Commercial timber harvesting in the natural forests of Mozambique

This case study is one of a series of publications produced by the Forest Harvesting, Trade and Marketing Branch of FAO in an effort to promote environmentally sound forest harvesting and engineering practices. The purpose of these studies is to highlight both the promise of environmentally sound forest harvesting technologies as a component of sustainable forest management, and the constraints that must be overcome in order to assure widespread adoption of those technologies. The FAO Forest Products Division wishes to express its appreciation to the Forest Harvesting and Transport Branch of Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique for its cooperation in the publication of this revised and translated version of a report on forest harvesting in the natural forests of Mozambique. The earlier, Portuguese-language version of the report was published in November 1999 under the title “Eficiência no Aproveitamento Comercial de Madeira em Toros”. FAO and the author also wish to acknowledge the kind support given by the management and field staff of the companies ECOSEMA in the Province of Sofala, ÁLVARO de CASTRO in the Province of Gaza, MITI in the Province of Cabo Delgado, SOMANOL in the Province of Nampula, and ARCA as well as SRZ in the Province of Zambézia, throughout the implementation of this study. The field studies and analyses described in this report were carried out by Henning Fath, until recently Docent of Forest Harvesting and Transport in the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at Eduardo Mondlane University under a GTZ/CIM-assignment, who also prepared the written report. FAO Forestry Officer Joachim Lorbach managed the preparation of the report for publication in the FAO Forest Harvesting Case-Study Series. Editing and final layout for publication were done by Dennis Dykstra.