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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

Forest to
Furniture
Logging in a
sustainable manner
where

TCT-Dalmann Furniture, Lda.


Catap timber concession
Sofala, Mozambique
have been doing so for 19

Introduction
Catap 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''

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

Mphingwe
commercial hospitality
unit

Soils: sand with outbreaks of sandstone and


calcareous conglomerates underlain by sublittoral sands;
black cotton or turf soils around the vleis
and in the
Zangue River floodplain
Rainfall: average annual 7001 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

Vegetation a mosaic
Dry lowland deciduous forest
Dry deciduous thicket
Woodland

Operation
Core business
utilization of natural
resources:
felling 2 100 m of
indigenous hardwoods
of various species
principally
Panga-panga, (Partyshout)
Millettia stulhmannii
Taub.

Wild-mango, (Mutondo)
Cordyla africana Lour.

Pod-mahogany,
(Chanfuta)
Afzelia quanzensis Welw.

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 DEMARCATED

block boundaries planned to provide access roads with one road


servicing two blocks
recorded on multi-scaled electronic maps including drag lines,
field loading ramps and haulage roads
also recorded existing roads and paths, waterways, steeply
inclined terrain, wetlands and spongy areas
and 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
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
lessattractive
than 30
Commercially
cm & length less than
0,8 m being
removed
branchwood
is cut,
dragged
and ramped, awaiting
from the forest
special authority to
move it from the forest

Haulage

Machinery restricted to small agricultural


tractors with turn-table trailers &
short-bodied rigid-chassis trucks.

Drag lines linking fell-sites to


in-field loading ramps are
established using the line of
least resistance

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

Moving the log


manually

Loading the

Hand or tractor loading results in


minimum size ramps confined to small
clear areas

No log transported for 24 hours after rain.

Adding value

TCT- Dalmann has sawmill and kilns at Catap


and furniture factory in Beira

Timber cut into planks as required by the factory,


dried in the kiln, sent to Beira to be made
into high quality hardwood furniture

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 Herbarium
http://acdb.co.za/index.php/cheringoma-herbarium/introdu
ction.html

TCT-Dalmann FSC certified


throughout the operation for two
four year terms Testimony to the
Companys 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.

FOREST
RESTORATION

Very high

Furrows
created
in
drag
lines
repaired
The edge scuffled into
the centre with a hoe
and ........

.... 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

Regeneration
1. Coppice and coppice
management
2. Regeneration from
seed
3. Baton
planting

Coppice
Definition: vegetation
that resprouts after the
trunk has been cut.

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

When felling for timber the


cut must be as low as
possible for
maximum recovery.
the low clean cut on Pangapanga promotes a vigorous
coppice
growth giving optimum
survival
Others produces better
coppice growth when cut
higher up as
shown here with Mutondo

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

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

New shoot eventually breaks


away to form a new tree
with its 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%,

In-forest restoration is carried


out in areas disturbed by log
extraction such as drag lines
and abandoned ramps
also
in 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.

In-field
seeding

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

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

Holes are excavated and filled with


leaf litter

Start of the rainy season saplings


planted out Basin surrounding the
young tree filled with

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

Catap gate
made from sawmill off-cuts
about 1 m high

Catap gate
not only
provides
protection
from
animals but
also offers
partial
shade and
has the

Fire

the 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

Community

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

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

= 9% of the total work force.


Expense of employing them
Only 3--5% of operational
costs.
Therefore caring for the
forest
is not a financial burden.

Benefit to the

Meg Coates
Palgrave
Dendrologist

TCT-Catap Cheringoma
Herbarium

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

Flora of Mozambique http:


//www.mozambiqueflora.com
Flora of Zimbabwe http://
www.zimbabweflora.co.zw
Flora of Zambia
http://www.zambiaflora.com
Flora of Botswana
http://www.botswanaflora.co
m
Flora of Malawi
http://www.malawiflora.com
Flora of Caprivi

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