Abstract:

Multiple-use Forest Values, Silvicultural Impacts of Timber
Management, and Sustainability of Forest Management in Uganda’s Budongo and
Mabira Forest Reserves. Typed and bound Ph.D. dissertation, 238 pages, 9 tables,
17 figures, August, 1997.
This study examined multiple-use values, silvicultural impacts of timber
management, and the sustainability of forest management in two of Uganda’s most
important tropical forest reserves. Field data for the study was collected between
June and December of 1995.
Multiple-use forest values consisting of six major tropical forest outputs were
evaluated in a total of five timber management and two unlogged nature reserve
compartments in the two forests, taking into consideration the relative importance of
the outputs expressed as weights assigned by three groups of forestry professionals.
A comparison of the multiple-use values of the two forests indicated that timber
management compartments which were treated with arboricide or charcoal refining
and enrichment planting after logging had higher summed scores of assigned forest
output weights x compartment output magnitudes than those which were only treated
with arboricide or selectively logged without any amelioration. Unlogged and
untreated nature reserve compartments had the lowest summed scores.
Silvicultural impacts of the five timber management prescriptions were examined
by evaluating and comparing tree genera richness, evenness, and structure of timber
management and unlogged nature reserve compartments in the two forests. The
evaluation indicated that while there were significant differences in tree genera
richness between most compartments, there was no evidence to support the
commonly held view that nature reserve compartments had higher tree genera
richness and evenness than timber management ones. The data revealed that tree
genera diversity of timber management compartments was similar to or higher than
that of nature reserve compartments. There were no major differences in forest
structure between all the compartments studied in either forest.
An assessment of the sustainability of management of the two forests, based on
International Tropical Timber Organization criteria, indicated that the current forest
management regime for the two forests is potentially sustainable mainly due to the
presence of a sizable professional staff with substantial management experience,
and a legally secure forest estate. Forest management constraints included poor
financing, political interference, a high growth rate of a population dependent on
subsistence agriculture, widespread illegal activities, and limited investment in
supplementary forest production projects such as agroforestry and expansion of
industrial plantations.