The high demand for hardwoods world-wide usually leads to exploitation of the natural

timber, particularly in Africa, including Mozambique.

Frequently the practice is to fell the timber, export it as round log and walk away with the profits, giving no further thought to the

future of the forest.Logging in a sustainable manner although a long term project is not only possible but is being

successfully practiced on a concession in Sofala Province,

central Mozambique …..

Forest to Furniture

Logging in a sustainable manner

whereTCT-Dalmann Furniture, Lda.

Catapú timber concessionSofala, Mozambique

have been doing so for 19 years

Catapú in Sofala Province, central Mozambique, 32 km south of the Zambezi River

in Cheringoma District northwest of Inhamitanga Village

± S18° 00‘ 05'' and E35° 08' 13''

Introduction

• Concession = 30 000 ha.

• EN1 (main road) traverses the concession more or less on the watershed between the Zangue and the Tissadze Rivers

• 3,600 ha area with the sawmill, living quarters and

• M’phingwe commercial hospitality unit

•Altitude: at the Catapú turn-off from the EN-1 100 m a.s.l. 30 m.a.s.l. along the river valleys.

•Soils: sand with outbreaks of sandstone and calcareous conglomerates underlain by sub-littoral sands;

black cotton or turf soils around the vleis and in the Zangue River floodplain

•Rainfall: average annual 700–1 400 mm p.a. (records for last 13 years) average of 731 mm p.a. Rainy season (November to March) average of 610 mm

(some years below or just reaching 500 mm)Non-rainy season (April to October) average of 121 mm

(some rain in three to five months)

Vegetation a mosaic

Dry lowland deciduous forest

Dry deciduous thicket

Woodland

Core businessutilization of natural resources: felling 2 100 m³ of indigenous

hardwoods of various species

principally Panga-panga, (Partyshout) Millettia stulhmannii Taub.

Operation

Pod-mahogany, (Chanfuta)

Afzelia quanzensis Welw.

Wild-mango, (Mutondo)Cordyla africana Lour.

Based on a GERFFA (Gestao De Recursos Florestais E Fauna) inventory, concession divided into 30 blocks providing a 30 year cycle

20% to 25% mature trees left standing providing a timber resource for the second felling cycle and a seed bank for natural propagation and regeneration

Theoretically one block felled each year and after 30 years possible to return and fell again

In practice after 19 years only felling in block 17

1 000 ha Specially Protected Area around Zalula Pan

Planning • BLOCK DEMARCATEDblock boundaries planned to provide access roads with one road servicing two

blocksrecorded on multi-scaled electronic maps including drag lines, field loading

ramps and haulage roadsalso recorded existing roads and paths, waterways, steeply inclined terrain,

wetlands and spongy areasand including sites of religious or historic importance , nesting sites and animal

breeding burrows

• TREE INVENTORY trees to be felled carefully selected

– high yield potential – 40 or 50 cm dbh minimum

– minimum damage when falling- team 2 or 3 - GPS literate, good working knowledge of the forest and

familiar with the Integrated Forestry Inventories (IFI) system- day to day operations depend on conditions on the ground at all times taking

in account the impact on the forest

Felling- First cut 150 mm, two hand widths, above ground level- wedge-shaped for accurate log-fall- hinge in final cut to prevent kickback- Log cut into lengths both end of log and stump marked with the same number

Extraction

Commercially attractive branchwood is cut, dragged and ramped, awaiting “special authority” to move

it from the forest

Maximum recovery of timber essential!Traditionally left are second & third grade log + branchwood, + any dead or severely damaged trees Recovery increases usable volume by 20% to 25%.Mozambique forestry regulations prohibit logs of bark to bark diameter less than 30 cm & length less than 0,8 m being removed from the forest

HaulageMachinery restricted to small agricultural tractors with turn-table trailers & short-bodied rigid-chassis trucks.

.

Tractors with short coupled drag chains able to zigzag and manoeuvre between trees. Unnecessary to remove trees to access felled logs. Appearing haphazard and random, most successful way of moving logs with least possible damage to the forest

Drag lines linking fell-sites to in-field loading ramps are established using the line of least resistance

Moving the log manually

Loading the log

Hand or tractor loading results in minimum size ramps confined to small clear areas

No log transported for 24 hours after rain.

Timber cut into planks as required by the factory, dried in the kiln, sent to Beira to be made into high quality hardwood furniture

Adding valueTCT- Dalmann has sawmill and kilns at Catapú and furniture factory in Beira

• Maximum utilisation of commercially unviable sawn product -ultra shorts, blemished & mixed heartwood/sapwood planks. These are incorporated into a viable local industry with the construction of pre-fabricated houses, bee-hives and a range of turned products.

Turnings

www.dalmann.com

megcp@zol.co.zw

Cheringoma Herbariumhttp://acdb.co.za/index.php/cheringoma-herbarium/introduction.html

TCT-Dalmann FSC certified throughout the operation for two four year terms Testimony to the Company’s promotion of sound working principles & confirmation the entire operation is being conducted in a sustainable manner.

Certificate voluntarily surrendered but the standards required have become normal practice including  the commitment to responsible management of forestry resources.

Very high priority

FOREST RESTORATION

The edge scuffled into the centre with a hoe and ........

Furrows created in drag lines repaired

.... gone over with a multidisc harrow. Abandoned ramps and haulage roads are harrowed and levelled

deciduous forest so disturbed ground soon becomes covered with fallen leaves

ideal medium for seed germination

1. Coppice and coppice management 2. Regeneration from seed

3. Baton planting

Regeneration

CoppiceDefinition: vegetation that resprouts after the trunk has been cut.

Coppice management is the most successful and rapid means of forest restoration at Catapú

When felling for timber the cut must be as low as possible for maximum recovery.the low clean cut on Panga-panga promotes a vigorous coppice growth giving optimum survival

Others produces better coppice growth when cut higher up as shown here with Mutondo which was cut illegally to collect honey

two or three strong shoots are selected from the explosion of coppice the first year and the rest removed. This reduces competition so the shoots flourish using the existing root system.

•After three years the coppice growth is deemed to be mature enough not to be threatened by new re-growth

Monitoring•Every stump visited and the coppice managed for three consecutive years

• Felled stumps are all numbered and the GPS position recorded

• The extraction infrastructure of drag-lines and access roads facilitates the location of all felled stumps.

New shoot eventually breaks away to form a new tree with it’s own root system

± 7 000 stumps are visited and dealt with every year. Now over 30 000 ‘surviving and thriving’.

Coppice shoots and saplings pruned after branching low down often grow upwards increasing the probability of a commercially viable tree

Coppice shoots survival rates:• Panga-panga ± 75--80%,• Chanfuta ± 40% • Mutondo ± 40%

In-forest restoration is carried out in areas disturbed by log extraction such as drag lines and abandoned ramps

alsoin areas previously damaged by fire or

subsistence agriculture

Seed• Seed collected throughout the year.• Selection, packaging, storage important.• Panga-panga & Chanfuta seeds scored and soaked for 24 hours before sowing. • Mutondo fruits have the flesh removed and are always planted fresh.

At the start of the rains:Seeds randomly scattered at a distance of about 1 m

Or Seeds deliberately planted

a few mm under the soil by hand, in a haphazard manner, at a distance of about every 1 to 1.5 m

along the harrow lines

In-field seeding

Plastic bags and seed beds prepared during winter Seed is sown in from mid-Sept to end DecTarget is 10 000 bags per year providing the main stock for reforestationLabour intensive but most successful method of regeneration from seed

Nursery seeding

Holes are excavated and filled with leaf litter

Start of the rainy season saplings planted out Basin surrounding the young tree filled with leaf litter as a moisture retaining mulch.

Replanting

Each year a “reserve” of about 4 000 plants is kept back to replace field mortalities. This is done during the dry weather with water planting. The theory being that these plants at ± nine months old, having established a firm root system, have been hardened and will survive and able to take full advantage of the annual rains and really get away.

Baton planting

± 1 m sections of branchwood cut and planted around the fell site from mid October through to end of December coinciding with the rising sap.

• This has not proved very successful.

Post planting & general management

Damage is caused by bushpig, baboons and antelope, namely suni and red duiker

Most damage by porcupines which are responsible for the greatest number of seedling and sapling mortality

Catapú gate made from sawmill off-cutsabout 1 m high

Catapú gate not only provides protection from animals but also offers partial shade and has the effect of making the tree grow upwards

Firethe biggest single threat to a forest and woodland

prevention using fire-breaks and cold-burns

Concession a mosaic with forest, thicket and open woodland often with grass.Controlled cool or cold burn undertaken during winter; only done in ideal conditions i.e. on a windless morning after a dew fall; produces a low intensity inefficient fire with minimal damage to established trees, burning mainly the overburden of grass in a mosaic pattern, leaving islands of grass and bush and forest where there is no grass untouched. Periodic winter rains produce a good flush of green grass which further reduces the risk of a hot fire later in the season. Different areas are burnt each year

Community

• Good relationship • Community projects• Reforestation• Fire paid services• Bee-keeping • Thatching grass • Bricks

• Felling logs correctly, transporting them to the sawmill with minimal damage is part of the core business of a timber concession. • Forest restoration and protections is not and therefore comes at a price, employing people on environmental work is purely an expense without them contributing to income at all.

• Environmental team = 9% of the total work force. • Expense of employing themOnly 3--5% of operational costs.• Therefore caring for the forest is not a financial burden. Benefit to the environment

is beyond measure!

Meg Coates Palgrave

TCT-Catapú Cheringoma Herbarium

Flora of Mozambique http://www.mozambiqueflora.comFlora of Zimbabwe http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zwFlora of Zambia http://www.zambiaflora.comFlora of Botswana http://www.botswanaflora.comFlora of Malawi http://www.malawiflora.comFlora of Caprivi http://www.capriviflora.com

9 Blue Kerry, 30 Steppes Road, P O Chisipite. Harare. Zimbabwe.•Tel: Zim: +2634 886134 •+263 772 234433 • SA: +27 72 424 2524 •email: megcp@zol.co.zw

Dendrologist