Chad - Country environmental strategy paper

This document serves two purposes: to improve the World Bank's understanding of environmental issues in Chad, and to serve as an input into the country's own environmental planning process. Chad is conventionally divided into several broad bioclimatic zones, exhibiting distinct agro-silvo-pastoral production systems. 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 limited to oasis areas, and population is sparse. The Sahelian zone receives up to 600 mm of rainfall per year. Agriculture is characterized by rainfed cultivation of millet, sorghum, cowpeas, and peanuts, and irrigated vegetable gardens in the wadis. Chad's resource base is limited by the low level of rainfall in most of the country. However, it does have a few areas of particular importance in terms of biodiversity and wildlife. Lake Chad is of international importance as one of the few stopovers or wintering places for migratory birds crossing the Sahara. Natural resource degradation in Chad may be attributed to four major factors: human population increase, decreased rainfall over the past forty years, recurrent warfare and social and cultural pattern behavior. These factors lead to changes in several key sectors of the environment, particularly agriculture, forestry, livestock production, and fisheries. In agriculture, resource pressure is likely to lead to expanded cultivation, with negative effects on soil quality, erosion, water quality, and eventually wildlife through the destruction of their habitat. The most serious impact on forest resources comes from the consumption of wood as a cooking fuel and bushfires which has led to a massive destruction of forests. This threatens the energy supply to urban areas, leads to rapid soil erosion, and destroys wildlife habitat. Chad's urban environmental problems, experienced primarily in N'Djamena, are conceptually less complex than its natural resource management problems. The key issues relate to water, sewers, drainage, and trash. 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 highest priority are peri-urban forestry and urban water supply and drainage issues. Of moderate priority are fisheries management and land degradation from agriculture or herding. Of low priority are pollution, wildlife conservation, and urban sewerage.