New manual for managing African mahogany plantations
28 February 2017
CSIR -Forestry Research Institute of Ghana recently published "Managing mahogany plantations in the tropics" with the aim of helping farmers and other smallholders establish and manage plantations of African mahogany (Khaya) species. The manual is as an output of the ITTO project PD 528/08 Rev.1 (F).
The manual has ten chapters covering descriptions of African mahogany species, seedling handling, the life cycle of the mahogany shoot borer, the maintenance of mahogany stands, silviculture, the integration of mahogany into agricultural landscapes, and wood quality assessment. Techniques presented in the book are drawn from the available literature; personal communications with experts; and the outcomes of field experiments in various ecological zones in Ghana. The manual is complemented with lessons learned in activities conducted under ITTO project PD 528/08 Rev. 1(F).
Mahogany species are threatened by overexploitation in forest reserves, and plantations have often been unsuccessful due the shoot-boring moth Hypsipyla robusta, which devastates young stands by killing main stems and causing excessive forking and branching. The ITTO project developed an integrated pest management strategy for plantation establishment, incorporating various pest management measures based on sound experimental evaluation. The manual outlines the options for putting such an integrated pest management strategy in place in mahogany plantations.
Other outputs of the project, including technical papers on African mahogany, can be obtained by inserting the project code (PD528/08 Rev.1 (F)) into ITTO’s project search function.
The manual has ten chapters covering descriptions of African mahogany species, seedling handling, the life cycle of the mahogany shoot borer, the maintenance of mahogany stands, silviculture, the integration of mahogany into agricultural landscapes, and wood quality assessment. Techniques presented in the book are drawn from the available literature; personal communications with experts; and the outcomes of field experiments in various ecological zones in Ghana. The manual is complemented with lessons learned in activities conducted under ITTO project PD 528/08 Rev. 1(F).
Mahogany species are threatened by overexploitation in forest reserves, and plantations have often been unsuccessful due the shoot-boring moth Hypsipyla robusta, which devastates young stands by killing main stems and causing excessive forking and branching. The ITTO project developed an integrated pest management strategy for plantation establishment, incorporating various pest management measures based on sound experimental evaluation. The manual outlines the options for putting such an integrated pest management strategy in place in mahogany plantations.
Other outputs of the project, including technical papers on African mahogany, can be obtained by inserting the project code (PD528/08 Rev.1 (F)) into ITTO’s project search function.