The broad objective of this research was to conserve, protect and rehabilitate the
vegetation cover in the study area through forestry extension. Two types of data were
collected for this research, namely; primary and secondary data. The primary data was
collected from 10% of the villages of Elodaya Administrative Unit, North Kordofan and
10% of the households of the selected villages were interviewed face-to-face. The
secondary data was collected from the archives of Forests National Corporation (FNC),
Elodaya project and relevant studies conducted at the study area.
The main findings of the research were; the dominant land tenure system in the study
area is customary land tenure where the majority of the land holders possess big farms of
more than 52 mukhamus (one mukhamus is equivalent to 1.75 feddan). Through
scientific and sound forestry extension these areas can be rehabilitated to enrich Hashab
tree plantations which contribute to sustainable livelihood of local communities in the
study area. Almost the entire interviewed sample rear goats which represent a real
menace to hashab gardens and it is one of the factors responsible for the low stocking
density of the tree cover in the study area. About 50% of the respondents do not tap their
hashab trees for gum production due to the price policies, pest infestations and
complexity of land tenure system where in some cases the land is own by a person and
the trees grown on the same land owned by another person. The majority of the
respondents accentuated that Hashab trees enhanced the resilience of local communities
in the study area through provision of cash to meet the daily expenses and social services
of water, education and health. Beside Hashab trees, local people deliberately retain
some fruit forest trees like Adansonia digitata, Tamarindas indica, Grewea molis and
Grewea tenax which provide the local people with non-timber forest products (NTFPs).Considerable efforts were exerted by the traditional leaders to conserve, protect and
rehabilitation of Hashab trees in the study area. The FNC contribute to rehabilitation of
Hashab trees through provision of extension, provision of improve seeds and seedlings
and facilitation of gum marketing through the establishment of Gum Producers
Association. Unfortunately, the number of extension unit is understaffed, accordingly
there is no systematic field visits and the extension messages focus only on awareness
raising and dissemination of information.
The study arrived to some sound conclusions some of them are; the extension method
deployed by extension unit is; home and field visit, public meetings and demonstrations.
The major outcome of the extension services is organization of local communities into
associations to tackle the issues of marketing and to have control on the prices of gum
Arabic. Lack or limitation of animation and extension activities on gender issues
contributed to isolation of the majority of women from participating in hashab garden
activities. Moreover, the cultural and social habits with regard to women in the study
area are a major handicap to gender balanced community participations.