University Publications

The rural population of Sudan, and much of its urban population, depends on forests. Trees are the main source of energy and provide timber for roofing and building. The extensive benefits derived from forests include grazing, hunting, shade, forest foods in the form of tree leaves, wild fruits, nuts, tubers and herbs, tree bark for medicinal purposes, and non-wood products such as honey and gum Arabic. In addition, the commercial lumber industry is a small but growing source of employment. This paper aims at identifying the threats facing sustainable gum Arabic production. Gum Arabic production and marketing in Sudan is witnessing many constraints which can be summarized as follow: expansion of mechanized rain fed agricultural schemes on natural forests, commercial fuel wood and charcoal making activities, late tapping, infestation of pests such as desert locusts and Quealia quealia Ethiopica birds, nomadic pastoralists. Furthermore, pricing policies of Gum Arabic Company limited financial budgets allocated for buying the gum from the, the importers of gum Arabic indirectly encourage the farmers to plant Taleh (Acaciya seyal) by claiming Taleh gum rather than gum from Hashab ( Acacia Senegal), adverse climatic conditions. However, Sudanese gum Arabic in the international markets faces a lot of constraints viz. western and eastern African countries became more aware of the importance of this commodity, smuggling of Sudanese gum Arabic. They impose no taxes or fees on gum Arabic commodity, very limited domestic consumption, presence of synthetic compounds substituting it in foodstuff \manufacturing industries, limited international demand. Sustainable gum Arabic production can acheived through tapping at the optimum time, scheduling reforestation programmes and revising gum Arabic pricing policies and allotting sufficient fund encourage the gum Arabic producers.