Large Plantations of Rapidly Growing Exotic Species: Lessons from the Bandia, Senegal

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Large Plantations of Rapidly Growing Exotic Species: Lessons from the Bandia, Senegal
Authors:	Freeman, Peter H. Resch, Tim
Year:	1985
Periodical:	Rural Africana
Volume:	23-24
Period:	Fall/Winter
Pages:	87-93
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Senegal
Subjects:	fuelwood forestry Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology
Abstract:	In the mid-1970s, large-scale plantations of rapidly growing trees for a variety of uses, including The provision of fuelwood, were seen as one solution to easing the demands on land and forest resources exacerbated by the Sahelian drought of 1968 to 1974, the growing urban population, and the rising cost of alternative fuels. The Senegal Fuelwood Production Project, sponsored by USAID, based in the Bandia forest near Dakar, was typical of this kind of intervention common to the Sahel in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The authors, both from USAID, examine large-scale planting of exotic species as a forestry practice and discuss a 3,000 hectare plantation in the Bandia forest. In general, the cost and difficulties of the project's implementation were underestimated, and the tree growth and other benefits overestimated. These combined to result in a programme that made less sense than anticipated on a technical, social, and financial scale. Ref.