African tree species gone in 20 years, ecologists warn

Swaziland's diminishing indigenous tree species will be exhausted within 20 years at the current rate of exploitation, nature conservationists warned this week. "This disappearance of Swaziland's fuel wood is imminent in some areas, while other areas face the extinction of all indigenous trees in a matter of years, based on the rate of current consumption and the new commercial exploitation of fuel woods," veteran nature conservationist Ted Reilly told IRIN. Reilly, the founder of Swaziland game park system, has urged other nature conservation groups to put the preservation of the country's flora at the top of their agendas. After the indigenous trees are finished, invasive species will also disappear as Swazis search for ways to cook meals and heat their shelters in winter, conservationists predict. Four out of five Swazis live on communal Swazi Nation Land under chiefs, most of them in a state of chronic poverty, according to the UN Development Programme. Electrification is rare among rural residents, and fuel sources other than wood are virtually unknown. The doubling of the country's population since independence in 1968, to around one million, has exacerbated the ecological crisis. "People are living where they should not, because they've run out of space to scratch out a small landholder farm. Desertification is a big problem - lands that used to be marginal are now uninhabitable, and formerly productive lands are now marginal because of soil exhaustion," said an official with the Ministry of Natural Resources. A law proclaiming most indigenous trees as protected species, and which prohibits cutting or selling them, is not enforced. A source with the Royal Swaziland Police Force told IRIN that law enforcement resources are inadequate to go after illegal tree cutters. "Who knows this is a crime? Swazis have been cutting trees for their use since time immemorial - they see it as their right," the police officer said. However, the commercial sale of fuel woods is new. The roads and highways of the country abound with indigenous hardwood trees stacked in cut piles to lure motorists. "The irony is that the town dwellers who purchase these woods have alternate fuel sources. Fireplaces are decorative additions to their homes, and slow-burning indigenous hardwoods are ideal for them. Meanwhile, the poor rural families who sell the wood are robbing themselves of the fuel they will need for cooking and heating," Reilly said. Environmentalists point out that, unlike commercial timber forests in the central Manzini and northern Hhohho regions, whose trees can be grown and harvested in 12 to 30 years, the loss of indigenous African trees cannot be mitigated. An unpublished study produced by Big Game Parks of Swaziland determined that the country's indigenous trees are a non-renewable resource. Endangered tree species include lead woods, knob thorns, bush willows (comretums), and umbrella trees (acacia nilotica). "The ancient lead wood (combretum imberbe) in the Lubombo region has been carbon dated to be 1,050 years old. Other mature trees of different species are well over 300 years old. For all intents and purposes, such ancient hardwoods can't really be considered to be a utilisable resource on a sustainable consumptive basis. They are just too slow growing to produce sustainable yields, because they will not replace themselves as mature trees in the span of a man's lifetime," the report said. "As large tracts of the kingdom are being rapidly and systematically desertified, a fuel wood crisis is developing for rural communities, and greater pressures are building on protected lands," Reilly warned. Conservationists are calling for a ban on roadside firewood sales. "This would allow rural folk to conserve the firewood for themselves until an alternative source of fuel is found," Reilly said. A cord of firewood large enough to fill a car boot sells for R30 (US $5). Nhlanhla, a 16-year-old boy selling firewood along a road in the Lubombo region's eastern lowveld said he was unaware it is illegal to cut the trees in his area. "We must sell this wood because it is all we have to sell," he explained. He said his family has no other cash crop to cover household expenditures from school fees to matches. Nhlanhla conceded that the old hardwood trees around his family's small plot were fewer each year, and more neighbours were cutting them to sell to motorists from the towns. He has no idea what his family will use for fuel when all the trees disappear. "There used to be tall grass around where the trees grew. When the trees were removed, the grass went away. There's just dust now," he said. Conservationist concede that enforcing a ban on cutting indigenous trees would be too taxing for the country's law enforcement agencies, but policing roadside firewood sales could easily be accomplished through regular police patrols.