Welcome to the Forest Flyer, a quarterly news update from the United States Forest Service International Programs Africa & Middle East Team. To view previous issues of this newsletter, please click here. For more information about our programs, contact Kathleen Sheridan, Assistant Director, at kathleen.sheridan@usda.gov.
FALL 2022
In This Issue
Conservation Education to Action
Egypt

Stemming the Flow of Illegal Forest Products
Namibia

Abundance Estimates
Malawi
CONSERVATION EDUCATION TO ACTION
U.S. Forest Service activities in Egypt
Egypt is hosting the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) from November 6 - 18 in Sharm El-Sheikh. Its greening initiatives “aim to double the per capita share of green spaces throughout Egypt, improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gases, improve the health of citizens and absorb pollutants and fumes.” (Al-Monitor. Aug 10.2022) 

The Forest Service initiatives support the Egyptian government’s green aspirations through climate education and arts; urban agriculture and the creation of green spaces; and by supporting green networks and collaborations.

Read about our activities and goals below.
Click to read more about activities in Egypt.
STEMMING THE FLOW OF ILLEGAL FOREST PRODUCTS
Namibian law enforcement officers learn how to recognize and act on illegal trade in forest products
The Walvis Bay port of Namibia is bustling. A newly enlarged container terminal, expanded rail lines and paved access points are helping the port become the most cost-effective transshipment hub in the region, servicing all of southern Africa. Importantly, the state-owned port also has ambitions to reduce the volume of illicit goods that have long flowed through its transit points, including timber, wildlife products, counterfeit consumer products, and narcotics.

Much has been done in recent years to try and stem the illegal wildlife trade. But only recently has the Namibian government pushed to combat forest crime and illegal trade in timber and forest products, an effort the Forest Service Office of International Programs is pleased to support, in collaboration with the Department of State.

“Our constitution calls for the protection and sustainable use of our natural resources for the benefit of the current and future generations. This is the rally call that underscores our resolve to protect our resources,” 
--Namibia’s Director of Forestry, Mr Johnson Ndokosho, in his welcoming remarks that opened the Katima Mulilo and Walvis Bay workshops.
The Forest Service has partnered with Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism’s Directorate of Forestry and the Namibia Nature Foundation to design and implement workshops that increase the capacity of Namibian law enforcement agencies to detect, interdict, and seize illegal forest products.

A team of Forest Service timber and forest products specialists recently returned from conducting workshops at two of Nambia’s most important trade locations: the port of Walvis Bay and the Katima Mulilo post at the Namibia-Zambia border. Workshop instruction included foundational topics in wood identification, including wood biology and physiology; key anatomical features used to identify timber species; basic tools and methods to visually identify timber species; and the use of a dichotomous key to identify commonly traded timber species in Namibia. More than 40 Namibian law enforcement and natural resource management professionals participated in the workshops and learned to how to identify commonly traded species in Namibia.
Katima Mulilo workshop participants use hand lens to identify wood anatomy features.
Photo credit USDA Forest Service.
“I will be using the timber samples in my everyday duties. I have learned new things that will make my work more effective,”
--a Walvis Bay workshop participant.
Illegal logging and trafficking of forest products have negative environmental, social and economic impacts. Such practices hurt local communities that rely on forest products, depress world timber prices and undermine the rule of law. The U.S. Forest Service supports policy and technical efforts to curb illegal logging and illegal trade in forest products.
ABUNDANCE ESTIMATES
Informing management decisions at Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve
In Central Malawi, nestled below Chipata Mountain and slightly to the west of Lake Malawi, lies Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, one of the few remaining wild landscapes in Malawi. The reserve was home to 1,500 elephants in the 1990s. By 2015, there were fewer than 100. Decades of poaching and lawlessness decimated the reserve’s wildlife and the tourism economy that supported the livelihoods of local communities.

Today, Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve is thriving with animals once again.

African Parks fenced park boundaries, cleared poachers’ traps, improved infrastructure for patrolling, and trained and equipped ranger teams. It also conducted some of the world’s largest wildlife translocations, including the reintroduction of 520 elephants and 1,500 other animals to the reserve.

Read the abundance estimates that are helping guide African Parks in their wildlife management decisions. Developed by wildlife experts from U.S. Forest Service and African Parks, the abundance estimates have been providing site-specific empirical date through a camera-based wildlife monitoring program. Read about the programs and the outcomes by clicking on the reports below.
U.S. Forest Service International Programs
Africa and the Middle East