PEOPLE plant trees. More people will plant more trees. This simple truth lies behind the discovery that parts of Africa commonly believed to be at risk of desertification through the disappearance of their trees are actually becoming increasingly wooded.
Between the years 1986 and 1992, Kenya had probably the fastest growing population in the world, increasing by 4 per cent per year. Yet a survey by Swedish scientists, covering regions of the country which hold a total of 80 per cent of the Kenyan population, has found that there has been, “contrary to prevailing beliefs, a rapid increase of planted woody biomass”.
During the six years of the study, when Kenya’s population grew by about 24 per cent, the standard volume of planted trees grew by more than 30 per cent, according to Peter Holmgren of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and colleagues. Meanwhile, the amount of natural vegetation remains “approximately constant”.
What’s more, they concluded that within Kenya “population density is positively correlated with the volume of planted woody biomass” (Ambio, vol 23, No 7).
The conventional view is that in most of Africa, people are stripping the land of wood to burn as fuel. It has been assumed that more people mean greater destruction – leading to the spread of deserts. Holmgren’s study found the opposite: “Instead of increasing fuelwood deficit, Kenyan farmers seem to apply wise and sustainable management practices, including tree growing.”
To some extent, Kenya stands apart from its neighbours, says Holmgren. Most of the land, he says, is owned by private farmers with a tradition of mixing trees, food crops and domestic animals on their farms.
But the findings bear out other recent research from elsewhere in Africa. Earlier this year, British agricultural economist John McClintock published a study for the World Bank which found that in Senegal, reports of a fuelwood crisis resulted from a “total misreading of the situation by outside experts”. Natural forests were being replaced by farm forests and there was no shortage of fuelwood. He said the findings explained the failure of many state forestry projects.