Creating guidelines for multiple-use zones

Multiple-use zoning, with the assistance of the Impenetrable Forest Conservation Project (IFCP), has formed part of the DTC project, with preliminary zoning developed by Butynski and later by Scott (1992) (see Wild and Mutebi 1996, Working paper 5).

These zoning plans were developed in the context of previous regulations on resource harvesting. Under the 1964 Ugandan Forest Act relating to Kigezi, regulations were aimed at the controlled harvesting of forest plant resources, and were based on a permit system, intended to generate government revenue and facilitate monitoring (Butynski, 1984). Mention might be made of the following regulations.

1. Any produce, except private or reserved trees, may be taken from Kigezi forest land without license or fee by any African in reasonable quantities for his own personal domestic use. Such produce includes timber, poles, bamboo and fuelwood. No produce, however, is to be cut or removed without a permit, and shall not be removed from the place where it was cut or taken until checked and marked by a forest officer or forest guard.
2. A licensee can only fell trees or collect forest produce if the trees or produce have been marked or otherwise designated for felling or collection by a forest ranger or forest guard.
3. Within seven days of felling trees or collecting the produce, the licensee must notify a forest ranger or forest.

Additional regulations related specifically to timber production, pitsawing and cattle grazing. Control of harvesting of "minor forest products", as well as timber and goldmining was inadequate (Butynski, 1984; Hamilton, 1984; Struhsaker, 1987) for economic and political reasons described by Howard (1991). In 1983, an estimated 140-280 people were involved in pitsawing and carrying timber, with an estimated 100-200 people involved in panning gold from river-valleys (Butynski, 1984). As a result, an estimated 10% of the forest reserve remained intact, 61% had been heavily exploited by pitsawers and 29% "creamed" of the best hardwoods by selective pitsawing (Howard, 1991). Since then, following recommendations made by Butynski (1984), these major threats to the forest have been stopped.

With agricultural clearing, pitsawing and gold mining stopped, the major threats to BINP now are increased fire damage through runaway fires or arson, and in the longer term, possible deproclamation in the face of increasing conflict between people and the National Park. Prior to proclamation as a National Park, Butynski (1984) estimated that 10-20 people enter the forest each day for beekeeping purposes or to hunt for wild beehives, whilst 25-50 people a day collect fuelwood, bamboo and building materials.

Wild plant resources from the forest provide rural people with a wide range of basic needs: building materials, fuel, binding material, household utensils, medicines, food supplements and a source of income from the sale of baskets, honey, carvings or from practising as a herbalist or midwife.

At present, beekeeping takes place in part of the park, but other uses previously permitted under Forestry Department regulations are not catered for under current National Parks legislation. Managed use of resources within national parks or in buffer zones around them has, however, become a widespread strategy as a means of defusing land-use conflicts (McNeely, 1988). Concern over loss of access to wild forest plant resources is an important local issue, and the need to take these concerns and local needs into account has been identified (DTC, 1991). Both National Parks and CARE-International have policies aimed at sustainable resource use. The question is, once resources have been identified, how does one decide whether uses are sustainable or not ?

Which are priority species?

As outlined above, this study aims to produce guidelines for multiple-use zones around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and to identify gaps in previous work. It must be recognized at the outset that data on abundance, productivity and population biology of even the African equatorial forest trees with major economic importance are limited. There are even fewer data on the hundreds of species providing "minor forest products". Nevertheless, it is possible to identify plant species vulnerable to over-exploitation and to identify use categories (e.g. hardwood timbers used for beer boats) where there is a narrow margin between sustainable use and over-exploitation. Identification is based on:

1. indicators of demand, from field data outside the forest (e.g. density of bean stakes per ha, number of building poles per home, basket sales at markets), data on favoured "indicator" species inside the forest (e.g. bark removal from Rytigynia kigeziensis (nyakibazi) for medicine, proportion of Alchornea hirtella (ekizogwa) bean stakes) and published information from long term studies (e.g. fuelwood consumption per capita per year, construction materials);
2. information from observation at local markets and local resource users, or from development of commercial trade elsewhere in Africa, indicating whether species are, or will become subject to a greater intensity and frequency of use for commercial sale;
3. life form categories, as indicators of population biology (Cunningham, 1991);
4. part used (roots, bark, leaves, whole plant, wood, etc.) as an indicator of impact on individual plants;
5. information from published records, local resource users and field observation on scarce key resources;
6. experience of resource management problems that have arisen elsewhere that could be avoided in this case.

This approach is a useful tool in a situation where management guidelines are required, and there is neither the time nor the financial or human resources available to undertake studies of the population biology and biomass production of the species involved. It must, however, be regarded as a "first approximation", which can be developed on a finer scale through subsequent longer-term studies.

During a four-month study, Scott (1992) interviewed respondents encountered randomly during fieldwork outside Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and conducted group interviews. Information from these interviews was combined with visual assessments by local people of the abundance of key species, which were assigned a rating on a six-point scale. Scott (1992) recognized that further study relating to the "ecological sensitivity" of key plant resources would be necessary. To build on this useful background work several gaps in Scott's study were identified. The most important of these were as follows.

1. Only a limited number of plants were identified by botanical name, and there were no herbarium voucher specimens for many plants. These are important in setting conservation or resource use policies for plant species and use of local folk taxonomy (Rukiga names in this case) is not sufficient. This is because some local names are applied at a "generic" level. For example, the single local name "bitindi" corresponds to two Memecylon species, M. jasminoides and an undescribed species only found in Bwindi Forest; "omushabarara" is applied to at least three Drypetes species, including the rare D. bipindensis; and "omurara" covers at least four Macaranga species.
2. No information was recorded on plants used by traditional birth attendants or for traditional veterinary medicines and little information was available on edible wild plants (including fungi) or on plants important to bees or bee- keepers.
3. No quantitative data were recorded on key resources, whose use has important implications for maintaining forest structure and sustainable resource use policy. There was also a need to go beyond visual assessments of resource abundance.

For these reasons, the present survey took a complementary approach to that used by Scott (1992). Instead of dealing with people encountered at random, information was collected using a more "targeted" approach through:

1. work with specialist user groups (e.g. blacksmiths, traditional birth attendants (TBAs), beekeepers, herbalists, cattle owners);
2. selection of particularly knowledgeable local Batwa and Bakiga people in each area, the most knowledgeable of whom (J. Bandusya) worked as part of the survey team during the entire 2 month period of fieldwork;
3. doing as much quantitative work as time permitted. Good voucher specimens were collected whenever possible.

Identification of specimens was done at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Makerere University herbarium. Additional specimens were sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh and the East African Herbarium, Nairobi. Fieldwork with women specialist groups (basket makers, TBAs) was done by women forming part of the survey team at different times (M. Mehanda, M. Cunningham, R. Badaza and J. Tumusime). Information was collected from TBAs and traditional medical practitioners (TMPs) on plants with symbolic ("magical") and physiological actions.

Although a distinction is made in this survey between plant species with symbolic (or psychosomatic) uses and those with active ingredients, both are important in health care as:

* species that have a purely symbolic value are important ingredients of traditional medicines for their psychosomatic value and are at least as effective as placebos are in urban industrial society;

* the majority of traditional medicines have not been adequately screened for active ingredients, and a number of species (e.g. Rapanea melanophloeos (Myrsinaceae) in southern Africa) which are primarily used for symbolic purposes also have active ingredients.

Conservation efforts must therefore be directed at all species vulnerable to over-exploitation, and the main priority for this study was identifying whether the species are vulnerable to over-exploitation or not.

As part of the research training exercise, quantitative assessments were made of three key plant resources (hardwood building poles, bean stakes and beer boats) and for bamboo, for which there is scope for experimental rotational management in selected sites. Quantitative assessments in 20 m x 20 m plots were made with resource users, assessing density and suitability (on a five-point scale) of trees for building poles (all trees >5 cm dbh) and bean stakes (>1.5 cm diameter). Level of cutting was also assessed.

A similar approach was taken in the bamboo zone (10 m x 10 m plots). At Nteko, in a single site where no pitsawing or harvesting had taken place, suitability for beer boats was assessed in a 100 m x 100 m plot of all trees >30 cm dbh. Plot sizes conform to those used by Muir (1991) and recommended by Alder and Synnott (1992). In order to put bark use by herbalists into perspective, bark damage assessments were carried out by A. Tsekeli, B. Otim, R. Baragira and J. Bandusya, comparing this to elephant damage. A seven-point scale of bark damage was used (Cunningham, 1990) in two 100 m x 100 m plots of all trees >10 cm dbh in the Bamboo zone and at Mubwindi swamp.

Local knowledgeof resource users

The knowledge and perceptions of resource users, such as traditional healers, craftworkers and commercial medicinal plant harvesters, provides valuable insights into the scarcity of useful plant species and the development of conservation and resource management proposals. This is particularly useful where we are dealing with hundreds of species, as in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, or trade in traditional medicines (Cunningham, 1990).

Such knowledge is particularly useful as it has been gathered over many years of harvesting, buying and selling these plants. With increasing scarcity, a commercial trade develops, such as the sale of bean stakes or building poles. If scarcity increases, the distance covered and time used to collect the scarce resources also increase, with corresponding increases in price. This has occurred in many parts of Africa with fuelwood (Leach and Mearns, 1989) and in southern Africa with rising prices for certain medicinal plants, many of them from Afromontane or coastal forest (Cunningham, 1990).

Validity of local knowledge can be tested against data in herbaria and in the literature on the geographical distribution, rarity and extent of exploited species, so that local traders' perception of scarcity that may be an artefact of limited geographical distribution can be distinguished from scarcity due to over-exploitation (Cunningham, 1990).

Despite such pitfalls, local knowledge represents a practical and cost effective method for identifying possible key species. In some cases, such as for small herbs or plants occurring in limited areas (e.g. Marantochloa leucantha, omwiru), it provides the main evidence of commercial trade, and can direct specialist monitoring and conservation programmes (Cunningham, 1990, 1991).

Life form, plant parts usedand the effects of harvesting

It is generally accepted that a relationship exists between resource stock or population size, and the sustainable rate of harvest. Low stocks are likely to produce only small sustainable yields, particularly if the resource is a slow growing plant that takes a long time to reach reproductive maturity. Species with large populations, high biomass production and a short time to reproductive maturity would similarly be expected to produce high sustainable yields, particularly if competition was reduced by ‘thinning’. There is also a clear relationship between the part of a plant being harvested and the impact on the plant. The response of plants to exploitation and the implications of declining productivity under a high frequency or intensity of exploitation is critical to policy development.

Life form categories are useful for establishing resource management principles in conjunction with other factors such as demand and part of the plant being used. These categories help bridge the gaps in knowledge about plant demography, enabling a first approximation of categories of vulnerability to commercial exploitation. Life form categories represent a natural sequence from large trees to annual forbs and grasses (Rutherford and Westfall, 1986), in other words from K-selected to r-selected species.

Large trees are often the most vulnerable as people choose them for their thick bark (e.g. for the national or international trade in medicinal plant material) from large, old plants which have a long period to reproductive maturity, a low ratio of production to biomass and specialized habitat requirements.

Destructive harvesting affects habitat structure and the three ‘vital attributes’ essential for replacement of plant species (Noble and Slatyer, 1980), namely:

1. the means of dispersal or persistence at the site before and after disturbance;
2. the ability of the species to establish and grow to maturity in a developing community;
3. the time taken to reach critical life stages.

Degree of disturbance to the species population and vulnerability to over-exploitation depend on demand, supply, part used and growth form. Coppicing ability and the vulnerability of trees to bark removal are important attributes which vary with the physiology of different species. Although able to withstand fire due to their thick bark, Faurea saligna (omulengere, Proteaceae), and Podocarpus latifolius (omufu, Podocarpaceae) are at one extreme, being species sensitive to bark removal and susceptible to fungal infection and borer attack. Prunus africana (omumba, Rosaceae) and Ficus natalensis (ekyitoma, Moraceae) are species at the other extreme, where bark regrowth occurs after the lower trunk has been severely de-barked. But even resilience after ring-barking does not enable trees to survive when demand exceeds supply. Commercial medicinal plant gatherers continue to debark favoured trees when bark is only partially regrown because of the its scarcity and commercial value, finally debarking large roots and killing the trees.

In extreme cases (not yet recorded in western Uganda), genetic erosion may occur in the long term, as the plants cannot cross-pollinate because bark stripping for medicines continually keeps the population in a vegetative phase (e.g. Warburgia ugandensis) or due to the felling of all but the smallest or remotest individuals (e.g. of Dalbergia melanoxylon for craftwork). In both of these examples, this over-exploitation has occurred through much of the range of these species, from South Africa to Tanzania, and this emphasizes the importance of the minimum viable populations (MVP) debate in conservation biology.

Sustainable in practice?

One of the primary objectives of national parks and reserves is the maintenance of habitat and species diversity. Park managers attempting to defuse land-use conflicts cannot allow over-exploitation of natural resources within those parks without compromising this primary objective. It is therefore essential to establish guidelines for the harvesting of wild plant resources in national parks.

Since the publication of the World Conservation Strategy (IUCN, 1980) the term "conservation" has become almost interchangeable with "sustainable use". This approach is fine for species or vegetation types with a high biomass production, low species diversity and resilience to harvesting, or where human population densities are low. Demand for fast-growing species with a wide distribution, high population density and high reproductive rate is easily met. This is possible in the gathering of leaves or fruits for medicinal purposes and as dietary supplements, thatch, weaving materials and reeds. Examples of easily managed vegetation types are Phragmites australis wetlands and Cymbopogon validus stands, which have a wide distribution, low species diversity and high biomass production of annual stems which are resilient to harvesting for hut-building purposes (Cunningham, 1985; Shackleton, 1990). Managed harvesting of reeds and thatch-grass is also facilitated by the fact that cutting takes place in late autumn and winter when disturbance to nesting birds is minimized. The same applies, in African savanna, to common, fast-growing medicinal plants or encroaching species such as Acacia karroo, Acacia nilotica, Dichrostachys cinerea (Fabaceae) and Euclea divinorum (Ebenaceae) which can often be removed as an aid to meeting management objectives for the savanna parks.

Forests are considerably more complex systems than reedbeds, with multiple uses. Muir (1991) working with local wood-cutters in Afromontane forest in southern Africa, has demonstrated that cultivating alternative sources of building material outside indigenous forest can be over ten times cheaper than the cost of an intensive monitoring programme for sustainable use of that resource. In most cases, conservation bodies in developing countries do not have the financial or human resources to carry out such programmes. Thus in cases where demand is high, and resources are both slow growing and popular, "mining" rather than "managing" resources occurs, and the narrow border between sustainable use and over-exploitation is crossed.

The higher the number of harvesters and uses of a species and the scarcer it is, the greater the chance that resource managers and local people will get embroiled in complex juggling of uses and demands in an attempt at a compromise that could end up satisfying nobody.

Examples of increased demand leading to over-exploitation include the felling of Mauritia flexuosa and Jessenia bataua palms for their fruits in the Peruvian Amazon (Vasquez and Gentry, 1989; Peters, 1990), the killing of favoured medicinal plants and dye resources by ring-barking or uprooting in Africa for the local or international trade (Cunningham, 1987, 1990), the over-exploitation of Aquilaria crassna (Thymeleaceae) for export to Hong Kong as incense (Payapyipapong et al., 1988), the use of Parkia roxburghii trees for jamu medicinal preparations in Indonesia (Rifai and Kartwinata, 1991) and the depletion of copal and rattan sources in Palawan, Philippines (Conelly, 1985).

Forests are distinguished by high species diversity, limited distribution in eastern Africa, low biomass production and multiple uses (medicines from leaves, roots, bark and fruits, traditional dyes from bark and roots, poles and laths for hut building and the gathering of edible fruits). Almost no published data are available on root or bark production of African woody plants (Rutherford, 1978), making it virtually impossible to set sustainable limits. Costly research in obtaining such data would have little practical value anyway due to the limited human resources available for monitoring and management. The intensive management of forests practised in the southern Cape for valuable hardwood (mainly Ocotea bullata (Lauraceae), Seydack et al., 1982) is unlikely to occur within national parks or forest reserves due to financial constraints and the number of species involved.

This is one of the main reasons why the approach taken in tropical forest conservation sites like Khao Yai National Park, Thailand, has been to stop all harvesting of forest products and to place major emphasis on developing alternatives to consumptive use of forest resources. At the same time, an "Environmental Protection Society" has credit co-operatives, education, health and business components to channel benefits to village members. These include income to villagers from non-consumptive uses (eco-tourism), loan schemes, income generation and primary health care benefits, and has been highly successful (Payapyipapong et al., 1988). It has also avoided all the complexities of multiple-use forest management.