Production rose sharply in 1979-1980. National parks and wildlife preserves cover a total of 578,000 ha. The problems that arise from a scarcity of forest products can be expressed in terms of needs. Wood is the leading domestic fuel and is used for cooking in Benin. It comes to people's homes in the form of firewood or charcoal.
Wood is currently in chronically short supply in all urban centres and even in rural areas.
The rural district of Ouake in Atacora Province, where millet stalks and cow dung are used for cooking fuel, is a good example of the problem. In the south, this shortage is aggravated by the progressive shortening of natural fallow periods. To the figures for annual timber consumption must be added 1,500 m of plywood and fibreboard, most of which is at present imported. This analysis indicates an annual deficit of 6,000 m of saw timber and plywood and 1,000 m of roundwood. Prospects for Agro-forestry Solutions Attempts have been made to combine and integrate farming, forestry, and animal husbandry methods for improved farm management with a view to continually increasing production without causing major deforestation and yet obtaining a substantial yield from marginal land.