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Somalia Forestry
Nearly 14 percent of Somalia's land area was covered by
forest in 1991. Frankincense and myrrh, both forest products,
generated some foreign exchange; for example, in 1988 myrrh
exports were valued at almost 253 million shillings. A government
parastatal in 1991 no longer had monopoly rights on the sale of
frankincense and myrrh, but data on sales since privatization
were not available. Savanna trees had been Somalia's principal
source of fuel, but desertification had rapidly eroded this fuel
source, especially because refugees from the Ogaden War had
foraged the bush in the vicinity of refugee camps for fuel. The
government's 1988 development report stated that its sand dune
stabilization project on the southern coast remained active: 265
hectares of a planned 336 hectares had been treated. Furthermore,
thirty-nine range reserve sites and thirty-six forestry
plantation sites had been established. Forestry amounted to about
6 percent of the GDP.
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