square miles or 56 per cent, comprise bamboo areas, open moorlands and 

 unexplored forests. The area of State forest actually administered at present 

 is roughly estimated at 3,207 square miles. 



In comparison with that of most countries the ratio of forest area to 

 the total land area is very small, as will be seen from the following pre-war 

 figures : 



Japan (excluding Formosa and the Kurile Islands), 59 per cent. ; Canada, 

 38 per cent.; European Russia (excluding Finland), 36 per cent.; Austria- 

 Hungary, 30 per cent.; U.S.A., 29 per cent.; Germany, 26 per cent.; Norway, 

 21 per cent. ; and France, 18 per cent. In British India State forests alone 

 occupy 23 per cent, of the total area, but of these about half the area consists 

 of " unclassed forests," a portion of which will ultimately disappear. 



The relatively small percentage of forest in Kenya Colony might well 

 give cause for alarm when it is considered that countries like France and 

 Germany, with a percentage many times as great and with intensive systems 

 of forest management producing high yields per acre, are unable to supply, 

 all their own timber requirements and have to make good the deficiency by 

 imports. These two countries, however, are highly industrialized, and on 

 this account are much larger consumers of timber than an agricultural and 

 pastoral country like Kenya Colony is ever likely to be. Another point to 

 be noted is that more than three-fourths of the area of the Colony consists of 

 arid and sparsely populated tracts, covered largely with thorn bush, where 

 the amount of timber and firewood consumed is negligible. Nevertheless, 

 from the point of view of production alone, irrespective of other considera- 

 tions, the forest area of the Colony has already been reduced to the utmost 

 limit of safety. It is true that there is some prospect of building up an 

 export trade owing to an estimated excess of production over home con- 

 sumption (see paragraph 27). This excess, however, is to a great extent 

 fictitious, and is due largely to the heavy over-exploitation of a considerable 

 tract of valuable and accessible forest under the terms of a timber lease, which 

 does not expire till 1958. This lease allows felling in such a manner as not 

 only to exploit the legitimate increment of the forest, but also to make serious 

 inroads on the forest capital ; on its expiry, therefore, there may be a serious 

 drop in out-turn unless this is compensated by (1) the building up of the 

 forest capital throughout the Colony by systematic management, and (2) the 

 opening up to regular working of forest tracts at present inaccessible. After 

 1958, therefore, with an increased demand for timber as a result of the 

 extension of railway and other communications, and with the normal develop- 

 ment of the country, the position may become one of considerable anxiety; 

 local scarcity of fuel and small timber is likely to be felt even sooner, as is 

 indeed already the case in some localities. The solution of the difficulty lies 

 in the strict conservation and protection of all existing forests, the prepara- 

 tion of working plans, the introduction of more intensive systems of manage- 

 ment and improved methods of exploitation, and the afforestation of denuded 

 areas, where necessary, to supply local demands. 



2. DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. 



ADMINISTRATIVE AND EXECUTIVE CHARGES. 



2. The administrative head of the Forest Department is the Conservator 

 of Forests, with headquarters at Nairobi. The distribution of the forests, 

 and their allotment to divisional charges under Assistant Conservators of 



