Biodiversity in forest plants of the Sudan

The Forest Resources Assessment by FAO in 1990 indicated a tree cover of 19of the Sudan's area (excluding the southern part of the country) while the National Forest Inventory estimated forest cover to be 24.9of the total area of the country, Reserved forests amount to 837 forests distributed all over the states of the country. They constitute a ggreat potential for bodiversity conservation. Forests play a pivotal as a component of natural resources and land use. Since production is not as good an indication as variability of biodiversity, what is considered as unproductive forests and bush land dose not reflect less diversity. It is estimated that there are about 533 tree species in Sudan of that 25 species are exotic. In addition, there are about 184 shrub species of that 33 are exotic. However, the forest wealth has neither been adequately explored nor has it been well documented. What is known is that there are unique forest formations in Sudan in form of relic rain forests termed "Bowl" forests in Equatoria States in southern Sudan such as in Azza, Talenga and Leboni. These areas deserve to be reserved. There are divers uses for forest products in Sudan the magnitude of which depend on distribution and composition within the region and\\or location. These uses can be summarized in timber, non-timber, building material, fuel-wood, fodder, gum and tannin production, and medicine and for bee forage and building hives. There are some important tree species that are under pressure and endangered as a consequence of repeated droughts or over-cutting and felling. Some of these do not have the ability to regenerate such as Adansonia digitata (Tabaldi), Borassus aethiopium (Daleib), Hyphaene thebaica (Doum), Cordia abyssinica (Gimbeel), Dalbergia melanoxylon (Abanos), Grewia tenax (Gudeim), Anogeissus leiocarpus (Sahab), Lonchocarpus laxiflorus (Horhor), Ziziphus spina-christi (Sidir) and Khaya senegalensis (Mahogany). There are many others that are endangered to aless degree.