Wood as a source of fuel in upper Shaba (Zaire).

At the beginning of the 20th century the creation of mining towns in Upper Shaba brought about the development of large urban centres and a resulting increase in their wood needs. The surrounding vegetation, mainly open forest, was exploited. Today the forest, for 70 km around Lubumbashi, is menaced with destruction. Plantation and afforestation solutions are known, but the probability of their being applied in the coming years is slight, even though just 20% of the area being given over to forestry would be enough to satisfy the woodfuel needs of the population.-from Authors