Forestry in Africa
Senior 3 · Geography
Forestry in Africa
Lesson 2 of 4
30 min
Let's begin
In the 1950s, a photographer working for the United States government followed timber crews in the forests of southern Cameroon. His captions explain that until a few years earlier, many timber areas deep in the interior could not be logged at all: there were no machines to move the trees and no roads to carry them. Seventy years later, chainsaws and lorries reach almost everywhere, yet loggers in Africa still face problems that loggers in Europe's conifer forests do not. What are they, and how can they be overcome?
Figure 2 compares one hectare of natural rainforest with one hectare of plantation. In the rainforest, the trees of any one valuable species are scattered among many others, so a logger must search a wide area and build long roads to collect a few logs. In the plantation, every tree can be cut and sold.
Definition
Heterogeneous forest: a forest made of many different tree species mixed together, as in the tropical rainforest. Homogeneous (pure) stand: a forest of a single species, as in a plantation. Rotation: the number of years between planting a tree and harvesting it. Illegal logging: cutting, transporting or selling timber against the law, for example without a permit or inside a protected area.
| Challenge | Why it is a problem | Possible solutions |
|---|---|---|
| Valuable species are scattered | Much searching and road building for few logs; high cost per tree | Plantations and enrichment planting of valuable species; market lesser-known species |
| Heavy hardwoods; some sink | Cannot be floated; need strong lorries and good roads | All-weather roads and railways; process logs near the forest to cut their weight |
| Dense undergrowth, climbers, buttress roots, swamps | Slow and dangerous felling and skidding | Machines (bulldozers, skidders); trained fellers; cutting above the buttresses |
| Heavy rain and a hot, humid climate | Roads turn to mud; floods; logs rot or are attacked by insects; workers suffer malaria | Work in the drier months; treat logs; health care and mosquito nets for workers |
| Rapids and waterfalls on rivers | Logs cannot float to the coast, e.g. the Livingstone Falls on the lower Congo | Railways round the falls, e.g. the Matadi–Kinshasa railway; roads to the ports |
| Hardwoods take 60–100 years or more to mature | Cut forest is slow to recover; supply can run out | Felling cycles and quotas; replanting; fast-growing species for plantations |
| Shortage of capital, machines and skilled workers | Dependence on foreign companies; profits leave the country | Training in forestry colleges; joint ventures; local investment |
| Changing world prices and distant markets | Income is uncertain; transport costs are high | Process timber at home to sell higher-value products; find regional markets |
| Illegal logging and corruption | Lost taxes, damaged forests, unfair competition for legal firms | Log tracking, certification, forest guards, stiff penalties |
| Conflict with forest communities and conservation | Forest peoples lose land and resources; protected areas are closed to logging | Community forests that share benefits; clear zoning of logging and protected areas |
Rwanda's plantation forests face their own problems, such as trees cut too young for fuelwood and poor management of small woodlots. One answer has been to hand state plantations to private managers. According to the Ministry of Environment, about 23,456 hectares, equal to 38.4% of state forests, were being managed by private investors under long-term concession agreements. The investor brings capital and skills; the government keeps the land and sets the rules for harvesting and replanting.
Worked example
Worked example 1: the cost of a scattered forest (illustrative figures). Company A logs a rainforest concession and gets 3 m³ of valuable timber per hectare. Company B clear-fells a pine plantation and gets 300 m³ per hectare. If roads and skidding cost 150,000 Frw per hectare in both, what is the cost per cubic metre for each?
Worked example
Worked example 2: rotation and regrowth (illustrative figures). A hardwood takes 80 years to reach felling size; a eucalyptus plantation can be cut every 8 years. How many eucalyptus harvests can be taken from the same land in the time one hardwood grows?
Warning
Give the problem and its effect, then a matching solution. "Rain" alone earns little. Write: "Heavy rain turns logging roads to mud, so lorries cannot reach the logs for several months; building gravelled all-weather roads keeps them open." Make sure each solution answers the problem it sits next to.
Tip
To remember the physical problems of tropical logging, think "SHADE": Scattered species, Heavy logs, Access blocked by undergrowth and swamps, Dampness and disease, Endless waiting for slow growth.
PBS NewsHour: how widespread and illegal logging threatens the Congo Basin rainforest in DR Congo. Note two reasons given for why the logging is hard to control.
Practice
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
