Enrichment of logging gaps with moabi (Baillonella toxisperma Pierre) in a Central African rain forest

Enrichment of Logging Gaps with a High Conservation Value Species (Pericopsis elata) in a Central African Moist Forest

“…In Central Africa, most timber species require high light levels at the seedling stage for survival and growth [5][6][7][8]. However, to minimize the environmental impacts of logging on forest stands and soils, most logging companies adopted reduced impact logging techniques that offer many advantages (e.g., limited soil compaction and erosion) but considerably reduce canopy openness [3] and produce very small logging gaps (less than 300 m 2 , [9]). If an increase of the felling intensity could stimulate both the growth and the survival of future crop trees [4], it will not be sufficient to improve the regeneration of commercial species that are generally outcompeted by the regeneration of non-commercial tree species [10][11][12].…”

“…But due to the high cost to implement and maintain enrichment planting, most of the initiatives were abandoned. There is thus a need for new-generation silvicultural experiments using native timber species and combining low cost and high species performance (but see [9,[16][17][18]), especially for several logging companies under the independent FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification which have to implement regular planting activities (FSC-STD-CB-01-2012 Regional Standard).…”

“…Up to now, only a few results have been published on the enrichment of logging gaps in African moist forest [9]. In south-eastern Cameroon, it has been demonstrated that seedlings of Baillonella toxisperma (moabi) introduced in logging gaps had high growth and survival rate (>90% after 30 months; [9]).…”

“…In south-eastern Cameroon, it has been demonstrated that seedlings of Baillonella toxisperma (moabi) introduced in logging gaps had high growth and survival rate (>90% after 30 months; [9]). This result suggests that the method is promising, and the light-demanding and high-value timber species Pericopsis elata (Harms Meeuwen) should be a good candidate species for developing the technique of enriched logging gaps in Central Africa.…”

“…It has been previously demonstrated that regular cutting of the competing vegetation greatly improves the performance of planted seedlings in logging gaps [9,22]. Hence, we additionally analyzed the differences in performance between various degrees of clearance after removing a potential confounding effect of the site (soil, gap size and age).…”