Comparison between different kinds of logging in the Brazilian Amazon by growth and yield models

Author(s)

Tito Nunes de Castro

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2012-02-03

Examining board members

João Luis Ferreira Batista; Paulo Inácio de Knegt López de Prado; Edson José Vidal da Silva

• Advisor: João Luis Ferreira Batista

Abstract

Logging in Amazon forest has been much discussed in recent years. New logging techniques aiming the reduction of impacts from logging has been developed trying to reach the sustainable use of forest resources. In this way, this project aims to asses and compare the recuperation time of Amazon rainforest after the Reduced Impact Logging and the Conventional Logging. The experiment was installed in Agrossete farm, localized in Paragominas - PA, in 1993 through of loggings area. Plots, with 24.5 ha each, were allocated in the Reduced Impact Logging area, Conventional Logging area and Permanent Preservation area. Diameter at breast height (DBH), specie name and qualitative characteristics were collected for commercial interest trees with DBH bigger than 10 cm and for trees without commercial interest with DBH bigger than 25 cm, before the logging in 1993 and after the logging in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009. The volume increment and the diameter distribution, was shaped for the purpose of determine the forests yield and growth after the logging, so, defining temporal pattern of growth. The yield modeling showed a fast recovery of the forest volume for both logging system, however, considering only the commercial volume able to be harvest, the Reduced Impact Logging did not recover the volume in a 30 years period (cutting cycle) and the Conventional Logging will not recover the volume in a medium term. Modeling the diameter distribution, the Reduced Impact Logging reached the same diameter structure after the period of the cutting cycle, unlike Conventional Logging, and the diameter classes with larger diameters are favored in the Reduced Impact Logging, unlike what happens in conventional exploration (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 09/12332-2 - Comparision between differents kinds of logging in the Brazilian Amazon by growth and yield models
• Grantee: Tito Nunes de Castro
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master