Community - based F orest M anagement S trategies for I ncreasin g the F orest C over in Gedaref, Sudan

A National inventory (1996) and remote sensing application , revealed that fo rest resources in Gedaref area were degrading. Forest cover declined from about 40% to 12% in Gedaref. Thus t he principal aim of present study was to assess the degree of forest decline and its impact on local people living in and around natural forests in a selected village in Gedaref, eastern Sudan. The study was conducted among three community categories viz. large mechanized scheme farmers, smallhold farmers and collaborative reserve farmers. In a cross - sectional survey, a total of 162 farmers were inte rviewed using different data collection methods including interviews, informal discussions based on questionnaires, and p articipatory l earning & a ction (PLA) methodology. The data collection focused on household and land - use characteristics, agricultural p roduction systems, management of forest resources, participation of farmers in tree planting activities and environmental changes. Descriptive statistics was adopted for categorical and quantitative information. Cross tabulations of selected variables , wer e produced as a precursor to conducting tests of significant internal differences between different variables among the three categories of respondents based on land ownership type. Results show ed that the lack of land tenure attributed to tenant farming w as the most important limiting factor for adoption of tree planting and other land rehabilitation practice