Does climber cutting reduce felling damage in southern Cameroon?

In the lowland rain forest in southern Cameroon, an experiment was set-up t o test whether pre-felling climber cutting could reduce logging damage. The abundance of lianas in the forest and their resprouting capacity after cut ting was assessed. Logging damage was considered as tree mortality and tree damage in the felling gaps and the sizes of the created gaps after falling . Lianas were very abundant: on average nearly 5000 individuals (at breast he ight) of which over 100 large ones (greater than or equal to5 cm DBH) per h a. Some 70% of monitored lianas had died 22 months after cutting. Resprouti ng capacity was high but variable among species. Felling gapsizes (average 550 m(2) per felled tree), tree mortality (12 trees per felled tree) and da mage (20 trees per felled tree) were not significantly affected by pre-fell ing climber cutting. A minority of the damage was severe. Smaller trees wer e most prune to destruction and severe damage. The results show that pre-fe lling climber cutting has no significant effect on resulting gapsizes, tree mortality and damage levels. We conclude that climber cutting before a log ging operation does not contribute to damage reductions at the felling site s in African moist forests where the logging intensity is extremely low. Th e average harvest level in the study area was one tree or about 13 m(3) ha( -1). We suggest that climber cutting should be applied on a tree-by-tree ba sis only, and after a careful judgement of the tree's liana load. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.