Abstract
CONSIDERABLY more than twenty-five per cent of the island of Mauritius is occupied by forests and rocky mountains which lie outside the cultivated area. As is pointed out in the Annual Report of the Forest Department of Mauritius for 1930, the great density of population, the small area of the forests (Government forests, Crown and other forest lands, total 92,050 arpents or about 95,732 acres) and the demands made upon them, the many uses to which wood is put, and the local dependence on imported timber, all point to the vital importance of forestry in the island. Since the forests lie mainly on the top and slopes of the central plateau, from which all the important rivers run, it is obvious that their preservation is equally vital to the maintenance of the premier industry of sugar cultivation, in order to prevent erosion and its destructive aftermath, and to secure the maintenance of water supplies, and so forth.
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Forestry in Mauritius. Nature 130, 514 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130514a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130514a0