desert forests are of great significance to the inhabitants of sandy regions koomly as they supply them with pastures firewood and on a small scale household construction materials as for sandy areas continuous sowing and planting have resulted in ha of woods and pastureprotection forests according to nonofficial sources including experts estimates the annual supply of wood from sanitary cuttings does not currently exceed some m while demand is estimated at about m the provision of free natural gas to the population has proved to be an important means of preventing illegal logging