Bridging the Gap: linking timber trade with infrastructural ...

Field Research
Research assistants were positioned at strategic locations to collect relevant data pertaining to the trade in
timber products from southern Tanzania. The purpose of this information was to verify the accuracy of
official data especially regarding the quantity and type of logs, planks and charcoal. Other timber
products were generally too small or difficult to identify by this methodology.
A total of seven research assistants at different locations were identified and trained, prior to collecting
data continuously for a period of just over three months. Training lasted a period of one week and data
collected during this training period were not included in the analysis. Locations were primarily chosen
based on their strategic positioning with respect to major roads and junctions, logging routes, river
crossings and government checkpoints (Figure 2). The locations where also chosen to detect those
vehicles that may later avoid official natural resource
checkpoints, by selecting sites where most transport routes
become more restricted or bottle-necked (e.g. at rivers).
Final selection of the sites also correlated to the
availability of suitable research assistants (e.g. literacy,
knowledge of trade in timber products, vehicle
identification skills, honesty, lack of connections with the
timber trade, etc.). Information was collected covertly and
included date, time, direction of travel, vehicle type (make
and tonnage), registration number, cargo and approximate
quantity. Data were recorded in exercise books and later
entered into computerized spreadsheets.
Rufiji River, Utete
The positioning of some research assistants was also chosen to enable double-checking of other research
assistants. This helped improve data accuracy, particularly at critical locations such as the Ndundu ferry
crossing. During the research period, one research assistant was discontinued, and the data collected by
another research assistant were not included in the analysis due to concerns over their accuracy. By the
end of the three-month period, a total of over 4000 vehicles had been recorded by the research assistants
and related information entered into a computer for analysis.
Credit: Simon Milledge/TRAFFIC
East/Southern Africa
Mapping of logging roads
In the same way that stump surveys in woodlands can provide indicators of harvest activity, the density of
off-road logging routes used by trucks may also provide indicators of harvest and trade levels. Driving
along all major truck routes in the study area, the location of all logging truck routes and forest product
outlets along the main trunk routes was recorded using a four-wheel drive vehicle and a Global
Positioning System (GPS). Only those logging roads deemed to be in current use were recorded,
characterised by the presence of vehicle movement since the last rainy season. In addition to recording
spatial information, the relative size of different forest product outlets was recorded (e.g. number of sacks
of charcoal, volume of firewood observed). The route taken through southern miombo woodlands
included the Kibiti-Mkongo-Ikwiriri ‘triangle’, extending from Ikwiriri to Nangururkuru, Kilwa, Lindi,
Nachingwea and Liwale (Figure 1). GPS co-ordinates were later downloaded and analysed using
ArcView GIS software. During the process of mapping logging roads, a photographic diary was kept and
observations regarding timber trade dynamics recorded.
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