The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

Objectives and Content of the Reforms 49the canopy boosts the growth of light-demanding species. The intensity of theforest canopy opening affects the composition of species in the regeneratedforest, depending on whether the remaining species are better adapted to lightor shade. Many—but not all—commercial species are light demanding.What happens during the second harvest? After 30 years, the same1/30th of the concession may be harvested. The trees of intermediate diameterleft during the first harvest will be suitable for harvesting. By that time, morespecies may have become marketable. If this is the case, subsequent harvestscan also garner very large trees. Even so, volumes of the most harvested treesare generally lower in the second felling, because the initial harvest is composedof overmature trees (with diameters up to 200–250 centimeters), a volume thatcannot be recovered within a 30-year harvesting cycle. Under law, managementnorms require a minimum of 50 percent of volume for the group called“managed species” to be recovered from one harvesting cycle to the next, andMDCs are raised accordingly to reach this threshold.The figure provides a very simplified example of this process.Area to be harvested First harvest Thirty years laterHigh-value maturetreeImmature high-valuetreeLogged treeTree destroyed byloggingSecondary speciesmature treeSecondary immaturetreeSource: Authors.Note: Fifty-nine percent of UFAs in southern Cameroon are estimated to have been harvested at leastonce already (Abt and others 2002).harvests and improved Delivered marketing by The World of secondary Bank e-library species to: offset the initialThe World Bankcosts. Globally, financial returns IP : 192.86.100.34 on forest management can be attractiveif efforts are made to Mon, expand 09 Nov the 2009 number 17:06:18 of species harvested andto reduce costs through low-impact harvesting and the effective use ofinformation from forest inventories.(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank