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

saw millers and traders from Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar), followed by forest colonisation by pit sawers
(initially using trucks and later transporting by bicycle or foot).
Pitsawing is widespread in the study area and has flourished due to the favourable economic returns, low
investment costs, low chances of apprehending illegal pitsawyers, poor patrolling and low penalties.
Monela and Solberg (1998) noted that while pitsawyers may pose less of an environmental concern than
mechanical logging, pitsawyers threaten sustainable forest management through indiscriminate cutting
of trees, construction of dwelling huts, setting bush fires, littering and other undesirable practices
causing costs to the forest owner and society. As tree stocks decline and pit sawyers move elsewhere,
intensive harvesting of smaller trees for poles and firewood ensues, followed by traders returning to
previously logged areas to recover small logs.
Evidence of unsustainable timber trade
This study has confirmed expectations that degradation of miombo woodlands is occurring in the study
area. Unfortunately, few studies have been conducted to measure the growing stock in reserved and
unreserved areas. During surveys of five Forest Reserves in Rufiji District, Malimbwi (2000) concluded
that all the surveyed Forest Reserves were under harvesting pressure, with current unsustainable
harvesting levels leading to deterioration of the woodlands. Negative environmental impacts resulting
from fuel wood extraction, identified as a problem in the National Energy Policy of Tanzania, are
relatively low when compared to land clearance for agricultural expansion. Clearance of land in Liwale
District for agricultural expansion was equated to TZS 4 million (almost USD 4000) per ha equivalent in
lost charcoal and sawn wood production (Kaale, 2000).
Whilst periodic surveys have not been conducted in the study area to determine precise changes in
miombo woodland coverage and integrity, several secondary factors indicate signs of overharvesting and
unsustainable trade levels:
Change in harvest areas
Traders reported declines in the most preferred species in Rufiji District, resulting in many traders
harvesting in Lindi Region. Perhaps the clearest evidence of spatial decline is for Dalbergia
melanoxylon, whose systematic clearance of export-quality trees has driven harvesting progressively
southwards since the mid-1990s. All traders also reported travelling significantly further to get timber.
Increasing quantity of lower quality species harvested
Whilst tax avoidance may affect the quality of data (due to misclassification of harvested timber on
licences), the increasing scarcity of valuable Class II hardwood species in Rufiji District has led to a
higher proportion of Class V species being harvested. Moving southwards, there is an increasing
proportion of Class I and II timber being harvested. Malimbwi (2000) and Kaale et. al. (2000) report
that Afzelia quanzensis, Millettia stuhlmannii and Swartzia madagascarensis are likely to join the list of
other timber species that have become commercially extinct in Rufiji District since the 1970s, namely
Dalbergia melanoxylon, Khaya anthotheca, Milicia exelsa, Newtonia spp. and Pterocarpus angolensis.
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