Management of areas near forest margins must be done carefully to ensure conservation and sustainable use of forest resources. This work originated from the preliminary survey I carried out on the tree preference by some communities of the Yankari Game Reserve buffer zones in June 2010. During this survey, it was discovered that the majority (about 95%) of the people around Yankari Game Reserve are predominantly farmers and cattle herders. The rest are salaried employees (3%) and businesspeople (2%).

A lot of pressure is being mounted on the reserve by the surrounding communities through logging, herding, farming and clearing. Most of the trees are either used for firewood or medicinal purposes.

Buffer zone agroforestry is one of the strategies being promoted because it can provide alternative sources of forest products commonly harvested from protected forests. For this strategy to succeed, tree species selection for buffer zone agro-forestry must be carefully handled, so as to respond to felt needs of local people. This requires their participation in the species selection process and raise of seedlings in Nurseries and transplanting.

Aims:

The overall aim of this project is to identify the dominant tree species used by the support zone communities and promote tree-growing (which will provide firewood, timber and other food materials) in the local communities by propagating of these seedlings and transplanting in the buffer zones communities in order to reduce human pressure on the Yankari Game Reserve.

Methods:

Commonly used forest products and tree species in the buffer zone will be identified using data collected through questionnaire surveys and participatory rural appraisal (PRA). A target sampling intensity of 25% of households will be used covering eight villages within a radius of 5 km from the forest boundary, where anthropogenic activities are indicated to be highest. Households will be randomly selected from lists provided by local leaders, using random number tables.

A workshop will be organised for selected members of the communities on raising seedlings in a nursery and transplanting followed by establishment of nurseries in some villages around the reserve where seedlings will be raised for the agroforestry programme.