British Tree Management in Lesotho

Abstract

"Why have colonial and independent governments sponsored tree planting campaigns in a southern African grassland for more than a hundred years, despite high mortality rates? And how have local residents responded to this tree planting? Pollen analysis shows that the Kingdom of Lesotho has been grassland for the last 23,000 years. Freezing winters that alternate with drought-prone summers have limited indigenous tree growth either to places sheltered from wind, or to the proximity of water sources, for instance, near streams. Early missionaries harvested most of the indigenous trees for construction and fuel, then planted non-native fruit and fuel wood trees in their domestic spaces."