Report No. 13174-CD

ChadCountry Environmental Strategy PaperJune 1994

Country Operations DivisionAfrica RegionSahelian Department

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Document of the World Bank

This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipientsonly in the performance of their official duties. Its contents may not otherwisebe disclosed without World Bank authorization

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CURRENCY EQUIVALENT

Currency Unit = CFA franc (CFAF)US$1.00 = CFAF (March 31, 1994)CFAF 1 million = US$1,722.65 (March 31, 1994)

SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURE: METRIC

Metric U.S. Eguivalent

1 meter (m) = 3.28 feet (ft)1 kilometer (kim) = 0.62 miles (mi)1 square kilometer (kimn) = 0.39 square mile (sq. mi)1 hectare (ha) = 2.47 acres (a)1 metric ton (t) = 2,205 pounds Ob)1 kilogram (kg) = 2.2046 pounds (lb)

FISCAL YEAR

January 1 - December 31

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

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ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ASECNA Agence pour la S6curite de la Navigation en Afrique et a MadagascarATETIP Agence Tchadienne d'Execution des Travaux d'Interet PublicBCR Bureau Central du RecensementB.E.T. Bourkou, Ennedi and TibestiBRGM Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et MinieresBSA Bureau des Statistiques AgricolesCESP Country Environmental strategy PaperCILONG Centre d'Information et de Liaison pour les Organisations Non-GouvernementalesCILSS Comite Inter-Etat de Lutte contre la Secheresse dans le SahelCNAR Centre National d'Appui a la RechercheCNED Comite National d'Energie DomestiqueCONACILS Correspondant national du CILSSCTA Cellule technique d'appuiCTA/LCD CTA/Lutte Contre la DesertificationCTA/DR CTA/Developpement RuralDIAPER Diagnostique PermanentDREM Direction des Ressources en Eau et de la MeteorologieDRTA Direction de Recherches et Techniques AgronomiquesDSEED Direction de la Statistique, des Etudes Economiques et DemographiquesEPS Executive Project SummaryESMAP Energy Sector Management and PlanningFAO (UN) Food and Agriculture OrganizationGIS Geographic Information SystemIGN Institut Geographique National (de France)IUCN International Union for the Conservation of NatureMET Ministere de l'Environnement et du TourismeNEAP National Environmental Action PlanNGO Non-governmental organizationNRM Natural Resources ManagementONDR Office National de D6veloppement RuralONHPV Office National d'Hydraulique Pastorale VillageoiseORSTOM Organisation de Recherche Scientifique et Technique de l'Outre-MerPADS Programme d'Actions Sociales pour le DdveloppementPNLCD Plan National de Lutte Contre la DesertificationPNE Projet National d'ElevageROPANAT Rdseau de Suivi des Paturages NaturellesSOFRECO Socidtd Frangaise de Realisation, d'Etudes et de ConseilSONACOT Societd Nationale Commerciale du TchadSTEE Socidtd Tchadienne d'Eau et d'ElectricitdUNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of theirI official duties. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosed without World Bank authorization.

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PREFACE

This report is one of a series of Country Environmental Strategy Papers prepared by World Bankstaff both for internal discussion and to strengthen policy dialogue with borrower countries onenvironmental issues and towards the preparation of a National Environmental Action Plan. This reporthas been prepared by Ms. Joy Hecht (Consultant) and has benefitted from contributions from EmmerichM. Schebeck (Projects Adviser), Sarah Forster (Consultant, AF5DR), Amadou B. Cisse (PrincipalCountry Officer) and Jan Bojo (Environmental Economist). Ms. Katherine Marshall is the DepartmentDirector.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................. vii

1. INTRODUCTION: THE CHADIAN CONTEXT .......................... 1Purposes of the CESP ....................................... 1What is 'Environment"? ..................................... 1Criteria for Ranking Environmental Problems ........................ 2The Chadian Context ....................................... 2

Economy ......................................... 2Political situation .................................... 3Demography ....................................... 3Bioclimatic zones and associated production systems .............. 4Water resources ..................................... 5Biodiversity and wildlife ................................ 7Carrying capacity of the environment ........................ 9

2. CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL HARM .............................. 12Causes of Environmental Harm ................................. 12Impacts of Resource-Based Economic Activity ........................ 13

Agriculture ........................................ 13Forestry .......................................... 16Livestock ......................................... 18Fisheries .......................................... 19

Urban Environment ........................................ 20Water supply ....................................... 20Sewage . ......................................... 21Drainage and roads ................................... 21Solid waste ........................................ 22

3. INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY CONTEXT .23Current Organizational Structure .23

Environment .23Agriculture .24Livestock .25Energy .25Rural water resources .26Urban water supply .26Urban drainage and roads .27

Environmental Planning .27Introduction .27Desertification Control (PDLCD) .28Rural Development .29Urban planning .30

Legal Structure for Environmental Protection .30General Framework .30Land tenure .31Forest tenure and pricing .33

Non-Governmental Organizations .35

4. STRATEGIC ISSUES ................... 38

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How Can We Best Support Chad? ................................ 38Why the Environment .................................... 39Strategies for Addressing Environmental Concerns ..................... 41

Integrated participatory approaches to NRM .................... 41Urban project design .................................. 43

Information Needs .................................... 43NEAP Status and Next Steps .................................. 45

TABLES

Table 1: Evolution and structure of GDPTable 2: Population and Population Density by PrefectureTable 3: Sustainable and Actual Population DensitiesTable 4: Population Density by PrefectureTable 5: Tax Rates on Wood-based FuelsTable 6: Priority Ranking of Chadian Environmental Problems

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Existing Data for Environmental ManagementAppendix B: Documents ConsultedAppendix C: People Consulted

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CHAD

COUNTRY ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY PAPER

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION: THE CHADIAN CONTEXT

1. This document serves two purposes; to improve the World Bank's understanding of environmentalissues in Chad, and to serve as an input into the country's own environmental planning process. Itdefines the environment broadly as an input into many sectors of economic activity rather than as adiscrete sector, and consequently places major emphasis on integrating environmental considerations intosectoral projects. Several criteria determine which environmental problems warrant attention andinvestment; the number of people affected by the problem, the impacts on income, and the extent towhich it is possible to resolve the problem through policy reforms or capital investment. A fourthcriterion concerns the protection of species, habitats, or ecosystems of unique global importance, suchas the wintering grounds for European birds provided by Lake Chad. Because the benefits of suchresources accrue primarily to the international community, it is harder to justify their protection as longas the costs of environmental protection would be borne by the Chadians.

2. Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world, with per capita income estimated at $US 260in 1991. The census completed in 1993 puts total population at 6,288,261 (up from 3,192,611 in 1968),of whom 1,327,570 were urban dwellers, 4,601,622 were sedentary rural dwellers, and 359,069 werenomads. The economy is based on the primary sector, which accounts for 35 to 40% of GDP andprovides an income to more than 80% of the population. Livestock and cotton provide just over 50%of the country's export earnings, down from 77% in 1983; they are the major source of cash income inrural areas. The recurring military and civil conflicts which have beset the country since 1979 haveseverely hampered government capacity to manage projects or absorb donor investments, with some 40%of government expenditures going to the military, and civil service salaries paid irregularly.

3. Chad is conventionally divided into several broad bioclimatic zones, exhibiting distinct agro-silvo-pastoral production systems. Their spatial delimitation is not precise, because no clear physicallandmarks separate one zone from another. The northern half of the country is the Saharan and Saharo-Sahelian zones, which include all areas with less than 400 mm of rainfall per year. Agriculture is limitedto oasis areas, and population is sparse. The Sahelian zone, which includes N'Djamena, receives up to600 mm of rainfall per year. Agriculture is characterized by rainfed cultivation of millet, sorghum,cowpeas, and peanuts, and irrigated vegetable gardens in the wadis. While total rainfall is sufficient toproduce adequate harvests, its spatial and temporal variability poses significant risks. The Sudanian zonereceives from 600 to 1200 mm of rainfall. Vegetation in the northern part of this region is characterizedby mixed dense savannah, while the south is woodland savannah and deciduous open forest. Cultivationsystems are primarily agricultural and agro-pastoralist, with crops including maize, cotton, cowpeas,millet, sorghum, sesame, taro, and cotton. The Guinean zone occupies only the southernmost tip of thecountry, receiving more than 1200 mm of rainfall. Because this region is so small--some suggest thatthere no longer is any Guinean zone in Chad--it is relatively unimportant in terms of population orproduction.

4. Chad's resource base is limited by the low level of rainfall in most of the country. However, itdoes have a few areas of particular importance in terms of biodiversity and wildlife. Lake Chad is ofinternational importance as one of the few stopovers or wintering places for migratory birds crossing theSahara. Lake Lerd provides habitat to a species of endangered manatees, and Zakouma National Park

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is reported to contain a large population of elephants. Although most of the relatively humid parts of thesouthern third of the country can probably still support more people than live there now, in certainpockets the resource base is already severely strained; this is particularly true with respect to fuelwoodresources around N'Djamena and in the agricultural area around Moundou.

CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL HARM

5. Natural resource degradation in Chad may be attributed to four major factors; human populationincrease, decreased rainfall over the past forty years, recurrent warfare and social and cultural patternbehavior. These factors lead to changes in several key sectors of the environment, particularlyagriculture, forestry, livestock production, and fisheries. In agriculture, resource pressure is likely tolead to expanded cultivation, with negative effects on soil quality, erosion, water quality, and eventuallywildlife through the destruction of their habitat. The most serious impact on forest resources comes fromthe consumption of wood as a cooking fuel and bushfires this has led to massive destruction of forestsaround N'Djamena and, to a lesser extent, around other cities. This threatens the energy supply to urbanareas, leads to rapid soil erosion, and destroys wildlife habitat. Recently, interest has grown in expandedcommercial use of Chad's acacias for production of gum arabic; if feasible, this would increase economicincentives for sustainable management of those trees. In livestock production, environmental problemsarise from grazing patterns which do not take into consideration the complex role of livestock in pastoralproduction systems; this can involve overgrazing, badly timed grazing, or other patterns which do notallow natural vegetation to regenerate. Livestock production is also linked to environmental problemsas decreasing rainfall pushes herders towards the south, putting them in direct conflict with agriculturalistsand agro-pastoralists for access to a limited resource base. In the fisheries area, the apparent decreasein stocks is probably due to overfishing, which is difficult to regulate given the institutional climate ofthe country.

6. Chad's urban environmental problems, experienced primarily in N'Djamena, are conceptually lesscomplex than its natural resource management problems. The key issues relate to water, sewers,drainage, and trash. The city has no sewage collection system, and there is a serious danger that its watersupply may be contaminated in the near future as a result. Urban drainage is a significant problem duringthe rainy season, when the saturated ground cannot absorb enough water and flooding is a problem. Thenetwork of canals and drainage basins designed to channel rainwater into the river is inadequate to meetthe city's needs, creating serious hazards from standing water. There are no planned activities to planttrees in the city and in the neighborhood. The city also has no trash collection service; household wasteis placed in empty lots and sometimes burned in the streets, both of which constitute health hazards aswell. Since the country is not industrialized and there are relatively few cars, air pollution is not anissue, although the proposal to build an oil refinery near N'Djamena could make it one.

INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY CONTEXT

7. Environmental problems are the responsibility of a number of different government agencies.Until 1993 the Ministry of Environment and Tourism was responsible for forestry, fisheries andenvironmental protection, the Ministry of Livestock for pastoralism, and the Ministry of Agriculture andthe National Office for Rural Development for agriculture and extension. In 1993, environment wasmoved into the Ministry of Agriculture, but the staff of the new Environment Directorate still seethemselves as quite separate from agriculture. Moreover, energy considerations are the responsibility ofthe Ministry of Mines, Energy, and Water Resources; thus supply side of fuelwood issues come underenvironment while the demand side under energy. Responsibility for urban infrastructure andenvironment is similarly split among the municipal government, the Ministry of Public Works, and the

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parastatal water and energy company. The general picture is one of considerable fragmentation andsectoralization; although in this respect Chad may be little different from most Sahelian or even westerncountries.

8. The Chadian government has undertaken two separate planning processes related to NRM issuesand one on urban problems. One of the NRM efforts is the preparation of the Plan Directeur de LutteContre la Desertification (PDLCD), which focuses on natural resources management and is under theauthority of the Director of Forestry. The other focuses on rural development, and is under the authorityof the Director-General of the Ministry of Agriculture. (When the two processes began, they were notin the same ministry.) A round table on rural development was held in December, 1993, at which acomprehensive set of documents describing the country's problems and proposing policy reforms,institutional restructuring, and investment projects which could help address those problems. Thedesertification round table is still under preparation. The urban planning process has begun morerecently, and is expected to provide a framework for addressing the environmental problems of the capitalin particular.

9. The legal framework for environmental protection is weak. A scattering of laws address forestprotection, endangered species, and other conservation issues, and the country is a signatory to severalinternational treaties and conventions. However, a Forestry Code has been adopted in August 1989, butthis has not been followed by implementation instructions. There are no pollutant discharge regulationsand no national requirements to do environmental impact assessments for infrastructure or constructionprojects (though most donor agencies, which pay for the investments, do have such requirements). Theland tenure situation is confused, with a mix of traditional, French colonial, and modern Chadian systemsin effect. Forest rights are also somewhat confused. According to existing law most forest resourcesbelong to the state and a set of fees and taxes are imposed on cut wood. A revised forest code whichallows somewhat more village control was prepared in the late 1980s, but it was never signed into law.Moreover, the existing regulations are weakly enforced, if at all, so fuelwood cutting is in practicesomewhat anarchic.

STRATEGIC ISSUES

10. A strategy for addressing environmental issues in Chad must answer several general questions.First, what can reasonably be accomplished given the present political climate? This clearly goes beyondenvironmental considerations. Strategies which minimize dependence on the civil service are likely tobe the most effective; this is the route which many donors have gone in working in the country. Second,how important is the environment, given the country's extreme poverty and instability? Two argumentsmay be made for maintaining a secondary, if not a primary focus on the environment. In rural areas,the natural resource base is the source of most income, so strategies whose primary goal is to increaseincome must be rooted in sustainable resource management practices, or their effects will be short-lived.In urban areas, environmental problems are posing serious public health hazards, which deserve attentionin any program oriented towards increasing basic standards of living. Neither of these argumentsprovides much justification for the Government of Chad or the World Bank to work on biodiversity orwildlife conservation; fortunately, other donors are supporting international environmental groups whichaddress these issues. Based on the seriousness of the problems and the feasibility of addressing them,this paper ranks environmental problems according to their suitability for intervention. Of highestpriority are peri-urban forestry and urban water supply and drainage issues. Of moderate priority arefisheries management and land degradation from agriculture or herding. Of low priority are pollution,wildlife conservation, and urban sewerage.

11. In rural areas, an integrated approach to environmental issues is appropriate, incorporating theminto projects designed to increase incomes rather than creating special environmental projects. This willcall for an interdisciplinary and interministerial approach to project design and implementation, whichmay be difficult both for Chadian agencies and for the Bank. In urban areas this will be somewhatsimpler, because environmental improvement is not an inherent part of household production strategies,but may be addressed more discretely without missing important determinants of project effectiveness.An environmental strategy should also pay particular attention to improving the information base forresource management, incorporating data collection and data sharing components into all projects so asincrementally to strengthen the information available to support decision-making by both the governmentand donor agencies.

12. The question of whether Chad needs to prepare a National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP)has been on the table for some time. The country has been engaged in intensive environmental planningwork for several years. While these efforts are not, perhaps, as complete as might be hoped, they haveinvolved a major effort by virtually all of the government agencies and individual civil servants whowould be involved in a NEAP. Therefore, the Bank and other donors must not launch an effort whichin any way duplicates the ongoing processes, nor should a NEAP be developed as an umbrella plan whichincorporates work already underway or completed. Instead, the Government should identify the specificelements which are missing from the ongoing processes, and the donor community may provide thesupport necessary to help the government add them in, within the context of the existing processes. Thisapproach to national environmental planning will address the substantive needs for additional work,without minimizing the efforts already made in this area both by government agencies and by otherdonors.

1. INTRODUCTION: THE CHADIAN CONTEXT

Purposes of the CESP

1.1 This document serves two purposes. The first is to improve the World Bank's understanding ofenvironmental issues in Chad, their place in the development process, and their implications for Bank-financed activities in the country. Three important considerations must be borne in mind. First, theChadian economy is heavily dependent on the country's natural resource base. Development activitiesmust therefore reinforce the ongoing ("sustainable") ability of the resource base to play a full role ineconomic development. Second, development activities should not have unintentional negative effectson the environment. Third, insofar as possible or appropriate, specific Chadian natural resources ofregional or global ecological importance must be protected, even if they are not of economic importanceto Chad.

1.2 The second purpose of this document is to serve as an input into the country's own environmentalplanning process. Given the political situation in Chad, the preparation of a National EnvironmentalAction Plan (NEAP) has not been actively promoted to date. The Government is, however, developingits own approaches to environmental issues through round tables on rural development and environment,and through a comprehensive urban planning process, which may be regarded as building blocks of aNEAP.1 Therefore, while this document does not propose a strategy to address environmental concernsas such, it does highlight technical, economic and policy issues that will require development of a nationalconsensus to complement the ongoing planning efforts.

What is "Environment"?

1.3 This paper views the environment in two ways. The first concerns the use and degradation ofnatural resources, which must be considered as a key element in human production systems. Severallinks between production and environment are likely to be important. The environment is not a sectorof economic activity like agriculture or industry, nor is it a form of infrastructure like urban sewersystems or roads. Rather, it is an input into most productive activity. At the same time, most productionsystems have impacts on the environment which threaten their own sustainability. Natural resourcemanagement considerations must therefore be integrated into economic planning rather than treated as anafterthought to efforts to increase income.

1.4 Urban pollution issues, the second dimension of environmental problems, show somewhatdifferent characteristics. Some pollution is an output of industrial activity, but there is very little industryin Chad. Most urban pollution results simply from the byproducts of living; human waste, trash, wastewater and so on. Another major cause of urban environmental problems is development which blocksthe operation of natural drainage systems, leading to the city's flooded and rutted roads. While we mightbe able to frame these problems in terms of production systems, it would miss their importantimplications for human health, which is important for its own sake, and only secondarily for its impacton production. These issues can be addressed head-on in projects directly targeted at environmentalimprovement rather than at ensuring the sustainability of income-generating activity.

I These are discussed in section 3.2 of this document.

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Criteria for Ranking Environmental Problems

1.5 This framework suggests several criteria for determining the importance of differentenvironmental problems. First, we can rate environmental considerations according to their importanceas an input into economic activity. Thus the relative importance of agriculture, fisheries, and forestproducts in the economy, combined with the severity of the environmental threat to each sector, mightsuggest in which sector environmental hazards should receive the most immediate attention. Second, thenumber of people affected by an environmental threat will be a determinant of the importance of promptaction. This is, of course, related to the first criterion, although it is not quite the same. It may lead usto conclude, for example, that the problems created by depletion of fuelwood around densely populatedurban areas are more urgent than the consequences of tree- or brush-cutting in sparsely settled dune areas,or that urban pollution in N'Djamena is more urgent than in Sarh or Abeche. Third, our ability to dealwith environmental problems should be a factor in allocating resources; thus efforts might better go intopreventing pesticide pollution of rivers, lakes, and ground water, which should be feasible through betterpest management techniques, rather than trying to address the decreased levels of Lake Chad, which noone knows how to combat or even how to explain. All of these criteria may be thought of as specialcases of a standard cost-benefit framework for allocating environmental protection resources. However,the more specific criteria can provide useful rules of thumb, since cost benefit analysis of environmentalprotection is difficult and subject at best.

1.6 A fourth possible criterion concerns protection of endangered species, unique ecosystems, orirreplaceable habitat resources like the wintering grounds for European birds provided by Lake Chad.Since the benefits of these resources accrue largely to animals rather than humans, their protection is hardto justify in cost-benefit terms. To the extent that humans do benefit, they are more likely to beWesterners pleased that African wildlife thrives, than Chadians prevented from eating that wildlife orcultivating its habitat. Consequently, much of the pressure to protect such resources is internationalrather than national, and the domestic benefits could come more from public relations than from increasedwelfare or economic health. Although this does not rule out such problems from consideration, especiallyif the costs of protection can be borne by the beneficiaries, it should be borne in mind in assigningimportance to different environmental problems.

T-he Chadian Context

1.7 Data on the physical condition of the Chadian environment are rare.2 The poverty of the countryand instability of the government have limited the resources devoted to routine data collection on theenvironment. Economic data which show how the environment is used and the pressures likely to beplaced on it in the future are similarly weak. In contrast, the Government of Chad carried out its firstcensus of population in April 1993, which has already produced some provisional data and promises tobe a source of a great deal of interesting information in the future. This section describes various aspectsof the Chadian context, based on the limited information available.

Economy

Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world, with per capita income estimated at $US 260in 1991. Although economic data on Chad are thin and unreliable, we do know that the economy isbased on the primary sector, which accounts for 35 to 40% of GDP and provides an income to more than80% of the population (see table below). Livestock and cotton provide just over 50% of the country's

2 Appendix A provides a summary of the major sources of data useful for enviromnental management.

export earnings, down from 77% in 1983, and are the major source of cash income in rural areas(CTA/RD vol. 1 p. iv). The country's national income accounts data do

Table 1: Evolution and structure of GDP (in $US 106 1990)

l 1983 1990 1993 2000

Primary sector 360.7 396.4 482.1 614.3Agriculture 182.1 210.7 282.1 364.3Cotton 35.7 42.9 46.4 67.9Livestock 142.9 142.9 153.6 185.7

Secondary sector 139.3 239.3 242.9 325.0Share of cotton 28.6 32.1 35.7 50.0

Tertiary sector 278.6 453.6 478.6 592.9

GDP at factor prices 778.6 1,089.3 1,203.6 1,532.1

Indirect taxes 17.9 67.9 82.1 132.1GDP at market prices 796.4 1,157.1 1,285.7 1,664.3Real growth rate 15.7% 0.2% 4.8% 3.4%GDP per capita in $US 203.6 253.6 260.7 278.6

Source: CTAJDR Vol 1 p iv. Data in CFA were converted to $US at $1 =FCFA 280.

not permit disaggregation of forestry, fisheries, or other resource-based activity presumably accountedfor within primary sector income, so it would be difficult to assess the importance of each of theseactivities relative to the others in either income or employment. This is unfortunate, since, as discussedabove, this would provide a useful criterion for assessing the importance of environmental degradationaffecting the different activities. The data which are available show primary sector activity almost stablethrough the 1980s, with some increase in 1993. This may be attributable to the drought of the 1980s andsubsequent good rainfall of the early 1990s. The decrease in the share of cotton as a source of foreignexchange in the 1980s may be explained by the 50% drop in world prices in 1984-86.

Political situation

1.8 Chad's political situation is a key factor in all attempts to work in the country. Chad experienceda civil war between 1979 and 1982, and recurring outbreaks of violence until 1992. Since 1993 ademocratic transition process has been ongoing, and there is hope that regular elections will be held bylate 1994 or early 1995. However, one result of the civil disturbances has been a very weak institutionaland administrative capacity in the public sector. This has had far-reaching implications for the abilityof the administration to undertake development work, much less protect the environment.Because of this situation, many donor agencies are choosing to minimize their reliance on civil servantsin the implementation of their programs.

Demography

1.9 The completion of Chad's first population census in April 1993 offers some hope of soon havinga much clearer picture of demographic issues than has ever been available before. The provisionalreport, issued in July 1993 (Bureau Central du Recensement, 1993), puts total population at 6,288,261,

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of whom 1,327,570 were urban dwellers, 4,601,622 were sedentary rural dwellers, and 359,069 werenomads. This is considerably higher than the estimates available prior to the census; the World Bank(June, 1992) put total population at 5.4 million. Table 2 below gives a breakdown of population andpopulation density by prefecture, as provided in the provisional census report. The report primarilyprovides data on the urban, sedentary, and nomadic population of each sub-prefecture. Further dataseries will cover age group breakdowns, birth rates and fertility, mortality, migration patterns, education,economic activity, household structure, and housing.

Table 2: Population and Population Density by Prefecture

Prefecture Area in Population Population Populationin km2.(a) 1968 (a) 1993 (b) Density

Batha 88,800 260,000 288,074 3.24BET 600,350 72,000 70,603 0.12Biltine 46,850 114,028 187,115 3.99Chari Baguirmi except N'Djamena 82,910 347,752 722,606 8.72

N'Djamena 126,483 529,555Gu6ra 58,950 133,332 306,653 5.20Kanem 114,520 162,777 280,804 2.45Lac 22,320 92,801 248,226 11.12Logone Occidental 8,695 193,623 455,140 52.35Logone Oriental 28,035 250,233 440,342 15.71Mayo Kebbi 30,105 448,645 820,249 27.25Moyen-Cbari 45,180 333,117 744,741 16.48Ouaddai 76,240 310,000 549,932 7.21Salamat 63,000 100,000 185,981 2.95Tandjil6 18,045 247,820 458,240 25.39

TOTAL 1,284,000 3,192,611 6,288,261

(a) Area and population estimates from CTA/DR, June 1993.(b) From Bureau Central du Recensement (1993), Tables i and 1.

Bioclimatic zones and associated production systems

1.10 Chad is conventionally divided into several broad bioclimatic zones, based on weather, dominanttree or shrub species, vegetative associations, and soil characteristics. These zones tend to exhibit distinctagro-silvo-pastoral production systems. Their spatial delimitation is not precise, because no clear physicallandmarks separate one zone from another. Moreover, climatic change and human interventions haveled to changes in Chad's vegetation patterns, so the extensive work on vegetation classificationsundertaken in the 1960s (see Pias, 1970) is only partially valid now. There is no routine monitoring ofnatural vegetation, so it is not possible accurately to describe trends in vegetative cover which would beimportant indicators of environmental risks.3 Despite these caveats, the existing information doesprovide a useful way to frame a discussion of Chadian environment and production systems. Theclassification described here is based on Kindler (1989) and Keith and Plowes (1993).

1.11 The northern half of the country is the Saharan and Saharo-Sahelian zones, which include all areaswith less than 400 mm of rainfall per year. This comprises the prefectures of Borkou, Ennedi, and

3 For more detailed descriptive information about the natural vegetation of Chad, see Pias (1970) and Louis Berger(1988 and 1989).

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Tibesti (the B.E.T.), and northern parts of Kanem, Batha, and Biltine. The area under 50 mm of rainfallper year is desert, with unstable, unproductive soils. The area from 50 to 200 mm of rainfall is sub-desert steppe, with rainfall occurring in July and August. The Saharo-Sahelian zone, with rainfall up to400 mm, is characterized by sand dunes, sandy plains, and large depressions. The sparse humanpopulation of this region depends on oasis and wadi cultivation and herding of small ruminants, cattle,and camels. About 90% of the agricultural systems involve date production relying on shallow groundwater sources. This offers low yields and poses a risk of salinization. The other 10% is organized ina complex system in which dates are cultivated in the oases, with irrigated vegetables and other cropsplanted beneath the trees. This offers higher yields, and can satisfy most food needs.

1.12 The Sahelian zone receives up to 600 mm of rainfall per year. This zone, which includesN'Djamena, has a four-month rainy season from June to September. Natural vegetation is thorny opensavannah, including the acacias which are a source of potentially commercializable gum arabic.Agriculture is characterized by extensive rainfed cultivation of millet, sorghum, cowpeas, and peanuts,and irrigated vegetable gardens in the wadis. Onions and tomatoes are important cash crops, sold as faraway as Cameroon and Nigeria. While total rainfall is sufficient to produce adequate harvests, its spatialand temporal variability poses significant risks. Farmers reduce the risk of localized drought bycultivating fields spread out as far as five or more kilometers from their homes. To protect themselvesagainst low rainfall or great temporal variability, they cultivate only soils with high infiltration rateswhich will absorb the rain which does fall. Transhumant herding is also of great importance in this zone,with herds moved towards more humid zones in the south during the dry season and back to the Sahelianzone in the rainy season. Consequently, fluctuations in rainfall in the Sahelian zone have significantimpacts on areas further south, as herders change their migratory patterns in search of pastoral resources.

1.13 The Sudanian zone receives from 600 to 1200 mm of rainfall. (A more detailed classificationconsiders the areas from 600 to 800 mm to be Sahelo-Sudanian, from 800 to 1000 to be Guineo-Sudanian, and from 1000 to 1200 to be Sudano-Guinean; see Keith and Plowes (1993)). Vegetation inthe northern part of this region, where the rainy season lasts from four to six months, is characterizedby mixed dense savannah. The southernmost part of the zone is woodland savannah and deciduous openforest. This part of the country is primarily agricultural and agro-pastoralist. Important rainfed cropsinclude maize, cotton, cowpeas, millet, sorghum, sesame, and taro. Cotton is the major cash crop, withCotonTchad, the government cotton marketing organization, providing chemical inputs and purchasingthe output. Riparian floodplains are important for agriculture in this region, and also serve as nurserysites for fish and a food source for water birds. Irrigated perimeters along the Logone and Chari Riversare also important in the cultivation of rice and other crops. The Sudanian zone is the most denselypopulated region of the country, particularly around the city of Moundou.

1.14 The Guinean zone occupies only the southernmost tip of the country, receiving more than 1200mm of rainfall which may fall during 8 months of the year. Its vegetation is characterized by deciduousdense forest. Because this region is so small--some suggest that there no longer is any Guinean zone inChad--it is relatively unimportant in terms of population or production.

Water resources

1.15 Rainfall in Chad ranges from less than 50 mm per year in the Sahara to as high as 1300 mm inthe Guinean zone in the south-west corner of the country. There is a single rainy season centered in thesummer, which is as short as two months in the north or as long as eight in the south. Variability ofrainfall is very great, especially in northern areas of low precipitation.

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1.16 Meteorological data are among the best routinely collected time series data, due to support fromthe AGRHYMET project which in the 1970s expanded and strengthened the network of weather stationsbegun under colonial rule. These data show that there has been a clear decline in average annual rainfallthroughout the country over the past thirty years. For example, median average rainfall in N'Djamenawas over 600 mm between 1950 and 1967, but under 450mm between 1968 and 1985. The 100 mmisohyet averaged about 200 km. north of Lake Chad between 1950 and 1967, but fewer than 50 km fromthe lake after 1968.' Both the variability of the rainfall and the drop over the past thirty years have beengreater in northern parts of the country than in the south. The increased variability, in particular, hasprofound implications for production strategies and for natural resource degradation. Whether thesechanges are evidence of long-term climate change or of medium-term fluctuations which may be expectedto reverse themselves soon is unknown. Either way, however, declines in rainfall have hurt agriculturalproductivity and forced rural dwellers to change their production systems in order to maintain theirincomes.

1.17 Chad is part of the Lake Chad basin, a large area which includes parts of Niger, Nigeria,Cameroon, Central African Republic, and the Sudan. The lake is the northernmost surface waterresource in the country; further north, low rainfall, high rates of evaporation, and high soil infiltrationrates keep permanent surface water from accumulating. Two major Chadian rivers flow into the lake,the Logone and the Chari. The waters of the Chari arise in Central African Republic and southeasternChad. The upper catchment of the Logone is in Central African Republic and Cameroon. The Logonejoins the Chari just downstream from N'Djamena. The Batha River, which flows into Lake Fitri, is theonly other permanent river in the country.

1.18 Chad has a network of 58 hydrological monitoring stations which track flow and water levels onthe country's major rivers. These show a wide variation in flows. At the N'Djamena station on theChari, the low (1984/5) was 213 m3 per second, the median (1942/43) 1030, and the high (1955/56)1720. The flow of the river shows a steady decline from the 1950s to the 1980s. Kindler (1989) tracksthe standard deviation of average flow at N'Djamena relative to the 40-year mean. They find that allreadings but one were 0.5 to 2.0 standard deviations above the mean prior to 1972, whereas all readingsbut one were 1 to 2 standard deviations below it after that year.5 The variation in level and flow of therivers is determined primarily by rainfall; thus these observed decreases are consistent with rainfalltrends.

1.19 Lake Chad is the country's most important surface water resource. As recently as 50,000 yearsago, it covered almost all of the present country of Chad, with water at a depth of 400 meters and asurface area of 800,000 km2. 6,000 years ago it still covered 300,000 km2, and was 20 meters deepwhere N'Djamena is now sited. Thus the decline of the lake has been a long-term phenomenon. In morerecent history, it has ranged from a high of 26,000 km2 in 1962 to a low of 1,653 km2 in 1985. Itsmaximum depth is only a few meters; the extremely flat topography of the region means that a slightincrease in depth is associated with a very large increase in surface area.6 The overall decline of the lakeis clearly due to very long-term evolution of the environment rather than human intervention. Recently,however, this decline combined with drought has had severe implications for production systems whichdepend on the lake, particular agricultural and fishing activity in the Kanem and north of N'Djamena.The 1973 drought caused the lake to divide into two pools separated by a ridge. When divided, the level

4 Kindler (1989), p. 20.

5 Kindler (1989), pp. 55-59.

6 Keith and Plowes, 1993, pp. 13-14.

of the north pool dropped quickly, as the rivers flow into the southern pool. A thick wall of vegetationgrew on the ridge, further hindering the flow of water between the two pools. With increased rainfallin the mid-1980s, the two pools merged again; however this could occur again if rainfall dropped.

1.20 The groundwater resources of Chad are not fully understood.' The country's principal aquifersare in a layer known as the Chad Formation, which is divided into three zones known as the Quaternarydeposits, Lower Pliocene, and Continental Terminal. The Quarternary deposits range in thickness from30 to 100 meters, and contain the phreatic aquifer recharged primarily through infiltration from streamsand rivers. The top of Lower Pliocene varies from a depth of 150 to 400 meters, and its total area isunknown. Sketchy data suggest that the volume of natural recharge of these two aquifers is relativelylimited in comparison with surface runoff, although the total usable volume is expected to meet demandwithout problem for the foreseeable future.' The Continental Terminal, at a depth between 450 and 620meters, covers parts of Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. The lack of data makes it difficult toassess whether human use poses a risk of lowering the water table; however there is concern aboutreserving groundwater in average rainfall years to ensure that it will be available in case of drought.

1.21 The quality of the ground water is apparently not a problem in rural areas, but it is a seriousconcern in N'Djam6na. The city gets its water from twelve wells which tap into the Quarternary deposit.A semi-permeable layer of sandy clay some 20 meters thick separates the phreatic aquifer from theQuarternary. The city does not have any sewage or trash collection, so all wastes are left on the surfaceor in latrines. Polluted runoff can therefore filter into the phreatic aquifer. Not enough is known aboutthe permeability of the clay separating the two aquifers to assess this problem definitively, but there isa significant possibility that the city's drinking water supply could be polluted by its own wastes, if notnow then in the future.

1.22 No data are currently collected on the quality of surface water, so there is no way to assesswhether urban or agricultural pollution is affecting the rivers or Lake Chad. The Office Nationald'Hydraulique Pastorale Villageoise (ONHPV), which is responsible for village wells, analyses well waterquality upon request, but it does not monitor regularly to detect changes in ground water quality.

Biodiversity and wildlife

1.23 Chad's wilderness, lakes, and wetlands once provided habitat for a rich array of indigenous andmigratory mammals and birds. In recent years these resources have been depleted by populationpressure, drought, poaching, and the inability of the government to implement and enforce an effectiveconservation strategy. As everywhere, quantitative data on the extent of these resources or their declinedo not exist, so our discussion must be based on visual observations by researchers and governmentofficials.

1.24 Lake Chad is one of the country's key resources for protecting birds and aquatic life. It supportsa population of about 130 species of fish, feeding on its rich supply of phytoplankton and zooplankton.In the past the lake also supported hippopotami, two species of otter, crocodiles, and other largemammals and reptiles. These species are assumed to be endangered, but there is no firm evidence about

7 Information on groundwater comes from Kindler (1989), pp. 27-31; their assessment is based on BRGM, 1987,Actualisation des connaissances sur Ics ressources en eau souterraine de la Republique du Tchad. 87 TCD 246Eau. (Orleans, France: Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres)

For the latter judgment, see IWACO (1990), p. 10.

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their current status. The lake's birds are perhaps its most important resource, and the one most at riskfrom the lake's drop. One study recorded 230 species of birds, of which 76 were palearctic migrants,on or around the lake in 1967. A 1984 aerial survey observed over 700,000 waterfowl, accounting forhalf the population of West Africa. A number of species listed internationally as endangered are knownto rest on Lake Chad. Many of these birds would not have alternate breeding or wintering grounds ifthe lake were further degraded or polluted.9 The decline in the lake level and size cannot be controlled;however there is also a serious risk of pollution with agrochemicals, organic matter, or sediments. Suchpollution would harm the plankton and submerged vegetation on which the lake's ecosystem depends,with possibly devastating effects on species higher in the food chain. Effective regulation of river andlake shore activities and the use of agricultural inputs should be considered to prevent this danger.

1.25 Lakes Ler6 and Trene, on the Mayo Kebbi River in the south western corner of the country, areof interest for several reasons. The swamps which drain into the Mayo-Kebbi and Logone Rivers exhibita unique reversible drainage pattern, which means that their waters can flow into either the Chad basinor the Niger River. Consequently, these two lakes show a mix of Niger River and Chad basin fishspecies, constituting a totally unique ecosystem. Lake Lere also sustains a population of fresh-watermanatees unknown elsewhere in Africa. This population is estimated at 100 to 150, but they are rarelyseen, so little is known for sure about their numbers. Decreases in the water quality of the lake wouldharm their habitat and place their survival in greater question than it already is.

1.26 Several other lakes also provide important habitat for birds and fish. Lake Fitri, in the south ofBatha prefecture, has ranged in area in recent years from nothing at all to 1300 krm2. It dried completelyafter the 1973 and 1984 droughts. One interesting feature of Lake Fitri is a population of white pelicanswhich use it as fishing grounds. They nest atop a 300 meter granite peak easily visible from the Bitkine-Bokoro road, flying some 120 km to the lake to feed.'° The lake is relatively inaccessible by land,being surrounded by extensive clay soils that flood during the rainy season and remain muddy in the dryseason; this could protect it against some human-caused degradation. It has been designated as abiosphere reserve, and a development and conservation plan was proposed to the government; howeverbecause of the current situation in Chad, the plan's funders retracted their offer of support. Lake Iro inthe Salamat is protected by the poor road network in the prefecture, and is one of the country's mostpristine lakes. For this reason, it too has been suggested as a biosphere reserve. A few lakes in theB.E.T. could be of interest in terms of biodiversity. Situated some 220 km. northeast of Faya Largeau,they are fed by underground aquifers. Since they are inaccessible by road or air, they are unlikely to bethreatened by human activity, nor is much known about them.

1.27 Chad's most important terrestrial reserve is Zakouma National Park in the Salamat, establishedin 1963. Because of its isolated location and sparse human population, both the vegetation and thewildlife of this park have been somewhat less affected by the degradation which have occurred elsewherein the country. The park is composed of grassy floodplains interspersed with Sahelian savannah. It isreported to contain some 1500 elephants, as well as buffalo, giraffes, waterbucks, topis, lions, leopards,and other large mammals." It is surrounded by a large faunal reserve, the Bahr Salamat, which servesas a buffer zone for the park.

9 Keith and Plowes, pp. 14, 17, 25.

10 Keith and Plowes, p. 16, visual observation by the author.

Keith and Plowes 1993, p. E30.

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1.28 Manda National Park, near Sarh on the road to Guelengdeng, was established in 1965 to protectthe giant eland. Despite its location on the road a short drive from an important city, a visit in winter1993 showed the park relatively little encroached on by neighboring populations. Some cattle weregrazing within park boundaries, but forests had not been cleared for cultivation. Although all of the largemammals and ostrich are gone, presumably to poaching during the recent wars, enough of their habitatremains that the park could be a good candidate for rehabilitation.

1.29 Chad's faunal reserves used to provide habitat for a number of other mammal species which arenow seriously endangered in that country, if not globally. A recent list of endangered species lists theblack rhinoceros, the addax, the scimitar-horned oryx, and the giant eland, all of which are consideredlikely to be extinct in Chad. Species of which a few survivors may remain include the dama gazelle, theslender-horned gazelle, the sitatunga, the cheetah, the leopard, the wild dog, the manatee, the barbarysheep, and the wild ass. Five species of bustards are also endangered, in part because they are widelyhunted and breed slowly. Some other large animals still may be found in Chad, but they are rare orthreatened; these include elephants, hippopotami, giraffes, lions, ostriches, crocodiles, desert tortoises,and so on. In addition to these, the wadis and lakes of the B.E.T. are reported to sustain 16 endemicspecies of fish which may only exist in these relic bodies of water. Drought, rather than human pressure,may be the major threat to these species."2

Carryinz capacity of the environment

1.30 Increased population combines with decreased rainfall to place pressure on the carrying capacityof the natural resource base. Although carrying capacity studies of Chad in particular do not exist, theestimates in a World Bank study of desertification in the Sahel (World Bank, 1985) can suggest themagnitude of the problem in Chad. The study estimates the density of population which could besupported from crops and livestock managed with traditional production systems in each climatologicalzone of the Sahel. In each zone some land is best suited to cultivation and other land to grazing, so thesetwo figures can be added together to arrive at a total sustainable population density. The study alsoestimates the density of population which could sustainably meet its own fuelwood need from availableforest resources, a second indicator of carrying capacity. These two numbers are then compared withactual population densities. Combining these data with the new Chad population data gives the veryapproximate results shown in the table below.'3

12 The list of endangered species from which this information was obtained was prepared by Darrel Plowes in 1993,

based on his extensive ongoing work on the natural resources of Chad, Sudan, and other countries in the region.It is annexed to Keith and Plowes, 1993.

13 'Very approximate' because the assignment of political jurisdictions to bioclimatic zones, necessary to calculatepopulation densities, is imprecise at best. Based on the map of administrative boundaries in the provisionalcensus document and the map of bioclimatic zones in Kindler (1989), p. 13, the author has classified prefecturesinto zones as follows:

Sahelian and Sahelo-Saharan B.E.T.Sahelian Batha, Biltine, Kanem, LacSahelo-Sudanian Chari-Baguirmi, North Guera, OuaddaiSudano-Sahelian and Sudanian South Guera, North Mayo-Kebbi, North SalamatSudano-Guinean and Guinean Logone Occidental, Logone Oriental, South Mayo-Kebbi, Moyen

Chari, South Salamat, Tandjile

For prefectures divided across two bioclimatic zones (Guera, Mayo-Kebbi, Salamat), half of the population and(continued...)

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Table 3: Sustainable and Actual Population Densities

SUSTAINABLE POPULATION DENSITY (per km) ACTUAL POP. DENSITY

ZONE: Crops Livestock Sum Fuelwood Rural Total

Saharan and 0.0 0.3 0.3 0.0 0.09 0.12Sahelo-Saharan

Sahelian 5.0 2.0 7.0 1.0 3.34 3.69

Sahelo-Sudanian 10.0 5.0 15.0 1> 6.67 aV

Sudano-Sahelian & 15.0 7.0 22.0 20.0 7.53 8.63Sudanian

Sudano-Guinean 25.0 10.0 35.0 20.0 14.80 17.76and Guinean

1.31 This table suggests that at present population density is below the average carrying capacity ofeach bioclimatic zone for food production, but that fuelwood supply has already become a problem in theSahelo-Sudanian zone and north of it. However, a number of caveats must be borne in mind. On the'demand" side, the population figures do not tell us anything about how many people do not, in fact,depend on agriculture or livestock for their livelihood or food supply. Consequently, these resultsexaggerate the number of people being supported by the available food supply. This is consistent withthe general impression that the pressure on the Chadian resource base is not as bad as elsewhere in theSahel. By contrast, the desertification study shows that in West Africa as a whole, population densityexceeds food supply in the Sahelian zone and fuelwood demand exceeds supply for both the Sahelian andthe Sudanian zones.

1.32 Even taking into account population growth, it will be 22 years before any region exceeds itstheoretical ability to produce food. The initial 1993 census publication does not estimate the populationgrowth rates, but earlier estimates put it at about 2.6% per year.'4 If average population density growsat the same rate as population, the only imminent problem will be in meeting fuelwood needs in theSudano-Guinean and Guinean zone, where carrying capacity will be reached in 5 years. The Sahelo-Sudanian zone will reach food production capacity in 22 years, the Sahelian in 25, the Sudano-Guineanin 27, and the others in more than 30 years. This suggests that theoretical carrying capacity for foodproduction is not a serious problem in Chad, though energy supply is.

1.33 On the other hand, on the resource "supply" side, these results do not factor in recurrent droughtswhich substantially reduce carrying capacity. The variability of rainfall, and hence of agricultural yieldsand natural vegetation, means that worst case conditions may be more appropriate than average conditionsfor estimating carrying capacity of the resource base. The World Bank study does not indicate whetherits estimates are based on average or worst case conditions; assuming they are based on averages, theymay significantly overestimate carrying capacities.

...continued)half the area was assigned to each zone for the purposes of these calculations. This probably inflates thepopulation density of the northern zone and deflates the density of the southern zone.

14 World Development Report, 1993, p. 288.

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Table 4: Population Density by Prefecture

PREFECTURE Rural Pop. Overall Pop.Density Density

Batha 2.84 3.24

BET 0.09 0.12

Biltine 3.66 3.99

Chari Baguirmi 7.81 8.72

Guera 4.46 5.20

Kanem 2.18 2.45

Lac 10.59 11.12

Logone Occidental 38.64 52.35

Logone Oriental 14.08 15.71

Mayo Kebbi 24.12 27.25

Moyen-Chari 13.17 16.48

Ouaddai 6.28 7.21

Salamat 2.49 2.95

Tandjile 22.22 25.39

1.34 These results may also mask more localized demand for natural resources. Table 4 shows ruraland total population densities by prefecture, from the 1993 census. In certain prefectures, populationdensities are well above estimated carrying capacities. For fuelwood, the overall population density (ruraland urban) is the relevant indicator, since the fuelwood of a given region must support both the urbanand the rural population. By this indicator, Tandjile, Mayo-Kebbi, and Logone Occidental, all in theSudano-Guinean zone, are exceeding their capacity, the last prefecture by a huge amount. Perhaps lesssurprisingly, all of the prefectures of the Sahelian zone (Kanem, Lac, Batha, and Biltine) are exceedingtheir sustainable fuelwood supply. In terms of food supply, it is less clear whether rural or overallpopulation density is the appropriate indicator. This depends on the extent to which urban populationsdepend on food from their immediate hinterlands rather than on imported food. In large cities and nearthe borders, imports probably play a larger role than in small cities. Even using the rural populationindicator, however, Logone Occidental has exceeded its ability to feed its population sustainably,suggesting that this may be the area for greatest concern about resource degradation. The sparselypopulated Salamat is in the same ecological zone, but is far below its carrying capacity, which accountsfor the zone as a whole not showing a deficit.

1.35 These indicators are obviously crude, and should only be taken as broadly indicative of theprobable location of the most serious resource degradation problems. They do suggest, however, apossible strategy for future environmental monitoring which could identify areas to which natural resourcemanagement efforts should be targeted.

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2. CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL HARM

2.1 The environmental situation of any country evolves in a complex web of interrelated causes andeffects which link demographic growth, economic growth, political development, and exogenousenvironmental change. We can frame the issue in terms of several different questions. One approachfocuses on how the natural and physical environment is changing; water pollution, soil erosion, duneencroachment, species extinction, etc. Another focuses on ultimate causes of those changes, such aspopulation growth or decreased rainfall. A third is between the first two; it concentrates on sectors ofeconomic activity such as agriculture and forestry which are particularly resource-dependent and have thegreatest potential to harm the environment.

2.2 This chapter uses a combination of these approaches. It begins by discussing "ultimate" causesof environmental harm, those which are not both cause and effect. It then goes on to consider how thosefactors are played out in four sectors of economic activity; agriculture, herding, forestry, and fisheries.Finally, it considers the major urban environmental issues, which are not as closely linked to economicactivity.

Causes of Environmental Harm

2.3 Several distinct factors affect the state of the environment in Chad. First is population growth,which, as everywhere in the world, increases the pressure placed on land, forests, water supply, andfisheries to meet human needs for food, fuel, and shelter. This is clearly a human-generated problem,although it is not clear how much impact public policy could have on it, especially in a country facedwith management and administrative problems as bad as Chad's. In a country as resource-dependent asChad, the effects of population growth are more apparent than in more industrialized countries. On theother hand, in a resource-dependent country like Chad the meaning of sustainable development is alsomore apparent; as population growth increases pressure on the resources, they will not be able to providethe food, fuel, and shelter needed by those people. Production systems will have to change if people areto survive.

2.4 The population problem is clearly at the root, not only of Chad's environmental problems, butof most environmental concerns worldwide. Moreover, addressing population problems is essential bothto protect the environment and to address economic and social development concerns more broadly. TheBank is working on these issues through support for public health, nutrition, and family planning servicesat the central and regional levels. It is also giving much attention to the links between population andenvironment through the Nexus studies which have been underway for several years. However, strategiesto slow population growth are not explicitly addressed in this paper. While population problems underlyenvironmental degradation, the solutions to population problems involve institutions, specialists, andtechniques which are not directly connected with environmental protection. As the Nexus studies havemade clear, this set of problems must be approached from both ends - from the family planning side todeal with underlying causes, and from the environmental side to deal with the consequences. Thisstrategy paper deals only with the latter.

2.5 Overall population growth is associated with increased rural-urban migration. Although migrationdata from the 1993 have not yet been published, the population of N'Djamena grew twice as fast between1968 and 1993 as the country as a whole, and the ratio of men to women in the city's population is now

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almost 6 to 5.'5 Both of these indicators suggest that rural urban migration, primarily of men searchingwork, is an important force in Chad. This places a great strain on urban infrastructure and threatens theurban environment.

2.6 A second cause of environmental degradation in Chad is decreased rainfall. As the statistics citedabove show, average rainfall in Chad, as throughout the Sahel, has declined significantly in the past thirtyyears. Whether this indicates long-term climatic change, or can be entirely attributed to medium-termcycles, is not clear from available data. Although human activities such as deforestation might affectrainfall, by and large this change must be viewed as exogenous, and cannot be influenced by public policyor human action. Decreased rainfall leads to degradation of natural vegetation and reduces agriculturalyields. In addition, it forces some of the nomadic population southward in search of grazing land fortheir herds. Thus herders who used to move between the Saharan and Sahelian zones now travel furthersouth in the dry season, and some do not return to the north at all. This further increases pressure onthe resource base in areas of relatively high rainfall, as well as causing competition and direct conflictbetween the nomads and the sedentary populations of the south.

2.7 A third factor affecting Chad's environment is the political situation. This affects the environmentboth directly and indirectly. While direct impacts, such as poaching by soldiers, devastates wildlifepopulations, indirect impacts are probably even more detrimental to the environment. Because of the civildisturbances, the administration has become ineffectual. Civil servants have only been paid intermittentlyin the past few years, and no funds are available for public sector operating costs. Those directlyresponsible for protecting environmental resources - the wildlife and forest agents - must either consumethe resources they are charged with protecting or take bribes from others in order to make ends meet.They are not armed, moreover, and have no way to protect those resources against armed soldiers whoin periods of instability have had the run of the countryside. In this state of uncertainty, very fewChadians would argue that the environment is a top priority, especially environmental issues which donot have a direct bearing on the short-term welfare of the population.

Impacts of Resource-Based Economic Activity

2.8 While conventional wisdom holds that degradation of the natural resource base is less serious inChad than elsewhere in the Sahel, it is already posing some significant problems. These may be expectedto grow as population increases, especially if the trend to decreased rainfall continues. This sectionconsiders how these forces affect the environment through four major sectors of economic activity;agriculture, forestry, livestock, and fisheries."6

Agriculture

2.9 Decreased rainfall and demand for increased agricultural output can affect agricultural productionin several ways. Output can be increased (or maintained in the face of reduced rainfall) throughshortened fallow cycles, expansion onto previous uncultivated land, changed soil management or crop

15 Bureau Central du Recensement 1993, table 4

16 Given the absence of empirical data on Chad, published reports are generally based on short-term field work,visual observation, and discussions with farmers, herders, developmentworkers, and public officials. Importantsources contributing to this section are Kindler (1989), Berger (1988 & 1989), and Hecht et al (1993). Theinterviews conducted in the preparation of the last document, in which this author participated, also contributeto this section.

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rotation practices, or, where remaining rainfall permits, introduction of inputs such as fertilizers andpesticides. These in turn may affect the environment in several ways.

* Shortened fallow cycles cause soil depletion which over time will lead to decreased output. Theyalso will reduce natural vegetation which provides grazing resources, habitat for birds and otherwildlife, and a source of fuelwood. This will increase pressure on the remaining naturalvegetation.

* Expansion onto currently uncultivated lands will have similar effects, directly reducing naturalvegetation with consequences for wildlife, grazing, and fuelwood supply. It will also mean thatfarmers begin cropping land which is not well suited to agriculture, assuming that they alreadycultivate the best land and leave the rest to herds and birds. If so, the new cultivation is likelyto lead to greater erosion and soil depletion, as well as declining yields. Increased soil erosionwill increase sedimentation of rivers and lakes, inhibiting the growth of aquatic vegetation onwhich aquatic and bird species depend for habitat and food.

* Bush fires, set either to clear land for cultivation or to stimulate growth of young plants preferredby livestock, lead to destruction of natural vegetation, and can hasten soil erosion.

* Increased use of pesticides and fertilizers, while likely to increase agricultural output sharply insome areas, could lead to pollution of both ground and surface waters. The danger to groundwater would be greatest where pesticides are used near wells; the primary impacts would be onhuman health. The danger to surface water would be greatest in recessional agricultural systemsor irrigated perimeters, where chemical runoff could move very quickly into the rivers and lakes.

2.10 Interviews conducted in the winter of 1993 in the southern part of the country and around Abechesuggest that pressure to increase agricultural production is likely to be met by expanding cultivation ontocurrently uncultivated land or by shortening fallow cycles rather than by introducing agrochemical inputs.This is the case for several reasons. First, most farmers indicated that land was available to expandcultivation if they should want to; this is, in fact, their response to changes in production technology suchas the introduction of animal traction. Some farmers also reported that they used to leave land fallowfor longer periods than they do now. In the Sahelian zone it was possible to observe that most cultivationand fallow was on light, permeable soils, while small amounts of less productive clays were also beingcultivated where precipitation was higher or population pressure greater.

2.11 In contrast, virtually no one anticipated introducing agrochemicals as a way to improveagricultural output. In conditions of uncertain rainfall agrochemicals can decrease rather than increaseexpected yields. If rain is good, output will be plentiful, but if it is poor or erratic, the relativelyundiluted chemicals could destroy the plants altogether and the farmer will not even have the poor yields/he could have anticipated without the inputs. In much of the country, therefore, agrochemicals are arather risky investment which farmers are not likely to make.

2.12 Agrochemicals are cost-effective in agricultural systems which rely on more secure sources ofwater. This includes recessional agriculture"', which is widely practiced on the floodplains of theLogone and Chari Rivers, in the Salamat, and elsewhere in the country. Irrigated gardens and rice

17 Cultivation on flood plains as the water recedes.

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paddies found along the rivers of the Sudanian zone and in wadi beds in the Sahelian zone are alsocandidates for introduction of pesticides and fertilizers.

2.13 However, at present there is no private market or distribution system for agrochemicals in Chad.They are provided by CotonTchad as part of a fixed package of inputs for the production of cotton, butthese inputs cannot easily be used on other crops. Cotton is purchased from the village as a whole andthe profits redistributed among the farmers, so individual farmers face strong peer pressure to keep cottonyields as high as possible and not reallocate their chemicals to other crops. Some Nigerian pesticides aresmuggled into Chad and sold--with no labelling or instructions--in markets near the borders withCameroon and CAR. Some CotonTchad inputs are also diverted into the black market, presumably bycivil servants. However, most farmers said they would not know how to get agrochemicals other thanfrom CotonTchad. Moreover, farmers do not have the cash to buy inputs at the start of the growingseason. The CotonTchad input package includes credit, which is the only way the farmers can afford totake advantage of it. Some donor projects are providing inputs and credit with which to purchase them.Outside of these specialized areas, farmers do not have access to the cash necessary to purchase inputseven where they would be effective. This suggests that chemical pollution of ground or surface watermay not be a matter for great concern at present.

2.14 The lack of markets and access to credit for chemical fertilizers might suggest that farmers woulduse less expensive, more accessible organic fertilizers instead. However, this does not seem to be thecase, despite the presence of either their own animals or those of herder groups. Animal dung is not aseffective a fertilizer as chemicals, and gathering it and spreading it on the fields is very labor-intensive.Farmers did not seem to feel that the results were worth the work involved.

2.15 A significant exception to the availability of cultivable land for agricultural expansion is foundaround the city of Moundou in Logone Occidental. In that region, land availability is a clear constrainton production. This finding is borne out by the discussion of carrying capacity above, which shows thatby far the highest population densities in the country are in that prefecture. Compounding the problemare northern herders forced south by decreasing rainfall, who are bringing their herds through theMoundou region. Because they are not regular visitors to the area, they tend to have less concern fortheir hosts than herder groups have in the past, and make less effort to keep their animals from tramplingor eating the crops. (Farmers interviewed in villages outside of Moundou reported that the worstagricultural "pest" confronting them was herders!) Compounding the problems in this area is an apparentinfestation of tse-tse fly, which is forcing entire villages to relocate in order to protect their ownlivestock, reducing land available for agriculture or grazing. These combined pressures are likely to leadto severe overuse of the available resources, and soil depletion and erosion may be serious problems.Still, farmers do not expect to use chemical inputs to increase their output, because of the lack of marketsand cash. While organic fertilizers might be cost-effective in this environment, the conflictualrelationships with nomadic herders may hinder cooperative efforts.

2.16 The reports prepared for the Rural Development Round Table (CTA/DR, 1993) partiallycorroborate these findings. They indicate that agricultural production in the Sahelian zone has increasedthrough extensification, because the risks of intensified agriculture are too great. They observe lesscultivation of new land in the Sudanian zone, which they attribute to the greater potential of intensification

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(i.e. agrochemicals) in that part of the country. Unfortunately, they do not address the issue of accessto agrochemicals, so it is not clear how such intensification could actually be occurring. Possibly thegreater importance of recessional agriculture and the access to chemical inputs for cotton productionaccounts for the relative lack of expansion in the area cultivated in the Sudanian zone.

2.17 Overall, it would appear that the major threats to the environment through agriculture come fromexpanded cultivation and shortened fallows. Direct environmental harm is most likely to take the formof soil depletion and erosion, with indirect impacts on surface water and aquatic wildlife. Expandedagriculture will directly destroy vegetation, and indirectly harm mammals and birds which depended onthat vegetation for food and shelter. Environmental harm from agrochemical use is likely to be relativelyminor because of the unavailability of those products; however any project which encourages use ofagricultural inputs should, of course, consider the potential impacts seriously.

Forestry

2.18 The forest cover in Chad is estimated at some 31,170,000 hectares. Almost all of this isclassified as woodland or woodland savannah, and only an estimated 500 hectares along rivers andstreams as closed forest. Thus the term "forest" is used to include vegetation which might not receivethat label in other parts of the world; in the Sahel it can even be used to refer to individual treespreserved in fields to provide shade.

2.19 The country's forest resources are used to meet a number of different needs, some of which maybe compatible with each other while others clearly are not.

* The major use of forest resources throughout the country is fuel. According to the ESMAPstudy (ESMAP, 1993), wood and charcoal account for 80 to 90% of energy consumption in thecountry, and 95% of household energy consumption. In many cases, the use of forests for fueldestroys individual trees or whole forest areas, particularly when the resource is harvestedcommercially for sale in urban areas. In some rural areas fuelwood gathering can be limited todead wood, especially where population is sparse relative to resource availability so family needscan be met without cutting live branches or trees.

* Forest resources are an important source of forage for small ruminants and camels. Theruminants eat young plants and leaves close to the ground, while camels browse on larger plantsincluding thorny trees like acacias. When necessary, herders will cut or pull down branches tomake them more easily accessible to small animals. When the grazing pressure is low, suchpractices may be compatible with sustainable resource use; when there are too many animals,they will destroy the resource they depend on. This issue is discussed below in the section onherding.

* Some commercial products may be sustainably harvested from Chadian forests; these includekarite and gum arabic. These products have been harvested traditionally for centuries, butindustrial processing and export have been limited or non-existent. Recently they have receivedrenewed attention, because they may offer economically viable uses of the forest which, unlikeharvesting for fuelwood, are also biologically sustainable. Thus they can create an incentive forneighboring communities to protect rather than destroy the forests.

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* Forests are a source of a variety of non-marketed resources of use to rural populations, includingfruits, leaves used for making baskets and other tools, building materials, medicines, and so on.Because these products are not marketed, they are relatively hard to track or quantify. Evenmore difficult are intangible benefits of forests such as shade. By and large these non-marketedbenefits are sustainable; realizing them does not harm the tree or the forest in which it grows.

2.20 The destruction of forests has several different impacts on the environment. First, the vegetationitself is lost; this is the most obvious direct impact. Second, natural vegetation helps hold the soil inplace and reduce erosion due to wind or water. Soil erosion reduces agricultural potential and degradesthe water bodies into which the soil is deposited. This in turn degrades the habitat of aquatic wildlife,including both fish and birds. Third, destruction of natural vegetation reduces habitat available toterrestrial wildlife, including both mammals and birds.

2.21 The most destructive use of forest resources is clearly to meet household energy demand. Asalways, reliable statistics are not available. One source estimates annual consumption at 5.7 million cubicmeters of wood, of which 1 million are consumed in the three largest urban areas (CTA/LCD 1993, p.12). The ESMAP study estimates national consumption of wood in petroleum equivalent tons (PET),finding that about 590,000 PET are consumed annually in rural areas and about 185,000 in urban areas.The authors also estimate urban consumption of wood at 2.3 million tons per year, but do not give acomparable estimate for rural consumption. Using low-resolution satellite images and productivity datafrom the literature, this study calculates that the total sustainable production of fuelwood which can beharvested sustainably is over 14 million tons per year. (ESMAP, pp. 9-10) They give many caveatsabout the reliability of these estimates, however, and use them only to conclude that the country as awhole is unlikely to run out of fuelwood in the near future.

2.22 There is a consensus both in the literature and among those working in energy and forest sectorsthat the worst problems are experienced around urban areas, particularly N'Djamena, where forests areclear-cut and sold in urban markets in the form of either wood or charcoal. There are two elements tothis concern. One is that the supply of wood which can be accessed easily and inexpensively from thecity will be depleted, driving up the cost of household energy. The second concern is that, even if theinexpensive sources of supply have not dried up, the harvesting of fuelwood is causing soil erosion andhabitat destruction in the peri-urban area, with predictable impacts for soil productivity, wildlife, andwater quality. Visual observation of the area around N'Djamena, particularly the region north of the citywhere the road has recently been paved, suggests that these concerns are well-founded. Approaches tosolving this problem typically focus on changing the pricing, taxation, and tenure systems which affectforest use, in order to create an institutional framework which encourages sustainable use of the resourcebase rather than forest "mining".

2.23 Harvesting fuelwood, and particularly charcoal production, may involve destroying the forestresource entirely. In contrast, products such as karite and gum arabic tap into a market for forestresources where the tree must stay alive in order to remain productive. These products might beeconomically interesting enough to compete with destruction of trees to expand agriculture, although theyare not likely to be competitive with urban fuelwood markets. Karite, which grows in the Sudanian zone,is a nut processed to produce oil and karite butter. Most of its exploitation has been on a small scale,using artisanal techniques, although some projects have attempted to introduce industrial processing ofthis product. Gum arabic comes from the sap of the acacia tree, which grows primarily in the Sahelianzone. It is used as a stabilizer in foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, glues and inks, and a variety ofother products. It has been a major export of the Sudan for some time.

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2.24 In the past year new interest has been sparked in more systematic exploitation of Chad's acaciatrees. Sudan, which now holds about 80% of the world market for gum arabic, has recently raised itsprices to levels which have consumers interested in new sources of supply, and could make Chadianexports competitive. Two reports have been produced assessing the potential of this industry (Agala,1993 and Mallot, 1993), and a seminar on gum arabic was held in N'Djamena in October, 1993. Chadnow accounts for about 6.7% of world consumption of gum arabic, with exports of 4,687 tons in 1992-3.The species from which it is harvested, acacia senegalensis and acacia laeta, are most productive withfrom 300 to 400 mm per year of rainfall. Based on this, the gum arabic reports estimate that currentproduction levels representing 10% of the potential could be quadrupled if all suitable land were plantedwith acacias. The crop is grown on a 20-25 year rotation, with 4-5 years of agricultural activity (milletcultivation in Sudan) followed by 15-20 years of fallow in which the trees grow back naturally. Gumcan be harvested once the trees are 4 years old, and they remain productive for 11-15 years. When nolonger productive, the trees are cut down to 1.5 meters high and the ground is cultivated again.

2.25 The economic viability of this scheme rests on a number of factors in the Chadian environment;access to reliable transportation networks from rural areas to international ports, the security situationwhich hinders all transport of goods at present, improvement in the techniques currently used to tap thetrees, quality control on the processing, resolving the tree tenure issues which will arise as the value ofthe trees becomes apparent, and so on. This is clearly a tall order, but the potential seems to warrantthe further investigation it is likely to get from the donors which funded the initial studies.

Livestock

2.26 Livestock raising in Chad occurs in the context of a variety of different production systems.18

These systems are typically described in terms of whether the animals are mobile or sedentary, oraccording to the extent of economic dependence on livestock vs. cultivation. In terms of theenvironment, decreased rainfall and increased human and animal populations combine to place increasingpressure on the supply of pastoral resources. This occurs in several different ways:

- The use of cattle or donkeys for animal traction allows farmers to expand the areas which theymaintain under cultivation. Such agricultural expansion has impacts on soil erosion, waterquality, vegetation, grazing resources, and wildlife habitat, all of which have been discussedabove under agriculture.

* All livestock browse on natural vegetation and fallow lands. In small numbers, these animals willnot have a significant impact on the supply of available vegetation. In large numbers or at highlevels of concentration, however, natural vegetation can be consumed beyond sustainable levels,so it will not be able to reproduce. Like all other activities which harm natural vegetation, thiscan lead to soil erosion, water pollution, and destruction of wildlife habitat.

is This section relies primarily on Bonfiglioli 1993 and Deffendol 1993. The interdisciplinary approach to studying

the role of livestock in Chadian production systems taken by Bonfiglioli offers a useful example of how toapproach the relationship between rural production systems and the environment.

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* Some livestock owners burn natural vegetation from fields in order to stimulate the growth of theyoung grasses preferred by herds. This has the same impacts on soil quality and habitat as otherloss of vegetation, although it is destructive than more gradual consumption of existing plants.

* Transhumant herds can have a devastating impact in the small area around individual wells,where they deplete the available vegetation and can trample the ground making it too hard topermit new plants to take root.

2.27 The problems of pastoralists and agriculturalists are closely linked. In much of the country theycompete for the same land and vegetative resources, particularly during the dry season. Moreover, mostpeasants are not solely cultivators or livestock-breeders, but combine the two activities, along with others,in an income-producing strategy modified each year in response to environmental and economicconditions. It is difficult, therefore, to identify discrete, separable issues affecting livestock production,or through which livestock production affects the environment, without taking into consideration thecomplex interactions between pastoral production strategies, agricultural production strategies, andeverything between them. This kind of integrated approach is being considered in some projects,particularly the new activities being developed through the PNE and the World Bank's proposed naturalresources management project. This will require careful interdisciplinary and interministerial work inthe future if these issues are to be addressed effectively.

Fisheries

2.28 The Chadian fishery resource is regarded as being of considerable potential, though insufficientlyunderstood and possibly overused. Fishing is important on all of the major lakes and on the Logone andChari Rivers. No data are collected on yields now, although some were collected in the past. Yield isestimated at about 80,000 tons per year, down from about 200,000 tons in the 1960s; about one third isthought to come from Lake Chad."9 Other lakes, particularly Lake Iro, are thought to be underexploitedrelative to their potential, based on occasional visual observations of the fishing activity going on.

2.29 Various explanations are given for the decrease in yields since the 1960s. Reduced rainfall haslowered the levels of the rivers and lakes and drastically reduced the surface areas of the lakes, destroyingfish habitat. Some species breed in the flood plains, where both drought cultivation may be havingdeleterious effects on reproductive success. Any agricultural or urban activity which lead to organic orinorganic pollution of the rivers could have a significant impact on fish populations. However, thecountry's low level of industrialization and low level of agrochemical use suggest that this is not likelyto be a source of the problem, although in the absence of any water quality data we cannot be sure.

2.30 Decreased yields are frequently ascribed to overfishing. Most professional fishermen are reportedto be foreign, particularly Malian, and there is a tendency to blame them for the decreasing yields. Theyare vertically integrated according to nationality, in a system where transporters and marketers providecapital in return for a large share of the catch. Thus the foreigners are equipped with motorized pirogues

19 CTAILCD, p. 14

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and much finer nets than are available to their Chadian counterparts. Their yields are dried and thenexported through Cameroon to other parts of West Africa. The Chadians, without access to capital,cannot compete with this more efficient foreign "fleet."'

2.31 There is no effective international regulation which would limit the flow of fishermen to the lake.Moreover, the Chadian administration lacks the capacity effectively to regulate fishing activity. Thereports for the rural development round table (CTA/DR, 1993) offer several possible policies to improveChadian fishing revenues, including tax disincentives to discourage foreign fishermen, subsidizingimproved technology for Chadians, or working with all farmers irrespective of nationality to increaseyields. Their focus is on stimulating increased production, and they do not raise the possibility that thepopulation cannot sustain the level of fishing already going on.

Urban Environment

2.32 Chad's urban environmental problems, experienced primarily in N'Djamena, are conceptually lesscomplex than its natural resource management problems. The key issues relate to water, sewers,drainage, and trash. Since the country is not industrialized and there are relatively few cars, air pollutionis not an issue, although the proposal to build an oil refinery near N'Djamena could make it one. Theproblems that do exist, while serious, are relatively straightforward because they will not constrain thegrowth of urban incomes. Pollution is a byproduct of population growth, and costs will be incurred toaddress it. However, it does not pose any necessary limits on the incomes which can be generated bycity dwellers in the way the need to manage resources sustainably imposes limits in rural areas.

Water supply

2.33 Water is supplied by the Societe Tchadienne d'Eau et d'Electricite (STEE) to about 30% of thepopulation of N'Djamena. Individual households connected to the system represent some 16% of thepopulation served, and use about 40% of the water provided. Industry and larger buildings use 44% ofthe water provided, and the military uses 12.5%. In addition, STEE manages some 75 public taps, whichserve a large (but unknown) proportion of the population, and use the remaining 3.5% of total waterconsumption. Total production is about 30,000 m3 per day, of which about 15% is lost. Urban dwellerswithout access to this system, some 70% of the population, get water from surface wells or directly fromthe river. At present, the water is considered to be of acceptable quality.2'

2.34 Given the expected growth of the city, meeting projected demand for drinkable water is likelyto pose problems. The many wells constructed by those without access to the STEE network, and theincreasing depth of those wells, increase the permeability of the ground and thus the risk that the aquiferwill be contaminated by urban runoff. The cost of providing individual hookups is much higher thanmost households can bear, so the focus has been on developing strategies for managing, maintaining, andfinancing public taps.

Personal communication, Kourdina Lassou, Department of Fisheries, October 1993.

21 Groupe Huit 1993, p. 28., Baltagi 1990, p. 84.

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2.35 At present, however, the STEE lacks the resources and personnel necessary to expand itsnetwork. The general economic crisis has been felt here, as everywhere, and the company is facingsevere revenue shortfalls and an inability to maintain the equipment already in place. The company'smaintenance costs are relatively high, because equipment is old and in need of repair. Billing andcollection is inefficient, and meters on individually connected sites are often out of order, due either tofraud or to simple old age. It is therefore focusing primarily on internal reorganization and addressingits financial problems, and is not able to put efforts into expanding the water supply network.

Sewage

2.36 N'Djamena has virtually no collection of household waste water or sewage. Older homes, oftenthose built by the French, have septic tanks and flush toilets. These are expensive to build and consumea great deal of water, so most urban dwellers could not afford them. One estimate suggests that twothirds of homes have latrines, consisting of a hole two to four meters in depth and 1.2 to 1.5 meters indiameter, covered by a wood plank.' Those whose homes don't have latrines simply leave their wastesoutdoors. Waste water is tossed into the courtyard or the street, where it quickly filters into the ground,at least during the dry season. These systems for handling waste pose the risks to groundwater qualitywhich have already been mentioned. However, most studies of the issue have concluded that significantchanges in this system are not economically viable, and that this system at least responds well to thescarcity of water in the country.

Draina2e and roads

2.37 N'Djamena's drainage system is at the heart of many of its water, sewer, and trash problems.Directly under the surface is a zone through which urban runoff filters down to the phreatic aquifer. Theaquifer then drains the water further down and away from the river towards the 20-meter layer of sandyclay which separates the phreatic aquifer from Quarternary deposit from which the STEE wells drawwater. During the rainy season, surface runoff cannot filter into saturated ground, and flooding canbecome an acute problem. A network of canals channel water from the central city into drainage basins,which drain or are pumped into the Chari. The canal walls are of earth; this, combined with the sandfrom the city's unpaved streets, quickly causes siltation of both canals and drainage basins during therainy season. The drainage basins are equipped with pumping stations which allow water to bedischarged even when the river is very high, but there are not currently the reserve basins to store watersafely until the river goes down. Moreover, much of the city is not even served by this system; as thecity grows, this problem will become even worse.

2.38 N'Djamena's drainage problems are compounded by and contribute to the degradation of its roadnetwork. Only 37 of the city's 1200 kilometers of road are paved. During the rainy season, manyunpaved roads become impassable pools of mud. In the past, the city regraded these roads once the rainswere over, but in the last few years it has not had the resources to carry out this task.

2.39 This situation creates serious health hazards to the city's residents, particular those in its newersettlements. The canals and drainage basins, as well as the muddy roads, are breeding grounds formalarial mosquitos and other diseases. Household trash is often deposited near the basins, where it

22 Baltagi, 1990, p. 103.

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decays and attracts rodents and other pests. With human excrement regularly deposited in the streets orin relatively shallow latrines, the potential for spread of disease is very great. These unsanitaryconditions are probably a significant contributor to an infant mortality rate reported to be over 200 per1000.23

Solid waste

2.40 N'Djamena similarly has no system for disposing of most household solid waste. In someneighborhoods wastes are buried in the courtyards. Often they are piled in the street, where they arepicked through by animals and people and sometimes burned. This can obviously create healthi hazards,which will become more severe as the city grows and its population becomes more dense.

23 World Bank Infrastructure Operations 1993, p. 3.

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3. INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY CONTEXT

Current Organizational Structure

3.1 The organizational structure of the Chadian government changes frequently, as departments andservices are shifted from one ministry to another. The changes usually affect only the ministerialumbrella under which a given agency works, not its activities or personnel. Therefore, although theoverall structure presented in this discussion could rapidly be out of date, its presentation of individualoffices should be roughly correct.

Environment

3.2 The environment, as defined in the Chadian government, includes forestry, fisheries, and wildlife.These are now the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, recently created bycombining the old Ministry of Agriculture with the environment-related directorates of the old Ministryof Environment and Tourism. Three directorates were moved from the old ministry. The Directorateof Forests and Environmental Protection is responsible for managing and protecting all forest land in thecountry. In the capital, it is divided into three services; forests and forest product promotion,reforestation and soil conservation, and hunting. The forest product promotion group is responsible forthe recent work on gum arabic, and for commercialization of karite. Several forest management projectsare being managed by the reforestation and soil conservation service, with support from FAO, theEuropean Community, and other donors; despite the name, soil conservation is the responsibility ofanother ministry. Most of the directorate's effort goes into patrolling use of the forests to preventunlicensed cutting or poaching. This is done through eight inspection stations, subdivided intocantonments and forest stations. Total staff of the directorate is some 350, of whom about 290 aresupport staff.24

3.3 Although in Chad, as elsewhere in the Sahel, the tide has turned away from policing as theprimary function of the forest service, the directorate has not yet changed the focus of its work. Makingsuch a shift in focus will require a significant commitment of resources by the directorate, to retrain orreplace forest agents and finance the new activities which they could be called upon to perform. Needlessto say, the resources are not available.

3.4 The Directorate of Water, Fishing and Aquaculture, with a total of 92 staff, is responsible formonitoring and managing the country's fisheries resources. In the capital, the directorate has threetechnical services; fishing and extension, hydrobiological research, and aquaculture. However, they haveonly six professional staff and little foreign funding, so these services are not as effective as they mightbe. The directorate has six field units on Lakes Chad, Lere, Iro and Fitri and at N'Djamena. They arecharged with monitoring fishing effort and yields, preventing unregulated exports, and collecting taxeson the harvest, but they also lack the resources needed to perform these tasks. Moreover, because taxesare perceived as excessive, fishermen make every effort to avoid the fisheries agents.

24 CTA/LCD, April 1993, vol. 1 p. 47.

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3.5 The Directorate of National Parks and Faunal Reserves is similarly hampered by lack ofresources. It is responsible for wildlife protection and management of the country's two national parks,seven faunal reserves, and two hunting reserves. Their field staff are supposed to prevent poaching andprotect the parks from human encroachment. During the worst of the civil unrest in the country, soldiersregularly poached on wildlife as well; the unarmed park rangers were no match for their automaticweapons. A project to rehabilitate the Zakouma National Park is underway with European Communityfunding, so that area may receive more protection than others.

Agriculture

3.6 Agriculture is the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the NationalOffice for Rural Development (ONDR). The ministry, aside from the environment functions discussedabove, has five technical directorates:

The Human Resources Directorate handles training and education in rural areas.

* The Research Directorate plans and carries out agricultural research, which focuses primarily onimproved seeds and extension methods.

* The Rural Engineering and Agricultural Hydraulics Directorate plans and executes theconstruction of small dams and other rural public works.

* The Marketing and Food Security Directorate tracks agricultural production and sales andmanages the famine early warning system. The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, within thisdirectorate, is responsible for harvest yield predictions. This office was creased in 1967,destroyed in 1979 by the war, and since 1984 has been rebuilt with support from the EuropeanCommunity through the DIAPER project. Not surprisingly, its data are incomplete andunreliable, being based on surveys conducted by its own agents in five southern prefectures andvisual observations elsewhere by agents from other organizations, particularly ONDR.

- 'Te Crop Protection Directorate has general responsibility for pesticide registration and use, aswell as for responding to exceptional pest invasions such as locust infestations. It is notresponsible for routine supply; this is handled by ONDR.

3.7 A number of other organizations are under the supervision of the ministry, of which the mostimportant is the National Office for Rural Development. ONDR is an etablissement public a caractereindustriel et commercial. It is responsible for agricultural extension, supplying all agricultural inputs andequipment, facilitating access to agricultural credit, training farmer groups, and so on. It worksthroughout the country except in the Lac prefecture, which is under the jurisdiction of the Societe deDeveloppement du Lac. It manages a network of some 1200 agents, working out of three regionaldirectorates based in Moundou, Abeche, and Faya-Largeau. ONDR agents collect data on foodproduction, based on visual observation, which are supplied to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics andthe Early Warning System to use in yield predictions and food aid allocation.

3.8 A study is now underway on the restructuring of ONDR, to address its financial difficulties andredefine its role. A preliminary report on the study (Sofreco 1993) suggests that the office shift gradually

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away from its commercial role as a supplier of agricultural inputs, leaving that activity to the privatesector as it grows. Instead, they recommend that it focus on improving its extension functions, reduceits personnel by weeding out less competent staff, and streamline management and accounting. The notedoes not suggest how ONDR might replace the revenues now provided by input sales. It does call formore collaboration between ONDR and extension agents in the Ministry of Livestock, without exploringhow this could be carried out. It makes no mention of similar collaboration with forestry or other naturalresources officials. It also calls for structuring regional offices of ONDR with departments that closelyfollow the current structure of the Ministry of Agriculture, raising questions about overlap between theOffice and the Ministry. This is only a preliminary report, however. The eventual resolution of thisissue will be crucial in determining the institutional framework for dealing with natural resourcemanagement problems.

Livestock

3.9 The Ministry of Livestock and Pastoral Hydraulics (Ministere de l'Elevage et l'HydrauliquePastorale) is responsible for planning and implementing all activities related to pastoral activity. It isdivided into three directorates:

* The Directorate of Husbandry and Animal Resources is responsible for most work in the field;in practice, this consists primarily of managing animal health and the distribution of vaccines.A staff of over 760 agents, 57 of them in the capital, handles these activities.

'The Directorate of Pastoral Organization, created in December 1991, has been charged withpreparing a plan for managing pastoral resources (schema de gestion de l 'espace pastoral). Thisdirectorate is responsible for herder communities, access routes for migratory herds, trainingveterinary and environmental assistants, pastoral extension, and planning and management ofpastoral wells.

The Directorate of Training and Veterinary Research runs the Farcha Zootechnical and VeterinaryLaboratory, an important center for research on livestock pathologies, nutrition, and pastoralresources.

Energy

3.10 Energy is the responsibility of the Directorate of Petroleum and New and Renewable Energiesof the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Water Resources. The primary focus of this directorate has beenthe search for and possible development of the country's oil resources. Rather less effort has gone intohousehold energy sources and the link between fuel consumption and natural resource degradation. Theseconcerns fall under the Energy Service and the National Committee on Domestic Energy (CNED), aninterministerial committee charged with coordinating a domestic energy department. The directorate hasbeen responsible for initial work done on the ESMAP project, which has done a comprehensive analysisof energy needs and the markets for different energy sources in the N'Djamena area.

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Rural water resources

3.11 Rural water resources are the responsibility of several branches of the Ministry of Mines, Energyand Water Resources, as well as the Ministry of Livestock and Pastoral Hydraulics (discussed above).Within the Ministry of Mines, the Directorate of Water Resources and Meteorology (DREM) houses theAGRHYMET National Center, with responsibility and funding for the collection of data on hydrology,agrometeorology, and meteorology. Much of the data collection equipment was destroyed during thewar, but the center is trying to rebuild its capacity to monitor rainfall and surface water levels. Underthe DREM is the water office (Bureau de l'Eau), which maintains data on depth of ground water andpoints at which it may be accessed (points d'eau, which include wells and other water sources). Thesedata are used by the National Office of Pastoral and Village Hydraulics (ONHPV), which plans andexecutes rural water projects upon request of projects or other government agencies. ONHPV does nothave its own independent resources with which to assess needs for additional wells and construct them,nor is it well equipped to maintain the facilities which exist already.

Urban water supply

3.12 Urban water supply is the responsibility of the Societe Tchadienne d'Eau et d'Electricit6 (STEE),a public enterprise capitalized at a level of almost five billion CFA, 81 % from the Government of Chadand 19% from the French Caisse Centrale de Cooperation Economique. It is under the supervision ofthe Ministry of Mines, Energy, and Water Resources. STEE is charged with providing water to urbanareas; at present its services extend the four major cities (N'Djamena, Moundou, Sarh and Abeche) aswell as six other urban areas. It has over 400 employees, of whom more than 73 % are in N'Djam6na.25

3.13 STEE is currently facing severe financial problems which keep it from expanding its level ofservice. The company's revenues are low, because its billing and collection systems are inefficient andthe company simply doesn't collect from some 75% of its private customers. Many water meters arebroken, due to either old age or fraud. Some consumers pay fixed fee water bills which do not reflecttheir actual consumption. Wastage, at about 15%, is considered to be typical of such systems, but inaddition increasingly sophisticated methods have been developed of tapping into the system withoutpaying. Compounding these problems, the system's operating costs are high because its equipment isantiquated and in need of frequent repair. Additionally, a major part of the system's costs is the energyrequired to run the pumps; depending on imported oil, this is very expensive for the company.'

3.14 In 1989 the company prepared a plan to address these problems. It called for repairing andtamper-proofing the counters, investing in system repairs, streamlining the billing and collection system,preparing an updated personnel plan, and signing a contract with the state committing the resources fromboth the company and the state for implementing these changes. The outcome of this plan is not clear;documents prepared from 1989 through 1993 describe the tasks to be undertaken, but none reports anyaccomplishments.'

25 Baltagi 1990, p. 77. Precise statistics reported in this report are 421 employees, of whom 39 are high level and27 mid-level professionals, and of whom 73 % are based in the capital.

2s Baltagi 1990, pp. 77-79.

27 See, for example, IWACO 1990, pp. 15-17, Baltagi 1990, pp. 78-79, and Groupe Huit 1993, p. 27.

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Urban drainage and roads

3.15 Responsibility for drainage and road improvements in N'Djamena is shared by several agencies.The city's technical services, particularly the Hygiene and Sewerage Service and the Roads and CivilEngineering Service, are directly charged with these tasks. However, with fewer than ten professionalsin the whole municipal government, plus fifteen neighborhood leaders', N'Djamena is ill-equipped tomake any serious headway on its mounting problems. In addition to the municipality, the Ministry ofPublic Works is charged with planning large sewer projects, and the National Water and SewerCommittee is supposed to coordinate all activities in the area. However, these organizations are nottaking initiative to solve the city's problems, either. Under these circumstances, projects to address theseproblems, such as PADS (Programme d'Actions pour le Developpement Social) and the upcomingATETIP must rely heavily on independent project structures or private enterprises.

Environmental Planning

Introduction

3.16 The Chadian government has undertaken two separate planning processes related to NRM issuesand one on urban problems. With regard to natural resources, work has been going on for years, andthe efforts have received considerable attention from everybody involved in environment and ruraldevelopment. The urban planning process has been somewhat more self-contained, and is relatively morerecent.

3.17 One of the NRM efforts is the preparation of the Plan Directeur de Lutte Contre la Desertification(PDLCD), which focuses on natural resources management and is under the authority of the Director ofForestry. The other focuses on rural development, and is under the authority of the Director-Generalof the Ministry of Agriculture. (When the two processes began, they were not in the same ministry.)Each process has been the responsibility of an inter-ministerial cellule technique d'appui (CTA) withabout twenty members. A number of individuals are members of both cellules. In the past two yearsthe work of each cellule has been oriented towards the preparation of a round table at which an analysisof the situation and a set of proposals could be presented to the assembled donor community. The ruraldevelopment round table was held in December, 1993; the desertification one has not yet been held.

3.18 The existence of these two CTAs and preparation of two round tables naturally raised the questionof whether they should be combined into a single effort. Although virtually everyone involved voicedsupport for the combination, this has not happened, and does not seem likely to happen. Interagencyconflicts and the desire to maximize donor support for planning may be at the root of this, especially nowthat environment has been combined with agriculture in a single ministry. Much as everyone may regretit, accepting that the two processes will not be combined is probably realistic at this point.

28 Baltagi 1990, p. 57.

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Desertification Control (PDLCD)

3.19 The PDLCD is part of the desertification control planning process initiated by the Comit6 Inter-Etat de Lutte contre la Secheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS) with support from the UN Sudano-SahelianOffice (UNSO). Although termed a plan to control desertification, in fact it focuses generally on naturalresources management and is not organized around the concept of desertification, which is generallyacknowledged to be ill-defined and misleading.

3.20 The plan itself was issued in 1989. It calls for several strategic thrusts in combatting thedegradation of the resource base:

* protection and regeneration of ecological resources, by establishing protected zones andaddressing human causes of resource degradation;

* preparation of a national land management plan;* institutional strengthening; and* improved production systems.

3.21 Following publication of the plan, the cellule commissioned detailed studies to determine how toimplement these broad strategies. These addressed such issues as information needs, institutionalstructure for environmental management, and land use management (amgnagement de territoire) as anenvironmental protection tool. This eventually led to preparation of a two-volume report for presentationat the round table.

3.22 Review of the PDLCD round table reports led to a call for a more careful analysis of theinstitutional context within which environmental and rural development issues are handled in the country.As of the preparation of this strategy paper, the terms of reference for this analysis was still underdiscussion, and consultant(s) had not yet been recruited to carry it out. If it is done in a serious way(which previous institutional analyses for the PDLCD were not), it should address fundamental questionsabout how to integrate the work of the Ministry of Agriculture, the former Ministry of Environment andTourism, the Ministry of Livestock, and ONDR in working on natural resources issues in the field. Thisis a key issue for effectively addressing environmental questions, so this study should be followed closelyby the Bank.

3.23 Although the principles underlying the LCD approach call for popular participation indevelopment planning, in fact the process of preparing the LCD reports has not involved many of thepeople who might be concerned by it. The process was piloted by an expatriate technical advisor. Allof the detailed studies were written by consultants, some of them expatriate and some Chadian. Thereports for presentation at the round table itself were produced by the technical advisor, based on theconsultant studies. Although the cellule itself was comprised of Chadian civil servants, they did not playan active role in carrying out any of the studies or compiling them into the final reports for the roundtable. The quality of these final reports is also not very high. They tend to be descriptive rather thananalytical, and do not rigorously consider the options proposed and those rejected. The final product isa shopping list of projects, with no sense of priorities or how the projects proposed represent a choiceamong a number of different possible strategies. More importantly, the documents do not consider howpublic policy, rather than investments, could influence resource use, or how policy reform couldcontribute to protection of the environment.

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Rural Development

3.24 The rural development round table looked at a much broader set of issues, including agriculture,fisheries, food security, and water resources, though it excluded cotton, which was addressed throughanother, narrower, planning process. The CTA/DR was created at the same time as the CTA/LCD.After a slow start, the cellule prepared a series of very detailed and comprehensive studies of all aspectsof the rural development problem.

3.25 The CTA was divided into eleven commissions addressing specific issues, each of which includedChadians, NGO representatives, technical advisors and one national consultant. Each commissionprepared two reports, one analyzing the current situation and the other considering possible plans toimprove it. These were integrated into two comprehensive reports presented at a preliminary seminarheld in June 1993. After the seminar, some additions and modifications were made so the documentscould be presented at a round table on rural development held in December, 1993.

3.26 The reports produced for the rural development round table reflect an in-depth examination ofthe current situation. They take a largely sectoral approach to examining eleven distinct issues; researchin agronomy, crop protection, rural credit, training and extension, rainfed and irrigated cultivation,organization of the rural population, water resources, fisheries management, trade and commercializationof agricultural output, macroeconomic framework, and food security. For each of these areas, the reportsdoes a diagnostic of the state of current activity and problems or constraints which affect it, followed bysuggested general strategies for approaching the problems. The action program presented in the thirdvolume first describes the policy reforms, regulatory changes, institutional restructuring, or administrativeactions desired to address each problem, including which government agency is responsible for eachaction. It then describes ongoing activities and proposals for future projects or programs in the area.The emphasis placed on policy and institutional changes in addition to investment projects is one of thestrengths of these reports.

3.27 In a final section on implementation, the reports recommend the creation of a small unit withinthe Minister of Agriculture and Livestock to monitor the implementation of the reforms and projects ofthe round table. They also establish priorities among their institutional restructuring recommendations,giving primary importance to the restructuring of ONDR. The reports suggest that each institutionalrestructuring proposal be considered separately, with a diagnostic and redefinition of the missions of theorganizations involved, a detailed plan for what is involved in the reform, and an action program forputting it into effect. These proposals were presented at the donors round table in December, 1993. Nospecific actions were taken at the meeting, so it is now up to the donors to decide how they will continueto support this process.

3.28 The rural development planning process has been considerably more rigorous and analytical thanthe environment one. Although expatriate and Chadian consultants played an important part in preparingthese reports, the members of the CTA did have substantially more responsibility for the work than didthe CTA/LCD, and the whole effort was piloted by the then-secretary-general of agriculture. Like thePDLCD process, this one has not involved much participation by the beneficiaries of the government'srural development work, although non-governmental actors were included in the commissions whichprepared the initial reports. Nevertheless, it has been a major effort on the part of the Ministry ofAgriculture, and should be a key building block in any subsequent environmental planning in the country.

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Urban planning

3.29 The Urban Directorate of the Ministry of Public Works, with support from the FrenchCooperation, is preparing a master plan for the city of N'Djamena. This plan, which has relied on adetailed review of Chadian urban problems also used in the development of the Bank's Programmed'Action pour le Developpement Social, should provide a framework for addressing the majorenvironmental problems of the capital. The report on the first phase of this plan, issued in March 1993(Groupe Huit 1993), discusses the institutional and financial situation of the municipality, describes thephysical state of the city and its infrastructure, and considers the options for addressing municipalproblems. Unlike the round table documents, this report makes it clear that technical experts do notagree as to the solutions to municipal problems, and describes a number of different options for handlingsuch issues as drainage or maintaining the road network. A CTA for urban problems has recently beencreated to oversee this process. This unit had only just begun to meet as of the preparation of this report;however, it could be an important vehicle for launching a participatory comprehensive process foraddressing urban environmental problems.

Legal Structure for Environmental Protection

General framework

3.30 The legal framework for environmental protection in Chad is somewhat scattered and poorlyimplemented. The list below of major laws put in effect over the past thirty years is gleaned from severaldifferent reports, including UNCED (1992), and CILSS (1993).

* Ordonnance 14/63 of 1968 regulating hunting and nature protection; this law sets out theconditions under which hunting is permitted, sets out a list of protected animals, and authorizescreation of national parks, faunal reserves, and a corps of specialized agents charged withprotecting wildlife.

* Decree of 1972 creating the Semaine Nationale de l'Arbre* Manifeste de N'Djamena, 1976 on conservation of national heritage; this is the framework within

which much other forestry legislation has evolved.* Decree 072/PR of 1983 creating the CONACILSS (national counterpart to CILSS regional

organization)* Decree 461/PR of 1984 creating the Comite National de l'Eau et de l'Assainissement, responsible

for overseeing water and sewer hookups; this body is apparently largely inactive.* Decree 462/PR of 1984 creating Comite National de Coordination et d'Action contre la

Secheresse et la Desertification* Decree 019/PR/MTEF/DG/DFCLD of 1985 defining the taxes imposed on wood fuels, which

fixed five different tax rates depending on the product and level of processing* Ordonnance 25/PR 1985 regulating capture of certain snakes for sale of skins* Decree 020/PR of 1985 regarding slaughterhouse taxes for unprotected and partially protected

animals* Decree 097/PR of 1989 creating Comite National des Energies Domestiques

3.31 In addition to these laws, Chad is a signatory to several international conventions and treatiesrelated to environmental protection, including:

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* Lake Chad Basin Convention, which created the Lake Chad Basin Commission in 1964 andincluded various statutes related to development of the basin.

* Convention Concerning Protection of the World's Cultural and Natural Heritage* RAMSAR Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat* Bonn Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals

3.32 The available information on environmental law does not touch on two key tools for preventingenvironmental damage in most countries. These are environmental impact review and pollutant dischargecontrols. Chad has no regulations in either area. The country has not developed or adopted anyenvironmental review procedures applicable to land development, construction, or economic developmentprojects. Since many such activities are funded by donor agencies which do require environmentalreviews, some measure of control is in place. However the government of Chad has not taken anyresponsibility for protecting its own environment against the potentially harmful activities of its owncitizens or donor agencies.

3.33 Chad similarly has no pollutant discharge regulations. For the most part, this is not a majorproblem, because the country is so little industrialized and has so few cars that these kinds of pollutionare not likely to pose serious problems at present. Pesticide pollution, however, does have the potentialto do serious harm. Technical advisors at the Farcha Laboratory have done some preliminary work onpreparation of a proposed set of pesticide regulations, but so far this has not led to any further action.

Land tenure

3.34 The related issues of land tenure, tree tenure, and water rights have received considerableattention in Chad, as everywhere in the Sahel. From the perspective of environmental protection andsustainable resource management, the basic principle is that if individuals or groups have secure tenurethey will have an incentive to invest in the protection of the resource, so that they and their offspring canenjoy it in the future. In contrast, if they believe that the resource might be taken away from them atany time, or it is not theirs at all, the incentive will be to get everything they can from it in the present,because they may not have the opportunity in the future.

3.35 The current legal status of tenure in Chad is complex and confused.' Prior to colonization,traditional systems controlled access to land, forest resources, and water. These systems differed fromone part of the region that is now Chad to another, in function of the nature of the resource base, theproduction systems, and religious and cultural factors. In general, agricultural areas were characterizedby communal control of land, with tribal leaders empowered to allocate access to land to people withinthe community or to strangers as needed and appropriate. The key resource for which allocationmechanisms are needed is land, since this is the most essential resource to ensure survival. Nevertheless,total land supply could essentially be treated as unlimited; that is, supply exceeded demand enough thatoverall scarcity was not an important problem. The primary issue in allocation of land, therefore, wouldconcern the tradeoffs between cultivating high-quality fields and being close to the rest of the community.

3.36 Further north, in pastoral areas of the country, resource allocation issues focused on water ratherthan land, since water is the key determinant of survival. These areas are more heavily Muslim than thesouth, so Islamic land and resource law also played a part in determining how access to resources wasallocated. The fundamental principle is that water is a gift of god, and anyone may have access to it for

29 This discussion is largely based on Bonfiglioli 1989.

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himself or his animals. This principle applies fully to all natural water sources (lakes, rivers, etc.). Itapplies to communal wells except where watering herds would cause major damage to the area. Forprivately owned water sources the schools of religious law differ, particularly concerning whethersomeone using the water must compensate the owner. For all other water sources, such as wells notprivately owned or nomadic wells, Islamic law fixes a list of priorities for access to water; those whoneed it most, those who dug the well, travellers, local inhabitants, animals of those who dug the well,animals of travellers, and animals of local inhabitants. Nomads have rights to wells while they are usingthem, but once they have moved on the right to use the well reverts to the next comer.

3.37 Two fundamental changes in the twentieth century confused and upset the systems which usedto function fairly smoothly. The first is the onset of colonialism, which superposed the concept of thestate and French land use regulations on top of traditional systems. The second is the rapid growth inpopulation of the past forty years, which has invalidated the previous assumption of essentially unlimitedresources.

3.38 The French made some efforts to build a transition from existing systems, but in practice this hasnot been very effective. Decrees of July 20 1900 and July 24 1906 created a system of land registration(immatriculation) and land registers (livres fonciers). A further decree on 8 October 1925 allowedholders of traditional land rights to receive a traditional land register; thirty years later, the decree of 20Mai 1955 gave these traditional registers the value of full land titles. The decree of 1955 and asubsequent one in 1956 created a system in which holders of traditional land rights could file for formalrecognition in a several-step process. First they would receive a provisional title. They would then haveto demonstrate use of the land (mise en valeur), after which the land would be registered and they wouldreceive definitive title. For urban or rural land already registered, a user could receive a concession, orright to use the land for a fixed period of time for specific uses defined in the act granting the land userights. For this the concessionaire pays an annual charge to the Bureau des Domaines, and receives atitle to the land. Any land which is not registered is considered the property of the state.

3.39 Land use law since independence has continued the basic principles set out by the French. Threemajor laws were enacted:

a Law no. 23 of 22 July 1967 affirmed that vacant land without owners belongs to the state, whilethose who exercise traditional land rights may continue to do so. The principle of concessionsthrough which people obtain access to registered land continues to apply.

* Law no. 24 of 22 July 1967 set out the procedures through which land is to be registered andasserts that unregistered land is considered to be vacant and unowned. Those who claimownership must show that they are using the land, which involves having a permanent, visiblepresence on the land.

* Law 25 of 22 July 1967 sets out the contexts in which land may be expropriated, particularly inthe case of rural land which has been abandoned.

3.40 One major problem posed with these laws lies in the concept of showing that land is in use.Traditional production systems depend on lengthy fallows, gathering fuelwood from uncultivated land,and moving herds through large open areas of the country. These uses of space are compatible withtraditional land rights systems, but do not lead to the permanent, visible presence required for land

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registration in the new system. Instead, the new system creates serious disincentives to follow land usepractices which would be very desirable from a natural resources management perspective. Becausenatural vegetation does not show evidence of land use but cultivation does, the laws provide a disincentiveto any resource uses which allow vegetation to survive, such as gathering dead wood rather than cuttinglive trees, grazing a few animals, or maintaining long fallows. In times of good rainfall, when cultivatorsmight encroach on traditional grazing land, pastoralists would have no way to demonstrate that they do,in fact, use the land.

3.41 Moreover, the procedures for land registration are lengthy and cumbersome. Rural dwellers,most of whom cannot read and do not speak the French in which the laws are written, could not deal withregistering their land even if they could establish ownership. Therefore most rural land is not registeredaccording to formal legal procedures. Consequently, a mix of traditional, Islamic, and formal proceduresare currently governing land allocation, leading to a high level of insecurity about access to land. Noone of these procedures would be effective even if they weren't mixed. The formal laws do not take intoaccount the realities of traditional cultures and forms of land use. Traditional systems, on the other hand,cannot handle the real scarcity of land and water resources in the face of growing population pressuresand the movement of many herders towards the agricultural south. As demand for resources increases,traditional chiefs will no longer be able to meet the needs of both their own people and of strangersentering their territories, and conflicts will mount. This is already visible in the densely populated areasaround Moundou, and we may expect it to spread. Many studies have called for a thorough review andrevision of the tenure situation, but to date this has not occurred.

Forest tenure and pricing

3.42 The muddy tenure situation, complemented by an irrational and poorly implemented system ofpermits and taxes on fuelwood, has devastating impacts on peri-urban forests.0 Several different taxesare supposed to be imposed on wood. First, those who engage in commerce in cut wood must purchasea monthly permit from the Forest Service. The price of this permit is based on an estimate of the numberof trips to be made that month and the quantity of wood transported during each trip. There is nooversight to control the validity of these estimates, so there is considerable incentive on all sides tounderestimate. The proceeds of permit sales go into the general coffers of the state rather than to theForest Service, so greater diligence on the part of forest agents would not bring in revenues which couldbe used in forest protection.

30 This section relies heavily on ESMAP 1993.

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Forest products are also taxed based on volume, with the rate depending on the product and levelof processing:

Table 5: Tax Rates on Wood-based Fuels

PRODUCT | TAX RATE

Charcoal, by sack (weight not specified) 100 fcfa

Faggots of wood, each 20 fcfa

Steres of wood (1 stere = 1 m3 ) 300 fcfa

Tons of wood cut within 30 km of N'Djamena 1,500 fcfa

Tons of wood cut more than 30 km from N'Djamena 1,000 fcfa

Source: ESMAP 1993, p. 23

According to the ESMAP analysis, these tax rates embody a number of distortions, because they do notfollow the principle of taxing the same product consistently at the same rate. The tax on cut wood rangesfrom 0.75 fcfa/kg to 1.5 fcfa/kg, depending on whether it is by volume or weight and where it is cut.The faggot is not a defined unit of measure, so the tax rate here varies greatly. Charcoal is taxed at 2.55fcfa/kg; assuming somewhat over 6 kg of wood per kg of charcoal, this comes to somewhat less than 0.4fcfa/kg.

3.43 These taxes are collected by forest agents stationed on the roads entering N'Djamena; collectionis estimated at between 10% and 15% of what is actually owed. Again, the revenues go into generalcoffers rather than the Forest Service, so the Service has little incentive to ensure that its agents do theirjob effectively.

3.44 An economically rational, environmentally sustainable fuelwood taxation system would pricepermits at the social costs of cutting the wood plus the regulatory cost of collecting the fees and otherpublic sector costs incurred in managing the fuelwood system. Unfortunately, estimating the social costsof fuelwood cutting is difficult; this should include the costs imposed by losses in soil fertility, increasedrunoff and erosion, impacts on soil filtration, and so on. Valuing such environmental harms is highlyproblematic under the best of circumstances. Barring this, the taxes could be based on replacement costas a proxy. The ESMAP study estimates these at between 5 and 9 fcfa/kg, and the regulatory and publiccosts at another 2 fcfa/kg. With these estimates, all of the tax rates now imposed by Chadian law aremuch too low to lead to rational management of the resource.

3.45 Chad's land tenure law contributes to the unsustainable harvesting of fuelwood. All naturalvegetation is defined as forest, and as unused land it belongs to the state. Consequently, there is noincentive for villagers to protect the natural vegetation by limiting their harvesting for fuelwood orfodder. The chaotic nature of the fuelwood market, the uncertainty of land tenure, and the generalpolitical and economic situation of Chad combine to make plantation forestry too risky to be an interestinginvestment. Peasants harvest wood from natural forests to sell on the roads to commercial transporters,

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or even to bring to urban markets themselves, but the entire system works against any sustainableapproaches to forest management.

3.46 In 1988 the then Ministry of Environment and Tourism prepared a draft forest code which definedforest law more clearly and attempted to improve the incentives for sustainable use of forest resources.(MET 1988) The new code, which has not yet to be signed into law by the president, attempts toregularize the legislative framework for forest management. However, it does not touch on general landtenure law, taking the formal legislation as a given. The proposed code would also still give the forestagents heavy regulatory functions, continuing the command and control approach to forest managementrather than trying to use economic incentives to promote sustainable management.

3.47 The new code does grant villages the right to request from the state the authority to manage theforests on their land. Village forests would then be delimited, and the village would develop a forestmanagement plan for approval by the state. Generally, such plans follow a "no net loss" principle;villagers may harvest wood so long as they do not reduce the forested area. Thus if they wish to clearan area for cultivation, they must replant trees elsewhere to compensate for it. This allows villages toearn the maximum sustainable yield of their forest capital, but does not allow them to reallocate thatcapital to other economic activities such as agriculture, livestock, or investment in commercial ventures,education, or labor migration. When the village requests the authority to manage its own forests, itagrees with the state on the management plan. If it violates that agreement, control of those forestsreturns to the state.31

Non-Governmental Organizations

3.48 Non-governmental organizations are receiving increasing attention in the Sahel as concern aboutthe environmnent grows. They could play two quite different roles in this area. The first, modelled onthe role they play in the west, is a watchdog and advocacy role. Western NGOs monitor government andprivate sector activities, and use the political and legal systems to keep them from harming theenvironrnent. They do this primarily by taking (or, more often, threatening to take) legal action againstthose who do not obey existing laws and regulations, and by educating the public to pressure electedofficials, participate in public hearings, and otherwise make their views known. NGOs in the west canalso engage in the policy process by carrying out independent analyses of environmental quality andchallenging the assessments of public officials.

3.49 This role of NGOs encounters significant obstacles in Chad, as elsewhere in the Sahel. Chad'spolitical system obviously does not allow organizations to sue the government for non-enforcement oflaws and regulations, nor does it offer any opportunities for public input into policy formulation. Datawith which NGOs could assess environmental quality do not exist, for the most part, and to the extentthat they do, they are very difficult to access. Even the right of NGOs to exist is subject to governrnentcontrol. By law, NGOs must register with the Ministry of Plan; those whose purpose is serve as awatchdog over the administration may have trouble registering. In practice, many of the smaller NGOsfunction without being registered, however.

31 This paragraph based on personal communication with Mr. Chey Soen, now technical advisor to the director-general of environment, but in 1988 an FAO advisor who worked on the forest code.

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3.50 The second role which NGOs play in Chad is to implement environmental or other developmentprojects. Historically, NGOs have implemented projects which they conceived, based on their ownprinciples and understanding of the problem, and which they funded with assistance of their members,foundations, or other sources. The result, at best, is projects that reflected a hands-on appreciation ofthe problem, and are carried out by people highly committed to solving that problem. Because the peoplecarrying out the projects work out of conviction, not simply to earn a living, they are often much moremotivated and dedicated than civil servants or consultants undertaking similar tasks. Moreover, suchprojects frequently are more cost-effective than similar activities in the public sector.

3.51 Increasingly, the development community has become a source of funding for NGO projects.This is true for a variety of reasons. Donors sometimes see NGOs as a viable alternative which mayavoid the chaos involved in working with unpaid civil servants caught up in the political change anduncertainty of the public sector. Indigenous NGOs may be well placed to understand the concerns ofthose targeted by development projects. Donors can benefit from the enthusiasm and motivation of NGOstaff, as well, perhaps, as from their lower salaries and cost structures.

3.52 The NGO community in Chad can be a partner in implementing development projects, but onemust proceed with great caution. At present there are several dozen NGOs operating in Chad, perhapshalf of whom are local branches of international organizations like CARE and Oxfam.32 Typically itis the international groups which receive donor funding. In some cases they serve as intermediaries,managing small grants to indigenous NGOs; in other cases they hire Chadians on contract to carry outtheir projects, usually with expatriate project managers. The indigenous NGOs tend to be small andpoorly funded, often consisting of little more than a few dedicated people anxious to work on nationalproblems, but unable to raise the funding even for any paid staff. These groups might be able to growinto something like the committed groups which are effective in the west; however, they will requiremuch management support and assistance before they can take on anything beyond very small projects.The relatively strong donor interest in NGOs may threaten to overwhelm the absorptive capacity of localgroups. On a small scale, working with NGOs may be very good both for the projects and for the NGOsthemselves, but indigenous NGOs are not likely to be effective implementors of large projects in the nearfuture.

3.53 The analysis prepared for the rural development round table in 1993 had several criticisms toNGOs as development partners. The authors of these papers - all of them civil servants - felt that theNGOs did not fit smoothly into the activities of the national services or ONDR, preferring instead todefine their own agendas and strategies without necessarily complying with national policy. They alsonoted the importance of foreign organizations or foreign oversight, rather than truly nationalorganizations. Moreover, they objected to the fact that NGO staff are typically paid more than civilservants.

3.54 Most of these objections are double-edged swords. If we are to benefit from NGOs understandingof development problems "from the base", we run the risk that their perception of the problem will differ

32 Chadian NGOs are organized into a group called CILONG, the Centre d'Information et de Liaison pour les

Organisations Non-Gouvernementales. CILONG has 33 NGO members, and its staff estimate that there areabout the same number of NGOs which are not members. (Membership costs 15,000 Fcfa per month, beyondthe means of indigenous NGOs which have no real source of revenue.) They are a good source of informationabout their members and the capabilities of Chadian NGOs in general.

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from the official version, and they will not follow national policy. The higher salaries of NGO staff areprobably necessary in order to attract competent staff. Civil servants are guaranteed permanentemployment (albeit not always remunerated, recently), whereas NGO employees are on contract. Highersalaries are appropriate to compensate for the increased job insecurity the NGO staff. From the donorperspective, these criticisms are not sufficient reason to avoid NGOs; however project implementors mustanticipate the conflicts with the civil servants which may result.

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4. STRATEGIC ISSUES

4.1 The previous three chapters have described the general environmental situation in Chad, touchingon natural resources, urban infrastructure problems, and the legal and organizational frameworks withinwhich these issues might be addressed. This chapter considers how the World Bank can best support theGovernment of Chad in addressing these problems. The chapter works from the general to the specific.It begins with broad questions which are not directly related to the environment but which affect how oneapproaches the environment nevertheless. It then raises some issues about the importance of theenvironment relative to other problems in Chad. Finally, it raises the issue of how to approachenvironmental issues given the responses to the two previous questions. A separate annex considers theimplications of this report for several specific Bank project which are now in the process of development.

How Can We Best Support Chad?

4.2 The current political and administrative environment in Chad constitutes a serious constraint todevelopment activities. Donors have simply decided that in an era of scarce resources, investing in Chadis only worthwhile when they can work around these constraints.

4.3 Donor agencies might respond to this situation in several ways. One possible strategy is to designprojects that minimize administrative involvement in implementation. Instead, they create independentmanagement structures, work with non-governmental organizations, contract with individual Chadians,and work with the private sector. None of these is ideal. While the alternatives to the administrationdo not suffer the same political disruption, they are not very strong either. Chadian NGOs are mostlysmall, inexperienced, and unfunded; their greatest strength may be their commitment to making thingsbetter in the country by bypassing or pressuring the government. Similarly, the private sector is not well-developed, and most firms are probably too small and inexperienced to take on more than very smallproject activities. The pool of highly skilled Chadians on the labor market is also limited, althoughfinding individuals with a high-school education for community or village outreach seems to be fairlyeasy. The demand for all of these human resources will increase, moreover, as more donors seek tomove towards the private and non-profit sectors. These problems suggest that this strategy may be mosteffective in quite small projects, where the work involved is not beyond the abilities of the existingorganizations. At the same time, major investments in building management capacity and skills withinthese private and non-profit organizations will be essential; thus this will not be an inexpensive way toset up projects.

4.4 In the environment area, the Bank's ATETIP project offers a useful example of this approach.The project is designed to improve urban infrastructure and environmental conditions through road-building, improvements in drainage, dredging and strengthening the network of runoff canals, and so on.Rather than awarding one or a few large construction contracts--probably to international firms, becauseno Chadian company or government agency could handle something that large--the project will subdividethe work into a number of much smaller contracts which it will award to small Chadian companies. Theproject also makes a major commitment to capacity-building in the firms, both to ensure that the workis done well and to build institutions which will remain after this project is over. This should allow itto rely primarily on the private sector, and limit dependence on national or municipal governmentagencies.

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4.5 Another strategy for dealing with the lack of government capacity is to focus on policy reformin addition to, projects. This approach follows a basic belief that the immediate decisions affectingquality of the environment are made not by the administration but by individuals throughout the country.Therefore the challenge is to change individual decisions, by changing the policy framework within whichthose decisions are made. This is the philosophy behind approaches to environmental problems whichfocus on changing land or tree tenure systems, changing the permitting system for forest cutting, or otherinstitutional changes. In an environment as chaotic as that of Chad, they are probably not sufficient tosolve problems. However, it is still worth trying to effect such change, since it seems more promisingthan other approaches.

Why the Environment?

4.6 Given the magnitude of Chad's problems, many would argue that the environment is of lowpriority at this time. The Bank's Country Strategy Paper for Chad stresses the need to focus on povertyalleviation as its primary objective. This leads to a proposed assistance program which focuses onimproving social service provision, productivity of agriculture, and private sector entrepreneurship andemployment. The paper describes three scenarios for a Bank strategy, depending on how events evolvein the country. The most limited scenario calls for only a core program focused on basic welfare andplacing minimal demands on the administration. The second scenario, which seems to be assumed in theset of projects currently under development, calls for some sectoral work, while still trying to minimizedependence on the public sector; this is the scenario which is now being implemented. The third scenariocalls for much fuller participation in the country. The relevant issue, therefore, is whether theenvironment has a place in the role which the Bank expects to play under its chosen scenario.

4.7 Although fundamentally this is a value judgment rather than one which can be resolvedobjectively, two strong arguments can be made for placing some emphasis on the environment even now.In rural areas, incomes depend heavily on natural resources, and ineffective resource managementstrategies threaten those incomes in the medium term. If our concern is to guarantee stable ruralincomes, therefore, we must work directly on natural resource management issues. In urban areas,concern about the environment is linked to public health considerations, since the lack of sewers andeffective drainage pose a direct threat to human health and drinking water supplies; even in the worst ofcircumstances, public health is usually considered to warrant attention.

4.8 Unfortunately, neither of these arguments offers much support for protecting Chad's wildlife orbiodiversity. The same logic is clearly at work within the Chadian government; the Direction des ParcsNationaux et Reserves de Faune has been even harder hit by the lack of public funds than most otheragencies. From the global perspective appropriate to consideration of biodiversity, Chad is important,because of the role of Lake Chad in providing winter habitat to migratory birds from Europe and theArctic. Fortunately, conservation groups and the European Union are providing some support inrestoration of protected areas; since the benefits of such protection are not particularly experienced bythe Chadians, it may, in fact, be entirely appropriate that outside environmental groups play a key rolein conservation.

4.9 The World Bank's role in helping the Government of Chad to address its environmental concernsshould reflect the overall problems of the country and the Bank's basic focus on economic developmentrather than environmental protection. Thus it is more appropriate for the Bank to focus on environmental

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issues which have a specific justification in development objectives, and leave such problems asbiodiversity and wildlife to other donors or to organizations specifically working in those areas.Moreover, first priority in the Bank's development strategy for Chad should go to encouraging stability,demilitarization, and overall economic growth aimed at poverty reduction. In a context of limitedfinancial and, especially, Chadian human capital, these objectives are more important than environmentalprotection. However, environment considerations should be incorporated into the design of projectswhose primary objectives are income generation or private sector strengthening, as a secondary objectiveand to protect against inadvertent harm.

Table 6: Priority Ranking of Chadian Environmental Problems

[ENvIORNMENTAL PROBLEM SERIOUSNESS FEASBILITrY PRIORTY

AGRICULTURE

Land degradation moderate moderate moderatePollution of ground or surface water low low lowWildlife habitat loss moderate low low

PASTORALISMDestruction of vegetation - lack of fodder moderate moderate moderateErosion due to destruction of vegetation moderate moderate moderateHabitat loss from destruction of vegetation low low low

FORESTRY

Destruction of forests - lack of fuelwood high high highErosion due to forest destruction moderate high highHabitat loss from forest destruction moderate moderate moderate

FISHERIUES

Overfishing high moderate moderateThreat to stock from pollution low moderate low

URBAN PROBLEMSGround water contamination high high high

Drainage & standing water high high highTrash collection moderate moderate moderate

Sewage collection moderate low low

MANUFACTURING SECTOR low low low

MIMNG SECTOR low low low

AuroMoBILE POLLUTION low low low

TOURISM low low low

4.10 The table above suggests a priority ranking which may be given to Chad's environmentalproblems. This kind of ranking is essential to ensure that the limited resources available forenvironmental protection be used where they are most needed and where they can be most effective. Thisranking is therefore based on two basic considerations. One is the amount of potential harm caused byan environmental problem; how many people are affected by it, and how seriously they are affected.While this assessment is subjective, it does attempt to reflect the criteria suggested in the first section ofthis report for ranking environmental problems. The other consideration is the feasibility of addressing

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the problem; thus serious problems for which no effective solutions are available are not likely to be cost-effective candidates for Government of Chad or donor intervention at this time. It is important to bearin mind that this priority ranking is not objective, and is suggested as a basis for discussion, not as anabsolute statement of the relative importance of different environmental problems.

Strategies for Addressing Environmental Concerns

4.11 Two general themes run through the strategies for addressing the environment in developmentprojects. One concerns whether to design projects targeted specifically at the environment, or whetherenergy should go primarily to integrating environmental considerations into other development activities.The answer to this question differs somewhat in rural and urban areas, as discussed below. The otherconcerns the importance of local participation in project design and implementation. While this need goesfar beyond the environment alone, it has surfaced particularly in the gestion de terroirs and holisticapproaches to NRM project design. Both of these themes are considered in the sections below, whichdiscuss their implementation first in NRM activities and then in urban areas.

Integrated participatory approaches to NRM

4.12 This report has stressed that management of the environment is an integral part of most ruralproduction activity, whether it be in agriculture, forestry, herding, or fishing. In keeping with thisconcept, sustainable management of natural resources should be integrated into all rural developmentprojects or policy reform. It is rural development activities which get at the thousands of individualproduction decisions which constitute management of the resource base. Therefore an approach whichseparates the two is likely to miss the target, because those working on rural development might be ableto assume that the natural resource group is handling sustainability issues, and they don't have to.Moreover, because key NRM decisions are made by the individual farmers and pastoralists who use andmanage the resources, those groups must play an active, if not a leading role in the design of NRMprojects. This will be more effective to the extent that local communities have more voice in the use ofboth their own resources and of technical services and development funds, so that they can ensure thatavailable resources are actually used in ways which meet their needs.

4.13 The highly sectoralized institutional structure within which Chad's environmental problems areaddressed may pose serious problems in both the design and the implementation of integrated projects.Given the nature of environmental problems, there probably is no ministerial structure which would fullyallow all the desired links between people in different fields or with different areas of responsibility.Discussions with Chadian officials reveal many views about the right way to organize the differentministries. Moreover, every governmental reorganization, whether for the better or the worse from theperspectives of those involved, has very high transactions costs, as everyone adjusts to the new structureand changes in procedures, or, worse yet, puts all work on hold while waiting to see how long thearrangement will last. Therefore it would be counterproductive to suggest any further rearrangement ingovernment structure as a way to facilitate intersectoral cooperation on environmental problems.

4.14 Instead, the concern is how people from different ministries and from different backgrounds candesign and implement projects jointly. In some cases this may be relatively straightforward. Forexample, the household energy project proposed by the ESMAP study is likely to provide support to boththe Energy Service and the Forest Service. It is relatively clear how the tasks involved in this project

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should be divided between the two services, since the issues involved in managing forest resources andthe supply of fuelwood are distinct from those involved in energy consumption and markets. There willbe management issues involved in ensuring that the efforts of two separate teams meet the needs of asingle project, but the tasks can be differentiated clearly.

4.15 In contrast, designing the forest component of this project may require a more interdisciplinaryperspective on the production systems of villages expected to produce fuelwood than the Forest Servicenow has. The project assumes that given the right incentives, villages in the hinterland of N'Djamenawill produce fuelwood sustainably and also meet urban demand. However, whether they will in fact dothis will depend on the alternative production choices of those villages, not simply on the prices whichfuelwood can command. Understanding these choices might call for expertise in agronomy, agriculturaleconomics, pastoralism, and labor migration, to mention a few fields not likely to be within the skills ofthe foresters who will be responsible for this part of the project.

4.16 Thus the design and implementation of rural development projects becomes a problem ofmanaging interdisciplinary analytical work. The difficulties in such a task are both conceptual andinstitutional. Carrying out analytical work which actually integrates the perspectives of differentdisciplines, rather than merely asking them to look at the same problem separately in a parallel fashion,is hard. It will call for a willingness on the part of disciplinary specialists to broaden their perspectivesand listen to how their colleagues in other fields frame issues. It may call for giving people fromdisciplines not usually involved in such project design, particularly the social sciences, a larger role,because they may be better able to focus on the human systems through which scientific disciplinesinteract. The team leaders for design of such projects, and perhaps for their implementation, should beprimarily focused on bringing together people from many fields, rather than being specialists in any oneof those fields. All of these approaches fly in the face of how specialists usually work, and will thereforebe difficult to implement.

4.17 The institutional dimensions of this problem will arise in two contexts. Civil servants fromdifferent ministries will be called on to implement projects jointly, Although everyone claims to agreethat projects should be carried out by interministerial teams, there is still considerable competition amonggovernment agencies which may hinder the ability of such teams to work smoothly. The experiences ofADER, an integrated rural development project funded by the European Community in the N'Djamenaarea and near Lake Chad is instructive in this respect. The project tried to involve development agentsfrom agriculture, forestry, and livestock in interministerial teams. In practice, however, it was difficultto integrate the themes of agricultural development, sustainable forest management, and pastoralism, inpart because the agents from different ministries were not accustomed to working together.

4.18 Getting such cooperation to work will require close attention to such questions as what otherclaims each agent has on his or her time, how opportunities for advancement are awarded in eachministry, and how the resources required for field work are made available to different agents who areexpected to work together. Further investigation of these issues will be necessary if an interministerialapproach to environmental problems is to be effective. Moreover, the ongoing work on the institutionalstructure for rural development activities and the restructuring of ONDR will be key to determining howthis can work in Chad.

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4.19 The need to involve local populations in NRM project design may actually help in buildinginterdisciplinary and interministerial cooperation. Unlike "experts", rural Sahelians are not specialists;even communities which rely predominantly on one type of economic activity are highly aware of thelinkages among agriculture, pastoralism, energy needs, and other sources of income. In giving ruralgroups a major role in the design of development activities, professionals in both the Chadian governmentand the World Bank will be forced to seek out and listen to the expertise of their colleagues from otherdisciplines. Some successful attempts were made before the adoption of the PNLCD through numerousseminars involving rural populations.

Urban project design

4.20 In urban areas, the situation is somewhat different, and perhaps less complex. Urbanenvironmental problems are less integrally linked to income generation, so environmental protection doesnot have to be closely linked to economic development to be effective. On the other hand, urbanenvironmental problems would best be handled in the context of a broad planning process which cananticipate urban growth, plan for infrastructure development, and then channel land use into the areas bestsuited to handle it. Infrastructure investments, road layouts, and the location of housing are key decisionswhich affect the urban environment, much as the individual decisions of farmers and herders affect thenatural resource base. These decisions affect each other, and would ideally be made in an integratedplanning process. The government has more control here than in the natural resource case, becauseinfrastructure and roads are public investments, and land use can at least be partially controlled by zoningand infrastructure decisions.

4.21 The existing institutional structure for handling urban problems in Chad is not an integrated one.However, the organizations involved are so weak that this may not be a major matter for concern iffunding agencies are prepared to make a commitment to integrated planning. A master plan forN'Djamena is in preparation, which does begin with a careful consideration of all of the major issuesinvolved in managing urban growth. Definition of urban projects within the framework set by this planmay ensure that necessary coordination occurs. The development of new projects will also provide anopportunity to strengthen the role of target populations. This will be particularly important where projectsustainability depends on being able to change behavior of project beneficiaries or charge them forservices such as water supply, sewer hook-ups, or garbage collection. If groups expected to contributetime or money in return for improved services are left out of project planning, it may be difficult to elicittheir support once the project is implemented. If, however, they play an active role in project design,the project is more likely to meet their real needs, and they will be more willing to support it in returnfor the services they receive.

Information Needs

4.22 Data with which to monitor and evaluate the conditions of the Chadian environment are sorelylacking. Appendix A gives an overview of what currently exists and its quality. The total absence ofany national mapping activity is a serious limitation, but the success in carrying out the population censusdespite the difficulties of working in Chad is very encouraging. On the whole, however, the situationis poor.

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4.23 The Bank's approach to environmental information systems should follow that recommendedabove for overall environmental issues. Data collection should be funded through existing or proposedprojects rather than through special "information systems" projects. This approach is recommended fortwo reasons. First, it helps ensure that the information collected responds to identified operational needs,and so is more likely to be used. Second, it establishes a precedent both for the Bank and for otherdonors, that all projects should include some support for improved data collection; this is the only waythat the high costs of data development can be met and distributed among the donor community.

4.24 Through its upcoming projects in the areas of natural resources management and urbaninfrastructure, the Bank is well placed to make significant headway in addressing this problem. Each ofthose projects should involve data collection and environment in one or more key areas:

* Agricultural statistics - the agricultural services project will involve developing a betterunderstanding of production levels in order to assess project impacts. This should be funnelledthrough the existing Agricultural Statistics Office and used to strengthen its activities rather thanbeing carried out independently through the project itself.

* Surface and ground water quality - both the agricultural services project and ATETIP may havesignificant impacts on water quality, and should help the relevant government agencies (DREM,ONHPV) launch an ongoing monitoring system to routinely collect water quality data.

* Land use/land cover - this is a basic element in understanding how land use is changing, andtherefore anticipating environmental problems due to soil degradation or erosion, loss of wildlifehabitat, and so on. The three new projects under development and the new PNE activities (laterthe NRM project) will all have an impact on land use and will require data on this subject inorder to measure and evaluate their impacts. Rather than collecting such information in ascattered way, they could work together with a single government agency, to launch routinecollection of the data which could meet their need and those of other environmental actors.

4.25 The environmental information systems activities of other Bank projects ongoing or in preparationin other West African countries (Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger, etc.) offer a good model for howthis could be organized. This model involves development of a network among the producers and usersof data on the environment through which data compatibility and data sharing can be ensured. Oneproject - probably the NRM one in this case, since it is most directly targeted at the environment -provides funding to support such an environmental information systems network.33 Other projects,including but hopefully not limited to those which the Bank expects to fund in the next few years, providefunds to collect and manage the data most closely related to their needs. By working through thenetwork, however, and tying individual project needs to broader national management needs, the fundsavailable for monitoring and evaluating individual projects can also contribute to building a functionalnational data system usable by all government agencies and donors. Several points are key to thefunctioning of such a system; that all data be public and shared, that new data to be collected must becompatible with what already exists, and that the determination of data to be collected by determined bythe clearly identified needs of data users rather than by the technical interests of data suppliers. Thus thenetwork planning process is focused on identifying information needs of the Government, the Bank-funded projects, and other donor projects. Since the Bank is currently planning four different projects,

33 Some preliminary work has already been done in this area through the PDLCD; insofar as possible the NRMproject should build on rather than redo that work.

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all of which should contribute to the effort, there will be strong demand for data identified from the start,and funds available to pay for those data. This is, therefore, a very promising opportunity to launch suchan effort.

NEAP Status and Next Steps

4.26 Despite the difficult political situation in Chad, the Government is in the process of completingtwo different planning processes related to natural resources environment and the environment; thePDLCD and the rural development round table. Neither of these is entirely comparable to a NEAP; theyhave not involved broad national participation, they focus only on green issues and not on brown issues,and the PDLCD is presents a shopping list of projects without addressing policy and institutional reform.

4.27 It must be recognized that these two planning processes have taken years, have consumed a lotof resources, and, at least in the case of the rural development round table, have required much work onthe part of the same civil servants who would probably be involved in a NEAP. It would becounterproductive to launch another independent planning process which would in many respects duplicatewhat has already been done. For those who have made a serious effort to plan the two round tables,launching a NEAP as a new initiative would totally disregard their work to date.

4.28 This may be in part an issue of semantics and our definition of what a NEAP actually is. Giventhe obligation to prepare a NEAP in all IDA countries, we may use the term "NEAP" to refer to theoverall environmental planning process, including activities which have already been completed and thosewhich remain to be done. Thus the desertification control and rural development round tables may beconsidered part of the NEAP process, as well as the urban planning process now beginning and thedesertification action plan which is to be carried out under the terms of the desertification convention.The strategy for the future should be to identify tasks which remain to be done, and focus on them,neither minimizing the work already done or under way, nor suggesting that other actions piloted by theGovernment or other donors are to be incorporated into a broader umbrella process.

4.29 The important issue, therefore, is to look carefully at the existing processes, to identify what ismissing and determine how best to make up the gaps in the future. Efforts to promote environmentallysustainable development include several distinct issues. First, none of the planning processes now goingon involves public participation in the way anticipated by the NEAPs. Redoing the entire planningprocess to make it more participatory is not advisable. However, it is recommended that publicparticipation be an integral part of all future work, both in planning and implementation. In terms of theexisting plans, particularly the reports from the rural development round table, this would mean givingaffected groups a key role in the design of recommended policies and projects, rather than allowingdetailed implementation to be planned and carried out from the capital as the reports themselves were.This can be done by working through NGOs, local government (to the extent that it exists), villageorganizations, and "the population" in the design of both projects and planning processes. This will servetwo purposes. It will provide some of the participation which the initial planning processes lacked. Moreimportantly, it can serve as a model for how such participation can work; if effective, this model maybe adopted by other donors and the Government itself.

4.30 Second, in project design the Government of Chad and the Bank should make a consistent effortto focus on policy and institutional reforms as well as investment. This has already been done verythoroughly by the rural development round table, which raised a number of policy reform issues andmade recommendations with which the government officials working in the areas are in accord. Thedesertification round table, however, has not placed the same emphasis on clearly identified policy oradministrative reforms. Consequently, future efforts should place particular emphasis on these

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considerations in projects targeted at natural resources use and management. This is already being donein some projects; for example, the household energy project has identified the need to address forest lawand the forest products tax structures if energy needs are to be met without further environmentaldegradation. Such considerations must receive explicit attention in all projects.

4.31 Third, the new urban CTA and the ongoing urban planning process provide an opportunity forthe NEAP approach to be incorporated earlier on than was possible for the other two round tables.Future planning work should focus on these activities, ascertaining the extent to which they address theurban environment and pollution issues that might be addressed by a NEAP, and whether they arebringing local participation as fully as possible into the planning process. If necessary, the Bank shouldconsider providing some supplementary support to the CTA and the planning process to help addressenvironmental issues and facilitate a full local participation in making decisions about urban landmanagement.

4.32 Fourth, as discussed above, the Bank can help the Government of Chad to build environmentalinformation systems through the projects now being planned, particularly the NRM project, the householdenergy project, and the agricultural services project. This can be coordinated with the activities of otherdonors and implemented through existing government agencies to launch a national network for buildingand sharing data with which to monitor and manage environmental quality.

Appendix A: Existing Data for Environmental Management

DATA SOURCE DATE QUALITYELEMENT I I

Roads - 1:200 000 topographic maps made by IGN. 1950s These maps are seriously out of data.location and They can be purchased from IGN in Paris Topographic data has obviously notquality with authorization from the Chadian changed, but road and towns have.Administrative government. They can be consulted at theAdministrative CNAR documentation center, and theboundaries Bureau de l'Eau can make black-line copies

Villages, of them.towns, andcities

Geology 1:1 500 000 geological map made by 1964 Adequate. Because it has beenBRGM for ORSTOM. This was partiaUy digitized, it should be reasonablycorrected and digitized in Atlas/GIS by the accessible to others interested in usingMinistry of Mines, UNDP Project it.CHD/91/007.

Pedology 1:1 000 000 pedological map made by 1968 Adequate. This map has not beenORSTOM, and available from them and in digitized, and is relatively inaccessible.some libraries.

Surface water Data on flow and depth colected by DREM Since the Data coUection is incomplete, due towith AGRHYMET support, for 58 1980s operational problems. There are nohydrological stations. Computerized data data on water quality.are available from DREM, and introductionof GIS is planned. l

Ground water Three piezometric networks with 45-50 Since the The Bureau de l'Eau considers thesestations each, covering Batha-Kanem, the 1980s data sufficient for their needs; howeverChari-Baguirmi and Gudra-Salamat. Data they do not address the complexare collected by and available from the ground water supply and quality issuesBureau de l'Eau. around N'Djamena.

Water points Data from the original IGN maps and other 1950s to The database is not up to date. It is(wells and more recent additions, compiled by the present not clear whether the GIS in use isother access to Bureau de l'Eau. Data are digitized, with compatible with commercial software.ground water) the geographic coordinates of each well and

its condition; however the latter are not keptup to date.

Meteorology Data collected by DREM and ASECNA 1980s to Weather data are relatively good,with AGRHYMET support, for: present although operational problems in the137 rainfaU stations data collection network means there are7 climatological stations gaps and data do not arrive in real27 agrometeorological stations time.20 synoptic stations.Data are automated in a DBMS, andintroduction of GIS is planned.

[ DATA SOURCE DATE QUALITYELEM ENT DT IQ

Agricultural Harvests and cultivated areas on the basis of 1980s to All of these data are highly unreliable.production household surveys in the five southern present It is not clear how the households were

prefectures, and on the basis of visual chosen for the surveys, since there hasobservation in the center of the country. never been a census until 1993; visualThe survey data are collected by the Bureau observations are clearly inadequate.des Statistiques Agricoles (BSA) and the Data collection has also been disruptedvisual observations by ONDR. All data are by unrest and lack of funds.compiled and distributed by BSA.

Agricultural Information system on cereal marketing - 1980s to Data are quite rough, since many aremarketing data farmgate, wholesale and retail prices, present based on visual observation rather than

visual estimates of supply, sources, and surveys. Price data are adequate todestinations of goods brought to market. flag significant changes, but inadequateData are collected at 30 markets. The to analyze how produce marketssystem is managed by the BSA. operate.

Vegetation Several one-time regional inventories various Some of these surveys are very detailedresources and covering the Saharan and Sahelian zones 1986 and should be useful for regionalland capability (B.E.T., Kanem, Batha, Guera, Ouaddal, 1992 planning. However, none of the data

Biltine, Lac, and the pastoral intervention are automated, the maps are difficult tozone of the PNE) access, and the data classification

systems have not been standardizedacross the surveys so they cannot becombined to assess national resourcequality.

Economic data Detailed surveys on consumption and fuel 1991 These data are good, but limited inon forest prices in N'Djamena, conducted by the scope and not part of an ongoingproducts Ministry of Mines and Energy for the monitoring effort.

ESMAP project.

Pastoral Rdseau de Suivi des Paturages Naturelles From Coverage is only of a limited area ofresources (ROPANAT) - Monthly observations on 1990 the country. Data are based on visual

vegetation quality in selected areas of the observation, so they are rough.Sahelian zone. ROPANAT is part of theFarcha Laboratory, and funded by PNE.

Livestock Ministry of Livestock estimates of livestock From These data are highly inaccurate;populations based on vaccination data. 1980s recent updates are based on estimates

rather than new data collection.

Population Census carried out in 1993, by the Ministry 1993 The census seems to have been aof Plan. success, especially given the difficulty

of undertaking such a task in Chad.Only preliminary reports are availableso far.

SOURCE: Hecht, January 1993

Appendix B: Documents Consulted

A. Agala, J. Dandi, and S. Choukou, October 1993, "La filiere gomme arabique au Tchad" Reportprepared for the Direction Generale of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment

Arpaillange, Josephine, "Creation d'une Banque de Donnees sur l'Energie Domestique: Methodologie'For ESMAP, Ministere des Mines, de l'Energie, et des Ressources en Eau (Paris: SEED,October 1991)

Baltagi, A., L. Godin et H. Leroux, September 1990, "Elements pour une strategie de developpementdu secteur urbain au Tchad" Report prepared for the World Bank and the Ministry ofCooperation and Development, Republic of France

Louis Berger International, Inc., "Conservation des Ressources Naturelles et Developpement Rural" (3volumes) Study sub-contracted to the Centre Technique Forestier Tropical, CIRAD, Paris.(East Orange, New Jersey, USA et Paris: Louis Berger Intl, April 1988 and January 1989)

Bonfiglioli, Angelo Maliki, 1989, "Terres de Vie: Reflexions sur le Foncier au Tchad" EtudesPastorales 1 (N'Djamena: Cellule Organisation Pastoral, Projet National d'Elevage)

Bonfiglioli, Angelo Maliki, 1993, Agro-pastoralism in Chad as a Strategy for Survival: An Essay on theRelationship between Anthropology and Statistics. World Bank Technical Paper Number 214,Africa Technical Department Series (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank)

Cellule Technique d'Appui (CTA/DR), December 1993 "Consultation sectorielle sur le developpementrural, la securite alimentaire et les ressources hydrauliques" Volumes 1-4. (N'Djamena:Ministere du Plan et de la Cooperation et Ministere de l'Agriculture et de l'Environnement)

Cellule Technique d'Appui (CTA/LCD), April 1993, "Consultation Sectorielle Environnement/LutteContre la Desertification", Document I - Etat des Lieux et Document II - Plan d'Action.N'Djamena

Comite Permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte Contre la Secheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS) and The Land TenureCenter, 1993 "Atelier sur les codes forestiers au Sahel" Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, 18-20Janvier, 1993. Vol. I, Synthese R6gionale, et Vol. II, Rapports Nationaux.

Deffendol, Scotty, 1993, "Rangeland Resources" in Hecht et alia, June 1993

Direction de la Statistique, des Etudes Economiques et D6mographiques (DSEED), Ministere du Plan etde la Cooperation, Mars 1992, "Comptes economiques: 1983-1992 (Donnees recueillies i mi-f6vrier 1992)

ESMAP, 1993 See World Bank, Industry and Energy Department.

FAO/World Bank, May 1993, "Aide memoire de la mission du programme de cooperation FAO/BanqueMondiale dans le cadre de l'identification et la preparation d'un projet d'appui aux servicesagricoles du 11 au 30 mai 1993"

Grambsch, Anne, Greg Michaels, Kelly Lukins, and Henry M. Peskin, 1991, "Resource andEnvironmental Accounting in the Chesapeake Bay Regions ("Chesapeaka") Unpublished paperprepared by USEPA and Edgevale Associates, Washington D.C. and Silver Spring Maryland.

Groupe Huit, Mars 1993, "N'Djamena: Plan de Reference" Rapport de Premiere Phase. Prepare pourla Direction de l'Urbanisme, Ministere des Travaux Publics et des Transports, avec financementde la Mission de Cooperation Frangaise.

Hall, John, July 1991, "Chad Natural Resources Management Project, Updated Executive ProjectSummary" (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank)

Hall, John, August 1993, "Republique du Tchad: Projet National d'Elevage. Mission de John M. Hall,charge de projet, AoCt 1993 Aide Memoire" (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank)

Hall, John, ed., January 1994, "Manuel de gestion des ressources pastorales" Preliminary version.Prepared under coordination of the Agriculture Division of the Sahel Department, World Bank,with participation from the Center for Holistic Resource Management, Albuquerque, NewMexico.

Hecht, Joy, January 1993, "Elaboration d'un programme national de connaissance et suivi des ressourcesnaturelles" Report prepared for the CTA/LCD, N'Djamena

Hecht, Joy, G. Edward Karch, Scotty Deffendol, Joseph A. Tabor, James Keith, Robert Hanchett, andDarrel Plowes, June 1993, "Agricultural Trade Policy Reform Program: Design of anEnvironmental Monitoring System" Submitted to USAID, N'Djamena by ChemonicsInternational, Washington, D.C.

IWACO, Bureau d'Etudes en Eau et Environnement, Aofit 1990, "Etude Sectorielle Eau etAssainissement au Tchad" Rapport Final, version provisoire. Prepared for the World Bank,Sahel Department.

Keith, James and Darrel Plowes, 1993, "Wildlife Considerations" in Hecht et alia, June 1993

Madon, Gerard, "ESMAP: Tchad. Elements de Strategie Energie Domestique Urbaine" VersionPreliminaire. Pour ESMAP, Ministere des Mines, de l'Energie, et des Ressources en Eau(Paris: SEED, AoQt 1992)

Mallot, Sanda Ildjima, October 1993, "Bilan-diagnostic de l'exploitation de la gomme arabique au Tchad:Propositions pour l'organisation de la filiere" Report prepared for the Mission FranXaise deCooperation et d'Action Culturelle

Ministere de l'Environnement et du Tourisme (MET), 1988, "Projet de Code Forestier" (N'Djam6na,July 1988)

Painter, Thomas, 1991, "Approches pour une meilleure utilisation des ressources naturelles et agricolesen Afrique de l'ouest sahelienne: Analyse sociologique de l'approche amenagement/gestion desterroirs villageois et de ses implications pour les organisations non-gouvernementales" CAREAgriculture & Natural Resources Technical Report Series, No. 3.

Pias, J., 1970, La Wgetation du Tchad (Paris: ORSTOM)

Programme d'Action Pour le Developpement Social, 1993, 'R6seau Secondaire d'Assainissement desEaux Pluviales, Zone PADS - N'Djamena" Lot 6 Contrat entre SOTTRA et la Rdpublique duTchad, sous financement AID

Rosseel, Jacques et Dolmia Ndikibaye, mai 1993, "Projet pilote d'amenagement sylvo-pastoral de la foretde I'Assale: serie pilote Maloumri-Karal" Document technique. Direction des Forets et de laProtection de l'Environnement, (ex-)Ministere du Tourisme et de l'Environnement, ProgrammeADER

Societe Frangaise de Realisation, d'Etudes et de Conseil (SOFRECO), 1993, "Restructuration del'ONDR: note diagnostique" Prepared for seminar 12 July, 1993 (N'Djamena: ONDR)

, 1992 (Referenced as UNCED, 1992) Draft, report prepared by Government of Chad for theUnited Nations Conference on Environment and Development

World Bank, undated, "Tchad: draft rapport de preparation, projet services agricoles" (Washington,D.C.)

World Bank, 1985, "Desertification in the Sahelian and Sudanian Zones of West Africa" Washington,D.C.

World Bank, June 1992, "Country Strategy Paper for Chad' Washington, D.C.

World Bank, 1993, World Development Report. Washington, D.C.

World Bank, June 1993, "Tanzania Country Environmental Strategy Paper" Draft (white cover)

World Bank, AF5AG, June 1993, "Chad Agricultural Services Project: Updated Executive ProjectSummary" (Washington, D.C.)

World Bank, Industry and Energy Department, Power Development, Efficiency and Household FuelsDivision, April 1993, "Tchad: Elements de strategie energie domestique Urbaine, le cas deN'Djamena" Joint UNDP/World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme(ESMAP)

World Bank, Infrastructure Operations, Sahel Department, October 1993, "Staff Appraisal Report:Republic of Chad Public Works and Capacity Building Project" Draft.

World Bank, Western Africa Department, Industry and Energy Division, June 1993, "DemocraticRepublic of Sao Tome and Principe: Country Economic Memorandum and Key Elements of anEnvironmental Strategy" Volume II, Key Elements of an Environmental Strategy. Report No.10383-STP

World Bank, Western Africa Department, December 1990, "Towards the Development of anEnvironmental Action Plan for Nigeria" Report No. 9002-UNI

Appendix C: People Consulted

GOVERNMENT OF CHAD

Ministry of Agriculture and Environment:MAHAMAT ALI, Directeur de la Forat et de la Protection de I'EnvironnementMamane MAMADOU, Conseiller/Facilitateur aupres de la CTA/PDLCD

Ministere of Plan and Cooperation:Talansadi DJOGOYE, Directeur de la Planification, du Developpement et de la Reconstruction

Ministry of Livestock:Mahamat Saleh ABDELMADGIT, Directeur General, Direction National du PNE

Ministry of Mines, Energy and Water Resources:Mahamat Ali ABDEL-HAMID, Dir-Adjoint du Petrole, des Energies Nouvelles et Renouvelables

WORLD BANK

Noel CARRERE, Director, Resident Mission, ChadYao POUKOU, Specialist in agricultural extension, Resident Mission, ChadEtienne ALINGUE, Resident Mission, ChadGerard MADON, ESMAP Project consultantWillem FLOOR, IENPDPhilippe DURAND, Industry and Energy Division, Sahel DepartmentGiovanni CAPRIO, Rural Development Round Table consultant on macroeconomicsAlhassane SOW, AF5AGSarah Forster, Sahel DepartmentAmadou B. CISSE, Chad Country Officer

MISSION FRAN;AISE DE COOPERATION

Jean Jacques SOULA, ConseillerChey SOEN, Conseiller Technique au Directeur General de l'Environnement

USAID

Richard FRANKEL, Assistant AID RepresentativeDjime ADOUM, Program Advisor, Monitoring and EvaluationCarole ADOUM, Program Advisor, Agricultural Marketing

DELEGATION DE LA COMMISSION DES COMMUNAUTES EUROPEENNES

Giacomo DURAZZO, Conseiller, Developpement Rural

IBRD 25991

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