Forestry in Africa
Senior 3 · Geography
Forestry in Africa
Lesson 1 of 4
30 min
Let's begin
Near Libongo, in the far south-east of Cameroon, a lorry grinds along a red dirt road carrying just two logs. Each log was once a single tree, cut from the rainforest of the Congo Basin and now on its way, hundreds of kilometres overland, to a sawmill or to the port of Douala. A rainforest tree like this may be well over a century old. Why is timber cut on such a scale in Cameroon and Gabon, while other African forests are hardly touched, and how does a standing tree become an export?
Definition
Forest: a large area of land covered mainly by trees whose crowns shade much of the ground. Forestry: the science and business of growing, managing, harvesting and protecting forests. Forest exploitation (also called lumbering or logging): the cutting and removal of trees and other forest products for use or sale. Example: felling sapele trees in Cameroon for export as sawn timber.
Africa's forests differ with climate and altitude, so each kind gives different products. The table summarises the main types you met in your study of natural vegetation.
| Forest type | Where in Africa | Main trees | Main products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tropical rainforest (equatorial) | Congo Basin (DR Congo, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic); coastal West Africa (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia) | Hardwoods: mahogany, sapele, iroko, okoumé, ebony, obeche | Logs, sawn timber, plywood, veneer, furniture wood |
| Savanna woodland (e.g. miombo) | Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola; the Sahel fringe | Brachystegia, acacia, baobab | Fuelwood, charcoal, honey, gum arabic, poles |
| Montane forest | Highlands: Nyungwe (Rwanda), Mau and Aberdares (Kenya), Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) | Podocarpus, camphor, bamboo | Water catchment, medicine, tourism; little legal logging |
| Mangrove forest | Tidal coasts: Niger Delta, Lamu (Kenya), Rufiji Delta (Tanzania), Mozambique | Mangroves | Building poles, fuelwood, fish nurseries |
| Mediterranean forest | Atlas Mountains and coast of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia | Cork oak, cedar | Cork, cedar timber |
| Plantation (planted) forest | South Africa (Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal), Eswatini, Kenya, Rwanda | Softwoods (pine, cypress) and eucalyptus | Pulp and paper, building timber, poles, fuelwood |
Definition
Hardwood: wood from broad-leaved trees, usually dense, strong and slow-growing; for example mahogany and iroko. Softwood: wood from coniferous trees with needle-like leaves, usually lighter and fast-growing; for example pine and cypress. Natural forest: forest that grew by itself. Plantation: forest planted by people, usually of one species in rows. Non-timber forest products: useful forest products other than wood, such as honey, gum arabic, shea nuts, medicines and cork.
In a natural tropical forest, valuable trees grow scattered among hundreds of other species, often only one or two worth cutting per hectare. Loggers therefore use selective felling: a team surveys the concession, marks the trees of the right species and size, and cuts only those. The chain then runs as in Figure 1.
In a plantation, all the trees are of one species and the same age, so a whole block is cut at once (clear felling) and then replanted. Small-scale cutters use pit-sawing or a chainsaw to turn a tree into planks where it falls, and carry the planks out by hand or bicycle.
Definition
Selective felling: cutting only chosen trees of a particular species and size, leaving the rest standing. Clear felling: cutting every tree in an area at once. Skidding: dragging felled logs from the stump to a collecting point. Concession: an area of forest that a government licenses a company to log for a set number of years.
Why is commercial logging important in Gabon, Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire, and why are softwood plantations so productive in South Africa? Geographers sort the reasons into physical and human factors.
| Factor | How it helps | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Large forest reserves | Enough trees to supply mills for many years | The Congo Basin, the second-largest tropical forest in the world |
| Valuable species | High prices repay the cost of cutting in remote areas | Okoumé in Gabon, sapele and iroko in Cameroon |
| Rivers and gentle relief | Cheap transport by floating logs; machines move easily on flat land | The Ogooué in Gabon |
| Transport and ports | Logging roads, railways and ports link forest to market | The Trans-Gabon Railway to Owendo; Douala port |
| Market demand | Buyers in Europe, Asia and African cities | Timber exports to China and the European Union |
| Capital and technology | Chainsaws, skidders, lorries and mills cost a lot | Foreign logging companies with long concessions |
| Government policy | Concessions, forest laws and tax rules encourage investment | Plantation schemes in South Africa and Kenya |
| Climate and soils (plantations) | Warm, wet conditions make trees grow quickly | Pine and eucalyptus in Mpumalanga, South Africa |
Rwanda has no large lowland rainforest, but trees cover a large share of its land. According to the Ministry of Environment, the 2019 national forest mapping found that forests covered 30.4% of Rwanda, about 724,662 hectares. Of this, 53% was plantations, 21% wooded savanna, 19% natural mountain rainforest (such as Nyungwe) and about 6% shrubs. So, unlike Gabon, most of Rwanda's wood comes from planted trees, which supply poles, timber, charcoal and firewood.
Worked example
Worked example 1: how much of Rwanda's forest is planted? Rwanda's forests covered about 724,662 ha in 2019, of which 53% were plantations (Ministry of Environment). How many hectares is that?
Worked example
Worked example 2: why selective felling covers a large area (illustrative figures). A sawmill needs 6,000 valuable trees a year. In its concession there are, on average, 1.5 such trees per hectare. How many hectares must be logged each year?
Warning
Do not mix up "hardwood" and "hard wood". The terms describe the kind of tree, not how hard the wood feels. Hardwoods come from broad-leaved trees and softwoods from conifers. Most African rainforest timbers are hardwoods, while most plantation timber in Africa is softwood or eucalyptus.
Tip
When asked for "factors favouring forest exploitation", give a mix of physical factors (forest size, valuable species, rivers, relief, climate) and human factors (market, capital, transport, labour, government policy), and attach a named country to each one.
Simon Ssendawula-Geographer: a short presentation on forestry in Africa for secondary geography students. As you watch, note each forest type mentioned and one product that comes from it.
Practice
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
