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Summary
The Forest Development Plan for the period 1960–64 allocates less than 10 per cent of the expenditure on field work to natural regeneration but the contribution which natural regeneration makes to forest development is much greater than this proportion would suggest. About 15,000 acres of high forest are classed as “regenerated or under treatment”, while the area of established State plantations is about 26,500 acres.
More information is available on camphorwood (Ocotea usambarensis) than on the other species and the various operations likely to be required are described in some detail. They include pre-exploitation poisoning of brambles and large defective camphor-wood, and post-exploitation measures of bramble digging, weed-tree poisoning and thinning, and also against erosion. Regeneration is mainly from root suckers. It is expected that final crop trees of 6 ft. in girth will be obtained in 60–80 years, depending on locality. The incidence of heart rot and the inferior quality of fast grown timber may be found the most serious objections to the proposed system of management; present information is inadequate on both points.
Mvule (Chlorophora excelsa) can also be regenerated from root suckers. The number of sucker shoots can be considerably increased and the less desirable coppice shoots decreased by burning the stumps.
Research on regeneration of the rich forests of Cephalosphaera usambarensis and its associates has barely started. Natural seedlings of the three best timber species are common and the problem will be to ensure their establishment and an acceptable growth rate.
Juniperus procera, Olea welwitschii and Podocarpus spp. are unsuitable subjects for natural regeneration, while Khaya nyasica, though a more promising species, occurs mainly outside reserved forest.