November 26, 2008, 5:27 pm

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/another-darfur-casualty-trees/

By NEIL MACFARQUHAR

ZALINGEI, West Darfur, Sudan — On top of the human toll, the conflict in Darfur is afflicting the environment, says Abuelgasim Abdalla Adam, dean of the faculty of forestry sciences at the University of Zalingei.

Part of the problem is visible around refugee camps in this West Darfur city or particularly around the Kalma camp near Nyala in South Darfur, where a forest of baobab, acacia, palm and other trees has been largely decimated by the displaced, who scrounge for firewood or logs to sell. What was once a heavily wooded area is now almost bald.

In an odd fallout, the war has actually caused a building boom and rapid urbanization. An estimated 2.7 million Darfurians remain displaced by the conflict. But some of those still with means have decided they want a house in town, so that in future crises they will have a place to flee other than a camp, the professor said. The influx of United Nations personnel and the non-governmental organizations that trail in the U.N.'s wake have created a demand for houses, he added.

All that means firing up brick kilns: It takes about 34 trees to keep one brick kiln roaring away for the 9-month building season. (Construction stops during the rainy summer months.) And feeding the kilns means denuding the woods. Surveys by the university show that on Mount Marra, the highest peak in the area, there were about 100 trees for each acre of land in the 1990s, on average; by 2001 that was down to 50, and it is now about 20.