Research Proposal For Course Code (BMO0114)

Background to the research

Harvesting is the cutting and extraction of timber to the roadside, usually during thinning or clear-felling. Thinning is the process of removing the inferior trees, raising the quality and size of those remaining. The timber harvesting causes localized destruction, and its localized and ecological impact could be less than visual impact (Babarinde, et al., 2020). According to Bachange, it is revealed that logging tracks and canopy loss were confirmed to about 5% and 20%. As harvesting timber is considered one of the adequate ways for preserving the health of the woods. The adequate management of the sustainable timber harvest is not only about cutting the trees but also include the activity of cashing the commercial value (Bachange, 2020).

The process is all about the implementation of the plans to encourage regeneration and wood wellbeing for the long run. In Sub Saharan Africa, the harvesting operations are conducted by involving the felling of selected trees, removing of the branches, stems cross-cutting, racks stacking in the forests and extraction. As for extraction of the timber to the roadside, the horses in Sub Saharan Africa are highly adopted, this option is highly suitable for environmentally sensitive forest areas. Moreover, the specialized forwarding machine is also adopted for conducting the extraction system, this supports the harvesters to reduce an average of 9-12 tonnes per journey.

 Importance of research topic

The research is topic is important for the harvesters to get information about the sustainable practices for conducting timber harvesting. It supports the harvester to conduct the operations in an environment-friendly manner. Moreover, the rationale of the research topic is that the proposed research will give industry implications by providing the direction for the logging industry of Sub-Saharan Africa to maintain a sustainable approach for performing the harvesting operations. The proposed research also gives government implications because through the research government can develop compulsory policies for maintaining sustainability in timber harvesting/logging.

This is because the timber harvesting operations performed in Sub-Saharan Africa do not relate to environmental protection and ecological practices. The proposed research gives academic implications by increasing the knowledge about the importance of timber harvesting and revealing the methods for conducting sustainable timber harvesting/logging in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 Research Aim and objectives

The research aim is the statement which the researcher intends to accomplish while conducting research and research objectives are considered the specific deliverables for achieving the research aim (Kakuru, et al., 2020). The aim of the research is “to understand the sustainable timber harvesting/logging in Sub Saharan Africa”. This aim is achieved through concentrating on the following objectives:-

• “To explore the timber harvesting/logging operations”
• “To determine the sustainable methods of timber harvesting/logging in Sub Saharan Africa”
• “To understand the importance of sustainable timber harvesting/logging”
• “To determine the pros and cons of the initiatives taken in Sub Saharan Africa for sustainable timber harvesting/logging”.
• “To analyze the impact of sustainable timber harvesting/logging in Sub Saharan Africa”.

Timber harvesting/logging operations

According to Kim, et al., the timber harvesting/logging operations includes planning and designing through including provisions for protecting the water and avoidance of the building landings, avoiding the building landings and reducing the impacts of wetland activities (Kim, et al., 2021). Moreover, the designing the timber scale which includes layout, size as well as shape. It harvester have to include various activities forest management goals, inefficiencies of the harvesting and determining the impact of sites.