Conflict and Coffee in Burundi 119
to the country's north-east, which accounts for a total of 16% of the total
land area. Soil fertility in the depressions is poor. Burundi's natural vegeta-
tion is mainly mountainous forest, clear forest and grassland. Most of these
are in state- protected areas, which amount to almost 127 000 hectares.
Lake Tanganyika, which Burundi shares with Tanzania, Malawi and the
Democratic Republic of Congo, is in the country's south-west and traverses
the provinces of Bujumbura, Bururi and Makamba to the south. A fresh water
lake, it augments protein sources of the country's population through fish
and is an important transport gateway to the contiguous countries. With
respect to water for both domestic and industrial consumption, the lake's
provisions are augmented by generous rainfall for most of the year.
There are three seasons annually, resulting in 31 000 million cubic metres
of water. These are the short rainy season between October and January, the
long rainy season between February and May, and the June to September dry
season. Over 20 000 cubic metres is lost through evaporation.
Burundi's natural environment is ideal and suitable for agriculture at both
the commercial and subsistence levels. The country has no significant
amounts of mineral resources (as opposed to its neighbour to the west, the
DRC). Its economic wellbeing has and continues to hinge on the productivi-
ty of the land and especially on its ability to feed itself and procure goods and
services from abroad through foreign aid and foreign exchange receipts.
These foreign exchange receipts largely accrue from the agricultural sector,
pointedly from coffee and tea exports.
Several constraints have reduced Burundi's optimum harnessing of its nat-
ural resources. Firstly, the country's landlocked status reduces the value of
net receipts from agricultural production, even as it inflates the prices of
imports. Secondly, population density (at an average of 230 per km3 has led
to a marked decline in productivity of the land per acreage and intense
colonisation of uninhabited land. Additionally, intensive cultivation and live-
stock production has subjected land to serious soil erosion and loss. This has
been made significantly worse by the general topographical character of the
land, undulating as it is.
The intensive use of fertilizers (when available and affordable) accounts
for yet another reason for the decline in soil fertility and thus production.
Fourthly, the poor, coercive and uncoordinated management of the natural
environment has had multiple retrogressive influences on the fortunes of the
country's majority poor who subsist off the land. Intense competition for
scarce land, and clashing visions of how the land should be productively
used between the peasantry and the leadership. has served to further frus-
trate sustained and productive yields.