108 COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



The protective measures should, however, be undertaken as 

 early as possible, because the longer they are deferred the more 

 burdensome will become the prescriptive rights and others 

 acquired over the land. These will eventually have to be denned, 

 regulated, and provided for before the forests can become estates 

 in the legal sense of the word. Until this is done the universal 

 and popular idea, especially amongst natives, that the forests 

 generally belong to no one in particular and that, with certain 

 exceptions, almost anyone is entitled to a share of their produce 

 will continue to prevail, and in the end result either in great 

 difficulty being experienced in limiting the rights acquired by 

 custom or in the latter 'becoming so extensive as to hardly make 

 it worth while attempting to regulate them, and the forests as 

 such will then, for all practical purposes, cease to exist. 



Indeed the very existence of numerous rights (especially those 

 to the collection and utilization of forest produce) of this 

 character is a certain indication that the forests are much wanted 

 by the local right holders (in West Africa usually the members 

 of the native communities jointly owning the land), and it then 

 becomes the diity of the paramount Government to see that these 

 rights are satisfied both in the present and in the future. This 

 can only be done by ensuring the preservation and increased 

 productiveness of the particular forests concerned, and before 

 that is possible it is absolutely essential to have the legal 

 position of the latter clearly defined as to the ownership, boun- 

 daries of the land, and the extent and nature of the rights exist- 

 ing over them. Half measures in this respect are exceedingly 

 unsatisfactory and end, owing to the unrestricted damage done 

 to the forests, by the latter ceasing to satisfy, and thus causing 

 injury to the very rights that it is intended to protect. 



Hence, in the interests of the native communities themselves, 

 quite apart from other considerations, it is highly desirable to 

 secure the continuous and prosperous enjoyment of such rights, 

 and for this purpose alone, if for no other, it becomes incumbent 

 on the paramount Government to ensure, either directly or in- 

 directly, the legal protection and proper management of the 

 forests. 



In this connection I cannot do better than quote the following 

 from the work of B. H. Baden-Powell on forest law :- 



There is not the least doubt that in the process of time ercrif 

 forest area (whether called ' protected ' or not) in which various 

 'undetermined rights of user exist and in which the 'matters above 

 specified [viz., clear and defined boundaries, a settlement of rights 

 an authoritative decision as to what rights have to be exercised 

 and to what extent, and a prohibition against all unauthorised 

 diminution of area and abuse of the soil and growth, as well as 

 against the gradual growth of new prescriptive rights] are not 

 arranged ivill in tune disappear off the face of the country. It 

 may take a century to do it, but the deterioration and ultimate 

 complete destruction of such places is as certain as anything can 

 be." 



A misconception of this real nature of the meaning attached to 

 the words " reserved forests " or " forest reserves " has, in some 



