Abstract
THE annual report of the Forest Department of Uganda Protectorate for the year ended December 31, 1947, has recently been published (Entebbe : Govt. printer, 1948 ; price 2s. 6d.). This report of 49 pages commences, as a number of recent forest reports from Africa have done, by a declaration of Government forest policy, which is on the familiar lines that have often been referred to in Nature in connexion with forestry notes. The forest policy during 1947 was considerably implemented as the report shows ; it was to some extent the result of the Development Plan for Uganda put forward by Dr. E. B. Worthington which was approved by the Legislative Council during the year. This plan provided for the Forest Department receiving the sum of £205,500 to be spent in the ten years 1947-56 on expansion and development schemes, and this sum was to be in addition to the ordinary normal recurrent expenditure. As the amounts to be spent from this allocation for work only included soft-wood timber plantations, fuel planting-schemes, and research and investigation, hardwood-timber planting schemes apparently are to be covered by normal recurrent expenditure. This appears to be a pity, since it would seem that the indigenous hardwoods of Uganda may be neglected. Anti-malaria plantations were formed, at the request of the medical and health authorities, and the Department meant to clear-fell and replant them at intervals as an addition to the fuel supplies ; but the health authority has been against clear-felling, and the plantations will be managed on the selection felling basis. The reservation of more forest has been proceeding, but it is pointed out that the distribution of forest is not all that could be wished for, particularly in parts of the Eastern Province ; nor is it hoped to be able to make further reserves, and this leaves one with village forests as the alternative. It is noteworthy in this report that the importance of the savannah forest has now come to be understood. In fact, it is stated that the greater part of Uganda is covered by this type of forest growth, and it is from the savannah rather than from closed forest that the demands of people for forest produce are chiefly met. It is a welcome sign that the formerly neglected savannah or 'bush' is now coming into recognition and, even more, that it is to be classified as 'forest'.
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Forestry in Uganda : Report for 1947. Nature 163, 437 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163437a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163437a0