Peter Kuchar views an unusual looking termite mound in eastern Hiraan Region.
Peter Kuchar
Peter Kuchar, a retired rangeland ecologist with extensive experience in eastern Africa, has, over the years, sought out, read and abstracted as many documents on the rangelands of Somalia as he could find, often adding to them his own comments. Fortunately, these abstracts, which date as far back as 1844, are now available to the rest of us (see below).
Commiphora bushland in eastern Hiraan Region, Somalia (Photo: Peter Kuchar)
THE BURSERACEAE
Those of you who downloaded digital copies of The Burseraceae by Kuchar and Gillett on storiesofeastafrica.com will welcome the updated version now available at Kuchar & Gillett – The Burseraceae (Dec 2025).
For those unfamiliar with the term, Burseraceae is a family of shrubs and small trees. In Somalia, it comprises two genera, Boswellia and Commiphora, the latter probably the most diverse, abundant, economically important, yet worst understood and documented genus of woody plants in the Horn of Africa. This report not only explains why but also includes information (Somali names, uses etc.) about Burseraceae species in (pre-1989) Central Somalia, not to mention a very useful vegetative key for identifying them.
Featured image: Large trucks provided the primary transport for pastoralists and villagers within the Central Rangelands. Boards resting on the upright sides of the truck separated people (above) from small stock and other cargo (below).
A fourth set of free downloads of hard-to-find documents on the Central Rangelands of Somalia’s is now available. This installment includes eleven extension leaflets (five written in Somali) and nine monitoring and evaluation documents by the Central Rangelands Development Project. The period covered is from 1979 to 1988. https://storiesofeastafrica.com/?page_id=4229
Featured image: A village in Central Somalia
A third set of free downloads on the rangelands of Central Somalia is now available. This installment includes five reports, ten maps, and seven published papers on rangeland ecology and development https://storiesofeastafrica.com/?page_id=4116
A second set of free downloads of hard-to-obtain documents on the rangelands of Central Somalia is now available. This installment includes survey and research results produced by the Central Rangelands Development Project https://storiesofeastafrica.com/reports-by-somalia-crdp/. Reports by other agencies will follow in future texts.