SUDAN

Sudan's environment has suffered from prolonged periods of conflict. The country has enormous amounts of foreign debt, and has seen little enforcement against over-hunting, poaching and illegal timber felling. Desertification is increasing. 28% of the country is forested, although deforestation is decreasing this steadily. Between 1990 and 2005, Sudan lost 11% of its forest cover and was one of the top 10 countries for deforestation between 2000 and 2006.

Under a peace agreement, Southern Sudan formed an autonomous region in 2005 and will hold a referendum on independence in 2011. Southern Sudan has been described as rivalling the Serengeti in terms of its wildlife populations, which appear to have escaped the worst effects of the conflict. The area is considered of critical importance for conservation efforts.

The region has important mahogany and teak plantations dating from the 1950s. In recent years there has been a huge increase in the timber trade into Uganda, most of which was on route to India, Pakistan and the EU. The Ugandan army has been accused of illegally logging teak from southern Sudan (where they have been engaged in operations against bases of the Lord's Resistance Army) and transporting it back to Uganda since 2003. UN contractors have also been accused of involvement in the unsustainable timber trade.

A lack of infrastructure, continuing activity by rebel groups (including issuing licenses for export) and lack of clarity over responsibility for border controls has enabled the illegal trade to continue. However, measures are now being taken by the new South Sudanese first minister to tackle the problem. More cross-border cooperation is needed in the region to ensure action taken by the government is effective.

DOCUMENTS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
29/05/2009	Tropical Forest Tenure Assessment: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities The goal of this report is to present and analyse the state of forest tenure in much of the world's ...	Rights and Resources Initiative / International Tropical Timber Organisation
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01/02/2008	Forest Products Trade between China and Africa: An Analysis of Imports and Exports Recent media coverage of China's efforts to secure access to natural resources in Africa suggests ...	Forest Trends (Kerstin Canby, James Hewitt, Luke Bailey, Eugenia Katsigris, Sun Xiufang)
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NEWS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
23/07/2009	The need to check deforestation in West Africa Achieving long-term development in West Africa requires much more than just exploiting the region's ...	Business Day, Nigeria
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28/05/2009	Indigenous people, forest communities in Africa control less than 2% of forest land Less than 2 percent of Africas tropical forests are under community control, hindering efforts to slow ...	Mongabay.com
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25/05/2009	Slow forest tenure reform threatens Africa's action against climate change A new report released today at a major global forestry conference in Cameroon has found that deforestation ...	Africa Science News Service (Kenya)
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16/06/2008	NFA warns people against timber smuggling The National forestry Authority has warned the people against smuggling Timber to Foreign Countries neighboring ...	UG Pulse (Uganda)
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PRESENTATIONS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
17/01/2008	Timber Trade in the Upper Great Lakes Region	Sam Lawson, Earthsight
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