New lease of life for Dinder National Park
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Khartoum Monitor 26 December, 2003 By Alfred Taban
After years of neglect, Dinder National Park, Sudan's main prominent game park is taking off once again.
A permanent camp is now being constructed. Five units, each with two bedrooms and made of bricks are almost complete. They will be used as lodging for Tourists and offices for wildlife forces. Now everyone has to live in and work from grass huts which are quickly laid to waste by rain and have to be replaced every year.
The permanent camp is the result of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) partnership with the Sudan government to save the park from collapse.
The UNDP came up with a project called conservation and management of Habitat and species and sustainable community use of biodiversity in Dinder National Park. It hired Dr. Mutasim Nimir, a renounced ecologist, as project manager and allocated 1.25 million dollars for the project. Funds for the project started to come in January 2001. It is due to end at the end of 2003.
The Dinder National Park is among the few Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded projects in Sudan, besides the biodiversity conservation and climate change project.
The government of Sudan too appears to be talking the park seriously. In February it appointed Brigadier Al-Tahir Nur Mohammed, a Natural Resources graduate of the University of Juba as the new commander of the wildlife forces in the park.
In March 2002, the Minister of Interior, Major General Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein himself visited the park for the first time.
"The government of Sudan is committed to the park," Instisar Ali Salih, the UNDP Programme Officer for Project said.
The Dinder National Park is the best known of Sudan's eight national parks and 17 game reserves and sanctuaries. Located about 560 kilometers south east of Khartoum on the Ethiopian border, Dinder became a National park in 1935. It currently occupies an area of 10,290 square kilometers.
Dinder has a diverse ecosystem and a variety of wildlife. It is transversed by the Rahad and Dinder rivers with their tributaries, presenting an effective drainage system. Rainfall is between 600 to 800 mm a year. Rains fall from June to October every year. During this period the area becomes flooded. When the rainy season stops and the water recedes, water reservoirs, known as mayas are left.
There are currently 40 mayas which provide water for animals, birds and human beings during the critical dry season.
The park falls within the clay plain, a result of deposits of alluvial soil laid down by flooding from the Blue Nile and its tributaries. Near the rivers and Khors (streams) one finds sand and sandy loam.
The vegetation of the park is classified as Savannah grassland woodland and riverine forests.
The park has three ecosystems, each with its own plant and animal communities. The northern part is dominated by Acacia seyal and Balanites aegyptiaca savannah which merges with Anogeissus - combretum woodlot.
Along the Dinder river doom palm (hyphaena thebaica) are dominant. The palm tree has an important economic value in the cottage industry and it is used in the making of mats, baskets, brooms and construction. Other riparian trees include Acacia Siberana and Tamorindus Indica. Along the banks of the river, tall wild sorghum grass grow.
The park still supports a large population of wild animals such as lions, leopards and cheetah, and their prey or mammals such as reed buck, bush buck, water buck, oribi.
Herds of buffalos are also found and elephants migrate to the park during the wet season. The most dominant groups of mammals found in the park include the baboons, whose number is believed to be reaching a pest level.
The striped hyena and the spotted hyena are the mammal's scavengers. Warthogs are common and frequently till the soil in search of tubers and roots. The hare and squirrels are restricted to the marginal parts of the park. Colorful sparrows, marabou stocks and pelicans are commonly seen spread near the ponds.
According to Dr. Nimir, there are 27 types of mammals at the park and 200 species of birds, reptiles, fish and other animals.
The park is rich with its wetlands which include diversity of waterfowl such as ducks and geese. Indeed hundreds of spurwing geese, tree ducks, yellow-billed storks, ibises, egrets and herons can be seen in the mayas.
A number of species which were originally abundant have been exterminated. The black rhino and hippopotamus were last seen at the beginning of the century. The Nile crocodile was abundant until the 1940's. The Sommering's gazelle which used to migrate on and off became extinct in 1970. The giraffe disappeared in 1985. The number of tiang (an antelope) is greatly reduced, to no more than 20. "There is a declining number of animals," Dr Nimir said.
The threat to the park has come from many directions. Due to the expansion in mechanized rainfed farming, recurrent droughts and the current 18 year civil strife in the south of the country, a large number of displaced people have settled along the borders of the park, especially on the Rahad river on the eastern part of the park.
There are now 50 villages around the park inhabited by 150,00 people.
"They obtain their timber from the park do poaching and even cultivate inside the park," Dr Nimir said.
Agriculture is practiced at a 5 km stretch from Rahad river where the park authorities have since 1984 allowed residents of seven villages to do farming. The park was extended by 12.5 kilometres in 1984.
Some of the villagers have cut down trees and started fires to help them in honey gathering.
According to Brigadier Mohammed some of these people clash with the wildlife forces resulting into loss of lives on both sides.
"There are nomads called Umbararo, who are well armed, they are wild, their animals too are wild, when we confront them they do not surrender," Brigadier Mohamed said. He added that his force has lost eleven soldiers in recent months.
The poachers and those who graze their animals at the park obtain their weapons from southern Sudan and Ethiopia.
"The situation between the wildlife forces and the population around the park used to be very tense," Instisar Salih said.
According to Brigadier Mohamed, some of the people around the park want to frighten them out of the park.
"They have no problem with the tourists, it is only with the Khaki (army uniform) and the soldiers," the Brigadier said.
He said some of them were putting poison into water points to kill the animals for food.
"We were in a state of enmity with the wildlife forces but the UNDP project has sensitized us and things have improved," said Ibrahim Ali Abakar, who comes from the village of Ardeb.
He said the conservation and management of Dinder National Park project has informed them of the importance of the park and trained them in bee keeping and writing project proposals.
The UNDP project is now training the population in bee keeping to reduce their illegal practise in honey collection inside the park.
The UNDP has also helped set up village development committees to assist the communities to take care of the various problems facing them.
Brigadier Mohamed said he has been recruiting from amongst the communities staying near the park to make them feel that they are part of the park.
Dr Nimir said the UNDP funded project has given the population around the park protective clothing to enable them to extract honey without having to burn down or cut trees and secured them gas cylinders to ease pressure on trees and wood for cooking.
Besides, seedlings and nurseries have been distributed by the UNDP project to the people to raise their own trees.
Water wells have also been dug to serve both the park and the people staying around it. Many of the trees are now fully grown.
Training is a major component of the project and almost everywhere some form of teaching is going on.
The Dinder project is emphasizing biodiversity through integration of the communities and involving them in the sustainable development of the park.
The Sudanese Environmental Conservation Society, SECS is involved in awareness component/ mobilization and community development.
Dinder National Park community development includes forestation activities and funding environmentally friendly initiatives from a revolving fund.
The conservation of biodiversity conservation activities is emphasizing training of wildlife management, personel, improvement of infrastructure and adoption of a management plan for the park.
Making Dinder a real National Park will however take time and effort.
During the visit of the Interior Minister to Dinder in March, he said he did not have money for the game wardens and they have to invest to raise money for themselves. The Wildlife Administration thus suffers from lack of trained staff, equipment and technical know-how. It is demoralized due to lack of funds.
There are no services rendered even at the Headquarters of the Park at Galgu .
The roads at the Park, measuring 160 kilometers are all muddy and during the rainy season they become impassable. Only tractors are able to move.
Due to lack of services and good roads, very few Tourists visit Dinder. This year only about 400 Tourists went. Annually only about 1,000 tourists visit Dinder.
The Wildlife administration which has 16 posts at the game park has only 5 aging tractors and 3 land-Cruisers, only one of which is in good condition. It often uses camels of which there are 16. During the wet season it is only the tractors and the camels that can manage to move.
The wildlife administration has no funds and the only way it is now getting some resources is by allowing the villagers around the Park to engage in fishing and they share the proceeds.
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