The woodfuel and forestry situation in Togo as experienced in the "Region des Savanes"

The "Region des Savanes" in northern Togo is experiencing a rising woodfuel problem. Population increase and lack of an official forestry policy result in decreasing natural woodfuel reserves. Projects trying to promote tree planting have difficulties in convincing local communities of its necessity. Extension services can therefore try to promote "dual" product. Through a proper species choice people will be presented trees that have a good calorie value, equal or superior to the traditionally known species. Reforestation projects must also take into account the location of the trees that will be planted, otherwise there might arise conflicts with traditional land tenure systems. The right to cut the trees by the people that planted them can be sanctioned by an official convention passed between a government's representative, the project and the person (s) who plant (s) trees. A very important point will be to in volve women actively in tree planting schemes, as they are the ones that have to fetch and use the fuelwood

Development in Guine-Bissau : situation and perspectives

Guine-Bissau is a young nation with a lot of political, socio-economic and climatic problems. Some of these (budget, monetary and price policy, infrastructure) should be solved before rural development projects can be expected to have positive long term effects

Présentation du projet''Inventaire et modelage de la gestion du couvert végétal permanent dans une zone forestière du Sud Sénégal"

Presentation of the Project "Inventory and Management Modeling of the Permanent Vegetation in a Forest Zone in Southern Senegal". Belgium has a long tradition in the field of agricultural and floristic research in humid tropical Africa. The studies that were once done in Congo and there after in Zaire can still be considered to be milestones. Recently, the introduction of new techniques like teledetection and Geographie Information systems software has created new possibilities for those researchers that want give their basic research effort some added value in the form of policy guidelines. This text presents''the work that is currently been done by the Laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Plant Husbandry and Ethnobotany (University of Gent, Belgium) in the Moyenne Casajsnance Province (southern Senegal) on the evolution and management possibilities of its natural vegetation