First Sudanese Civil War
In 1950 the mountain range's habitats above were placed within the Imatong Central Forest Reserve, with no further settlement permitted. The reserve was not protected and the settlement ban was not enforced during the civil wars. Forestry brought laborers into the mountains, and they started hillside farming in a wide area around the forest plantations. Forestry was then neglected during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972), after the 1956 independence of Sudan.