Implementing Agency:
Department For International Development (DFIDC)

Project Code: 107-502-002	Start Date: 01-Jul-91	End Date: 01-Apr-94
Commitment: £320 000	Status: Completed	Type of Funding: Bilateral - TC

Project Background:
The total volume of exploitable timber in the forest has been estimated at 351 million cubic metres. Greenheart (Ocotea rodiaei) accounts for 1.5 percent of total volume but dominates the export market. Mabura Hill is the research site situated 75 km South of Linden between the Essequibo and Demarara Rivers. This research is part of a Collaborative Guyana and Tropenbos programme funded by the Dutch and other European governments. The programme will last years and cost $750,000. It focusses on various biological processes including the hydrological balance and nutrient cycling in both undisturbed and over-logged tropical rain forest. Detailed components are as follows: comparative study of floristic diversity in logged and unlogged forest characteristics of 100 Guyanan timber species and a key to their identification hydrological balance and nutrient cycling population structure and dynamics of important timber species growth and productivity in relation to environmental constraints The research programme conforms to the recommendations in the National Forestry Action Plan in which the TROPENBOS work is acknowledged (reference project profile 23). The objectives of this project are to develop the internal capacity to conduct applied research related to tropical forest ecosystems and to increase international applied research efforts in the tropics.

Project Objectives:
Forest entomology studies on survival and regeneration of greenheart and other timber species.