of about seven percent in the West African country’s forests, in just a decade.

“Forested areas are today giving way to the savannah in Mali,” says Sory Haïdara, head of the Project for Sustainable Management of Forests (Projet de gestion durable des forêts).

Widespread reliance on wood to meet energy needs is partly to blame. The 2005 report showed that about 500,000 hectares of land are deforested every year for this purpose. At the same time, woodlands are being encroached on by farmers: the amount of land under cultivation in Mali is increasing by 4.7 percent annually, at the expense of forests.

The situation in Faya forest, a protected area north of the capital – Bamako – is a case in point.

“Faya is today the object of…uncontrolled exploitation by communities. It is under great pressure from farmers; then, bush fires sometimes ravage what people and animals have not destroyed,” says Haïdara, noting that some 300 families now live in the forest.

In Morilabougou forest, a protected area in southern Mali, matters are scarcely better.

“Big wild animals like lions and deer used to inhabit this forest. Numerous species of birds and small game also lived there,” recalls Amadou Bagayogo, a hunter from the area.

Now, farmers are taking their place.

“Cotton farming, practiced extensively in the Sikasso Circle, is a leading factor in the deterioration of the forest,” says Mamadou Diakité, a forestry official in the Sikasso Circle. This region contains more than half of Mali’s forests, and includes five protected areas.

Diakité believes local authorities have become complicit in the occupation and destruction of wooded areas by providing certain resources needed for agriculture to farmers living in the heart of the forest.

According to statistics from regional nature conservation services in Sikasso, the amount of land being farmed in Morilabougou forest is some 582 hectares – or 4.5 percent of its surface area.

In a bid to put an end to the destruction of the Morilabougoula forest, residants of the Kignan community have drafted a local convention for forest management. The document aims to ensure controlled exploitation of the forest; implementation of the convention will be a collective responsibility.

Previously, nature conservation officials signed contracts that allowed communities to manage forests themselves. Although this local involvement helped prevent widespread logging, the contracts were ultimately terminated.

The Kignan initiative has been welcomed by Environment Minister Nancouma Kéita, who nonetheless noted the role of his office in protecting forests: “The restoration of the forest heritage is a responsibility of the state, and we are working hard at it.”

Some have accused officials of poor forest supervision.

But, Kéita has promised that in the course of 2007, authorities will put in place a code of conduct concerning forests, to promote good conservation of woodlands for future generations.

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