Effects of Darfur Conflict on Forest Resource

Abstract

Southern Darfur state was one of the regions affected by environmental change and desert creep and also affected by conflict, migration to big cities and camps at the periphery of cities. This study was conducted at Bilail locality in south Darfur state. The main objective s of this study was to investigate the different effects of conflict on forest and range resources and also to study how the community was affected due to the conflict . The area was divided according to stratification proc edure to three un equal groups; large, medium and small village s , in addition to one sample from nomads. The numbers of large villages were 9, medium village were 8, and small village s were 14. One village was randomly selected from each g roup. The chosen v illages are Bilail representing the large group, Marla representing medium group, and Higer - S tunu representing small group. 10 officials were interviewed personally . A socioeconomic survey was also conducted to collect in formation and shed light on the di fferent effects of conflict on forest and range resources. A questionnaire was designed for nomads and settled groups with 70 people selected from the three selected villages at Bilail locality. The results obtained from this study showed that, 67.1% of th e respondents mentioned that, they got their building materials from the forest. But still the majority of displaced people depend on forest. The respondents admitted that, they were cutting down trees for building material s and other purposes . The study c oncluded hat, the majority of the respondents 82.9% occupied in agriculture activities in the area .But 67.1% mentioned that, the areas of agriculture was decreasing after the conflict . This means the conflict affected human activities. It can be concluded that, the conflict affected the forest sector, in all aspects such as trees, so il degradation and habitats