An examination of what happened to one sector of a nation's economy - timber harvesting - as a result of a disastrous period
R.J.W. Aluma
R.J.W. ALUMA is a lecturer on Forest Engineering at Makerere university in Kampala, Uganda.
Most of the information presented in this report is drawn from my personal experience over the past five years. I hope, in this way, to attract the attention of the outside world to the actual situation of timber harvesting operations in Uganda, and the attention of interested parties to our request for assistance in the development of forests and forest industries. This report is concerned only with logging and transport of timber, but a similar picture could be presented on wood-based industries.
Uganda has about 1 535 100 ha -8 percent of its total area-reserved or covered with forests which include 908 240 ha of productive forests and 584 000 ha of protection forests. The productive forests comprise 565 240 ha of natural high forests, 313 000 ha of savanna woodland forests and 30 000 ha of plantations. These are mainly of pines and cypress, but there are also large areas of Eucalyptus, which provide telephone, electricity and building poles, fencing posts and firewood. The important forests are located in the southern and western parts of the country.
Generally speaking, a lot of silvicultural information has been already collected and almost all the commercial species in the natural high forests have been enumerated, but less than 100 of them out of a possible 300 are currently cut as "desirables." More research is needed to identify the physical and other properties of most of these species and to find out how each one could be best used. For example, some of the "undesirable" species were so declared simply because a market did not exist for them, and this led to heavy programmes for their elimination, to create favourable conditions for the "desirables." But the absence of a market was basically due to ignorance about these timbers and, in turn, this ignorance was due to lack of information from forestry sources about the properties of these species. In short, there is great potential for Uganda's forest resources and industries and, given the right conditions, there is no limit to their development.
All the reserved and gazetted forests are government-owned and managed. Private forests are limited to a few hectares around farms or homes and do not really present a big commercial value. Exploitation of the forests had been left almost entirely to private companies which were owned by Asians until the military takeover in 1971. They were expelled by Idi Amin in the so-called Economic War, when the Wood Industries Corporation was formed and given the sole authority to operate all wood-based industries. Since the corporation pays royalties to the Forest Department, there are a number of areas where the two bodies cooperate. For example, the Forest Department does the reconnaissance, inventory and mapping of the forests and presents a stock map to the corporation to follow. Major road locations have to be approved by the District Forest Officer because the same road will also serve management purposes. During the actual cutting operations, a Forest Department representative has to be around to ensure that only the marked trees are cut and correct volumes are recorded.
Most of the important forests are located in rural areas away from the urban centres which constitute the forestry products' major markets. However, nearly all the sawmills and wood based-factories are located with-in the forests, thus limiting transport distances to a maximum of 50 km. Only the mills operating in Kampala and Jinja get their logs from outside the districts, and even then log-transport distances do not exceed 100 km. Topography is not a real problem, as most of the forests are in lowland areas with shallow valleys lying between flat-topped hills with peaks rising to just over 100 m above the lowest points. Some plantations are located in very hilly terrain with peaks reaching 2 400 m, giving rise to hillside slopes of 30-80° and 300800 m long. If proper logging methods were employed, that would not, however, be considered difficult terrain, since the hillsides are generally smooth and easy for the movement of men and construction of roads. Waterways and swamps do not present barriers to logging.
LOADING LOGS with equipment on its last legs
Climate, especially rainfall, presents the only serious problem to logging and transport operations. Rainfall ranges from 1000 mm in the drier areas to over 2 500 mm in the wetter regions, and most of it is fairly well distributed during the year in the forested regions, with peaks in March-April and October-November. When it rains the already soft grounds become extremely muddy, making it difficult for some operations. The earth-surfaced roads become so slippery that trucks get stuck quite often. Fortunately, the laleritic soils dry very quickly, so that hold-up of operations seldom lasts longer than two days. Well-made murram (gravel) roads are actually operative throughout the year.
The plantations are cut according to management schedules for thinning and clearfelling determined by the Forest Department and the programme is supposed to be maintained on a sustained-yield basis. In the best sites, the largest trees may be around 70-80 cm dbh at the clearfelling age of 25 years, with the tallest not exceeding 30 m. On the other hand, the minimum cutting diameter is 80 cm dbh for mvule and mahoganies (1-3 trees/ ha) and 50 cm dbh for other species in the natural forests which average 30-50 m³/ha. It is rare to find a logging density of over 100 m³/ha. Most of the trees grow very tall, 25-45 m at the first branch, with generally straight and cylindrical boles averaging 70-100 cm dbh with "wolf" trees reaching to over 200 cm dbh (a "wolf tree" is a forest tree whose size and position cause it to prevent the growth of many small and potentially more valuable trees around it by usurping their space, light and nourishment). The first branch usually marks the topping point, resulting in 3060 percent utilization of the total tree volume.
The demand for timber and other wood products is great and it will take some time before the supply balances the demand, if at all. This provides great room and possibilities for the development of forests and forest industries in Uganda. Also, the external demand for first-class furniture timbers (mvule, mahoganies and Elgon olive) has never been met. Thus the foreign-exchange earning capability, vital for the purchase of the required machinery and equipment, is also there. Currently, there are 13 fairly large sawmills, one plywood (another is under construction), one chipboard and one match factory operating in the country besides numerous furniture workshops. There also one paper mill, but the pulp is imported. Most of the mills have log-intake capacities varying between 10 and 30 m³/day with only three having a rated capacity of 100 m³/day. However, barely half these quantities are supplied or processed because either the logging and transport system fails, or the mills break down or the two are simply workirg out of phase.
Labour is cheap and available, but uneducated and untrained -usually rural farmers who take up short-term jobs to earn "enough" money for something and then go off. Thus, experienced workers are very few, with the obvious result that production is always low. Since there is no place offering training to forest workers, each new worker learns on the job and I am sorry to say that they do so badly. Unless steps are quickly taken to establish worker-training programmes, the introduction of new or better methods and equipment will not necessarily result in increased production. In some cases, "logging officers" have never had formal training in logging practice, having been promoted to that position only because of their seniority in service.
Among the most important of economic factors is the purchase price of the needed machinery and equipment. The figures were astronomical and not worth quoting. This, combined with lack of knowledge about the right equipment and scarcity of foreign exchange, :resulted in the continuous use of very old trucks, tractors and other equipment, some of which are said to have been in operation since the early 1950s. The other side-effect of this situation is that, at times, one tractor alone is used to construct roads, skid logs, help in loading and pulling loaded trucks over muddy and slippery roads. Similarly, the logging lorries are often seen cruising to headquarters with the managers, to get essential supplies of fuel, spares and others equipment or just for consultations-a very miserable situation indeed.
It must be emphasized here that some of these conditions were inherited from the former owners, who were purely profit-oriented, caring little for improvements or development, as it was quite easy for them to purchase secondhand equipment from abroad and use it as long as the margin of profit was maintained. Of course Idi Amin's Economic War did not improve the situation; actually, it turned out to be a war declared on the entire economy of the country. Thus, when the corporation took over, it found almost obsolete machinery which will be very costly to replace during the rehabilitation and reconstruction programme.
I can say, therefore, that the methods and techniques used here are far from satisfactory and leave much to be desired. Most of the former owners picked up some knowledge from somewhere and took to logging and sawmilling, and this improvised "expertise'' was, naturally, passed on to some of the present workers and officials. The poor work organization, supervision and control resulting in very few hours worked per day, and the use of wrong maintenance methods and tools are flagrant examples of this state of affairs. It has also been said that attempts to introduce power-saws failed because of lack of knowledge of their proper use and maintenance. The only remedy is to send some, people abroad for specific training in logging practice who in turn will then be able to train workers in correct methods and techniques. Alternatively, experts from willing countries could be called in to train loggers and sawmillers locally, provided that a training centre is established. Unless this is done, there is no sense in introducing new methods and equipment. In operative terms, the methods employed at present are either completely manual or roughly semi-mechanized.
Watching these men work in such difficult and haphazard ways, with very old tractors and worn-out cables, an experienced person can only feel very sorry for them.
The general road network in the country is fairly good and easily connects the forests with the main market centres of Kampala and Jinja. No section of the railway serves the forests, although it could be used as an export line to Mombasa port. Waterways are nowhere near the forests and so have never been used. Therefore, all the transport within and outside the forests is done on roads.
In the plantations, most of the roads had been built during the establishment period and are generally located at the foot of the hills and edges of the forests, with few running through or up the slopes. They are single-lane and made by men using spades, hoes and the like, but serve all the year round. In natural high forests, roads are often constructed along the centre of the logging coupes, following high density areas and over higher ground to avoid floods and provide easy drain" age and drying. The only problem is that extensions are made just a few weeks or even days before they are used. Thus, it is not uncommon to find very muddy conditions at the landings and skidding or loading tractors pulling loaded trucks through to the older section. The "construction," in some cases, may only involve removal of top soil or vegetation with little or no surface material added, and no proper compaction. Without a general road plan for the forests, it is not easy to give an average road density and besides, many branch roads are abandoned as soon as the area is logged.
Felling is done by crews of two men equipped with two-man cross-cut saws, pangas (bush knife) for clearing, axes, steel wedges (locally made from truck: springs) and sledge-hammers. In the plantations, the crew also carries a bottle of oil to "lubricate" the saw and prevent jamming due to the resin from pine trees, and the saws are shorter than those used in the natural forests, which may be up to 2 m long for obvious reasons. In either case, most workers prefer the peg-toothed saws to raker-toothed ones simply be-cause they find the peg-teeth easier to maintain. But even then, neither tool nor method is the right one, and there is an urgent need to teach the workers proper maintenance and use of their tools.
BUCKING LOGS IN UGANDA under difficult conditions
The notch is usually made in the desired direction, 50-150 cm high, in the natural forests to avoid the buttresses. When the back-cut is made, the tree falls and the chances are that there will be some split caused by an inadequate notch. In the plantations, such problems do not arise due to the small size of the trees, where stumps average 20 cm high, with the fellers often adopting a sitting posture.
Limping is done using the axe in the plantations but there is none in natural forests as trees are topped at the first branch. Cross-cutting to logs varying in length from 1.8 m to a maximum of 6 m is done at the felling site in the plantations but at the landings in natural forests. However, very large trees are cut into two in the forests to enable easy skidding.
Production is generally low because the working conditions are very poor. For example, the felling of 40 trees per day per two men in a plantation is never fulfilled. A study by the author showed that about one third of that output is actually accomplished. In the natural forests, only one tree may be felled per day by the pair. Productivity of the bucking operation is equally low.
Extraction here falls into two distinct categories. In the plantations, the logs are rolled down the slopes by hand to the roads below. One can therefore appreciate the locations of the roads, as described earlier. Often two to four men work together, depending on the size of the log to be rolled, using locally-made sticks. The rolling is completely out of control. A log may roll just a few metres, all the way down to the road, or pass over the road and get lost in the bush below. A lot of effort and time is spent in rolling these logs, with stumps, rocks, branches and other logs acting as obstacles. Tractor-winching, in my opinion, would be the best, easiest and cheapest method. For example, 80 logs per day are expected to be rolled by two men, but less than half that are actually rolled, according to results of a study conducted by the writer.
In the natural forests, crawled tractors of various sizes from D6 to D9 or their equivalent with other makes are used. Tree lengths are usually skidded ground-lead to the landings and only huge trees are cut into logs at the felling site and skidded thus. Owing to the poor road plan-or to the absence of a plan-skidding distances vary between 200 and 1000 m. These distances are also contributed to by the thick undergrowth and other trees which the skidded avoids by winding through the more open spaces. Under these conditions, productivity cannot be very high and varies from 4 to 10 trips per day or about 30-80 m³ per day per tractor, taking 4-5 effective hours. This should indicate the slowness of the operation.
Various loading methods are used in Ugandan operations - including hand-loading, push-loading with tractors, A-frame and cross-haul loading with tractor-mounted winches. Hand-loading is done only in the plantations where the logs are not too big to be handled manually. That is, the logs are lifted by the gang and thrown on the trailer without any other aid. Just imagine this work! Thus, logs which exceed the lifting capacity of the gang (5-10 men) have to be "skidded" by tractors along the road to the mill, a journey which may be 3-5 km long.
Watching these men work in such difficult and haphazard ways, with very old tractors and worn-out cables, an experienced person can only :feel very sorry for them. The tractors are very dangerous to handle. They should be replaced and the workers trained to do the job safely and well.
Generally speaking, loading is done out of phase with skidding and transport. Either there are not enough logs and/or trucks to load, or if the two are available, the loading system may break down. Also, as mentioned earlier, loading-tractors and trucks may have been borrowed for other chores. It is not difficult, then, to see why productivity ranges from 15 m³/day with hand-loading to 100 m³/day with the cross-haul method and that would require at least 6 hours of work. The use of powerful front-end loaders in the natural forests would be ideal, being less damaging to the trucks compared to the present methods, and the use of truck or tractor-mounted hydraulic or wire crane-loaders would suit the plantations and save the men breaking their backs.
The transporting system is just as unsatisfactory as the rest of the operations discussed above. The so-called "logging trucks" are not logging trucks at all, but ordinary goods lorries modified for log transport simply by building flat wooden decks and without stakes. Most of them are ten-ton capacity and carry on average three logs, or 2-5 m³ per trip. To date, the British Leyland, Albion, Guy and Ford; German Benz and MAN; Japanese Isuzu; Italian Fiat and the Indian TATA have all been tried for log transport. The longest service has been obtained from the British and German makes with the TATAs proving the most unsuitable for the difficult operating conditions. However, for lack of new vehicles all are being used far beyond their economic life-span. If the mills are rehabilitated, it will be necessary to buy proper and high-capacity logging trucks to feed them. At the same time, the tractor trailers used in the plantations should be replaced with proper logging trailers or self-loading log-carrying trucks. This is because the current trailers cannot carry more than 2 m³ of logs per trip, or between 10 and 20 logs. Tree-length carrying trucks would be uneconomical. Unloading at the mills is no problem since they are equipped with gantry cranes, electric hoists or derricks to do the job.
The logs are lifted by the gang and thrown on the trailer without any other aid. Just imagine this work!
Under the present conditions, one cannot say with certainty what is the cost per m³ of each of the operations. This is because of the recording system used. Most cost figures are not classified while others are recorded as "lump sums" for certain items such as fuel, oil or maintenance for all vehicles or tractors. Also' certain costs are not charged, such as depreciation and interest. The matter is further complicated by the deplorable condition of the trucks, tractors and other equipment. That is, some are so old that depreciation and interest charges do not make sense. Therefore, attempts to analyse the costs have been unsuccessful since a real picture cannot be presented. There is, there fore, an urgent need to put things right in this sector, too.
Research on forest operations and techniques has almost never been done in Uganda. Thus it is virtually impossible to find a publication discussing work, workers and work conditions, or productivity, costs and other related matters. This has been largely due to the lack of qualified personnel to carry out such research, to the low priority given to them by the authorities, or purely to the lack of appreciation of the need for such work. This is an area where international bodies such as FAO, UNDP, ILO and other governmental agencies could assist in the form of experts to evaluate the situation and draw up a suitable research programme. It could also involve offering training for research workers in the various aspects. The whole programme could then end up with the establishment in the country of a permanent research institute.
I believe that Ugandan forestry has a great future if only suitably qualified persons are put at the controls of its various aspects, including education, vocational training, industries, marketing and research. These will of course require sufficient funds in stable political and socio-economic conditions, which I hope will soon be achieved.
ALUMA, R.J.W. 1976. Productivity of manual and semi-mechanized logging and transport methods in Uganda. M.Sc. For. Thesis. Makerere University.
CHAUVIN, HENRI. 1976. Opening up the tropical moist forest and harvesting the timber. Unasylva, Vol. 28, No. 112113.
FOREST DEPARTMENT, Annual report for the period July 1973 to June 1974. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Entebbe.
LOCKWOOD CONSULTANTS LTD. 1973. Forest resource development study, Republic of Uganda. Toronto, Canada, CIDA.
TACK, C.H. 1969. Uganda timbers. Government Printer, Entebbe.
SWAISLAND, A.E.H. The importance of training in improving performance. Paper, 10th Commonwealth For. Congress.
