CHAPTER VIT 

 FORESTRY! 



INTRODUCTION 



THE problems of forestry are linked with those of agriculture, 

 since any forestry policy must be considered in relation to the 

 various demands made by man on the produce of the soil; in 

 African conditions native cultivation over large areas depends 

 directly on the distinction of forest growth. The subject is so 

 closely bound up with those of plant ecology and systematic 

 botany, dealt with in the last chapter, that it is most convenient 

 to discuss it at this stage. 



The condition of the forests affects, directly or indirectly, the 

 water-supplies, the fertility of the soil, fuel and timber supplies for 

 domestic and industrial use, and the possibilities of agriculture for 

 subsistence as well as for export. The importance of the forests in 

 the general economy of Africa has two aspects, that of the economic 

 utilization of forest products, and that of the conservation of water- 

 supplies and soil, the relative importance of which varies with the 

 character of the country. In the more arid tracts the forests are 

 coming to be valued primarily for their role in water conservation, 

 whereas in the belts of rain-forest, where land once cleared is 

 rapidly covered by dense vegetation, the productive aspect is 

 regarded as more important. A hard and fast division, however, 

 is impossible. 



Before the position of forests in relation to rainfall can be fully 

 understood, much research is necessary in the subjects of meteoro- 



^ Professor R. S. Troup, when Director of the Imperial Forestry Institute at 

 Oxford, and members of his staff, notably Mr. Ray Bourne and Dr. J, Burtt Da\y, 

 kindly prepared a special memorandum for the African Research Survey on Forestry 

 in Africa, mainly devoted to the British territories. This formed the basis for a first 

 draft of this chapter, which has been re-written in the light of new information and 

 after circulation to the experts mentioned in the Preface. 



