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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-CA link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Dear Mark<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Really appreciate the detail answer. I agree with your observation that permanence is driven by services supplied from brick buildings. What may at first look like fixed settlements are in fact more ethereal long term. I found the Sahel in the east of Niger to be increasing the number of trees as a conscious act. In town every tree has a little ring of fence around it. They are planting neem trees which do really well with even a small amount of rain. There are huge (new) trees in Maradi. There is as a result far more wood fuel than there used to be, though people still cook a lot with millet stalks in very inappropriate stoves.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thanks<br>Crispin<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>We didn't examine the yield of the forests around the village we were focused on energy use and impact but not deforestation questions. That said by careful examination over a period of five years it appears that the forest is being sustainably managed. Also in interviews with village women, every woman in the village thought she was walking the same distance to gather wood and that it took the same amount of time since she was a child. Wood is gathered on plots assigned by the village leadership and only fallen/dead wood is gathered. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>I think this type of sustainable management is possible in this village because it is the Sahel, Mali is relatively sparsely populated, and this village is relatively remote. It is part of a cluster of 8 villages with a combined population of 7000 - 8000. The closest villages to the study village are 6 and 10 km away and have populations of 300 people each, the villages beyond these two are more than 10 km away. And so pressure on the forests is not great. I do know that these are semi nomadic people and that part of the village moves to the fields during the growing season and that villages have moved periodically in the past. But as improvements (bridges, schools, clinics) are made I've wondered if the villages will move or not.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>In contrast in other places in Mali (Mali is only 15% arable land) wood and other fuels are dear and sustainability is a big issue. And so this study should be regarded as applicable to the Sahel rather than to Mali.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Mark<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></body></html>