Chainsaw Milling Summary Report

HDRA - the organic organisation
DFID
The potential of chainsaw milling
outside forests
organic organisation i
outside forests
Summary report
with economic and policy case studies from East Africa
JH Samuel NM Pasiecznik C Fehr
John Samuel
2 Gelding Street
Dulwich Hill
Sydney, NSW 2203
Australia
+61 (0) 2 95607813
johnhsamuel@yahoo.com
Nick Pasiecznik
Agroforestry Enterprises
Villebeuf
71550 Cussy-en-Morvan
France
+33 (0) 3 85546826
npasiecznik@wanadoo.fr
Clemens Fehr
Gourmet Gardens
PO Box 70066
Kampala
Uganda
+256 (0) 77 481158
clemens.fehr@unique-forst.de
HDRA the organic organisation
International Research Department
Ryton Organic Gardens
Coventry CV8 3LG
UK
+44 (0) 24 7630 3517
ove-enquiries@hdra.org.uk
www.hdra.org.uk/international_programme
HDRA, Coventry, UK
2007
The potential of chainsaw milling outside forests
ii HDRA - the
Training materials (English, French and Spanish)
Turning Trees to Timber. A Chainsaw Milling Manual.
40pp.
Turning trees to timber: a chainsaw milling poster series.
Nos. 1-8.
Policy briefs
Chainsaws, milling and regulation. 2pp.
Chainsaw milling improving timber production and
rural livelihoods on farms and in drylands. 2pp.
The future of powersaw splitting (chainsaw milling) in
Kenya. 2pp.
The potential of chainsaw milling for improving rural
livelihoods in Uganda and DR Congo. 2pp.
Acknowledgements
For information obtained during the East Africa regional
case studies, thanks are due to the many chainsaw operators,
sawyers, farmers and extensionists in Kenya, Uganda and
DR Congo. Special thanks to Sammy Carsan, Simon Choge,
George Muthike, Andrew Muita and Samuel Nabea for
arranging primary data collection and supplying secondary
literature in Kenya, Peter Wood for observations in Tanzania,
and F Echlinger for work carried out in Uganda and DR
Congo. Thanks also to Melissa Harvey for realisation.
This publication is an output from a research project funded
by the United Kingdom Department for International
Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries.
The views expressed are not necessarily those of DFID.
R8510 Forestry Research Programme.
Additional copies, publications and information
Copies of this publication are available free to people and
organisations in countries eligible for UK aid. Copyright
restrictions exist on the reproduction of all or part of this
manual, and requests for printed publications, reproduction
and further information should be directed to the authors.
This and all other project outputs can also be accessed and
freely downloaded directly from the on-line chainsaw milling
library http://chainsaw.gwork.org/, or via www.hdra.org.uk/
international_programme/ip_publications. Any feedback on
the contents or use of this or associated publications would
be greatly appreciated by the authors.
Decision-making framework
When chainsaw milling makes sense. Two Microsoft
Excel spreadsheets, the first an economic model, the
second a policy decision support model.
.
Disclaimer
Chainsaws are dangerous and potentially fatal and this must
be acknowledged by all users. This manual contains
information and best practice recommendations based on
sources believed to be reliable. This is supplied without
obligation and on the understanding that any person who
acts on it, or otherwise changes their position in reliance
thereon, does so entirely at their own risk. No liability
whatsoever is attributable to any person, business, company,
agency or others connected to this project on the use of
models in this or related reports, or the outputs of them.
They are only indicative tools, and no guarantee, surety or
any other form of claim is made on their accuracy, all
decisions must be made by the business, company
(incorporated or not) or individual(s) alone.
Cover photographs
Top left: mobile 'bench' (circular) saw, Meru, Kenya
Top right: chainsaw 'rail' milling, Baringo, Kenya
Bottom left: chainsaw 'frame' milling, Meru, Kenya
Bottom right: fixed circular saw, Meru, Kenya
All photographs, Nick Pasiecznik
2007 HDRA Publishing
ISBN:
Concept and layout: Nick Pasiecznik and John Samuel
Typography: Steve Hammett
Printed and bound by Emerson Press, Kenilworth, UK
organic organisation 1
Contents
page
1 Chainsaw milling in the world 2
Summary
Trees, timber and livelihoods outside forests
Appropriate timber processing technologies
Chainsaw milling equipment
Potential for chainsaw milling
Chainsaw millers and the trees and logs they mill a global perspective
Output and recovery from chainsaw milling
2 Building a decision-making framework 10
Criteria for choice
Economic information required
Non-economic considerations
Introduction to a decision-making framework
3 Case study, Meru, Kenya 14
Overview of timber production around Meru
Constructing a decision-making framework
(0) Policy and legislative framework
(1) Stakeholder analysis
(2) Decision making and participatory forest management context
(3) Cost-benefits of chainsaw milling
(4) Values and prices
(5) Results and performance measurement
(6) Implementation, monitoring and improvement
Summary conclusions of the case study in Meru
Ways forward and policy suggestions
4 Supporting regional assessments 37
Introduction to Uganda and eastern DR Congo
Pitsawing, freehand chainsaw and frame milling, on farm in eastern DR Congo
Portable sawmilling, in forests in Uganda
The recent rise of chainsaw milling in northern Tanzania
Specific conclusions and recommendations
5 When chainsaw milling is sustainable and appropriate 47
Multi criteria analysis on chainsaw milling in East Africa
Weighting importance of criteria
Policy option performance results
Sensitivity testing results
Conclusions
6 Conclusions and recommendations 56
Inter-African trade in illegal timber an overlooked cause of deforestation?
Chainsaw milling improving timber production and rural livelihoods outside forests
Chainsaws, milling and regulation
7 Bibliography 61
2 HDRA - the
Summary
Common opinions concerning the sawing of logs into boards
with a chainsaw include: it is not possible, hardly anyone
does it, it is very wasteful, it produces curved boards, and
the finish is very rough. A new chainsaw milling manual
(Pasiecznik et al., 2006) may overturn these misconceptions,
and allow people to see milling with chainsaws in a new
light, as an increasingly common method of producing
timber, being cheap and efficient, available to most people,
producing quality timber, with appropriate technology
already available and just waiting to be applied. Most
chainsaw milling is, however, carried out freehand, i.e.
without the use of any guides, frames or rails that would
otherwise help sawyers produce even dimensioned quality
boards with less chance of accidents. The few studies on
chainsaw milling that do exist highlight the need for further
training.
Outside traditional forest zones, e.g. drylands or farmlands,
wood from trees provides relatively little income, as fuel,
posts or sold standing. Processing logs on-site increases value
and revenues to the tree owner and stimulates local
economies by provision of raw materials, but low timber
volumes and large distances to market mean even small
sawmills are often uneconomic. Chainsaw milling has proved
valuable in some remote forest locations but is little-known
elsewhere where it shows promise. The chainsaw milling
with attachments productivity and recovery presented here
compare well with portable band saws and circular saws,
especially when considering the considerably lower capital
cost and ultimate portability of a chainsaw and milling
attachment. Using attachments, the timber produced is
invariably straight, the finish good, and if using special
ripping chains, can be as good as from any bandmill.
Chainsaw milling is, however, responsible for the processing
of significant and increasing amounts of timber in the tropics,
both inside and outside forests, legally and illegally, though
its use is rarely acknowledged as there are few reliable figures.
There is a clear need for more information on the equipment
and techniques available, when and how they are used and
by whom, and the economic, environmental and social
impacts. This project aimed to overcome all these identified
constraints, by reviewing chainsaw milling in general and
in East Africa in particular, and producing: multi-lingual
training manuals, wall posters on the wise use of chainsaw
milling, this summary report with a decision making
framework, policy briefs, articles for trade journals and
newspapers, and an internet site containing all publications
and related materials (http://chainsaw.gwork.org/).
The global review provides information from forested areas
and temperate regions supporting the view that chainsaw
milling could be economically viable in similar tropical
situations, increasing revenues for tree owners, millers and
artisans, and reducing negative environmental effects.
However, these may not all occur in every situation,
especially if the technology is used without control, and the
dangers of uncontrolled use are identified and included in
the assessment. The example from some other countries
indicate that government regulation is unlikely to have much
impact on its own, so alternative systems are proposed to
mitigate detrimental effects. These are based on ensuring
clarity of laws and there enforcement, training and
certification type chain of custody.,
East Africa was selected as a case study region as portable
milling outside forests is already well developed there. A
decision-making framework for collecting data and for
assessing when chainsaw milling makes sense, was
undertaken in Meru, Kenya, supported with other studies
elsewhere in the region. The formulation is presented, and
the different information can be added on the web-based
spreadsheets allowing users to adapt it to their own situations
and use the framework to collect their own information.
Then, whether chainsaw milling is appropriate can be
assessed, and recommendations can be made to ensure that
its use maximises benefits to rural livelihoods and local
environments. Of specific interest is the potential for
improving the well-being of people on forest margins, on
farms, in drylands and other areas of low forest cover, where
low timber volumes and/or poor tree form appeared likely
to favour the use of low capital and simple technology timber
processing methods.
This report should be of interest to those involved in forest
policy, timber production, agroforestry, natural resource
management and wood processing, amongst others, whether
they are governmental, non-governmental, educational or
commercial. It is hoped that this report and associated project
outputs will assist in allowing the assessment of when the
application of such simple and appropriate technology for
converting on-farm, dryland and street trees to marketable
timber is appropriate. In doing so, more money should reach
the families of tree owners, forest-dependent people or those
who work with wood. This may in the long term promote
tree planting in such areas with all the consequential
environmental and economic benefits.
Training is identified as the single most important need along
with general policies of promoting farm timber and
processing, clarification and application of timber laws.
Training is a large challenge, and one not for extension
workers alone, but also in convincing machinery
manufacturers and dealers, who will gain from the developing
enterprises, that it is their best interest in invest in such
knowledge sharing. Also, training is required not just in the
use of milling attachments, but importantly also in basic
1 Chainsaw milling in the world
chainsaw safety, use and maintenance, as well as timber
drying and marketing.
In agroforestry, the timber from trees have rarely played
significant role in rural incomes, though the need for
diversification and the indirect benefits of trees are
increasingly encouraging tree production. Turning farmlands
and drylands into timber producing areas is realistic, if
equipped with the appropriate skills and tools. This will in
turn reduce the pressure on natural forests and reduce illegal
harvesting. To achieve this though, needs the efforts of many
committed individuals at all levels to raise awareness and
provide training to ensure that chainsaw milling makes a
positive rather than a negative contribution to rural
livelihoods and the sustainability of farm and forest land
alike.
Trees, timber and livelihoods outside forests
The importance of timber production from outside forests is
attracting increasing attention, to help meet growing
demand and reduce pressure on natural forests and
plantations. There is a corresponding and increasing body
of literature to support this, notably regarding timber from
agroforestry systems (Arancon, 1997; Hanson and Stewart,
1997; Pasiecznik, 1999; ASB, 2001; Holding et al., 2001;
Holding-Anyonge and Roshetko, 2003; Holding-Anyonge
et al., 2003, Russell and Franzel, 2004; Scherr, 2004; World
Agroforestry Centre, 2005) and specifically from drylands
(Rogers, 1984; El Fadl et al., 1989; FAO, 1989, Brennan
and Newby, 1992; Felker, 2000; Pasiecznik, 2000; Blackwell
and Stewart, 2003; Felker and Guevara, 2003, Venn et al.,
2003).
In the 1990s, there was much emphasis in research and
development on non-timber forest products (NTFPs),
including from trees outside forests such as in farm
agroforestry and dryland. This was, however, to the detriment
of considerations relating to the production of sawn timber
(e.g. Pasiecznik, 1999), which finally gave way to an
understanding of the role of timber as a product from farms
(e.g. Scherr, 2004; World Agroforestry Centre, 2005).
However, recent literature surrounding small-holder timber
often concentrates on marketing and commercialisation,
acknowledging the critical importance of value addition to
tree products. While this is appropriate to the current
emphasis on policy and livelihood impacts, practical
problems on the ground are rarely addressed. This is
especially true of primary timber processing, and the increase
in revenues that on-farm milling could achieve have been
largely overlooked. One exception to this has been in
Australia, where there is an increasing wealth of knowledge
on the role of portable sawmilling in timber production from
farm forestry (e.g. Hanson and Stewart, 1997; Stewart and
Hanson, 1998; Smorfitt et al., 1999; 2001; 2004), with
potential application to other countries.
The role of trees as savings banks has been emphasised in
agricultural and agroforestry systems (e.g. Chambers and
Leach, 1989), especially important in low-income years,
during droughts or if prices of commodity crops or livestock
products fall, or when cash is required such as for hospital or
school fees, marriages or funerals. Shade trees in plantation
crops, e.g. Cordia alliodora in Central America, Grevillea
robusta in East Africa and numerous species elsewhere are
typical in this regard, and many studies have assessed the
production, value and importance of such trees as a source
of timber in supporting rural livelihoods. If trees are indeed
acting as a savings bank for farmers, then inexpensive
portable sawmills could greatly increase the value of their
withdrawals from the bank, by adding significantly to the
sale price, as sawn timber, way above that paid for standing
trees.
A greater quantity, quality and diversity of timber products
produced locally is also likely to have secondary effects,
possibly stimulating further processing or artisanal activities
such as furniture or craft making, transport and the associated
trade in tools, materials and equipment. More money to tree
owners from the sale of value added timber products and to
timber processors will increase local cash flow, the chances
for re-investment, and other aspects that would benefit the
local economy. Adding value to trees will also improve the
chances for more trees being planted and better managed
on farms, with the knowledge of the increased returns that
can be gained. There are, however, numerous constraints
that may prevent such an ideal vision for rural development
taking place, though with careful insight, assistance and a
suitable policy environment, advances could be made.
Appropriate timber processing technologies
Important aspects to be considered when selecting mill types
include: access to timber trees, technical skills, productivity,
available capital, availability of mills, labour considerations
and end markets. When timber is in plentiful supply, static
sawmills are likely to be most viable, with a highly
mechanised and efficient operation able to process tens or
hundreds of cubic metres of timber per day. Other mills may
be semi-static, i.e. can be dismantled and moved with some
effort, but the time required means that a certain amount of
timber has to be milled to ensure profit before changing
location again.
Then there are the truly portable mills, generally considered
the most appropriate outside forests where trees are scattered,
standing timber volumes are low and access may be limiting.
It might also be not a straightforward question of either or,
but of how to best mix several mill types in a single operation.
Chainsaw mills are, for example, sometimes used to cut slabs
in the forest or other less accessible locations, for transport
to a site where the timber is resawn by a bandsaw or circular
saw.
4 HDRA - the
Circular saws, band saws and chainsaw are the three
alternative sawing systems employed in commercial portable
mills. Band saws have the lowest kerf (around 3 mm), and
high output, quality and efficiency, but require much expert
resharpening especially with hardwoods. Circular saws have
a wider kerf (around 6 mm), are more durable and require
less expert resharpening, but as they come in so many designs,
swing blades, double blades, etc., it is difficult to generalise
on their output and efficiency, though hitting nails or stones
is costly as blades are expensive. Chainsaws and chainsaw
mills are the cheapest, but have the widest kerf (around 9
mm), lowest output and efficiency, with variable quality. Low
kerf chains and bars exist, however, reducing kerf to 6 mm,
ripping chains improve quality equivalent to that from
bandsaws, and chains are also cheap and easy to sharpen.
Wyatt (1996) assessed whether chainsaw milling or portable
circular saw mills (the walkabout) were most appropriate
in the natural forests of Vanuatu, but his conclusions also
have relevance outside forests elsewhere in the world.
However, it should also be acknowledged that chainsaw
mills are not generally a suitable tool for production of
significant quantities of timber, or for a full-time sawmilling
business. This should rightly be the role of a walkabout
sawmill, with a more efficient engine and sawing system.
Chainsaw mill operators who have expanded to a larger
sawmill have found that their chainsaw mill was a valuable
learning tool, the experience from which significantly
contributed to the success of the larger business. However,
in Vanuatu, most chainsaw mill operators have not expanded
to walkabouts, while some of those who started with
walkabouts have down-sized to chainsaw mills. This could
be due to lack of resources, to absence of facilities or technical
support, or it may simply be because operators feel that their
needs are being met by the smaller machine.
What has become increasingly clear over the past decade is
that chainsaw milled timber is making up an increasingly
significant proportion of locally available timber in many
tropical countries. Milling attachments are very rarely used,
however, and the technology employed is the most basic,
being a hand held chainsaw with a chalk line as the only
accessory. This method does have inherent problems related
to a high risk of accidents, operator fatigue and poor board
finish when using the standard techniques of removing depth
gauges and using only the tip of the bar.
Outside of forests, low tree densities and volumes mean many
common forestry practices are unviable. Farmers with trees
on their land are presently likely to sell them standing, rather
than becoming involved in harvesting and processing, and
thus receive only a small portion of the value of the tree as
sawn timber, with the trader (middleman) and sawmill owner
making most of any profit. Sawmilling machinery suitable
in situations with such low production must be very portable,
able to efficiently cut small diameter, short and sometimes
crooked logs, and of low enough capital cost to be economical
if milling only a few cubic metres a week.
Chainsaws with milling attachments areed in some tropical
moist forest and temperate forest situations, and an
increasing number of different types are becoming available.
They have certain characteristics and requirements that
make them suitable for a limited number of operations in
forestry, but show enormous potential for low volume farm
forestry, agroforestry and dryland applications (Pasiecznik,
2000).
Chainsaw milling equipment
The following is a description of equipment currently
commercially available, classified into rail mills, frame mills
and carriage mills. For more information on the different
mill types, refer to Pasiecznik et al. (2006), (Pasiecznik and
Harvey, 2006), and/or the company websites included in
the summary table of mill manufacturers.
Frame mills are probably the best known, original and most
commonly available of chainsaw milling attachments. Often
called alaskan mills or slabbing mills, they are also
sometimes referred to by a manufacturers name, especially
in countries where that make is used exclusively, such as
Granberg, Logosol or Stihl mills or frames. These are
simple frames or guides that are fixed parallel to the chainsaw
bar, and can be adjusted to be set at differing distances from
the bar thus allowing for various cutting depths. They are
used with the bar and frame horizontal for live, slab or
through and through sawing, producing boards, slabs or
beams of various dimensions. They are made of square tubular
steel or aluminium, with or without rollers, and some makes
have various sizes to accommodate different chainsaw bar
lengths, and thus corresponding log diameters. When using
a frame mill, slabbing rails, slabbing boards or similar
attachments are essential for making the first cut.
Rail mills, with some variation, comprise of a small
attachment that fixes onto the bar that rides along a rail
fixed onto the length of the log. They may have been
developed by innovative freehand chainsaw millers to aid
them in making straight vertical cuts through a log. Some
attachments require the pre-drilling of the bar for the
attachment to be bolted on to, others simply clamp on. Rails
may be specially supplied metal units (strips, bars, angle iron,
etc.) or pieces of wood, typically in common sizes such as 10
x 5 cm or 15 x 5 cm (4 x 2 or 6 x 2), for nailing or screwing
on to the log. Several rail mills have additional features such
as an ability to set the chainsaw at angles other than 90
degree (vertical), cut mitres, control the depth of cut, or cut
curved lines. As well as their advantage for producing custom
timbers, many have been designed especially for the log cabin
and timber frame housing market.
Carriage mills differ in that the chainsaw is fixed onto or
into a carriage, which rides along a frame or set of rails. Most
make horizontal cuts, though a few models make a vertical
(or near-vertical) cut. These are all larger, heavier, more
expensive, and require more setting up time than the simpler
alternatives already mentioned. However, they do then
generally allow the user to cut more timber in a given time
due to the reduced log set-up time, reduce muscular stress
and strain and eliminate almost entirely the risk of accidents.
Carriage systems cannot be carried by a single person,
requiring a team or vehicle, and share many similarities with
existing portable bandsaw and circular saw mills. In fact,
several carriage mills can be upgraded to a bandsaw mill, i.e.
the same frame can be used with a range of carriages and
saw types. Saw types can be differentiated in a number of
ways, including the maximum log length and diameter log
that can be cut, the height the log has to be raised, and
whether the cut is horizontal or vertical.
Potential for chainsaw milling
Chainsaw milling is peculiar amongst sawmilling techniques
due to its high portability, low cost, and suitability for milling
logs that might otherwise become firewood or left to rot.
There are many types of tree or log that fit into this category,
all of which are already milled by chainsaws at least
somewhere in the world. The following is a miscellaneous
list of potential and actual sources of sawn timber than have
been identified as having some potential as an increased
source of sawn timber for local markets with appropriate
conversion techniques such as chainsaw milling.
Farm trees
Street and city trees
Dryland trees
Weedy trees
River side and rail side trees
Firewood and fodder trees
Forest and woodland thinnings
Trees of poor form
Wind blown or fallen trees
Diseased or damaged standing trees
Washed up trees
Small diameter logs
Short logs
Branches/prunings
Oversized trunks
Logging residues
Sawmill waste
Reclaimed timbers
rmers are, good at growing crops and raising livestock, but
generally less knowledgeable and skilled in growing trees
for quality sawn timber. Tree planting, weeding, pruning,
etc. are all important but commonly overlooked. In some
countries, farm trees are being harvested for timber but the
volumes produced can be greatly increased with the proper
management, and the returns to the farmer can be greatly
increased if the farmer mills them, or has them milled, where
Table 1.1. The relative suitability of chainsaw milling techniques for different products and types of log.
Freehand milling Rail milling Frame milling Carriage milling
Type of timber
Slabs Yes Yes Yes Yes
Edged timber Yes Yes Yes Yes
Quartersawn boards Yes
Extra long lengths Yes Yes
Type of log
Small diameter logs Yes Yes
Short logs Yes Yes Yes
Crooked logs Yes
Tapered logs Yes Yes Yes Yes
Oversized logs Yes Yes
Side slabs Yes
Defective logs Yes Yes Yes Yes
Speciality cutting Yes
Various
Portable by one man Yes Yes Yes
Approximate cost (US$) - 40-240 140-640 1000-3500
6 HDRA - the
they are felled. Realising most of the value of the tree may
then inspire farmers to plant more.
Dryland trees include trees mostly thought of only as sources
of firewood or fodder but which often have very hard wood
and yield valuable timber, including many acacia species for
example. Recovery in all these cases is not so much of an
issue as all the wood would have become firewood anyway
and even if only 10% of the wood could be converted to
boards or beams, with a minimum 10-fold increase in value
per volume from fuel wood to sawn timber, milling of at
least the larger logs could make good economic sense if a
high value market can be found to cover the labour, capital
and running costs.arm woodlands and forests offer a valuable
source of free or low-cost timber. In plantations, thinning is
usually essential but often cost the forest owner money unless
the sale of trees cut covers the cost of the operation, and if
there is no ready market for pulp or poles they are sometimes
just cut and left to rot, but should be considered as a possible
source of sawn timber. In natural forests, chainsaw millers
are already buying cheap concessions on logged over land,
finding enough suitable logs left by the original fellers as
logging residues, logs not the right length, tops, below the
minimum diameter, branches, split or hollow logs, or even
perfect logs that could not be extracted or were one too much
for the last lorry, all providing a ready source of usable timber
already on the ground with no felling required.
Chainsaw millers and the trees and logs they mill
a global perspective
The following description of some of the major current uses
of chainsaws for milling timber includes freehand milling
but concentrates on the use of chainsaw mills. Attempts are
made to identify specific uses aiming to gain a better
understanding into the situations where chainsaw milling
may be viable and the reasons why. Their use by certain
people in certain situations in general appears to be typical
to chainsaw mill operation, and offers an insight into current
and potential applications.
There are two main groups of chainsaw millers identified in
the world today:
(1) forest-dependent people living in or near natural forests
in mainly moist tropical and sub-tropical regions, largely
milling freehand, either part-time or full time, and mainly
but not exclusively, for local, national and regional markets.
(2) woodworkers, artisans, hobbyists, enthusiasts, farmers,
etc., living in or far from forests in temperate and sub-arctic
regions, involved in milling only part time with frames or
other attachments, mainly but not exclusively for their own
use.
There are exceptions to such a broad and simple
classification, but this at least offers a basic framework for
looking at characteristics of who uses chainsaws for milling
and what types of trees they mill. This is only rarely
referenced for reasons given above and as such should be
used only as a guide, but the information included has arisen
from the global review process employed in this project (see
Bibliography).
The development of chainsaw milling attachments over the
past few decades, mainly in North America, Europe and
Oceania, appears to have been driven mainly by a small and
specialist group of people, often called hobbyists or wood
enthusiasts. Characteristic common to such users include:
they are not time- or capital-limited
they often have access to logs as a free (or very low cost)
resource
they mill infrequently, and produce relatively low daily
and annual volumes of timber
they often mill with specific projects in mind
they do not earn their living from timber sales, or at least
not a significant part of it
The widespread availability and low cost of chainsaw milling
attachments has since led to additional applications by a
broader range of users in temperate and sub-arctic regions,
including arboriculturists, forest workers and contractors,
builders of timber frame housing, log cabins and other groups
of professional craftsmen. These are people who are in regular
contact with round wood, either as resources of little or no
value, or who need to transform round wood directly into
end products, particularly large dimension timbers that are
not easily moved or in isolated locations.
A further distinct group of users in temperate and sub-
tropical regions includes farmers and ranchers making use
of timber resources on their own land, though peripheral to
the main farm activities. Notable examples include ranchers
in Australia and the USA, and increasingly, farmers in
northern Europe, North America and Australasia.
In tropical high forests, in contrast, research has identified
stakeholders in chainsaw milling from the standing tree to
timber user, including:
tree owners (government or private)
concessionaires or other intermediate resource owners
chainsaw owner-operators
chainsaw owners who rent out equipment
chainsaw sawyers who rent equipment
labourers
dealers of chainsaws, mills, spare parts, etc.
timber dealers, downstream processors and manufacturers.
Tropical freehand users and temperate milling enthusiasts
clearly have very different characteristics in terms of
availability to capital, labour, land and experience, and any
generalisations made between the two groups would be
meaningless. Studies have been undertaken on the
characteristics of, and the relative resources available to,
groups involved in almost exclusively freehand chainsaw
milling in natural high forests in the humid tropics, e.g.
Guyana (Clark, 2005b), Ghana (Odoom, 2005), Indonesia
(Roda, 2005) and Vanuatu (Wyatt, 1996). No equivalent
studies are reported on users of chainsaw milling
attachments in temperate or developed country situations.
There are also very few studies on chainsaw milling from
outside forests in the tropics, possibly due to the much
lower volumes of timber being processed, the marginal
economic importance and thus less interest. Where it
occurs, it may be expected that, a similar array of
stakeholders are involved, there are likely to be some
notable contrasts. For example, in natural forests, the tree
owner is likely to be the national government, and
intermediate resource owners to be large national or
international companies with multi-decade concessions
over large areas of forest.
Outside forests, the tree owner is much more likely to be
a private individual. In both cases, however, ownership
may also be communal, as is common in natural forest on
Pacific Islands, or in savannah and rainfed farmland in
the Sahel. Chainsaw owner-operators will be much more
prevalent in natural forests than outside forests, where the
high volumes being cut allows this to become a full-time
activity for some people which will quickly repay the
investment in a chainsaw and possibly a mill.
Outside forests, the low volumes available mean that a
chainsaw owner may be unable to find sufficient trees to
make milling a full time activity, and will thus either rent
out the chainsaw (earning income) or leave it idle
(increasing saw life) for periods of each year. This is not
the same as in the group listed above, chainsaw owners
who rent equipment, which primarily includes business
people in or near tropical forests who purchase and rent
chainsaws as a viable economic venture, and may also be
involved in downstream processing or timber sales.
There is likely to be a continued market for renting
chainsaws and associated equipment both within and
outside forests. Labourers will also always be required to
assist in felling, milling and especially for carrying sawn
timber to roadside. This is more likely to be full-time waged
activity in natural forests, whereas outside forests it will
be part-time, and labour requirements may be met by
family members or others with low opportunity costs, such
as out of season agricultural labour.
Very little data on actual volumes milled by chainsaw is
available, and it is impossible to make any meaningful
estimates on the amounts of timber that might be being
milled by any of these professions or groups, with
attachments or freehand or in any country or over any
time period.In temperate and neighbouring regions, the
types of trees most commonly being milled by chainsaw
within forests include thinnings and wind blown trees in
coniferous plantations. More common in such regions,
however, is the processing of trees outside forests, mainly
single trees or those in rows or small woodlands, including
on-farm trees, fruit trees, street trees, river or rail side trees
and other lone or shelterbelt trees. The use of chainsaw
milling for processing exotic weed tree species is evident,
e.g. with Cinnamonum camphora in Australia (Brett et al.,
1999).
Although there is a great range and diversity in the use of
chainsaw milling and the trees being processed, some
common characteristics do appear from temperate regions
including, predominantly:
low-value or no-value trees
small diameter, short or crooked logs not suitable for
other sawmills, and logging residues
specialist high value timbers, often hardwoods
trees from farm forestry or agroforestry
street trees, rail or river side trees
small diameter softwoods species and thinnings
mature coniferous trees, on-farm, within forests and
other single trees elsewhere
logs in low volumes, in any situation
In the tropics, the situation is very different. Here,
chainsaw milling is carried out largely within forests, and
the tree species will be those that have an immediate and
ready market, being commonly those already available in
local, national and international trade. The characteristics
of these trees are thus no different to those currently being
harvested and processed by static or other portable
sawmills, and are selected as in standard harvesting
scenarios, based on species and size, and if legally procured,
on an agreed volume per hectare per annum basis. In
addition, there are reports of chainsaw milling being used
in already logged over concessions, to process logs, often
in considerable numbers and sizes, which for one reason
or another were not extracted in the original harvest.
Outside forests in the tropics and sub-tropics, the use of
chainsaw milling is still in its infancy, though rapidly
gaining ground. In such situations, they are already being
used to process on-farm and agroforestry trees, such shade
trees including Cordia alliodora in Central America,
Grevillea robusta and Eucalyptus species in East Africa, and
numerous in West Africa, along with dryland species such
as Acacia nilotica and Prosopis juliflora. While examples are
few and generalisations unproven, it appears to be worth
noting the characteristics of trees milled by chainsaw
outsides forests as a basis for discussion:
trees within crops that would be damaged by harvesting
and extraction machinery
wide-spaced, isolated or inaccessible trees
where there is immediate on-farm use for the timber
higher value species with ready local markets
short, crooked or non-standard sized logs of no interest
to commercial sawmills
lesser known species with no ready market
8 HDRA - the
Table 1.2. Productivity and recovery of chainsaw milling, freehand and will the aid of various milling attachments.
Country Notes Productivity Recovery Source
/hour /8 hour day %
Freehand chainsaw
Kenya Grevillea 28-39% Onchieku, 2001
Ghana Various hardwoods 40% Tropenbos, 2003
RD Congo Grevillea and eucalyptus 0.10 0.8 37-55% This report
Guyana Locust and greenheart 0.15-0.23 1.2-1.8 19-22% Clarke, 2005a
Phillipines Coconut slabs 0.19 1.5 27% Arancon, 1997
Indonesia Various hardwoods 2.0 <5% Roda, 2005
Guyana Various hardwoods 4.2 10-25% Grisley, 1998
Brazil Various hardwoods 0.6 4.8 41-61% DOliveira et al., 1998
Frame and rail mills
Australia Frame and rail mills 55% Smorfitt et al., 2004
Kenya Granberg Mark III - Prosopis 0.04 0.27* 25% This report (*milling only,
no felling)
USA Granberg Mark III - Oak 0.6-1.2 Henderson and Krier, 1997
DR Congo Stihl LSG 450 Grevillea/eucalyptus 1.0 41-54% This report
Mexico Rail mill (unspecified) 0.13 1.0 40% Richards et al., 2001
Australia *Mean, 5 frame, rail 0.14 1.1 35% Stewart and Hanson, 1997
and carriage mills
Kenya Granberg Mark III - Grevillea 0.2 1.45* 45-55% This report (*milling only,
no felling)
Carriage mills
Canada Procut make your own - hardwoods 0.6-1.2 Company website
Canada Procut make your own - softwoods 1.2-2.4 Company website
New Zealand FRI mill - Rimu 1.0 52% James, 1985
UK Lennartsfors SM 2196 - Oak 0.18 1.1 56% Jones, 1998(as Jonsered
600+)
UK Lennartsfors SM 2196 - Douglas fir0.20-0.36 1.6-2.9 26-66% Jones, 1998 (as Jonsered
600+)
Canada Procut make your own** 1.8-3.6 Company website
Sweden Logosol M7 - softwood 2.3 -3.5 50-60% Logosol M7 (quoting
unspecified report)
*Including: Granberg Mark III, Westford Rail Mill, Beerwah Ripper Mk IV, MacQuarrie Chain Mill, Logosol.
** with a Stihl 090, 1 man helping, averaged over 7 years (www.procutportablesawmills.com/production.htm).
street or boundary trees likely to contain nails or other
metal
No other sawmill types available or at long distances
Such a list in not likely to be exclusive, and many exceptions
are probable, but it may give some indications as to the sorts
of trees that are being milled by chainsaws in some areas,
and thus where chainsaw milling appears more appropriate
outside forests in the tropics.
Output and recovery from chainsaw milling
The following tables present available data on the sawn
timber outputs and recovery rates from chainsaw milling, to
allow a basic comparison between selected data from other
portable saw mills. Conversion rates used included (1) 8
hours in a working day, and (2) 424 board feet per cubic
metre. Figures quoted usually refer to output per milling team,
generally two to three people. Productivity is calculated as
the quantity of sawn timber produced, and not the volume
of logs milled. It is not always clear, however, whether
recovery is from the whole log or just a squared cant thus
this data should be treated with caution.
Table 1.3. Productivity and recovery of selected portable band saw and circular saw mills.
Country Notes Productivity Recovery Source
/hour /8 hour day %
Single blade circular saw
Australia Questionnaire - 30-55% Smorfitt et al., 2004
Papua New Guinea walkabout 0.06-0.15 0.5-1.2 - Salafsky et al., 1998
Australia Trials 0.09-0.12 0.7-1.0 28-35% Venn et al., 2004
Mexico 0.19 1.5 55% Richards et al., 2001
UK Lucas mill - spruce and oak 0.10-0.26 0.8-2.1 31-56% Vickers, 1998
Tanzania Av. 2.25 years of softwood thinnings0.23-0.36 1.8-2.9 37-43% Kowero et al., 1985
Malaysia 12-18 cm Diameter logs 0.36 2.9 44% Seng and Hasim, 1983
Australia 25 mobile sawmillers 0.42 3.4 65% Stewart and Hanson, 1997
Malaysia 18-33 cm diameter logs 0.50-0.61 4.0-4.9 60-63% Seng and Hasim, 1983
Guyana Trials 0.71 5.7 49% Clarke, 2005
Tanzania Av. 2 years of softwood thinnings0.81-1.49 6.5-14.3 47-48% Kowero et al., 1985
Twin blade circular saw
UK Blossom mill 0.86-1.13 6.9-9.0 27-33% Vickers, 1999
Uganda McQuarry - pine 0.31-3.12 2.5-25.0 25-50% This report
New Zealand 1.52-3.82 12.2-30.1 - Howard, 1981
Australia (Victoria?) 25 mobile sawmillers 2.37 19.0 65% Stewart and Hanson, 1997
Bandsaw
Australia High throughput trials 0.14-0.16 1.1-1.3 43-48% Stewart and Hanson, 1997
Mexico 0.22 1.8 60% Richards et al., 2001
Australia 25 mobile sawmillers 0.27 2.2 67% Stewart and Hanson, 1997
Guyana Trials 1.33-1.62 10.6-13.0 58-70% Clarke, 2005b
New Zealand 2.69 21.5 - Howard, 1981
Freehand chainsaw milling gives high productivity, though
is assumed to be more wasteful. Frame and rail milling give
lower productivity though with improved recovery (and
reduced risks of accidents, not assessed). Carriage milling
gives the highest potential productivity and recovery, though
with an associated higher capital cost required.
Single blade circular sawmills give similar rates of recovery
and productivity as compared to the best chainsaw milling
options, with of course a higher capital outlay. However,
twin blade circular saws and bandsaws give much increased
rates of production and recovery, and are clearly the best if
adequate capital and log volumes are available. If not, it
may be wise to consider one of the cheap, lower production
options.
10 HDRA - the
Criteria for choice
Chainsaw milling, with or without attachments, clearly
already makes sense for tens or even hundreds of thousands
of people in the world, in specific situations. Deciding why,
how, when and where chainsaw milling makes sense over
alternative milling technologies, as discussed in the previous
chapter, is another matter. The different criteria for selecting
which chainsaw, chainsaw milling attachment, chains and
other accessories are covered in detailed in an associated
publication, Turning Trees to Timber: A Chainsaw Milling
Manual (Pasiecznik et al., 2006) and key issues will repeated
only in summary here.
However, from the global overview in the previous chapter
it is clear under what conditions chainsaw milling with and
without attachments is currently used in different regions
of the world. Thus it is possible to extrapolate, and consider
what potential exists for this technology, specifically outside
forests in the tropics. The seven principle criteria identified
are:
The options
Access to trees
Productivity
Available capital
Availability of mills
Labour considerations
End products
This chapter covers some of the information needed in order
to make such decisions. Basic information on the above
options is readily available, and just requires recording.
However, before investing often scarce financial resources,
it is wise to have a detailed understanding of the economics
of the business to be ventured into, and the following is
intended as a generic outline of the economic information
needed.
Economic information required
Information on the economics of chainsaw milling is
generally sparse, partial, as well as being spatially and
temporally specific. Literary comparison of different mobile
sawmill technologies shows that there are many variables to
assess, but that chainsaw mills have roughly half the
productivity as compared to portable circular and band saw
mills, at approximately 1.0-1.5m
3
/day, and sometimes
produce 10% less timber per log. The assessment of the
economics of chainsaw milling is complex, especially when
specific to the site, species and log size milled, markets and
operator skills.
Only selected micro level economics are presented, i.e. those
likely to be common to forest margins, farms, drylands and
other areas of low forest cover in the tropics and subtropics.
A spreadsheet model accompanies this paper, allowing users
to input most economic parameters, allowing assessment and
comparison in many different situations. Conversion
methods as well as productivity and efficiency vary with the
type of sawmill, market demands and log size and quality,
and therefore, this indicates only the potential of different
sawmill types to undertake various conversion scenarios and
likely efficiencies and outputs per hour.
The indicative context of the economics of chainsaw milling
includes:
(1) Macro country or district level
Employment direct, indirect
Taxes and revenues
Resource impacts
Infrastructure
Economic development value addition, import
substitution
Laws and regulation
Trade barriers, World Bank, NGOs, etc.
(2) Micro family or entrepreneurial level
Capital fixed, working
Overheads business, inventory
Variable costs manufacturing, further processing,
marketing
Other variables recovery, productivity, infrastructure,
species, availability
Revenue
Financial performance and sensitivity
To give a true picture at the enterprise level, the economics
of chainsaw milling should be assessed over a period of time,
such as a financial year, so removing or smoothing out
individual operation variables such as log size, quality, season
and location. Almost all studies, however, examine the
economics only in a particular sawing operation.
Though methodologies have been developed to estimate
costs in sawmilling industries (FAO, 1984), assumptions
made to account for variability may be suitable for larger
business, but are unlikely to be realistic for small enterprises
such as mobile and particularly chainsaw milling in the
tropics where access to finances, funds or equipment are
likely to be within the family and seen as a normal way of
carrying out the business.
Capital
Assessing the capital requirements for a chainsaw, milling
attachment and ancillary equipment is relatively
2 Building a decision-making framework
straightforward, as manufacturers or others in the supply
chain can be asked to give quotes for delivery to a specific
location. Allowing 10% of processing and ancillary
equipment value estimates is a necessary hedge fund to
allow, for instance, for a major breakdown of equipment.
However, within a family type enterprise such a hedge fund
may be held as family savings or emergency goods for
trading. Therefore, if a strict accountant view is rejected,
this could be ignored. Pre-operating expenses could similarly
be ignored as the opportunity cost of storage facilities is likely
to be negligible and safety equipment designated as ancillary
equipment.
The capital required for transporting logs is very variable,
e.g. whether carried out by hand, animal, boat or lorry. One
way to account for this in a single operation rather than
over a financial year is to include a charge in the variable
costs equivalent to local hire for transporting people and
equipment to and from the milling site, or an estimate based
on local conditions.
Working capital in much of the tropics may need to be
quadrupled to allow for difficulties and time taken to order
and receive spare parts. Further processing equipment is an
unusual occurrence for small operations and so can be
ignored in a general assessment of producing rough green
timber.
Overheads
Insurance in areas of low forest cover in the tropics is unlikely
and so is ignored. Concession payments will depend on the
situation and ownership patterns.. Loan repayments will be
dependant on credit facilities within the local area and the
interest rates charged. Interest rates and terms can be a major
factor in the economics of chainsaw milling especially in
times of high inflation.
Depreciation on capital items such as chainsaws will be fairly
high, at up to 50% per year if in full time use given a life
expectancy of between 1500 hours (Mitra, 1979) and 1800
hours (Arancon, 1997), as against other items such as milling
frames where 15% or less per annum maybe more applicable.
Casual staff or family members are typically used in chainsaw
milling operations rather than permanent staff. The Meru
economic model presented in this paper, uses conservative
primary data from powersaw owner operators, suggesting a
total lifespan of 5400 hours (150 days per year at 6 hours per
day for six years)
Administration costs are always difficult to assess as they
could vary from insubstantial with a farmer selling timber
roadside, to very large with negotiations for log access,
documentation of management procedures and cooperative
or family enterprises running the business. The estimate of
15% of manufacturing costs for administration and overheads
suggested by FAO (1984) is likely to be unrealistic because
manufacturing costs per metre of sawn timber is higher in
chainsaw milling, and in large static sawmills log
transportation is a large feature of the economics. It could
be postulated that 15% of the opportunity cost of one family
member be a more realistic estimate of administration costs,
with overheads being assessed as in the previous elements.
Inventory costs could be substantial where trees are felled
or processed some months before they are transported to
the point of sale, or timber is stockpiled before
transportation. This would be evident in a particular milling
enterprise situation, otherwise inventories would have little
effect on the economics (Stewart and Henson, 1997). Where
further processing such as air or kiln drying is undertaken,
considerable capital is employed in drying stocks, as much
as four months sawing output. As green timber is generally
only sold in Kenya, this cost is nor accounted for in the
modelled economic assessment..
Variable costs
Log finding could be a substantial cost, calculated to be 3%
of total costs for static mills in moist Brazilian forest
(Verissimo et al., 1995). In dryland Australia, 10% of the
total time taken to select, fell, prepare and mill acacia trees
was for tree selection (Venn et al., 2004). Local knowledge
or firewood collectors are likely to be used in low forest cover
situations rather than direct employment of log scouts, but
this could still represent a substantial cost for which there is
no current evidence, and log finding may be a hidden cost
in some assessments of the economics of mobile milling.
The economic model for Meru Kenya, using data collected
assumes 2.5 3.5 hours of finding trees, negotiating sale,
gaining felling and transport licences per full day of milling.
Log payments and timing will depend on the species and
situation in the field and ownership patterns therein. In Meru
district, cash was paid on standing tree purchase. Again,
milling site preparation and making extraction tracks varies
according to specific sites and situations, but in areas of low
forest cover, neither is assumed to be substantial.
Felling, delimbing, and log preparation is a major cost
element in all log pricing and sawmill economic assessments.
Substantial cost increases per cubic metre of sawlog can be
added for small logs and sometimes very large and buttressed
logs. Venn et al (2004) calculated that with acacia trees in
drylands, 25-29% of the total time was taken in felling and
delimbing. Positioning logs and setting up to saw can be
time consuming, calculated as up to 3-4 hours per tree for
freehand milling, depending on the size of the tree and the
terrain (Tropenbos, 2003). In areas of low forest cover and
with smaller diameter trees this will be less, though 1-1.5
hours has been estimated for large on-farm trees in this
report. The Meru economic model presented in this paper,
uses field observations to estimate 1.5 hours per day of felling,
delimbing and cutting to length in every day milling.
Fuel and oil used is eight litres and three litres, respectively,
per full working day (Arancon, 1997; Salafsky et al., 1998),
confirmed in studies in this report, but Richards et al. (2001)
12 HDRA - the
cite the use of 20 litres of fuel per cubic metre, a considerable
difference. Spares and saw maintenance are likely to be
limited to chain sharpening and bar profiling, with an
estimate of 4 new files and four new chains per month
(Arancon, 1997) appearing reasonable. The Meru economic
model presented in this paper, uses field observations of 8.5
litres of fuel and 0.9 litres of two stroke oil (local mix ratio)
for felling and milling.
Transport is once again very variable. One way to account
for this within the context of a single operation, rather than
over a financial year, is to include a charge in the variable
costs equivalent to the local hire costs to transport people
(as used in the Meru model) and equipment to the milling
site. Otherwise, an estimate based on local conditions would
be required. Casual labour rates will be localised. The time
taken to mill timber will depend on travel, log preparation,
positioning and milling time. In some areas, additional labour
will be used even if it is not necessary such as for patronage
or for access to logs.
Site amelioration, logging repair and other forest operations
can take considerable time, dependant on local conditions
and requirements. Some mobile sawmill operators in
developed countries operate by principally undertaking
forestry operations such as thinning and clearing weeds with
additional income sources derived from the conversion of
suitable logs into milled timber. This could be a model for
forest margins and areas of low forest cover in the tropics
where the principle operation is fuelwood collection, with
timber milling secondary.
A contingency allowance of 5% of manufacturing costs is
suggested by FAO (1984). This is to allow for breakdowns
in equipment and the necessary spare parts inventory. Again
it could be argued that family assets are the likely source of
contingency allowances.
Further processing will often be necessary to turn green sawn
slabs into marketable timber, even if this is just resawing
them into 10 x 5 cm building timbers. Scherr et al. (2003)
details an indicative cost and value chain of export timbers
initially processed by mobile circular walkabout mills in
Papua New Guinea, demonstrating some of the further
processing costs of kiln drying. Arancon (1997) assess the
further processing costs of turning coconut slabs into saleable
timber via circular saw dimensioning and preservative
treatment. Many sources concentrate on the initial
breakdown costs and tend to ignore further processing costs
as well as marketing costs, but this may indicate there is no
further value to be gained from secondary processing of
timber or their work is focussed on initial breakdown.
Marketing costs are often ignored, but can be substantial,
and Stewart and Hanson (1997) found marketing as the most
important factor in the sensitivity of profits. It is not
surprisingly neglected due to the large variations in costs,
time and revenue, often highly localised and dependent on
the skills of the chainsaw milling business. Middlemen are
seen to play an important role, with chainsaw millers being
price-takers, i.e. having no ability to influence prices
(Stone, 1996). Being part of a marketing cooperative is often
cited as a method of marketing products from small volume
producers to a wider market. However, these are not always
successful (e.g. Richards, 1993). The Meru economic model
presented in this paper follows the local pattern of marketing,
in the setting up a small timber sale yard and account is
made of these costs.
Non-financial variables, revenues and results
Non-financial variables are critical to the economic
performance of milling and need to be detailed, to put any
economic assessment into context. Two well documented
elements are the conversion and recovery rates (see Table
1.3). However, the variables of log form, size, defects,
products produced and whether other elements of saw or
log set-up have been included are often absent, making
comparisons between different sawmill types and
manufacturers unreliable. Infrastructure influences on the
economics of chainsaw milling are often critical. This may
mean that mobile millers are able to access timber that fixed
sawmills cannot, due to the absence of tracks and roads, but
this can also add significantly to costs as would be taken
into account by transportation costs. Markets and competing
products also have an influence, but are difficult to include
in a financial analysis.
The species milled and log availability greatly influences
the economics of milling, but is surprisingly not always
detailed in economic analyses. Local and export markets
often demand particular species, ignoring or offering a
markedly lower price for suitable but lesser known ones.
However, adding value, such as making specific building
timbers or furniture, can overcome this. The availability or
access to logs may require considerable negotiation and time,
as such can be included in the administration costs, as has
been mentioned previously. Revenue is determined by the
markets supplied, but many sources of information do not
indicate the end product of sawmilling, and if it is a local
market value it may be based on estimates or indicate further
processed pricing. The Meru economic model that
accompanies this paper, provides for species, size and form/
quality variation.
Results can be presented in a number of ways. For existing
and potential chainsaw millers, their interest will be focused
on profits, cost of machinery and of borrowing, partly because
it may be difficult to comprehend what effects the other
measures have. Due to the weaknesses and specificities of
economic assessments, it is difficult to have faith in the
economic results produced. The exception is the cost of the
saw operation related to conversion and recovery rates, as
this is what is measured in most assessments.
Non-economic considerations
It is clear that a wider perspectives, rather than just an
accountants view of the economics of chainsaw milling, is
required for analysis in any assessment. This should take
into account competing land uses, cultural and tribal
differences and allow for possible participatory forest or other
types of equitable land management. Such a wider
perspective is the methodology employed with Economic
Stakeholder Analysis (ESA) (Richards et al., 2003), and
which has been followed for developing the framework in
the principal case study in Kenya.
Other important direct livelihood issues relate to social
issues, particularly the role of organised crime and corruption,
indigenous groups relative access to resources, and the
importance of health and safety aspects, particularly the risk
of accidents and their effects on livelihoods.
Equally important are environmental considerations, and
the need to assess the effects of different practices on natural
resource quantity and quality, sustainability, durability, over-
exploitation, land degradation, etc. These relate for example
to issues concerning reduced impact logging (RIL), pollution,
erosion control, and potential damage to biodiversity, other
trees and/or sensitive environments.
Introduction to a decision-making framework
The economic appraisal of chainsaw milling has utilised as
a basis the methodology recommended by Richards et al.
(2003). The economic stakeholder analysis (ESA) is
primarily intended for forest management or forest use
options in developing countries, where complex drivers and
constraints exist. The six main stages of ESA are:
(1) Identification and characterisation of stakeholders.
(2) Understanding the decision-making context and the
role of economics.
(3) Identification and physical quantification of costs and
benefits.
(4) Valuation of costs and benefits.
(5) Economic comparison of the decision-making
alternatives.
(6) Participatory analysis and monitoring.
The ESA proved useful in this study of the introduction of
chainsaw milling attachments into Kenya and elsewhere in
East Africa, as compared to widespread freehand chainsaw
milling. It accounted for their economic, environmental and
social appropriateness and assessed the potential uptake of
this new technology. However, not all of the methodology
suggested by Richards et al. (2003) was followed for the
following reasons.
This project does not involve participatory forest
management (PFM) because the central focus of the study
is the impact of the introduction of a new technology,
not a forest management project as the book is primarily
intended for.
This project uses Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) in a
partial manner, as considerable time is required to
undertake it. MCA is considered a prime method for the
appraisal of options for government officials on policy
and other decisions including those with environmental
implications. It would have formed an exemplary way to
provide a Decision Support Tool and is suggested for
detailed follow-on work.
Another major piece of work suggested by Richards et al.
(2003) is Section 7 of the data collection framework,
Implementation, monitoring and improvement of data
collection frameworks and decision support systems in
other words a feedback system to improve the assessment
has also not been completed though would prove valuable
in future studies.
Not present in the procedures indicated by Richards et al.
(2003) but included here as an additional initial section
primarily examines the policy and regulatory context, called
Stage 0. It has been added because of the influence the
regulatory environment and its implementation has in most
countries upon virtually all issues related to forests and
timber.
Therefore, the methodology of Richards et al. (2003) has
been used as a modified structure through which an
assessment of the potential impact of introducing chainsaw
milling attachments is made. Additional sections have been
added and others mentioned but not studied due to lack of
time and relevance to the purpose of the study. Due to this
approach of detailing the various influences on stakeholders,
the study is specific to Meru. To assist in providing a wider
East African context, guidance notes at the beginning of
sections have been included. Despite this area specific detail,
many of the issues are East African wide and directly
applicable elsewhere.
14 HDRA - the
Overview of timber production around Meru
Meru Central, Kenya is classified as a high potential zone,
with tea, coffee, cotton, cereals, dairy and horticulture
farming common. Mean annual rainfall is 2600 mm in
the upper highlands, and 500 mm in the lower altitude
dry areas, with a mean altitude of around 2000 m. Before
1980, timber came from the natural forests on the slopes
of Mt Kenya, cut by pitsaws and increasingly by static
circular sawmills which became established in numbers,
and later with the introduction of mobile, tractor powered
circular saw bench saws. Chainsaws also began appearing
from the early 1980s for felling and to a limited extent for
milling. This situation continued with little change until
the 1999 Forestry Bill outlawed harvesting from natural
forests.
This changed everything. Many of the large static sawmills
were forced to close down due to a lack of trees. It also
became immediately apparent that if trees were not to
come from the forest, they could come from the farm, as
the district was densely populated with large size trees,
mainly grevillea (Grevillea robusta) but also cypress
(Cupressus lusitanica) and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus saligna).
Indigenous timber tree species also common on farm here
include: Vitex keniensis (Meru oak) and Cordia africana,
many of which had been planted before Kenyan
independence.
A substantial amount of grevillea was also planted during
extension related projects in the 1980s, e.g. the extensive
EMI project which planted all the roadside grevillea in
the region. Grevillea and eucalypts were also promoted
for shade in the coffee and tea zone respectively. Many of
the indigenous species are also found to be remnants of
natural forest species, though had never before been
considered as a source of timber due to the readily available
timber trees from the natural forests.
Whereas some static sawmills continued to exist, bringing
in on farm trees as round wood for milling, the exploitation
of on farm trees appears to have favoured portable milling,
as many mobile circular saws sprang up, exclusively of the
tractor towed and powered bench saw type mills.
Increased harvesting of farm trees occurred in the years
immediately following the 1999 presidential moratorium
of forest logging, Currently, over harvesting is common
and is referred as timber mining by some, to make up for
the shortfall in supply. Many of the larger sized and easily
accessible trees have already been felled and milled, leaving
millers, dealers and brokers to travel further (>20 kms),
also as a result of price increases and price awareness in
more accessible locations.
Larger trees are now more likely to be found in areas distant
to Meru, valley bottoms and other inaccessible areas, and
the chainsaw miller found himself a role. Such trees are
felled and milled by chainsaw either into boards for
immediate sale, or into slabs for carrying out and re-sawing
by bench saw, either at the nearest point a tractor can
reach, or at a yard or other collection point where the
slabs remain until a buyer comes and specifies the
dimensions required.
Chainsaw milled timber is of generally poor quality around
Meru, with those using such operators having to insist on
much larger dimensions to be cut than those required to
allow for considerable planing that is required to obtain a
consistent thickness and acceptable finish. Poor quality
of chainsaw milled timber is variously explained as being
due to chainsaw operators being unskilled, part time,
lacking the required experience, or from drinking alcohol
while milling to overcome fatigue.
From the point of view of the producer, i.e. the farmers
themselves, the farmer never wins. Inadequate market
information for agricultural crops and declining prices for
commodity crops, especially coffee, have forced many
farmers into situations when they are in dire need of money,
such as for school fees, hospital fees, weddings, funerals,
etc. Trees are a ready investment providing a source of
instant income.
However, buyers, whether individual end users, timber
dealers or brokers, are aware of their precarious financial
situation, their lack of tree valuation techniques and
market access. In these instances, buyers exploit this to
their financial advantage by obtaining a price for standing
trees that is below the prevailing market value. The
prevalence of timber brokers, i.e. those that buy standing
trees and sell them on still standing, is an example of this
as well as the need for the aggregation of single trees from
a number of farms in a small area to allow economic
milling. The single most commonly heard view from
farmers regarding their trees concerns valuation, and that
they feel that they rarely, if ever, receive a reasonable price.
This is a situation forced upon them because they lack
financial capital and skills in assessing the value of their
trees in terms of volume, quality and adequate market
information. Indeed there seemed to be no one who bought
trees on a volume measurement, only girth. This
underestimates the value of large trees as volume increases
at twice the rate of diameter.
Little or no value adding is undertaken for trees obtained
from farms. Farmers rarely have the timber milled
themselves for sale. Negotiations over price will include
whether the buyer takes the firewood as well as the logs,
and prices can be extremely variable depending on the
3 Case study, Meru, Kenya
immediacy of cash need, tree quality and species (indigenous
species costs more) valuation knowledge of the farmer,
accessibility, and what might be termed personal ownership,
meaning whether they have grown and tended it themselves
or see it as a free gift planted by previous owners or
generations. Timber prices are relatively high in Kenya at
present due to the shortage in supply.
There are several types of buyer. The first is the private
individual, perhaps a neighbour, extended family member
or other person who requires timber for a certain project
such as building a house, who then hires a chainsaw operator
alone or a chainsaw and bench saw in combination, to mill
the trees into the desired dimensions, which is relatively
common. Perhaps also in this category are also some other
larger corporate users e.g tea factories, schools, hospitals
which fell largely on farm mainly for firewood. Cases of
timber quality trees being felled for firewood are common.
Intermediaries may be used to source the wood.
The second is a timber dealer (which means that they also
own some form of sawmill), who buys the standing tree and
either mills the tree on site with their own bench saw, hires
one in, or takes the logs away to a static sawmill, selling the
sawn timber on to end users or other dealers.
The third is a timber broker, who buys and sells the tree
standing, making profit without any physical effort, and often
offers the lowest prices to farmers, but they may also be called
tree finders who are hired by either of the first two groups
to locate trees and negotiate the cheapest price.
Increasing the financial benefits to farmers from the
production and sale of farm trees may follow one or more of
a number of routes. The way most often stated is to avail to
farmers market information on the current value of standing
trees, per species, volume and quality, so allowing them to
obtain a better price, even in the face of their immediate
economic needs. Techniques on mensuration and valuation
would also help bargain for better prices.
However, an alternative means would be whereby farmers
could organise primary processing themselves, either by
hiring contract sawmillers to process the trees, or by hiring
the equipment and milling themselves, then selling the sawn
timber on, either to timber yards or directly to end users. If
processing themselves, farmers often state the lack of
resources as one reason for not doing so. This may mean
that chainsaw milling could appear a more appropriate
method due to its low capital cost and simplicity of operation
for farmers. Contractual arrangements could also work for
corporate buyers.
Figure 3.1. Market routes for trees to timber in Meru,
Kenya.
Farmer
Timber merchant buyer Tree Broker End user buyer
Employed
chainsaw operator
Self-employed
chainsaw operator
Timber
merchant with
fixed circular
bench saw
Timber
merchant
using own
tractor circular
bench saw
Timber
merchant
hiring in a
tractor circular
bench saw
End user
hiring in a
tractor circular
bench saw
End user
hiring in a
chainsaw
operator
to mill timber
Unusual
16 HDRA - the
Constructing a decision-making
framework
(0) Policy and legislative framework
Guidance notes: Legislation, regulations and policy gives
insight into understanding past, present and future actions.
For example, if the regulations concerning the felling and
conversion of farm trees into sawn timber are difficult or
expensive to meet, then farmers are unlikely to plant and
tend trees that produce sawn timber and /or mill illegally.
The same result could also occur if no regulations or
enforcement are present, allowing exploitation of forests
and so depressed timber prices.
Policy and legislation are analysed but not in detail for two
main reasons.
The risk of legislation banning the use of chainsaws or
attachments is assessed to be low from discussions with
various Kenyan government departments, though there
is a ban in Uganda but which is seen as ineffective.
The laws are due to change with the implementation of
the Kenyan Forests Act 2005, but the operational details
and their effect on the current practices are yet to be
communicated.
Policy framework for timber conversion and forestry
Guidance notes: Summarise national forest policy, national
environmental protection policies, regional and local policies
on their intended effect on the use of trees for chainsaw
milling, timber sales, markets and on those undertaking or
potentially undertaking chainsaw milling.
It is understood that currently there are no policies on the
use or sale of chainsaws, milling attachments or other small
sawmills. There are a number relating to the harvesting and
movement of timber products, discussed later. After several
years of inactivity, the Forest Bill was provisionally passed
at the end of 2005 (Government of Kenya, 2005). It is as
yet to be implemented and as such previous laws were still
adhered to in January 2006, where known. The current
situation is presented, and Ludeki et al. (2006) present a
clear assessment of the Act.
The Forests Act 2005 provides for the following:
Establishment of a forest authority known as the Kenya
Forest Service, to formulate policies and regulations for
all forests, manage and conserve indigenous forests and
manage provisional forests in consultation with the
owners.
Apply stringent measures for conversion of indigenous
forests to other uses by application of Environmental
Impact Assessments (EIA), consultation with local forest
conservation committees and approval of the change of
land use by parliament.
Recognition of local community members as major
stakeholders in the management of indigenous forests.
The Bill provides for the formation of associations to
participate in forest management, conservation and
forestry development with joint management agreements,
as well as representation of the communities in local
Forest Conservation Committees.
Sustainable management of indigenous forests for water,
soil and biodiversity conservation, cultural use and
heritage values, recreation and tourism, carbon
sequestration and sustainable production of wood and
non-wood products.
Enhanced conservation of biodiversity and water
catchment protection, through an aggressive afforestation
and natural resource programme to replace exotic trees
with indigenous species.
Management of industrial forest plantations on a
sustainable basis, for production of wood and other forest
products and services. Management of industrial
plantations has been identified as one of the functions
that could be leased to the private sector on a pilot basis.
Promotion of commercial tree growing by the private
sector, farmers and communities through provision of
incentives for forestry development. Under this
arrangement, it is expected that more land will be set
aside for forest development leading to increased forest
cover.
The other main legislation affecting forestry is the
Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act
(EMCA), 1999 (Government of Kenya, 2000). This is the
umbrella legislation governing management of natural
resources in the country. An independent National
Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has been
established to implement the provisions of the Act. The
Act specifically addresses the issues relating to protection
of forests, reforestation and afforestation, energy
conservation and planting of trees or woodlots and
conservation of biological diversity. The Act provides for
public involvement in any major development decisions,
which have an environmental bearing. Land use change,
which includes conversion of forestland to other uses, is
requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) by an
independent body. The Act also makes provisions for
addressing environmental offences including the
establishment of a tribunal to deal with such offences and
the due process.
The Timber Act (Cap. 386 of 1972) provides for control of
the sale and export of timber by means of grading, inspection
and marking, and requires permits for timber transit which
are issued by the Forest Department. The export of
unprocessed indigenous timber is banned at present by
Presidential Decree. Other laws which effect forestry issues
are the:
Wildlife (Conservation and Management) Act (Cap 376)
1977, which the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) regulates
amongst other aspects of game hunting on public and
private land. In Meru the KWS have assisted in erecting
an electrified fence along some of the gazetted forest
boundaries to try and stop elephants damaging farmers
crops.
The Trust Lands Act (Cap 288) 1962, covers all land
which is neither private nor governmental, relating to
local authority (council) land held in trust for the benefit
of residents. In 2003, 78% of land in Kenya was classified
as Trust Land.
The Water Act 2002 through the Catchment Area
Advisory Committees advising the National Water
Management Authorities gives powers over issues
regarding water catchments including prohibiting
activities, for which compensation should be paid.
The Antiquities and Monuments Act, Cap. 215 of 1984,
where any land of cultural significance may be protected,
thus gazetting national monuments, then falling under
the management of the National Museums of Kenya.
Several of these include forests of cultural and biodiversity
significance, such as the Njuri Ncheke in Meru.
Legislation, codes of practice and other rules on tree felling,
conversion sales and marketing of timber.
Guidance notes: Repeat the previous section where different
but for enacted laws and their enforcement. Compare with
the actual evidence of how these affect the use of trees for
chainsaw milling, timber sales, markets and those
undertaking or potentially undertaking chainsaw milling.
This information resulted from primary data gathered from
local and national government departments, NGOs,
sawmillers, farmers and chainsaw operators in January 2006.
Farmers are not allowed to fell any native tree species on
their land unless they show good reason to the District
Environmental Committee (DEC) of NEMA (National
Environment Management Authority). Farmers may cut
fewer than ten exotic tree species on their land for domestic
use without a permit as long as the following criteria are
met: trees are not within 10 m of a water source or wetland;
are not on a steep slope; are not immature; and harvesting
them does not clear of all the trees on the farm.
If farmers want to sell less than ten trees then they must
apply for a free permit from the DEC, which meets twice a
month. Principle players include the District Forest Officer
(DFO) and DEC Co-ordinator, who will send an agricultural
or forestry extension officer out to make an inspection. No
permits have ever been refused. The DEC has no legal basis
to stop the felling of trees on private land. If more than ten
trees are to be felled then the Committee or some of its
members visit the proposed felling site to assess.
Anyone who wants to transport trees must apply for a Forest
Produce Movement Permit. Usually free, it was unclear under
what circumstances a fee of Ksh500 was noted as being paid
by one sawmiller. The Forest Department sometimes issues
movement permits along with felling permits. The
movement permit is understood to last for three days, in
daylight hours only and applies to charcoal, firewood and
sawn timber.
There are many reports, both primary and secondary, of the
felling of trees without permits. Some officials estimate up
to 30% of farm sourced timber maybe felled without a permit.
The Forest Department indicated that up to 100 tonnes per
month of timber from gazetted forests is illegally harvested,
with about 60% caught by forest guards or other enforcement
agencies. Currently all harvesting of native trees in gazetted
forests is banned.
Since 1999, all gazetted forests have been closed to timber
harvesting, including the 120,000 ha of plantations,
excepting supplies to large scale timber industries. State
plantations have, however, continued to supply the Kenyan
Tea Development Agency Limited (KTDA Ltd) with 40-
60,000 m
3
/yr of firewood for tea drying, the Pan African
Paper Mill with 300,000-450,000 m
3
/yr, plywood
manufactures Riply and Timsales with 1,000,000 m
3
/yr and
the electricity industry with approximately 100,000
transmission poles per year (Mr. I. Kuria, Economics and
Marketing, Kenyan Forest Department, pers. comm.).
Legislation, codes of practice and other rules
Guidance notes: Repeat as required to allow the wider
context to be understood and highlight strengths and/or
weaknesses. In Kenya, information would include that
from District Environmental Committees, Sub-Location
Development Committees, Forest Department- District
Forest Offices, Kenya Wildlife Service, etc.
The National Environment Management Authority
(NEMA), Provincial Environmental Committees and
District Environmental Committees (DEC) have little real
power of enforcement. This is seen as a result of under
funding leading to insufficient staff covering large districts.
As far as is known, NEMA has not appointed any
Environmental Inspectors as envisaged by the Act. The
EMCA gives no legal basis for preventing the cutting of
trees, however the Chief Conservator of Forests in a Circular
in 2000-01 gave powers to the DECs to regulate felling.
Concerning government and public organizations, forest
resources are currently managed by the Forest Department
of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. The
department is responsible for the conservation and
management of all government forests besides providing
technical support to other stakeholders, especially farmers,
local communities and the private sector. The main areas of
management are plantations, natural forests, farm forestry,
dryland forestry and planning. The Department is headed
by the Chief Conservator of Forests and is divided into 3
divisions, headed by Deputy Chief Conservators of Forests,
namely Forest Management and Conservation, Planning and
Development and Forest Extension. The divisions are further
subdivided into 6 branches that are headed by Assistant
Chief Conservators of Forests. Some main branches are
Reforestation and Partnerships, Natural Forests
Conservation, Farm Forestry and Extension, Dryland
forestry, Forest Health and Protection, Management
18 HDRA - the
Services, Planning and Finance and Administration. Each
of these branches is further sub-divided into sections.
Concerning decentralisation, district-level forestry planning
initiated by the 1994 Master Plan has given power of local
planning to assist cooperation between government agencies,
NGOs and communities. Currently, operations are
decentralized to the 8 provincial and 71 district forest offices.
Forest stations are the operational units in protected forest
areas, while divisions are responsible for delivery of forestry
extension services. Issues related to granting of licenses and
gazetting of forest areas are examined at District and
Provincial levels. For an overview see Mwichabe (undated).
Institutional barriers to certain groups for access to timber
resources, infrastructure or markets
Guidance notes: These should also be identified in
stakeholder analysis, and may range from outright
documented bans to non-legal but effective barriers on
certain groups.Not assessed.
Causes of Forest Loss as seen by the Kenya Forests Working Group
http://www.kenyaforests.org/forestsoverview.html
Market Distortions. Currently forest products from gazetted
forests are cheaper than those found on privately owned
land. Illegally obtained products are almost free save for
labour. This has numerous negative effects, including loss
of revenue for the Government and loss of forest land for
the nation.
Land Use Policy. Kenya urgently needs a clear land use
policy. A Land Use Policy is now being developed to
address this problem.
Non Residential Cultivation (NRC). The abuse of the NRC
(Shamba system) has contributed to encroachment of
indigenous forests and accumulation of planting backlogs.
The government has currently discontinued NRC, which
needs to be implemented as intended to protect tree
seedlings after planting.
Wood fuel (charcoal and fuelwood). Illegal cutting of
indigenous trees for charcoal and fuelwood has threatened
some forests. Alternative approaches are needed to
address charcoal and energy requirements.
Nyayo Tea Zones. One of the purposes of establishing the
tea zones was stated to be the provision of a physical buffer
zone between agricultural land and forests designated for
protection. Some of the areas cleared were unsuitable for
tea and some remained unplanted. Reforesting these open
spaces is one way of increasing forest cover in the country.
Limited Security of Tenure. When local communities have
no sense of ownership, they are likely to overexploit forest
resources and to be unwilling to engage in tree planting
and forest conservation. The proposed new Act has
provision for community participation in forest
management and conservation.
Forests on Trust Lands. Often local authorities lack
expertise to manage the forests under their jurisdiction.
Technical advice and political will are needed to manage
Trust Land forests for the present and future.
Changes in Land Use. Allocation of forest land for purposes
other than forests has contributed to forest loss. Examples
include official and de facto excisions for settlement.
Other changes include cultivation of bhang (marijuana),
mining, quarrying and uncontrolled grazing of livestock.
Logging. Logging of trees such as camphor for timber,
muhugu and mpingo for wood carving and Prunus africana
for medicinal bark threatens existence of these trees.
Resource limitations. There is insufficient allocation of
resources within the Forest Department to effectively
enforce regulations.
No institutional barriers to the use of chainsaws other than
poverty and so limited access to money, were observed.
However, given the limited knowledge and communication
in implementation of rules, regulations and laws, it is clear
that there are additional barriers, including
misunderstandings on governance of conversion, sale and
transportation of timber and charcoal. Many officials were
unclear and vague, sawmillers a little more sure, but farmers
usually did not know of the process at all.
Further, some extension workers did not indicate to farmers
likely tree prices, even if they knew, for reasons which were
not clear nor were they comfortable to expand on.
Knowledge of ways to measure tree volume seemed
completely absent, though knowledge of sawn timber prices
by the running foot was widely known. Therefore, bargaining
for tree purchase between the farmer is subjective, not based
on volume in the hands of the buyer, and so very one sided.
The new Forest Act 2005 will create a number of barriers in
accessing plantation timber likely to become available for
council, Kenya coffee unions, agricultural extension and
cooperatives agents, district commissioners office, county
council (trust lands), Kenya Wildlife Service (especially
regarding migrating elephants and electric fences at the edge
of Merus gazetted Forests), the Green Belt Movement, Njuri
Ncheke (tribal laws, customs and dispute resolution). With
the drought (2005-06), livestock herders from the arid north
and west were evident in the district to save their animals
and themselves from starvation.
Scope objectives and livelihood alternatives for
stakeholders and sub-groups
Guidance notes: Gain understanding of the relative
importance of chainsaw milling for the identified groups,
remembering seasonal effects. Participatory Rural
Appraisal (PRA) methods can rank and score livelihoods,
income and benefits.Not assessed
Given the alternatives of mobile circular bench saws and
static bench saws in Meru, chainsaw milling will be of
interest to stakeholders due to the economic returns it can
generate. Three groups who will be most affected are farmers,
landless semi-skilled/ unskilled people (including
unemployed young men) as well as existing sawmillers.
Farmers will benefit in two ways; from more
competition for trees and so potentially better prices as well
as being able to sell previously inaccessible trees.
For landless semi-skilled, unskilled or unemployed
young men, chainsaws are already seen as a future source of
income. Currently, the path they tend to follow is first as
assistants to chainsaws operators (often unpaid) to learn the
trade, then hired by a chainsaw owner to undertake work
for sawmillers and tree buyers, to save or borrow money from
family to purchase their own chainsaw so becoming an
owner-operator or owner hiring in operators.
A potential effect on existing sawmillers is the use of
chainsaw attachments on their chainsaws to process difficult
to access trees, or large logs traditionally halved or quartered
for manual extraction to a bench saw.
Analyse relationships between stakeholders
Guidance notes: Are conflicts or mutual benefits occurring
or likely to (including with institutions/ powerbrokers)?
Who would be the winners and losers? What do stakeholder
groups think of one another and how could conflict be
reduced? What could be done to improve relationships with
institutions.Not assessed
Conflicts were not mentioned except for:
The common belief and some evidence that farmers are
not being paid fair prices for their trees, with considerable
variation noted for similar tree sizes and qualities.
Boundary tree ownership.
Lack of transparency and knowledge of laws, regulations
and permissions on harvesting, conversion, transportation
and sale of forest products.
sustainable exploitation from gazetted forests. The barriers
are that to bid for concessions or licences, management and
Environmental Impact Plans or statements (EIS) are
required. This will be outside the ability of small sawmillers
in the district. The act also envisages the formation through
community participation of community forest associations
who, amongst other aspects, may have the right to harvest
timber. It would therefore suggests the only way local
sawmillers may gain access to timber from the local gazetted
forests is through joining or forming a community forest
association such that the pre-requisite plans and assessments
can be economically produced.
(1) Stakeholder assessment
Guidance notes: Here the wider effect of future or current
practices of using chainsaw mills is assessed on the various
stakeholders. Stakeholder drivers and reactions, winners
and losers, need to be understood. This can be assessed
using Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods, or
Participatory Forest Management (PFM) techniques where
commonly owned resources are to be used such as
Community, State or National Forests.Not assessed.
This section is not assessed in this study as the focus is on
the introduction of new technology not forest management.
However, comments are made where there is relevance. The
FAO have published a useful community toolbox for this
(Davis, 1990).
Identify, prioritise and classify main stakeholders by area
including land and tree ownership patterns
Guidance notes: Identify and classify stakeholders into
groups. Common stakeholder groups likely for chainsaw
milling are by gender, family income levels, farmers
(including transhumance pastoralists, land owners and
shamba groups), ethnic groups, local and non-local forest
users, institutions and government, timber merchants and
sellers. Be aware of the large number of community and
self-help groups which may or may not cut across other
stakeholder groups.Not assessed.
Main stakeholders include: sawmillers, timber merchants,
chainsaw operators and owners, farmers (small, medium
large), absentee landlords, Kenya Tea Development Agency
(timber for drying), Tobacco Companies (timber for drying),
Sub-Location Development Committees, Forest
Department, District Forest Offices, the National
Environmental Management Authority and the District
Environmental Committee.
Secondary stakeholders include: the landless, squatters,
shamba farmers, rental (tenant or share cropping) farmers,
men and womens self-help groups (registered through social
services in Meru), cash crop groups (agglomeration of
production to enable contract arrangements), community
interest groups, church groups, chiefs, headmen, county
20 HDRA - the
(2) The decision making and participatory
forest management context
Much of this section is not assessed in this study as the focus
is on the introduction of a new processing technology for
East Africa, and not forest management. However,
comments are made where there is relevance.
Scope historical land management and factors, seasonality
of work and other influences
Guidance notes: As suggested, the history and reasoning
of historical land management is assessed. Participatory
Rural Appraisal (PRA), aerial photographs, published and
secondary information can all be used to do this. In the
context of chainsaw milling this could indicate historical
influences on the growing, availability and harvesting of
timber trees from various sources as well as timber markets.
Not assessed.
In the 1930s, Meru District was selected for experiments
with the first Kenyan owned coffee plantations. Soon
afterwards, due also to pre-Independence conflicts, pulses
also became important export crops. By the 1960s, Meru
District was considered to be Kenyas leading coffee producer.
Tea was introduced soon after but did not become
economically important until the 1990s when it became the
highest income generator in Meru.
Regarding seasonality, farmers generally only want their trees
harvested in the period between crop harvesting and new
planting, unless there is alternative access to the tree or they
are in very great need of cash. This leads to considerable
downtime for sawmillers, chainsaw operators and others in
the timber chain.
Prioritise stakeholder decision making criteria in
undertaking milling
Guidance notes: This should assist in identifying how
important the economics of chainsaw milling are against
constraints that are biological (e.g. tree growth rates),
technical (e.g. ability to use chainsaw mills), institutional
(e.g. laws or regulations pertaining to timber milling and
sales) and social criteria. If the constraints are mostly not
related to chainsaws and economics, then more focus in
the data collection and decision making criteria should be
paid to these constraints.Not assessed.
For existing sawmillers, the constraint facing them was the
time and so the cost of finding and negotiating the purchase
of on farm trees. For new entrants, such as chainsaw owners
or operators who may consider purchasing chainsaw milling
attachments, the constraint of finding suitable trees will be
more difficult still as they are unlikely to have the negotiating
skills or network of farmer contacts.
Finding the capital to purchase equipment will be a
considerable barrier, with average earnings under US$1 per
day. Additionally, they will not be experienced in the sale
of timber placing further costs and time constraints. As
mentioned, lack of transparency and knowledge of laws,
regulations and permission for harvesting, conversion,
transportation and sale of forest products is a further
constraint. The actual use of the chainsaw milling
attachments will need some training but may be relatively
intuitive for existing chainsaw operators and owners. For
new users, the main challenge will be safe chainsaw use,
particularly felling as well as sharpening and maintenance.
Identify limiting factors of chainsaw milling
Guidance notes: Are the limits to widespread adoption land,
labour or capital within stakeholder groups?
Most factors are limiting within farming stakeholder groups
in the growing of timber trees. The average land holding is
3.4 ha and the average households portion is 1.7 ha (Tyndall,
1996). Muchiri et al. (2000) found densities of 200 trees/
ha, principally Grevillea robusta, growing at an estimated 8-
24 m
3
/ha/yr. Njuguna (2004) noted that 56% of the trees
and 68% of the standing volume in Meru Central District
were considered as timber (not fuelwood) trees, 51% were
boundary trees (49% of the total volume), 36% were in
cropland (37% of the volume), 14% were more than 30cm
DBH (59% of the volume), with 82% under 15 years old
(43% of the volume). A 1998 survey found 1137 trees per
farm, 397 trees/ha, with a standing volume of 20 m3/ha.
Limiting factors for new millers include: capital (at average
manual wage rates of US$1/day, saving all of it would take
over 2 years to purchase the equipment), and knowledge of
the business (including: chainsaw use, with no training
available in Kenya; harvesting techniques, negotiation skills,
sales and marketing; laws, regulations and permits; networks
of farmers potentially selling trees; and general business
skills). The limiting factors for existing chainsaw owners
include only some of the above: knowledge of the business;
negotiation skills, sales and marketing; laws, regulations and
permits; and networks of farmers potentially selling trees.
(3) Cost-benefits of chainsaw milling
Here the first two sub-sections are assessed as they are central
to the economic analysis. The latter two are cursorily treated
as they could not be followed economically in this study.
Guidance notes: Here the purpose is to quantify were
possible, the relative cost and benefits of timber processing
with chainsaw milling or without it. Estimates of potential
timber production, inventories and growth rates, will often
be problematic, even more so where illegal harvesting takes
place. Biological growth modelling, stakeholder
interviewing, household surveys, Participatory Rural
Appraisal (PRA) methods and Participatory Forest
Management (PFM) techniques can all be used.
Identify benefits and costs
Guidance notes: The net benefits and costs should be
identified, including a measure of the environmental benefits
and costs, which are often very difficult and occasionally
controversial to assess. The effects on different stakeholders
and over time should be included.
Benefits
Enabling chainsaw owners to convert trees to timber at
similar conversion efficiencies to other mill types, at lower
capital cost but likely higher costs per piece.
Greater competition for trees may lead to better prices
for farmers.
For existing chainsaw owners, the Alaskan type frame
mill is likely to be popular, as a way to diversify their
business from chainsaw felling for hire to feller and
miller. In parts of the country where freehand chainsaw
milling is common, once the technology is known and
buyers offer better prices or demand sized, high quality
finished timbers, uptake of such frame mills is likely to
be high.
Costs
Greater pressure to mill farm trees and milling of trees
previously inaccessible such as on steep slopes and in
valley bottoms, may risk increased soil erosion.
Mobile and static bench sawmillers will come under
competitive pressure from chainsaw millers. However,
their knowledge network of farmers likely to sell trees
and timber yards, through which most timber in Meru
appears to be sold, combined with there probable lower
variable cost per unit output, will potentially mitigate
these effects.
The potential to increase unapproved felling of farm trees
as there will be more sawmillers to monitor.
Prioritise likely benefits and costs
Guidance notes: This shows where most of the effort in
gaining information should be directed and is likely to differ
between stakeholder groups.
Aim to collect data on the use of chainsaw mills to construct
an economic model. Collect data from key stakeholders
farmers, sawmillers, chainsaw operators and owners.
Farmers species and size tree prices achieved, why, how
and when they sell trees
Mobile and static sawmillers tree species and size and
prices paid, costs and revenues, inputs, outputs, licences
and permissions.
Chainsaws - costs and revenues, inputs and outputs, as
well as operational aspects.
Where possible, gather indicative information on current,
past and future of on farm tree growing, milling and selling
in Meru, assessing external impacts. Triangulate information
from different sources. Gain an understanding of social issues
impacting the sector. Use secondary data where available
for all other aspects.
Estimation of production, labour, cash and capital input
levels
Guidance notes: The level of information collected will be
determined by the data collection budget, timeframes,
secondary sources available and the complexity of the
situation. This information will directly feed into an
economic assessment. Verifying information directly
collected through other sources will help reduce bias or
unrealistic estimation levels.Not assessed.
As time and budgets for data collection are generally limited,
then efforts should be made to utilise indicative information
rather than collect data of more verifiable accuracy. Meru
has been much studied in regards to timber processing and
natural resource management in a broad context, so there is
considerable secondary data available.
Assess sustainability of potential tree removal levels
Guidance notes: If data on tree inventories, growth rates
or removals is not available, stakeholder interview methods
can be used to assess past, present and future changes with
or without chainsaw milling.Not assessed.
Current published data on inventories in or around Meru is
lacking. Data has been collected by the FAO and ICRAF
but is yet to be published. Lengkeek et al. (2003) indicated
tree densities (woody perennials >1.5 m tall) of 1,000/ha of
297 different species including coffee. If, as suggested, coffee
cultivars comprised a third of the trees counted, this would
suggest tree densities of about 600/ha. Grevillea robusta
density was estimated at 50 trees/ha, by far the most common
timber species, with Cupressus lusitanica second at 22 trees/
ha. No data was published on age or volume. See previous
section for comparative data from Muchiri et al. (2000) and
Njuguna (2004).
It was outside the scope of this study to undertake
independent inventory or extensive stakeholder
interviewing to assess growth or removal rates. A common
belief is a skewed age distribution with fewer older trees,
e.g. grevillea is seldom seen older than 20 years, but relatively
high densities of younger trees, as suggested by the 50-200
trees per hectare for grevillea. Dieback of cypress due to
disease or insect attack is common in the district and there
is a similar fear for grevillea. The general feeling in Meru
amongst stakeholders interviewed is that trees on farms
continue to be overexploited. Sawmillers point to the low
availability of trees over 30 cm in diameter, saying they have
to travel distances of 20 km or more to find good trees ,
though they also maybe cheaper.
22 HDRA - the
(4) Values and prices
Guidance notes: Values and prices are assessed in this
section. The valuation method(s) needs to be decided upon
according to the situation and scope of the study, as well
as whether both or either of financial or economic analysis
will be used.
In this section, analysis is limited to direct quantifiable costs,
prices and values. Non-market aspects are only touched upon
and no economic analysis is made of them.
Prioritise benefits and decide on valuation methods
Guidance notes: There are a host of valuation methods
available to assess economic aspects, particularly
complicated non-market benefits that are normally
expensive to undertake. They may also be difficult for
stakeholders to comprehend and very difficult for them to
carry out. Two that are suggested for use in this study and
data collection framework are the self-explanatory market
pricing and opportunity costing, the valuing of (usually)
labour by the foregone income that could be earned working
for someone else.Not assessed.
Only basic economic information from chainsaw milling
and, where available, from other sawmills was collected.
With approximately 56% of the Kenyan population living
at or below the poverty level on less than US$1 per day,
with an official unemployment rate of 28%, (other sources
put it at 40% in 2001), there maybe few other opportunities
to gain paid work, especially outside of the major cities.
Labourers for the sawyers, including the casual milling
personnel, often earned a little less than US$1 per day
(calculated to Ksh67 for a 7 hour day). The associated
economic model with this data collection framework, uses a
slightly higher rate of Ksh10 per hour.
Value markets - stumpage, levies, concessions, and timber
values - construction, furniture and craft
Guidance notes: Gather data and / or secondary
information to estimate (give ranges unless no variation in
local markets is present) the values of trees and timber.
Record species, size, quality price variation, esp. if
difference between chainsaw and fixed sawmill differences.
Stakeholders may well pay different prices for the same
timber, not just based on volume but also cultural or social
context, as well as barter. If markets for by-products e.g.
for fuelwood, gather this too. Historical information is
important, along with inflation and influences, to help
inform potential future pricing. Comparison with other land
based products such as maize or fuelwood help
understanding changes in land use.
The data collected in Meru suggests that about 80% of the
trees milled were grevilliea, and an estimated 8% of the
species milled are native. When prices paid per tree are
converted into approximate values per unit volume it is clear
that farmers are underpaid for large trees. Whenever trees
of similar quality are sold by volume, larger trees always fetch
a high price per unit volume because of the higher recovery
rates gained from larger diameter logs. This clearly supports
why trees are sold at a relatively immature age, i.e. it is more
economic to do so. Any forester, forest officer, plantation
owner or other trained personnel measuring volume could
demonstrate that a 30 cm diameter tree has four times the
volume of a 15 cm diameter tree of similar form (volume
increases at twice the rate of diameter). It is evident that if
millers wished to make a better profit, then they should focus
on buying bigger trees as not only are they paying less per
unit volume, but also gain higher recovery rates.
Table 3.1. Tree species milled in Meru
Latin name Local (English) name Species
observed
%
Grevillea robusta grevillea/mokua (silky oak) 80%
Cupressus lusitania cypress/thithinda
(Mexican cypress) 5%
Eucalyptus saligna Eucalyptus (Sydney blue gum) 5%
Cordia africana Muringa (large leaf cordia) 3%
Vitex keniensis muuru (Meru oak) 3%
Markhamia lutea mugwani/moumi (markhamia) 2%
Other species - 2%
Table 3.2. Prices paid for on farm trees (modelled data)
Trees Small Medium Large
12-25 cm 25-40 cm 40-60 cm
US$/tree dbh dbh dbh
Grevillea 7.04 11.97 25.70
Cupressus 4.93 30.99
Eucalyptus 30.99
Cordia 14.08 28.17 70.42
US$/m3 @ 0.15 @ 0.64 @ 1.96
m3/tree m3/tree m3/tree
Grevillea 46.12 18.61 13.09
Cupressus 32.29 15.78
Eucalyptus 15.78
Cordia 92.25 43.78 35.87
NB. Standing timber is purchased on a per tree basis and not per cubic foot or
metre, hence the higher price per cubic metre for smaller trees.
Table 3.3. Local sales value of Grevillia robusta
Nominal US$/m US$/m3 % milled
Size (mm) in Meru
100 x 75 0.92 123.22 2%
75 x 75 0.74 131.44 3%
100 x 50 0.62 124.76 23%
200 x 25 0.60 120.14 10%
150 x 25 0.46 123.22 5%
75 x 50 0.46 123.22 23%
50 x 50 0.37 147.87 25%
50 x 25 0.18 147.87 10%
Average 0.55 132.13
Many trees now being harvested were not planted specifically
for timber but for other purposes such as shade. This in part
explains why volume measurements are not used and why
farmers do not have a feel for the value of their trees, as
they have no history in selling them for sawn timber.
Additionally, prices can be extremely variable depending
on the immediacy of cash need, tree quality and species
valuation knowledge of the farmer, accessibility, and what
might be termed personal ownership, meaning whether they
have grown and tended it themselves or see it as a free gift
planted by previous owners or generations.
Table 3.4. Felling/ milling hire out rates around Meru.
Ksh US$
Chainsaw felling, delimbing 300/l $ 4.23/l
and cross cutting of fuel used
Rate for a 5-7 person bench sawing 0.70/ft $0.03/m
crew - casual, own tractor saw of slab milled
Rate for hired in tractor 2.50/ft $0.12/m
circular saw and crew of slab milled
Rate for hired in freehand 2.75/ft $0.13/m
chainsaw milling and operators of slab milled
Fuelwood values were difficult to assess, because farmer home
consumption was not valued due to project constraints. In
Meru town, sawmill offcuts were sold by a variety of methods,
a wheelbarrow full (Ksh100), by the heap (Ksh300-500) or
trailer load (Ksh900). Better quality offcuts were sold as
fencing or for making market stalls achieving roughly Ksh25
each for 2.3 m or longer. It was reported that the Kenyan
Tea Development Agency Limited (KTDA) buys 1m
3
of
firewood for Ksh150, with the farmer given a 1 m long stick
to measure with, if it is assumed therefore that 50% of the
stack is air space then the true value is Ksh300/m
3
for
firewood.
Figure 3.2. Breakeven retail hire out rates inclusive of felling from chainsaw frame milling and mobile bench saw
milling for different sized trees of different forms.
Breakeven retail hire out rates inclusive of felling
-
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Chainmill
Meru fell and freehand convert hire out rate
24 HDRA - the
Estimate value of home consumption
Guidance notes: Where home consumption is high be
cautious of using market prices or opportunity cost (what
it would have fetched on the market less transport and
marketing labour) as valuation methods. For example, the
timber may not have been used at these prices for various
reasons including lack of money.Not assessed.
In the tree purchase negotiating process, farmers often
retained all firewood remaining after cutting logs to milling
length and offcuts if milled on site. The other home
consumer was the end-user timber buyer, usually someone
buying trees from neighbouring farms or sometimes using
their own to construct a house. Here, chainsaw fellers and
mobile bench saws were hired in to convert the timber. These
end-user buyers give a clue to the cost of trees compared to
the market price for sawn timber. Some of those interviewed
said they would do it again if they wanted timber, now
realising how many trees they would need to produce the
building timber due to the 40% or so log to timber conversion
rate.
Indicate on-site non-market benefits
Guidance notes: Various valuation methods can be used
including ascribing monetary values, e.g. the cost of
fertilizers to replace eroded soil. As an indication, the
relative ranked importance of non-market benefits by
stakeholder groups or individuals compared to market
benefits, give a useful idea of the comparative significance
of outputs.
Trees are seen and used as a cash reserve for farmers. Principle
uses for the tree cash is school fees and uniforms as well as
emergencies such as medical expenses. Many of the trees
now being harvested were not planted for sawn timber, as
before 1999 virtually all sawn timber came from the public
forests and plantations. It is understood at the time of
planting the trees functions were as follows.
Principle uses for trees are animal fodder and firewood.
Many trees, and all grevillea are pruned either with the
branch still hanging to dry for firewood, or cut fresh for
both firewood and fodder. Unfortunately for timber
quality, but easier using a machete up a tree, this pruning
usually left a long (~15cm) branch stub.
Many trees were planted to provide partial shade for
coffee. As the coffee price has been low for some time,
many farmers have removed the coffee bushes but left
the trees.
Environmental benefits are seen to be large, for crop
shading and protection (wind and heavy rain), for soil
stability in the rainy season (particularly soon after crops
are planted).
Lengkeek et al. (2003) lists a myriad of uses for the woody
perennials found on farms. Ones not listed so far include
herbal medicines for humans and animals, fruit, ropes,
beehives, plant supports, soil fertility, rain attractors,
tooth brush, ornamental, animal traps, tool handles and
many others.
Indicate off-site or down stream costs and benefits to
secondary stakeholders (National / Social perspective)
Guidance notes: These can be exceedingly important in
regional / national policy decisions, especially where the
potential for costs or benefits are large. Valuation is often
difficult and can be contentious.Not assessed.
Farmers in Kenya have been supplying the majority of sawn
timber used within the country since 1999. Though the
FAOs 2005 Global Forest Resources Assessment for Kenya
tables do not indicate any timber came from non-forests, it
is very evident that it does to a large extent. Equally, FAO
tables suggest only 160 m3 of timber was imported in 2002,
through there is a large trade in timber, often illegally
sourced, with Congolese timber freely for sale in Nairobi.
It seems the FAO removal data of 2.4 million cubic metres
accounts for the gazetted forest harvesting supplying
industrial users, which concurs with information from the
Forest Department. This therefore suggests the 84,960 m3
of sawnwood consumed in Kenya in 2002 from the FAO
tables comes from outside forests, i.e. farmers. This would
also mean that farmer-grown timber is worth US$24m, or
Ksh1.74 billion, if the Meru average market price for sawn
timber is used.
The low impact harvesting systems currently used (fell-cut-
carry), partly a result of farmers not wanting their crops
damaged, means there are few downstream environmental
costs in terms of soil compaction or erosion, river silting or
turbidity. This maybe marginally further reduced, through
milling where the tree fell, rather than carrying the logs out
manually to a tractor accessible point. Alternatively, in now
converting previously inaccessible trees due to terrain,
increased erosion could result from extraction of the sawn
wood and firewood.
There is a concern, not with chainsaw milling, but the
preponderance of sawn timber deriving from one exotic
species, Grevillea robusta, believed to come from a narrow
genetic pool. This is a risk on a number of levels, principally
susceptibility to attack from pathogens or insects. This has
recently happened to Cupressus lusitania, where dieback has
caused considerable tree loss especially in plantations.
There is the potential for increased illegal logging. This is
unlikely in Meru Central gazetted forest, as adjacent
communities report and investigate any chainsaw noises from
the forests, the impact of chainsaws milling is likely to be
small. In gazetted forest remote from habitation, there is
potential for increased illegal felling and milling using chain
mills. However, current estimates of 100 tonnes per month
being illegally harvested throughout Kenya suggest the
impact will be small. Where illegality is likely to increase is
where farm trees are milled without the correct permissions
being sought, as these regulations and permissions are
currently unclear to most people.
Indicate comparison of market/ non-market benefits
Guidance notes: Summation of part 5. Not assessed.
This section has shown that the benefits of chainsaw milling
are relatively high. Though principally suitable for areas of
farm forest where there are few economic milling
alternatives, they are also likely to be used as an adjunct to
other milling systems for relatively inaccessible trees.
Chainsaw milling with Alaskan frames is assessed to be
able produce timber profitably from trees over 25cm, with
lower capital outlay but likely higher running costs than
other conversion systems. Farmers would benefit from the
widespread use of frames through the greater competition
from more buyers for trees.
End users, especially local furniture makers currently using
freehand chainsaw milled timber, will benefit through less
planing wastage to produce a finished, flat, straight even
thickness boards. This wastage reduction has downstream
benefits of less timber, fuel, and money per finished piece.
Non-market/ non-directly measured benefits include
employment and small business generation, especially for
low skilled landless in rural areas
resource development through farmer income generation
encouraging planting of more timber trees
Import substitution, milling mostly sustainably produced
local timber rather than importing often illegally felled
(usually judged as unsustainable) timber from moist zone
African countries, and contributing to reduced foreign
debt
Contribution to reduced greenhouse gas production by
short distances to market, little travel cost or pollution,
and less alternative materials (concrete, steel, plastics)
as high users of energy mostly fossil fuels
Non-market or non-directly measured costs include
Higher fuel consumption per cubic metre milled than
other methods higher greenhouse gases
Potential to increase unauthorised or illegal milling due
to larger number of highly mobile millers being more
difficult to monitor.
Over-exploitation of farm trees younger trees milled
yielding lower conversion rates, everyone including the
miller loosing.
Cost or input valuations - opportunity costs, capital costs,
depreciation levels
Guidance notes: Include opportunity costs of labour and
land where appropriate. Depreciation should account for
local conditions (e.g local resale values and longevity),
which helps decide on straight line or declining value
depreciation and a decision made on whether to depreciate
on purchased cost or replacement cost. Spares costs and
likely need should also be localised where possible. The
cost of capital (or money) is likely to be localised and may
involve non-monetary transactions (e.g. labour, sawn
timber, firewood, animals). Transaction costs (e.g.
applying for permits, attending meetings, negotiation etc.
as well selling trees /timber) can be large and should be
assessed.
No data on the price of land or its opportunity cost was
gathered in Meru, nor have secondary sources read reported
it. Meru is seen as one of the most favoured farming regions
in Kenya, Meru farmers never starve.
Mobile bench saw mills comprise of 30-40 hp tractors, 20 or
more years old and locally made bench saws. Millers when
asked of re-sale values and longevity of equipment often
suggested a further 20-40 years with regular maintenance.
Chainsaw owners gave two accounts of the replacement cycle
and maintenance of chainsaws, the first being owner
operators or supervised operators using chainsaws often for
8 years or more with regular maintenance. The second was
owners employing unsupervised operators, indicating that
chainsaws had to be replaced every 2-3 years and that after
about 18 months (see box on the next page), replacement
pistons were regularly needed.
Labourers for chainsaw and bench saw millers, including
the casual milling personnel, often earned a little less than
US$ 1 per day (calculated to Ksh 67 for a 7 hour day). The
associated economic models with this data collection
framework, uses a slightly higher rate of Ksh10 per hour.
The models include the owners labour also at Ksh10 per
hour.
None of those interviewed borrowed money from financial
institutions, utilising savings or extended family borrowing.
For the financial model that accompanies this study, a
interest rate of 16.5% was used for borrowed money. This
was derived from the cost of a Motor loan from the
Commercial Bank of Africa, 5% above the base rate of
11.50%. However, the average lending rate in December
2005 from the Central Bank of Kenya was 13.2%. This was
rejected as it was an unlikely rate at which low income or
asset poor people could borrow at. The exchange rate in
February 2006 was Ksh71=US$1, used throughout.
There are two sets of what can be loosely described as
transaction costs. The first set is searching for and negotiating
with farmers for trees along with the associated felling
26 HDRA - the
Table 2.5. Respondent equipment valuations, longevity and depreciation
Valuation and depreciation Tractor Mobile Chainsaw
on capital items (US$) (25-35 hp) bench saw Static Alaskan frame (often Husqvarna 272)
20-30 years old (locally made) bench saw (all estimated) Supervised Unsupervised
Value at purchase 14 085 7 042 8 451 370 732 732
Lifetime (years) 30 30 40 12 6 3
Residual value (estimated) 4 225 282 282 70 70 141
Depreciation
(Fixed declining balance)
US$ / per year
Year 1 549 718 693 48 237 310
Year 2 528 645 636 42 160 179
Year 3 507 579 584 36 108 103
Year 4 488 520 536 32 73
Year 5 468 467 492 27 50
Year 6 450 419 452 24 34
Year 7 433 377 415 21
Year 8 416 338 381 18
Year 9 400 304 350 16
Year 10 384 273 321 14
It is common practice to use a 10:1 (10%) ratio of petrol
to two-stroke oil in Meru rather than the manufacturers
recommended mixture ration of 33:1 (3%). The usual
measure is 5 litres of petrol to 0.5 litres of 2 stroke oil.
This not only literally burns money (Ksh14/day) for no
purpose but also causes coking of the engine, whereby
the unburnt oil forms in a crusty layer in the engine and
exhaust system. This reduces the power and performance
of the engine. It is also common practice to alter the fuel
air mixture adjustment screws, partly as a response to the
coking, but also in the belief it produces more power if
the engine goes faster. By adjusting the factory set mixture
screws, the mixture often becomes leaner meaning the
engine uses more air to petrol than it is designed for,
causing excessive heat, in turn burning holes in the top
of pistons and causing other mechanical failures.
Additionally, all chainsaw users remove the depth gauges
on the chain of the chainsaw, thinking it will cut faster
by producing bigger chips, which it does. With the depth
gauges removed, operators cannot use the full length of
the bar because it would stall the engine, only the tip.
However, using the tip of the chainsaw vastly increases
the incidence of kick-back, where the chainsaw bar tip
catches in the timber flipping the end of the chainsaw
upward, usually to the operators head or arms, cutting
both or either open. Removing the depth gauges also vastly
increase vibration, causing fatigue to both operator and
chainsaw. Vibration such as this can causes white finger
(more common in colder countries where hand blood
supply is reduced), which permanently damages nerve-
endings in the fingers so touch and other functions are
lost.
Notes on chainsaw (mis)use
how life is reduced for both operator and chainsaw
permits and transport licences. This was assessed in Meru to
amount to 3.5 hours per day of milling for static and mobile
mills, but only 2.5 hours per day of milling with chainsaw
mills due to lower production and so tree demand. The
second set is for the cost of maintaining a timber sale yard
with the associated labour costs, rental and local taxes. This
is likely to be needed for any business selling volumes of
timber at retail prices, unless a different model of selling to
timber yards is adopted along with lower prices achieved.
A further advantage of a timber yard is that farmers can
approach the yard to sell trees, reducing the first set of
Table 3.6. One year returns from chainsaw frame milling and
mobile bench saw milling with good quality medium sized trees.
per unit of
per hour currency invested per m
3
Chainsaw frame milling Results of labour in capital of log milled
Total first year costs Ksh 882 036 204 11 3 354
US$ $ 12 423 $ 2.87 $ 11.27 $ 47.24
Gross income first year Ksh 1 164 862 269 15 4 429
US$ $ 16 407 $ 3.79 $ 14.88 $ 62.38
Gross margin first year Ksh 282 826 65 4 1 075
US$ $ 3 983 $ 0.92 $ 3.61 $ 15.15
Mobile bench saw milling
Total first year costs Ksh 1 685 648 154 1.09 3 875
US$ $ 23 742 $ 2.16 $ 54.58 $ 54.58
Gross income first year Ksh 1 926 673 176 1.24 4 429
US$ $ 27 136 $ 2.47 $ 62.38 $ 62.38
Gross margin first year Ksh 241 025 22 0.16 554
US$ $ 3 395 $ 0.31 $ 7.80 $ 7.80
transaction costs. Yard rentals in Meru are about Ksh60,000
per year (US$845/yr) a full time worker for 7 hours a day, 5
days a week at Ksh10 per hour will amount to Ksh16,100
per year (US$227/yr) whilst the annual sawmill licence is
about Ksh6,000 per year (US$85/yr).
(5) Results and performance measurement
Guidance notes: The purpose of this section is to provide
economic assessments to allow decisions to be made and
assess the criteria and risk used to form the judgement.
The stakeholder groups will focus on what is useful or
important to them. Therefore farmers will likely concentrate
on whether is it more profitable to mill your own trees for
timber sale or to sell the tree. For policy makers and
institutions the assessments is more likely to focus on the
wider social and environmental benefits and costs.
Again, in this section, analysis is limited to direct
quantifiable costs, prices and values. Non-market and
regional aspects are only touched on and no economic
analysis is made of them. The following information on based
on two spreadsheet models approximating conditions and
information gathered in Meru. All information excepting
much for the chainsaw mill, was predominantly collected
by personal interview verbal recall, as no records seemed to
be kept. This information was combined to reduce variation.
The data gathered on chainsaw milling was through direct
observation, timings and volume measurements and so is
likely to be much more accurate, though biased in its setting.
The two spreadsheet models allow for four different tree sizes
and qualities. However, because of the volume of this
generated information (32 combinations), all the following
presented analysis is based only on medium sized grevillea,
(av. 32 cm DBH, 0.64m
3
), of good quality. This is a fair
representation of many of the trees milled in Meru, though
it might be argued that many of the trees are perhaps a little
smaller in diameter, 28cm DBH, and perhaps of a little lower
quality. The models also allow for many variations, some of
the ones chosen for presentation here are; all finances are
assumed to be borrowed @ 16.5% APR, depreciation has
been described previously. 150 milling days are assumed to
be worked per year, with a recovery rate for good form
medium sized trees of 50%, producing (chainsaw mills
139m
3
/yr, mobile bench saws 218m
3
/yr) 100 x 50 mm timber
at Meru prices of Ksh13.50 per running foot.
For the chainsaw mill, it has been assumed that small trucks
are hired in to transport the sawn timber, whereas the mobile
bench saws tows the timber away with a trailer. Both models
assume that the trees are felled, prepared and cut to length
for milling by the crew operating the mills, these costs are
included in the models. Data used and assumptions for much
of the models and graphical representation are in Appendix
2. The models are available on http://chainsaw.gwork.org.
Gross margin, net income, breakeven analyses where
possible (cost and returns not discounted)
Guidance notes: In many cases of farm forestry, where
decisions are between selling the tree or hiring a chainsaw
miller, simple analyses are appropriate. Gross value, net
income and Gross margin by labour, land and potentially
cash or capital. Where large farmers may consider their
own equipment or for contract chainsaw millers, analysis
of the breakeven income is also useful along with cash flow
analysis.
28 HDRA - the
Figure 3.4. Breakeven analysis from chainsaw frame milling and mobile bench saw milling for different sized trees of
different forms.
Gross margin 1st Year
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-$20,000
-$15,000
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-$5,000
$-
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$10,000
$15,000
U
S
$
Bench Saw
Chainmill
Chainsaw frame milling is likely to give healthy returns if
trees of medium size (average diameter 32 cm diameter at
breast height (DBH)) and good quality are milled, for
example the gross margin on capital invested is 360% (US$1
invested yields US$3.61). However, when the tree size drops
to small (average diameter 18 cm diameter at breast height
(DBH)), losses are modelled to be made. The returns for an
hour of all labour in the business are 6 fold (at Ksh10/hour)
for chainsaw mills and 2 fold for bench saws. However, labour
costs are a small portion of overall costs as will be seen in
the sensitivity analysis.
As most mobile bench sawmillers have owned their equip-
ment for some time, many of them would not owe any of
the capital and so not pay any interest (16.5%). Given this
situation, the gross margin in the first year rises to nearly
Ksh586,848 or US$8,265 and the return on capital 38%.
Alternatively, the poor result could stem from incorrect as-
sumptions, calculations or poor quality of the data gathered.
The modelled margins per cubic metre of log milled again
shows the chainsaw mill performing twice as well as the
bench saw, the difference being the costs incurred by the
bench saw. These costs in-part derive from the cost of
borrowing capital and if mobile bench saw owners have
already paid for the equipment their gross margin rises to
Ksh1349 or US$19.00/m
3
of log.
The valuation and revenue data for these tables is nominally
based on the conversion of logs to 100 x 50 mm timbers
achieving Meru market prices of Ksh13.50 per running foot
or US$124.76/m
3
. It can be seen that for the tree type
modelled here, the chainsaw mill, where the full capital is
borrowed, is likely to make Ksh3.28 (13.50-10.22) from every
foot sold (US$30.29/ m
3
sold).
Conversely, the model suggests when borrowing the finances
for capital, bench saws make Ksh1.69 per foot sold
(US$15.60/m
3
). When the finances are not borrowed, the
margin rises to Ksh4.11 per foot. When examining the hire
out rates, bench saw appear to need nearly twice the rate of
chainsaw mills per linear foot to breakeven. When operators
with chainsaw milling attachments are hired out, the model
suggests breakeven rates of Ksh3 per foot. The rates two
respondents were able to give for freehand chainsaw milling
in Meru, which rarely happens, was understood to be Ksh2.75
for milling only and Ksh5 per running foot believed to be
inclusive of felling.
The breakeven on operating the business (milling and selling
timber) indicates the numbers of days milling that are
required to cover all the costs of the business. For the
chainsaw mill set-up this is 114 days whilst the bench saw
tractor combination requires 131 days. Starkly, the bench
saw requires the equivalent of 6.75 years to repay the capital
invested against the much better performing chainsaw
payback period of just 101 days, two-thirds the number of
milling days envisaged in the model, 150.
Figure 3.4. Breakeven analysis from chainsaw frame milling and mobile bench saw milling for different sized trees of
different forms.
Table 3.7. Breakeven analysis from chainsaw frame milling and mobile bench saw milling with good quality medium
sized trees.
Chainsaw frame milling
Breakeven yard timber price per m
3
per linear foot
Ksh 6 708 10.22
US$ $ 94.47 $ 0.14
Breakeven hire out rates per litre of fuel used per linear foot
Ksh 208 3
US$ $ 2.93 $ 0.05
Breakeven milling and selling timber (days) 114
Payback period on frame milling and selling (days) 101
Breakeven yard timber price per m
3
per linear foot
Ksh 7 750 11.81
US$ $ 109.16 $ 0.17
Breakeven hire out rates per litre of fuel used per linear foot
Ksh 1 131 7
US$ $ 15.94 $ 0.09
Breakeven milling and selling timber (days) 131
Payback period on equipment from gross margin (years) 6.44
Breakeven retail timber price
$-
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
$600
$700
$800
$900
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Bench Saw
Chainmill
Meru Retail price
30 HDRA - the
Discounted cost-benefit analysis (CBA) methods if
applicable and possible - Net Present Value, Internal Rate
of Return, Benefit-Cost Ratio
Guidance notes: Discount rates (see economic measures
worksheet) can be potentially difficult to assess from the
low income stakeholder information and perspective as
discount rates (the current value of a future sale) are
difficult to separate from inflation and are related to the
perception of risk. However, if there are options for the
growing timber tree (e.g. sale/use now as firewood or
conversion to sawn timber in a number of years time) then
an assessment is difficult to avoid. Discount rates for project
investment by government or development agency will often
be much lower than stakeholder rates. Here comparison
on different project NPVs, IRRs and BCRs is made to
decide where to invest resources.
As the gross margin on capital invested indicated for chain
mills in the previous section, the Internal Rate of Return
(IRR) is very good at 261% in the first year rising to a plateau
of 362% by the fourth year. Internal Rate of Return or IRR
is often used in capital budgeting, its the interest rate that
makes net present value of all cash flow equal zero.
Essentially, this means IRR is the return that a company
would earn if they invested in themselves, rather than
investing that money in a bank, so IRR returns anywhere
near bank rates are judged as poor investments. Mobile bench
saws appear to perform very poorly from an investment point
of view, with negative returns for the first five years to
produce just 7% by the end of the modelled period, year
eight. Clearly, businesses would de better investing the
capital deployed in the business into a bank.
The Net Present Value (NPV) brings the future expenditure
and income into todays value, depending on the discount
rate used (how much less something is worth in the future
than it is now). NPV is a way different projects are compared
to one another by taking account of differing capital, cash
flows and lifetimes. The future stream of benefits and costs
are converted into its equivalent values today. This is done
Table 3.8. IRR and NPV Chainsaw from chainsaw frame milling and mobile bench saw milling with good quality
medium sized trees.
Chainsaw frame milling
Internal rate of return (IRR )
1st year 2nd 3rd year 4th year 5th year 6th year 7th year 8th year
261% 344% 359% 362% 362% 363% 363% 363%

Discount rate
Net present value (NPV) 12% 16% 20% 24% 28%
Gross margin Ksh 1 405 538 1 245 038 1 094 139 969 901 866 723
US$ $ 19 796 $ 17 536 $ 15 410 $ 13 661 $ 12 207
Costs Ksh 4 206 411 3 694 955 3 259 156 2 900 855 2 603 235
US$ $ 59 245 $ 52 042 $ 45 904 $ 40 857 $ 36 665
Revenue Ksh 5 786 616 5 059 685 4 469 762 3 985 252 3 582 875
US$ $ 81 502 $ 71 263 $ 62 954 $ 56 130 $ 50 463
Internal rate of return (IRR)
1st year 2nd 3rd year 4th year 5th year 6th year 7th year 8th year
-84% -51% -28% -15% -6% 0% 4% 7%

Discount rate
Net present value (NPV) 12% 16% 20% 24% 28%
Gross margin Ksh 179 982 37 594 214 163 359 181 - 479 615
US$ $ 2 535 -$ 529 -$ 3 016 -$ 5 059 -$ 6 755
Costs Ksh 6 287 036 5 302 274 4 503 116 3 846 758 3 301 664
US$ $ 88 550 $ 74 680 $ 63 424 $ 54 180 $ 46 502
Revenue Ksh 9 571 019 8 368 680 7 392 953 6 591 577 5 926 049
US$ 134 803 $ 117 869 $ 104 126 $ 92 839 $ 83 465
-400%
-300%
-200%
-100%
0%
100%
200%
300%
400%
500%
-50% -40% -30% -20% -10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Change in tree costs
Change in fuel costs
Change in labour costs
Change in timber price
% Conversion rate log to sawn timber
% interest rates
Table 3.9. Sensitivity analysis as a percentage change in first year gross margin, from chainsaw frame milling with
good quality medium sized trees.
by assigning monetary values to benefits and costs,
discounting future benefits and costs using an appropriate
discount rate, and subtracting the sum total of discounted
costs from the sum total of discounted benefits.
Calculating a discount rate to use is debatable depending
on the situation. One method for businesses is to use the
real interest rate and add inflation. The real interest rate
has proved difficult to find but is often 2-6% below the
average lending rate, which in December 2005 was13.2%
whilst the interest rate on the 91-day treasury bill was 8.07%
from the Central Bank of Kenya. The year on year inflation
in February 2006 was 10.88% also from the Central Bank of
Kenya, therefore a 20% Discount rate has been decided on.
The NPV calculations used assumed the capital payment
for equipment was at the beginning of the financial
assessment and excludes depreciation costs. Using a discount
rate of 20%, the chain mill performs well, whereas the mobile
bench saw has a modelled negative NPV at just a 16%
discount rate. When capital costs assumed paid off, the gross
margin NPV at a 20% discount rate is Ksh1,112,814
(US$15,673), very similar to the chain mill with full
borrowing costs. Clearly again, the modelled NPV and its
sensitivity, demonstrate the poor business case of investing
in a mobile bench saw-tractor combination, whereas the
chainsaw mill appears a profitable enterprise.
Sensitivity analysis, risk assessment, entrepreneur decision
matrix where possible
Guidance notes: Risk and uncertainty comes from both
the reliability of the data used to make decisions and what
may or may not happen in the future. A number of methods
can be used, the most common being sensitivity analysis
and break-even production levels. Previous steps should
have identified actual and perceived risks.
Sensitivity analysis allows assumptions to be tested and in
some ways negates their effects as identification of the critical
aspects to profitability can be judged. It is presented here as
the percentage change in first year gross margin with a change
in the aspect investigated (the factor also as a percentage).
Sensitivity analysis modelled for chainsaw mills
demonstrates a number of aspects by order of magnitude.
Greatest sensitivity is seen in the conversion rate or recovery
rate of log to timber. This is though effectively on a different
scale, along with interest rates, to the other factors, and is
directly related to the timber price achieved. All sawing
systems are likely to show such sensitivity (in scale rather
than magnitude), hence its critical nature in sawmilling and
value choice for spreadsheet models. The recovery rate from
both chain mills (observed) and mobile bench saws
(estimated from Onchieku 2001) for the specified trees in
the models was 50% log to sawn timber. If the recovery rate
of 40% for chain mills, as reported for freehand milling by
Onchieku (2001), was used this would see the gross margin
drop by 82%, to Ksh50,909 (US$717) from Ksh282,826
(US$3,983).
Change in (sawn) timber price naturally directly effects the
revenue gained and so the gross margin. Just a 5% change in
32 HDRA - the
sawn timber price for example would change the gross margin
by 21%, gaining or losing Ksh59,393 (US$836.53) from first
year gross margins. For potential chain millers thinking of
not having their own timber sales yard but selling milled
timber to existing timber yards, this shows it will be of critical
importance to achieve the best possible wholesale price.
Variability in Meru in the price of a running foot of 100 x
50 mm Grevillea from the model chosen Ksh13.50, is similar
to the sensitivity change of 5% giving Ksh12.83/ft and 5%
more giving Ksh14.18/ft.
Gross margin is relatively insensitive to tree costs as a 10%
change in tree costs leads to just a 14% change in Gross
margin, i.e. for every extra Ksh100 paid for a tree the gross
margin drops by Ksh145. However, the perception in Meru
is that tree costs are a major factor in the profitability of
sawing enterprises. This sensitivity analysis suggests that
more focus should be paid to achieving the highest recovery
rates (perhaps by not using unskilled and unmentored casual
labour) and the best price for the sawn timber (sales and
marketing effort along with straight even dimensioned
timber).
Gross margin is also relatively insensitive to fuel costs, as a
20% rise in them will lead to a likely 15% drop in gross
margin.
Due to the high level of revenue comparative to the small
interest payments on capital, the gross margin is somewhat
insensitive to changes in interest rates A 100% rise in interest
rates, meaning a change from 16.5% to 33%, would lead to
just a 19% drop in gross revenue.
Labour costs make little difference to the gross revenues
achieved for chain mills, where the model uses just two
people to fell, mill and extract the sawn timber. This would
suggest employing the best people to achieve the highest
recovery rate of log to sawn timber would be a good
investment.
Sensitivity analysis modelled for tractor mobile bench saw
combinations demonstrates a number of aspects by order of
magnitude.
As with chainsaw mills, the greatest sensitivity is seen in
the conversion rate or recovery rate of log to timber.
However, it is nearly twice as sensitive as chain mills. This
is though effectively on a different scale, along with interest
rates, to the other factors, and is directly related to the timber
price achieved. The recovery rate from both chain mills
(observed) and mobile bench saws (estimated from
Onchieku 2001) for the specified trees in the models was
50% log to sawn timber. If the recovery rate of 30% for mobile
bench saws was used, as reported for unskilled labour by
Onchieku (2001), this would see the gross margin drop by
320%, into significant losses.
Change in (sawn) timber price naturally directly effects the
revenue gained and so the gross margin. Just a 5% change in
sawn timber price for example would change the gross margin
by 40%, once again nearly double chain mills, gaining or
loosing Ksh96,410 (US$1,358) from first year gross margins.
This shows the critical importance in achieving the best
possible price. Variability in Meru in the price of a running
foot of 100mm x 50mm grevillea from the model chosen
Ksh13.50, is similar to the sensitivity change of 5% giving
is Ksh12.83/ft and 5% more giving Ksh14.18/ft.
Due to the high level of capital and so interest rate costs
comparative to the revenue, the gross margin is very sensitive
-800%
-700%
-600%
-500%
-400%
-300%
-200%
-100%
0%
100%
200%
300%
400%
500%
600%
700%
800%
-50% -40% -30% -20% -10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Change in tree costs
Change in fuel costs
Change in labour costs
Change in timber price
% Conversion rate log to sawn timber
% interest rates
Table 3.10. Sensitivity analysis as a percentage change in first year gross margin, from mobile bench saw milling
with good quality medium sized trees.
to changes in interest rates. A 100% rise in interest rates,
meaning a change from 16.5% to 33%, leads to a massive
451% drop in modelled gross revenue. Even a 20% rise in
interest rates to 19.8%, a quite possible change, would mean
losses for a business which had borrowed the capital to buy
the tractor, mobile mill and felling chainsaw.
Gross margin is sensitive to tree costs as a 10% change in
tree costs leads to a 28% change in Gross margin, i.e. for
every extra Ksh100 paid for a tree the gross margin drops by
Ksh281. This echos the perception in Meru is that tree costs
are a major factor in the profitability of bench saw enterprises.
Gross margin is relatively insensitive to fuel costs, as a 20%
rise in them will lead to a likely 23% drop in gross margin.
Labour costs make little difference to the gross revenues
modelled as achieved for mobile bench saws, where the
model uses 7 people to fell, extract logs and mill the timber.
This, along with the extreme sensitivity to recovery rates,
would again suggest employing the best people to achieve
the highest recovery rate of log to sawn timber would be a
good investment.
Other economic decision making criteria national or
regional
Guidance notes: This effectively provides the initial aspects
of a decision support tool through multiple criteria analysis
(MCA) or similar, assessing chainsaw milling from a
National or regional perspective and for decision makers.
It can be both quantitative and qualitative, though bias
can be problematic in qualitative weighted scoring of selected
criteria.Not assessed.
Muiti-criteria analysis describes a number of different
techniques to assess complex decisions involving monetary
and non-monetary criteria. Multi-criteria analysis (MCA)
is used for the appraisal of options for policy and other
decisions, including but not limited to those having
implications for the environment. It covers a range of
techniques which can be of practical value to public decision
makers and are increasingly being used around the world
(see Anon 2001 for an on-line manual on MCA).
However, they are complex time consuming studies, often
using weighted voting techniques to include opinion, or
decide on action, from the public and or stakeholders. They
can be used in situations were great diversity of opinion is
present, sometimes being criticised as a way for policy makers
to avoid condemnation from groups or the public. They are
sometimes criticised as being made biased, intentionally or
unintentionally, through the setting of objectives or options,
despite transparency in the actual process of decision making.
Chapter 5 takes the reader through the process of a limited
Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) or Multi Criteria Decision
Analysis (MCDA) techniques examining potential policy
options to enable national forest administrations to
determine the conditions under which chainsaw milling is
appropriate and sustainable.
Indicative analysis of scale impact of chainsaw milling on
local, regional and national resources, inputs, polices and
regulations
Guidance notes: Here an additional step is added to indicate
the potential consequences of widespread adoption of
chainsaw milling. Not assessed.
The economic assessment, through the models, has indicated
that there is great potential for chainsaw milling to be widely
adopting as it out performs mobile bench saws. Even when
all the capital is borrowed for chainsaw mills and none for
mobile bench saws, chainsaw mills are still competitive. Two
further aspects will determine the spread, the first being the
spread of knowledge that such attachments exist and work
well, and the second that blacksmiths or metal workers make
local versions of these simple tools, reducing the price and
overcoming lack of importing agents or companies.
The effect in Meru, following a demonstration/ training
course in February 2006 could be rapid if metal workers make
local versions. This will be because the people attending
the workshop included a number of chainsaw operators and
owners, the first time they commented, any training or other
courses had been held for them. With widespread adoption,
pressure on farm trees will be high, as it is unlikely that much
business planning on tree availability, sales or marketing will
be made.
Production of data collection framework
Guidance notes: In each situation analysed, the data
collection framework produced will need to reflect the
resources available for the study, the context and purpose
of the study and the secondary information available. In
this case study, with very limited funds, the primary outputs
are a data collection framework and decision support tool,
the secondary an assessment of the situation in Meru,
Kenya. This necessitates some reliance on secondary
information, with no primary Participatory Rural Appraisal
(PRA) or Participatory Forest Management (PFM) data
as they are not necessary for a technological assessment
whereas they would be needed for a forest management
assessment, with only individual interviewing to gather saw
milling information, triangulate and verify secondary data.
Recommendations and summary
Guidance notes: In concluding, the limitations and likely
veracity of the study must be assessed along with the results
and recommendations. As with all processes, improvements
can be made and these must also be indicated.
This study should give a true snapshot of chainsaw and
mobile bench saw milling economics in Meru given three
34 HDRA - the
limitations:-
Finances and time was constrained, leading to less than
ideal numbers of interviews.
The data collected on the use of chainsaw mills was based
on limited sawing in an artificial setting as they have not
been used in Kenya before. Accurately collected and
utilised data from chainsaw use is needed for verification.
None of the timber operations in the area keep records,
nor are volume measurements used in log input or sawn
timber outputs, only tree diameter and length, and for
sawn timber its dimension per foot length. All
information was verbally recalled and would sometimes
change when check questions were used to attempt
accuracy. Volumes were back calculated from in-yard
log measurements and sawn timber piece counts. Farm
visits verified tree volumes but questioned log values.
Further studies using this methodology would require a
minimum of 10 person weeks for both preparation and data
collection. Within data collection at least 6 should be
interviews with operational stakeholders and at least 4 person
weeks should be allocated to assess on-ground performance
of a new technology. Report production, economic models
data analysis as well as secondary data collection and
synthesis, would require a further 12 person weeks of work.
For the return of data to stakeholders, result triangulation
and participatory monitoring considerable extra time would
be needed, six weeks plus four for reports and materials. . If
Participatory Forest Management PFM) or Multiple Criteria
Analysis (MCA) were used a minimum extra 50% time is
estimated is would be needed for each component. to
complete a similar study to this following the same steps
should have been allocated 32 weeks not 9 as this study was.
To follow all the steps indicated would take an estimated 66
person weeks. As mentioned before the models are based on
a number of assumptions which with additional resources
could have been explored.
(6) Implementation, monitoring, improvement
Guidance notes: As the purpose of Economic Stakeholder
Analysis is to provide information to assist stakeholder
decision making, the information and analysis should be
provided in a useable form. Discussions with stakeholders,
in particular concerning the economic analysis, are
important to check the assumptions used and aid in the
understanding of the analysis. As with all projects,
monitoring and reviewing improves the process, results and
implementation.
The three principle parts of this stage on the data collection
frameworks and decision support systems were not assessed
in this study, being:
Return data to primary stakeholders and discuss how this
can contribute to their decision making
Verify or triangulate the results with stakeholders
Establish a participatory monitoring system
Summary conclusions to the Meru case study
Institutional factors
The new 2005 Forest Act will create a number of barriers to
access plantation timber which will be available for sustain-
able harvest from gazetted forests. The barriers are that to
bid for concessions, licences or contracts, it is required that
management plans and Environmental Impact Plans or state-
ments (EIS) are drawn up. This will be outside the believed
ability of millers in the district. The act also envisages the
formation through community participation of community
forest associations, who amongst other aspects may have
the right to harvest timber. It would therefore appear that
the only way local millers may gain access to timber from
the local gazetted forests is through joining or forming a
community forest association such that the pre-requisite
plans and assessments can be economically produced.
Lack of transparency and knowledge of laws, regulations and
permissions on harvesting, conversion, transportation and
sale of forest products causes a variety of problems and
difficulties, all with potentially serious consequences:
An open door for corruption
Discouraging farmers from planting and tending trees for
sale as firewood, charcoal or sawn timber
Constraining small processors due to risks over the
application of laws
Encouraging people to think that breaking the law
regarding trees and forests is acceptable because everyone
does it.
Environmental factors
Chainsaw mills may exert greater pressure to mill more farm
trees causing negative effects. Also, the felling and milling
of trees previously inaccessible using bench saws such as those
in valley bottoms, may risk increased soil erosion. There
may be an increase in unapproved felling of farm trees as
there will be more saw millers to monitor.
The environmental benefits of trees on farms by farmers are
seen to be large, for crop shading and protection (wind and
heavy rain), for soil stability in the rainy season (particularly
soon after crops are planted). The low impact harvesting
systems currently used (fell-cut-carry), partly a result of
farmers not wanting their crops damaged, means there are
few downstream environmental costs in terms of soil
compaction or erosion, river silting or turbidity. This maybe
further reduced through milling where the tree fell rather
than carrying the logs out to a tractor accessible point.
There is a concern, not with chainsaw milling particularly
but the dependence on sawn timber deriving from a single
exotic species, Grevillea robusta, also believed to have come
from a narrow genetic pool. This is a risk on a number of
levels, principally in susceptibility to attack from pests, such
as recently occurred with cypress aphid attack on Cupressus
lusitania caused considerable dieback and tree loss especially
in plantations.
Non-market factors
There are potential positive and negative non-market
consequences of chainsaw mills.
Non-market benefits include:
employment and small business generation especially for
the low skilled rural landless
resource development, farmer income generation
encouraging planting of more timber trees
Import substitution, milling mostly sustainably produced
timber rather than importing timber, often illegally felled
from humid tropical forests, and contributing to reduced
foreign debt.
Contributes to reduced greenhouse gas production by
shorter distances to market and reduced travel cost and
pollution, also less use of alternative materials (concrete,
steel, plastics) that require more energy for their
production.
Non-market costs include:
Higher fuel consumption per cubic metre milled than
other methods higher greenhouse gases
Potential to increase unauthorised or illegal milling due
to larger number of highly mobile millers being more
difficult to monitor.
Over-exploitation of farm trees younger trees milled
yielding lower conversion rates, everyone including the
miller loosing.
Stakeholder factors
Farmers will benefit in two ways; from more competition
for trees and so potentially better prices as well as being able
to sell previously inaccessible trees. Historically, many of
the trees now being harvested were not planted specifically
for timber but for other purposes, as before 1999 more sawn
timber came from the public forests and plantations. Farmers
lose out as they dont sell trees by volume measurement and
so are loosing money on larger trees as the volume of a tree
rises at twice the rate as diameter, not in parallel as the Meru
prices suggest. Farmers would benefit from the widespread
use of chainsaw milling attachments through the greater
competition from more buyers for trees.
To landless semi-skilled/unskilled and unemployed young
men, chainsaws are already seen as a future path for income.
Currently, the path they tend to follow is first as an assistant
to a chainsaw operator (often unpaid) to learn the trade,
become skilled enough to be hired by a chainsaw owner to
undertake the work on their behalf for millers and tree
buyers, to save or borrow money from family to purchase
their own chainsaw so becoming an owner-operator or
chainsaw owner hiring in operators.
A potential affect on existing millers is the use of chainsaw
attachments on their own chainsaws to utilise difficult to
access trees, or large trees traditionally halved or quartered
for manual extraction to the bench saw. Mobile and static
bench sawyers will also come under competitive pressure
from chainsaw millers. However, their knowledge network
of farmers likely to sell trees, their timber sale yards through
which most timber in Meru appears to be sold, combined
with their probable lower variable cost per unit output, will
potentially mitigate these effects.
For existing chainsaw owners, the Alaska type frame mill
is potentially likely to be most popular, as a way to diversify
their business from chainsaw felling for hire to feller and
miller. In parts of the country where freehand chainsaw
milling is common, once the technology is known and buyers
offer better prices or demand sized, high quality finish
timbers, again uptake of frame mills, even local blacksmith
copies, will be high.
The general feeling in Meru amongst stakeholders
interviewed is that trees on farms are and have been over-
exploited. Millers point to the low availability of trees over
30 cm (12) in diameter, saying they have to travel distances
of 20 km or more to find good trees, though they also maybe
cheaper there.
The modelled sensitivity analysis suggests that to greatly
improve sawmiller returns, more focus should be paid to
achieving:
the highest recovery rates, (perhaps by not using unskilled
and unobserved casual labour) and the
the best price for sawn timber (sales and marketing effort
along with straight even dimensioned timber)
End users, especially local furniture makers currently using
freehand chainsaw milled timber, will benefit through less
planing wastage to produce a finished, flat, straight even
thickness boards. This wastage reduction has downstream
benefits of less timber, fuel, and money per finished piece.
Economic factors
The modelled economic analysis of chainsaw milling has
shown good economic performance in Meru, out-competing
the prevalent mobile bench saws on most economic
performance measures by a factor of two. This means that
with their adoption in Meru Central and surrounding
districts, as is very likely to happen, there will be increasing
pressure on the mobile bench sawmillers. Those who already
own the tractor and bench saw trailer combination, who
are likely to have already paid off their capital investment,
will be constrained to trees within tractor travelling distance.
With the adoption of chainsaw milling attachments, they
are likely to expand to areas outside tractor travelling
distance as well as competing with bench saws close to Meru.
This is likely to introduce the technology to people outside
the district who did not witness the training demonstrations
36 HDRA - the
and the technology will spread. Showing that such
attachments exist and work well, aided if local blacksmiths
or metal workers make more affordable and available versions
of the attachments.
Ways forward and policy suggestions
Main stakeholders to take action
Government of Kenya (GoK)
Kenya Forest Service (KFS) (formerly the Forest
Department)
Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI)
Ministry of Agriculture (MoA)
National Environmental Management Authority
(NEMA)
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
Forest Action Network (FAN)
Practical and policy changes recommended below were
voiced by at least two people interviewed in Kenya, from
state, NGO or private backgrounds.
Practical ways forward
1. Make laws regarding trees and tree wood products,
enforceable, clear, transparent, widely communicated and
sensible for farmers and small scale processors (GoK,
NEMA, KFS).
2. Provide information or extension to farmers to allow them
to accurately measure the volume and value of a standing
tree (MoA, KFS, ICRAF, FAN).
3. Increase farm forestry extension, tree management
(tending, pruning), species (genetically diverse), planting
(layouts for mutual benefit to agriculture and soil),
potential returns over time (MoA, KFS, ICRAF).
4. Encourage more group/community nurseries with good
quality native timber tree species, and genetically diverse,
high timber quality exotic species (MoA, KFS, ICRAF,
FAN).
5. Employ more foresters as trained advisors or extend the
training of agricultural extension officers (MoA, KSF).
6. Optimise recovery and timber quality from different mills
through research and development (KEFRI, ICRAF).
7. Carry out studies in other areas on chainsaw milling
attachments to verify recovery, timing and economics
(KEFRI, ICRAF).
8. Develop alternatives to mineral or petroleum- based chain
oils, e.g. from oil palm or maize (KEFRI, ICRAF).
Suggested policy changes
1. Reduce import taxes on milling attachments, ripping
chains and chain oil, at least temporarily, to promote their
uptake and availability (GoK).
2. Harmonise government acts related to land ownership
and use, e.g. the Lands Act, Agriculture Act, Water Act
(GoK).
3. Reactivate the Forestry Training Centre (KFS, KEFRI).
4. Develop and implement a national chainsaw training
course (safety, use and maintenance) for operators (KFS,
KEFRI).
5. Develop and implement a chainsaw milling training
course, with the involvement of manufacturers and
dealers, for timber users (e.g. furniture manufacturers),
chainsaw owners, and operators (KFS, KEFRI, FAN, etc.)
6. Clarify the policy on charcoal production, timber and
firewood transport and trade (GoK, KFS).
7. Undertake an accurate inventory of standing timber and
estimated growth rates, and timber trade between districts
as well as internationally (KFS).
8. Record tree felling nationally based on permits issued, to
be collected systematically from the District
Environmental Committees (NEMA, KSF).
9. Apply pressure on KTDA (Kenyan Tea Development
Authority) and BAT (British American Tobacco) to
support tree planting, as consumers of ever more trees as
fuel for drying (GoK, KFS, FAN).
Introduction to Uganda and eastern DR Congo
For the sake of this study, eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo (DR Congo) is treated as part of East Africa. There
are very strong social, cultural, economic links and
environmental similarities to justify this, in addition to most
trading being with its eastern neighbours and virtually all
exports passing through these countries as a result of the
civil war over the last 10 years.
Studies were conducted in Uganda and the eastern DR
Congo to assess the availability, use, economics and
efficiency of chainsaw milling, its legal status and impacts
on rural livelihoods. Information was obtained by literature
reviews, expert interviews, case studies, supporting
experiments and observations. Pitsawing, freehand chainsaw
milling, chainsaw frame milling and circular saw cutting were
assessed, being the most common means of milling in the
region.
Legal context for chainsaw milling
Within all countries in the region, there is undoubtedly a
discrepancy between what is being legally prescribed and
what is taking place on the ground. In addition, laws may
not apply to all forest types and contribute more to confusion
than to clarification of issues. For example, although Uganda
recently reviewed its forest laws, they only apply to forests
that are under the control of the state, and two thirds of all
forests lie outside the forest law, and owners (private,
custodial, communal) can de facto do whatever they like with
their forests. This is not to say that the law is not enforced,
but the myriad of legal settings makes it very difficult for
law enforcement agents to create clean cases and the system
is very prone to corruption. The illegal user of trees has little
problem or requires few funds to declare timber or to get it
declared as coming from private land.
In Uganda, the ownership of chainsaws is restricted and the
use of chainsaws for further processing of logs is illegal. It
was declared illegal to reduce illegal tree felling in state
forests, due to their mobility and that they are easy to hide,
and chainsaws were for a long time the favourite tool for
illegal felling and log conversion in national parks, gazetted
forest reserves, but also post-commercial logging areas for
mopping up and for cutting and converting solitary trees
in farmland. In contrast, the Utilisation Unit of the National
Forestry Authority (NFA) is undertaking trials with
chainsaw frame mills in Budongo Forest, and according to
sources in the NFA, the use of chainsaw frame attachments
is now permitted; provided the owner registers with the NFA
and pays the due permit fees and royalties. The regulation is
applicable for tree cutters operating in state and private
forests and on public land. The criteria for permitting a
certain type of chainsaw mill are the evenness and
smoothness of the cut and to ensure limited wastage.
In DR Congo, chainsaws are widely used for converting trees
into billets and timber. Under the prevailing semi-anarchic
conditions, law enforcement is basically non-existent or
easily corrupted, i.e. the statement in DR Congo Forest Law
that all trees belong to the state is rarely enforced. Chainsaw
milling is technically not illegal but should not exist in
theory, since only concessioned users are permitted to fell
trees for further processing in their own sawmill. For taxation
purposes, management of concessions requires pre- and post-
felling volume assessments with further monitoring in the
log yard of the sawmill, i.e. there is no provision for
converting logs in the field.
Who the chainsaw millers are and what they use
Throughout the region, self-employed or contracted tree
cutters without access to capital rely on pitsawing with
handsaws. In the DR Congo, pitsawing and freehand
chainsaw milling dominate, both on farmland and in high
forest operations, the latter used if sufficient capital is
available. Chainsaws, typically a Stihl 066, may either be
owned (rare) or rented. In Uganda, tree millers with legal
concessions relied for a long time on portable circular saws
(Kara, etc.). In a few cases frame saws (Logosol, etc.) were
used. Technology applied in illegal felling and milling differs
depending on whether the activity is spontaneous-
opportunistic, with the use of very mobile tools like handsaws
and chainsaws for freehand milling, or more systematic, with
the use of less mobile, more stationary circular and frame
saws.
The considered technologies are used in a wide array of
situations. In Ugandas forest plantations, small-scale milling
technology has a long tradition, both legally and illegally.
The plantations typically consist of pine and cypress. There
is a close relationship between mobility of tools and legality
of activities, with the more mobile tools applied mostly in
illegal activities. The same applies for high forest operations.
In private woodlots and plantations less sophisticated tools
prevail, mainly pitsawying and freehand chainsaw milling,
and eucalyptus species dominate. Tools of similar nature are
used on farms, in open bush land and on public land.
In Uganda, the local Stihl representative (Stahlco Holdings
Ltd.) has two shops in Kampala, one at the Uganda-DR
Congo boarder and one in Southern Sudan. For legal reasons
they are not allowed to establish themselves in DR Congo
as Stihl has an office in Kinshasa, though he is allowed and
does operate the shop at the boarder. According to the
manager, he has sold very few Stihl frame mills (about 20
the last 10 years) and equally few Logosol frame mills.
4 Supporting regional assessments
38 HDRA - the
The majority of clients buy chainsaws without any additions,
mostly Stihl 066s and to a lesser degree Stihl 088s. Prices
and spare parts in Uganda are generally cheaper than in
Europe (e.g. 63 cm 3/8 bar US$90, 90 cm 3/8 bar US$120;
Rapid Super 3/8 chains for 63 cm bar US$20). Equipment
and spares in DR Congo are approximately 75% more
expensive than in Uganda and few people can afford it,
typically renting Stihl 066 chainsaws at US$20-25 per day,
with a 90-120 cm bar and chain to be provided or rented
separately. Examples of prices for chainsaw mills and milling
attachments include:
Stihl 066 in Kampala, Uganda approx. US$850, in Beni,
DR Congo approx. US$1250.
Stihl 088 in Kampala, Uganda approx. US$1250, in Beni,
DR Congo US$1800-2000
Stihl LSG 450 frame mill (made by Logosol), US$360,
requires Stihl 066 or bigger; 0.325 bar and chain.
Stihl LSG 600 frame mill (made by Logosol), US$520,
requires Stihl 088, 90 cm 0.405 bar and chain
Logosol frame mill, in Kampala, Uganda, US$1450,
requires Stihl 088; or with electric motor US$5550.
Products, markets and prices
The principal products derived from chainsaw milling are
standard sizes, e.g. 2x4 to 2x12 in. x 7 or 14 ft. lengths in
Anglophone Uganda and 7x7 cm, 6x13 cm, 3x30 cm and
3x35 cm x 4.5 m or 6.0 m in Francophone DR Congo.
Standards sizes are produced where the market is known
and close by. In cases where the markets are far and less
known, e.g. in high forest areas of DR Congo, chainsaw
millers often prefer to produce billets. In parts of Uganda,
were population densities are high and timber scarce (e.g.
in the southwest), pit sawyers cut right to the bark (through
and through sawing) and attain very high extraction rates.
In contrast, in the context of an ample wood supply in the
DR Congo, in rather affluent Beni, near the main
functioning sawmill, only fully square pieces can be sold and
wastage is accordingly high. On the other hand, in more
rural areas with little purchasing power, little or no attention
is paid to quality (form, smoothness of cut) and lowest priced
products are preferred.
Common to all situations, there is little incentive to utilise
smaller diameters or shorter length and species considered
inferior or difficult to cut or work (e.g. eucalyptus) since
access to forests and large-sized, desirable tree species is
basically unrestricted.
During the last four years the timber market in Uganda has
seen prices rise 2-3 fold, mostly due to increasing demand
whilst supplies are dwindling, but also due to increasingly
more successful efforts by the forest authorities to improve
revenue collection from forest resources through more open
and transparent bidding for concessions and through
improved control of remaining resources.
As a result, there is a general tendency to better utilise
available trees, e.g. cutting running metres rather than fixed
lengths, and to utilise species that were in the past considered
undesirable or difficult to work (e.g. eucalyptus, small
diameter trees, short stems, etc.). At the same time, lower
quality timber including pieces with substantial amounts of
bark attached is entering the market since it is more
affordable to the poor.
The widening gap between supply and demand has increased
illegal activities and imports from neighbouring DR Congo,
particularly during recent periods of military activity.
Principal boarder entry points are today also major timber
markets, mostly for high value hardwoods, usually in the
form of billets or as 2x12 in. x 14 ft (5x30 cm x 4.26 m)
boards. The principal destinations of timber are the major
urban centres, particularly Kampala.
A summary of timber prices can be found in the tables below,
and highlight the substantial price difference between
Kampala and up-country locations. Timber prices at the main
entry point from DR Congo into Uganda, a key market for
imported timber into Uganda, could not be verified directly
or systematically for security reasons, however, the up-
country figures provided below are considered to give a
reasonable estimate of prices at the boarder crossing.
The low prices for pitsawn timber reflect the illegal origin
of the timber, i.e. they are usually too low to encompass
taxes, fees and royalties, etc. Figures for the first three tables
are quoted from The Forester, a quarterly newsletter
published by the Forestry Authority (issue 11, April 2005).
Figures usually represent spot checks. US$1 equals about
1810 UGX (03/01/06).
Table 4.1 Farm gate prices, Beni, DR Congo (Grevillea
robusta)
Size US$
(cm) per piece US$/ m3
Grevillea 3x35x600 6.00
3x30x600 5.00
6x13x600 3.25
7x7x600 1.75
3x35x450 5.00
3x30x450 4.00
6x13x450 2.50
7x7x450 1.00
Table 4.2 Farm gate prices, Kiboga, Uganda (200 km
from Kampala) (Pinus caribea).
Size
(inches and feet ) UGX/ piece US$/ m3
Pinus 8 x 1 x 14 6,000 155.63
6 x 2 x 14 11,000 190.21
6 x 1 x 14 5,000 129.69
4 x 3 x 14 10,000 172.92
4 x 2 x 14 8,000 207.51
4 x 1 x 14 4,000 103.75
3 x 2 x 14 4,000 138.34
2 x 2 x 14 3,000 155.63
8 x 1 x 13 5,000 139.52
6 x 2 x 13 11,000 204.62
6 x 1 x 13 4,000 111.61
4 x 3 x 13 6,000 111.61
4 x 2 x 13 4,500 125.57
4 x 1 x 13 3,500 97.66
3 x 2 x 13 3,500 130.22
2 x 2 x 13 1,000 55.81
Table 4.3 Kampala market prices (various species).
Size UGX/piece US$/m3
Pinus 12 x 1 x 14 20,000 345.84
Pinus 9 x 1 x 14 15,000 338.33
Cupressus 12 x 1 x 14 25,000 432.31
Cupressus 9 x 1 x 14 18,000 405.99
Eucalyptus 4 x 2 x 14 5,000 129.69
Eucalyptus 6 x 2 x 14 7,000 121.05
Aningelia. 12 x 2 x 14 34,000 293.97
Khaya 12 x 2 x 14 36,000 311.26
Maesopsis 12 x 1 x 14 10,000 172.92
Blighia 6 x 2 x 14 6,500 112.40
Blighia 12 x 1 x 14 10,000 172.92
Celtis 6 x 2 x 14 6,000 103.75
Table 4.4 Pitsawn and millsawn timber prices in
Uganda (after Odokonyero, 2005).
Sawing Local market Kampala
method US$/m3 US$/m3
Khaya etc.* pitsaw 132.60 309.39
Others** pitsaw 88.40 209.94
Pinus*** sawmill 176.80 265.19
-large sawmill 176.80 265.19
-medium sawmill 165.75 248.62
-medium pitsaw 66.30 110.50
-small pitsaw 44.20 66.30
Eucalyptus sawmill 165.75 176.80
Eucalyptus pitsaw 110.50 138.12
* also Milicia and other high quality furniture species
** secondary, Lower quality furniture timber
*** also Cupressus and other construction timbers
40 HDRA - the
Pitsawing, freehand chainsaw and frame milling,
on farm in eastern DR Congo
The context
Forest cover in eastern DR Congo, though rapidly dwindling,
is still large when compared to other parts of East Africa.
The principal forest type is tropical high forest of the Central
African type, with savannah and dryer types today confined
to national parks. Land use is characterised by marginal
subsistence agriculture. In the past, DR Congo was a major
exporter of coffee but with the total decline of the country
all but a few large plantations have been abandoned and are
either neglected or are squatted by subsistence farmers.
Generally, the local economy is weak, and much local trading
is conducted through barter. Tree and forest utilisation can
be differentiated.
Large scale concession forestry
This is mainly found in the west of the region towards the
Congo Basin. A number of companies hold concessions but
only two companies are currently active. Many of the
concessions obtained during the war are of dubious validity.
However, like any other state service in the DR CONGO,
forestry concession control and enforcement is subject to
omnipresent corruption and accordingly non-functioning.
In concession areas, the typical utilisation pattern is that
the logging company harvests trees of defined minimum
diameter of desirable species. No other operations follow.
Directly afterwards or even in parallel, landless people enter
the area and begin to clear the land so as to make way for
farming. In other words, even if the concessionaire would
want to conduct the legally prescribed post-harvest
silvicultural operations this cannot be fulfilled since control
over the land is lost. Land clearing is associated with small-
scale utilisation of residual trees by local timber cutters, with
a focus on high-value species that were not utilised by the
concessionaire, i.e. did not fulfil minimum diameters or
quality criteria.
The usual technique applied is either pitsawing or freehand
chainsaw milling. Pitsawn timber usually consists of billets
of 20-30 cm width and height and usually of 4.55.0 m long.
Billets are sold to local sawmills, often the same ones that
left those trees in their concession after the original felling
and extraction, delivered to the Ugandan-DR Congo boarder
where a thriving timber market exists, or are loaded onto
trucks and exported directly to Uganda or beyond. Freehand
chainsaw milled timber is also cut into smaller dimensions
and sold locally or delivered to the boarder market for export.
Small-scale forest utilisation
This follows either in the path of large scale concession
operations (see above) or takes place independently in non-
concessioned areas, national parks or on custodial (public)
lands still holding forests. The techniques and approaches
applied typically follow the same pattern as for large scale
concession forest described above.
Utilisation of trees in farmland and on old estates
Abandoned coffee estates still hold block of trees, often to
the extent of 10 hectares or more. The typical species are
Eucalyptus grandis, Grevillea robusta and Cedrela odorata. The
trees were initially planted for fuel, poles and other
construction material. The typical arrangements are
boundary plantings and plantations in wet and waterlogged
areas (typically Eucalyptus).
Utilisation of small plantations rarely takes place. There is
simply too much timber of high-value species to be found in
nearby forests and there is little incentive to deal with
scattered trees. Particularly avoided is Eucalyptus. Though
some of the trees around the study site are over 50 years old
and have reached over 120 cm DBH and 65 m height and
are of excellent stem form (up to 35 m clear, utilisable stem
length), Eucalyptus is considered hard to cut and difficult to
work and therefore avoided. Gevillea is acceptable but only
in certain sizes (4.5-6.0 m roofing material). Cedrela is
considered a good timber and accepted as a valuable species
and taken up if favourable prices are offered.
Utilisation of scattered trees in the landscape follows the
pattern and reasons described under above Point 3. There is
ample, virtually free wood available and there is little
incentive to deal with scattered trees or pay any fees to the
owner of a tree. Exceptions include species of particular value
(e.g. Cordia spp. for its easy to work timber, Cedrela odorata
for its timber quality) or trees that are suitably located and
easy to cut.
Observations were made on three different types of milling
operation, pitsawying, freehand chainsaw milling and milling
with a frame mill, on an abandoned estate with a timber
plantation well stocked with Eucalyptus and Grevillea (about
10.000 trees in total) of diameters ranging from 30 cm in
the smaller Grevillea to 120 cm in the largest Eucalyptus
planted in 1955. The typical Grevillea would be about 25-30
m tall, with 48 m clear bole. The typical Eucalyptus would
be 40-55 m tall with 20-35 m clear bole.
Pitsawing
Pitsawing teams usually comprise of 3-5 people, and a local
priest and his workers were observed cutting boards from
grevillea logs, though the crew were poorly motivated, poorly
skilled and inefficient. Work on one log was assessed in detail
to provide approximate comparative data.
Felling the tree took about one hour, two days to build the
scaffold to hold the log, a day to find additional labour to
assist in loading the log onto the scaffold, which took nine
people three hours. Cutting to standard length (4.5 m long)
wasted about 1.0 m of utilisable stem length. Sawing lasted
over a week, with frequent interruptions and times absent.
The boards cut were of reasonable quality, and the total value
of the 0.71 m3 of sawn timber produced was estimated to be
US$95.40, i.e. 18 boards (2.5x35 cm x 4.5 m) at US$5.30
each. Overall recover rate from the selected log section (not
the whole tree) was 30%. Accurate calculations would
require a more detailed study, though in this case was above
US$100/m3.
Freehand chainsaw milling
Both eucalyptus and grevillea (Grevillea robusta) were
observed being milled freehand (Stihl 066, 90 cm bar). There
was no difference in the ease of cutting just felled and old
cut grevillea, but there was a marked difference between
cutting green and dry eucalyptus logs. A total of 12 trees
were measured, resulting in 14 log segments 2.5-6.0 m long,
the majority of sections 4.5 m long, with 2.5 m lengths from
the top sections of three trees.
A total of 7.82 m
3
sawn timber was produced, with an average
recovery rate from utilised log sections of 38%, with extremes
of 13% from a hollow tree, and 70% from two trees of
exceptionally good form cut into 7x7 cm posts, a dimension
that gives very high recovery rates. Assuming an average
wastage of about 2.0 m log length per tree due to cutting
standard lengths, very wasteful cross cutting and very
selective choice of log sections, the actual stem section
recovery rate is approximately 24%. Timber recovery rate as
part of whole tree volume was in the range of around 13%,
assuming an average tree height of 30 m and a completely
cone-shaped stem.
The output for the three-person team was 0.78 m
3
/day, with
repeated breakdowns due to problems with the worn bar
and chains breaking. The chains used had the depth gauges
removed, but when a new chain with intact depth gauges
was installed the speed of cutting dropped but there was no
more chain breakage. On average, the chainsaw would
operate for 2.5-3 hours per day, i.e. two thirds of the day the
machine was not running.
The average times required for different tasks in relation to
the average tree of DBH 68 cm were as follows: 26 minutes
for preparing the chainsaw and tree (13%), 29 minutes for
cross cutting (14%), 22 minutes for turning the tree (11%),
9 minutes for line drawing (4%), and 117 minutes for sawing
and further turning (58%). Thus it takes almost one a half
hours before milling can begin, line drawing takes very little
time, with milling taking about two hours per tree, or about
6 minutes per cut on average. There was a strong indication
that with increasing stem diameters, overall work times and
machine hours per m
3
of sawn timber fall logarithmically from
around 400 minutes per m
3
for trees of 20 cm diameter to
about 200 minutes per m
3
for timber from trees of 80 cm
diameter.
Daily consumption of fuel was around 8 l (US$1.30/l), 2-
stroke engine oil 0.5 l (4.00 US$4/l) and chain lubricant
(waste oil) about 2 l (US$1.60/l). Total operational costs
were thus US$17.60/day, or on the basis of cubic meters of
cut timber, operational costs were US$22.56/m3. The
working crew received US$0.50 per piece of timber cut. On
an average day, 29 pieces were cut, i.e. labour costs amounted
to US$14.50/day or US$18.59/m
3
. Including chainsaw
depreciation costs (US$6/day) puts the total cost of
production up to US$48.85/m
3
sawn timber if the operator
owns his own chainsaw. If local chainsaw rental charges of
US$20-25 per day are applied, this costs of production
increase to US$66.79-73.21/m
3
, respectively.
Chainsaw milling with a frame mill
Chainsaw milling with a Stihl 066 chainsaw attached to a
Stihl LSG 450 frame mill (maximum intake width 43 cm,
maximum height intake 27 cm) was monitored cutting ten
grevillea and eucalyptus trees, 41-64 cm in diameter and
4.5-27.0 m utilisable log lengths. Regarding to ease of cutting,
despite the higher density of eucalyptus there was no great
difference between the two species, probably because the
eucalyptus was freshly felled. Predictably, with increasing
log size the time to prepare a felled tree for milling increased,
but decreased in relation to utilisable volume.
For about two thirds of each day the chainsaw did not run,
either due to general log preparation works or delays. A four-
man team converted about one cubic meter per day from
standing tree to stacked timber. However, a team with two
chainsaws, one for the preparation of logs and one for frame
cutting, working together, could achieve substantially higher
labour and machine utilisation rates than two independently
working teams, and it was estimated that arranged like this,
production rates of 3-4 m
3
per day should be possible.
A combined technique of freehand log preparation and frame
cutting of boards was used as to square logs with the frame
mill was considered too time-consuming. First and second
vertical cuts were conducted freehand to reduce log width
to fit the frame mill inlet. The first horizontal cut was then
made with the help of improvised slabbing rails, and once
the first piece was removed and the log had a flat surface the
frame was reset and the rest of the log milled. With larger
trees, after free hand removal of vertical slabs on either side,
further slabs of 7 cm width were removed freehand on either
side of the log until the a suitable size was achieved that cut
be milled with the frame attachment. The 7 cm slabs were
later converted freehand into 7x7 cm posts.
For a given piece of timber (board, post, etc.), cutting times
and fuel consumption when frame milling was about one
third higher than with freehand milling. With depth gauges
lowered it improved, but still remained 15-20% more than
when freehand milling. As a rule, local chainsaw operators
only cut with the tip of the bar, and with depth gauges
removed they expect great chips of wood to be removed,
and not relatively fine sawdust as is produced by a normal
chain, and operators complained about wasted time and fuel
when asked to use an unmodified chain. Then they were
42 HDRA - the
then asked to use a ripping chain with the depth gauges
filed off, but this made the chainsaw very difficult to control
and the engine would often stall. The most productive chain
was found to be a ripping chain with depth gauges reduced
by about 0.5 mm.
The surface quality of frame milled timber was remarkable
better than freehand milled timber. However, overall quality
and log utilisation rates are strongly conditioned by the
quality of the first horizontal cut to remove the top slab and
to create a working plane. To a lesser degree it is influenced
by the quality of vertical cuts, particularly the precision of
right angles. Recovery rates from frame milling were high
(41-54%) with one exception (34%), and the average
recovery was about 20% higher when compared to freehand
milling (46% against 38%).
The gains in recovery in free-hand cutting are partly
attributable to the large offcuts resulting from preparatory
Table 4.5 Profitability of producing quality chainsaw frame milled timber in DR Congo for sale in Kampala.
Cutting Cutting
Approx. costs using own chainsaw (US$/m
3
) 12 x 1 x 14 12 x 2 x 14
Chainsaw consumables 28.20 22.56
Labour 23.24 18.59
Chainsaw depreciation 6.00 6.00
Costs of production 57.54 47.15
Transport to Kampala (22 m
3
timber load) 60.00 60.00
OCC (taxes/ fees DR Congo) @ US$8/truck 0.36 0.36
Immigration (taxes/ fees DR Congo) @ US$10/truck 0.45 0.45
OFIDA (taxes/ fees DR Congo) @ 3.3% of value 1.70 1.36
Office of Environment (taxes/ fees DR Congo) @ US$5/m
3
(bois rouge) 5.00 5.00
Total taxes/ fees DR Congo 7.52 7.18
Import duty (Uganda) @ 7% 8.22 7.50
Withholding tax (Uganda) @ 3% 3.52 3.21
ILC (Uganda) @ 2% 2.35 2.14
VAT (Uganda) @ 17% 19.96 18.22
Fixed fees (Uganda) @ ca. US$20/truck 0.91 0.91
Total taxes Uganda 34.97 31.98
TOTAL costs/m
3
159.92 146.31
Price of Eucalyptus timber in Kampala (US$/m
3
) 160.00 190.00
Profit margin 9% 19%
Price of Grevillea timber in Kampala (US$/m
3
) 190.00 220.00
Profit margin 30% 38%
vertical and horizontal cuts to get a log to a suitable size to
be utilised, and a the better utilisation of the remaining block
during frame cutting, with it being possible to cut much
closer to the bottom of the log. For prevailing tree size, the
milling frame inlet of 43 cm with the LSG 450 proved rather
limited. Also, strongly tapering trees must be trimmed prior
to placing the frame for making the first horizontal cut.
Whether frame cutting is economically justifiable depends
on whether the market is willing to pay a premium for quality
timber. In the case of the rural neighbourhood market with
very little purchasing power, this remains questionable. The
local market is highly price conscious and rarely willing to
pay a premium for quality, with the best selling pieces being
low priced edge pieces with bark attached.
Under given local context, to be economically justifiable,
frame cutting is only advisable if conversion rates can be
achieved that compensate for higher operational costs per
unit. Comparing derived figures for conversion rates and
running costs, it appears that this is marginally possible. The
gains of frame milling could be better exploited if a market
for quality timber can be established. Such a market exists
in Uganda, however, considering transport costs from DR
Congo of about US$60/m
3
, this sales channel needs to be
approached carefully as the following calculation highlights.
In light of these risks, a margin of 40-50% is advisable. Using
market prices in Kampala for 12 inch wide and 14 ft long
quality 1 inch thick eucalyptus boards, at US$160/m
3
and 2
inch thick at US$190/m
3
the profit is marginal, at 9% and
19%, respectively. Grevillea, with prices for equivalent size
and quality being US$190/m
3
and US$220/m
3
for 2,inch
boards, gives more reasonable profit margins of 30% and
38%, respectively.
The profits can be improved if Ugandan VAT (17%) can be
reclaimed and by adopting the usual practice of under-
declaring the value of timber at the point of import. Further
savings can be achieved if deliveries can be withheld until
empty trucks can be found that look for a backload to
Kampala or beyond. charging lower rates than pre-booked
trucks.
Portable sawmilling, in forests in Uganda
Milling plantation pine with mobile circular saws
The Kikonda Forest Reserve (12.000 ha) is leased to an
investor for reforestation. The original vegetation consisted
mostly of a mixture of Acacia spp., Albizia corearia and other
dry forest trees. A small area contains Pinus caribea which is
about 35 years old. Initial planting was at 2.7 x 2.7 m,
followed by little post-planting care. As a result, diameters
are small and wood quality poor. The remaining natural forest
has been subject to decades of selective logging, firewood
and charcoal making and grazing. As a result, only a few
large-sized or well-formed trees remain.
The concessionaire uses contractors with portable circular
saws and chainsaws to recover as much of the timber still
remaining as possible. Even though illegal, there are
chainsaws, usually with 90 cm guide bars, operational around
and inside the Forest Reserve. Illegal activities beyond those
of the concessionaire are rampant. Chainsaw operators are
highly mobile and target orientated, meaning they identify
and cut a tree only if the local market takes it, or a connection
to a wholesale business in Kampala is established. The
common chainsaw type is a Husqvarna 256.
The legal contractor working for the concessionaire in the
pine stands utilises a McQuarry Forestmill 7640, having two
circular saw blades. This usually produces standard sized
timber independent of log form or length. Due to the small
tree diameters found here, two logs were often sawn together.
The maximum size that can be sawn is 30x15 cm. A team of
5 people cut and converted 181 logs from 62 trees during
the two weeks of observations, ranging from 7 to 14 feet in
length, and from 15 to 50 cm in diameter, with over two
thirds of the trees being 20-35 cm diameter.
An overall volume of 47.85 m
3
of logs was transported to
the sawmill site, and a total of 18.36 m
3
of sawn timber was
produced, with a mean recovery rate of 40% (35-46%,
excluding outliers of 10%, and 91% in one live sawn tree).
The average daily output was 1.84 m
3
(0.31-3.12 m
3
/day),
being 83 pieces per day (14 to 133), the range resulting from
frequent machine breakdowns and subsequent waiting and
repairs.
The contractor is paid as follows:
Fuel allowance: 100 l per 600 pieces cut irrespective of
size ( US$0.18/piece).
Maintenance allowance: US$27.60 per 600 pieces cut
(US$0.046/piece)
Management fees and machine rental: US$276.00 per
600 pieces cut (US$0.46/piece)
Cutting allowance for foreman and 4 workers: UGX240
(US$0.131) per large long piece, UGX120 (US$0.066)
per large short piece or small pieces, and UGX60
(US$0.033) for small short pieces.
Based on these figures, the following overall costs can be
derived: US$2.74/m
3
labour for cutting and stacking,
US$20.77/m
3
for mill rental, US$8.31/m
3
for fuel, and
US$2.02/m
3
for mill maintenance, giving a total cost of
production of US$33.90/m
3
. Other costs for the
concessionaire include approximately US$25/m
3
for felling
the trees and skidding to the mill and about US$30/m
3
royalties, payable to the forest authorities. The
concessionaire sells the timber at an average price of
US$4.156 per piece or US$187.07/m
3
, i.e. his gross margin
is about US$98.24/m3.
Limiting factors were transport and having enough available
logs close enough to the saw milling site. On one day the
fuel for the mill ran out. In terms of earnings for the cutting
crew, this translates to US$0.92/day (UGX 1662/day) for
each of the five people in the team, assuming equal pay, and
it is doubtful whether this pay alone is sufficient, as
experience indicates that the owner of the machine has to
pay at least 3-4 times this amount to make pay attractive.
Chainsaw milling in logged-over natural forests
Parallel salvage logging of scattered, left-over, solitary pines
and remnant natural forest trees was observed. This allowed
the comparison of felling, skidding and sawing costs and to
analyse returns from cutting short lengths. Commercial
cutting is only allowed with licensed circular saws, but there
are outsiders that can be easily employed to extract timber
with chainsaws and others that enter the concession illegally
and cut timber, especially in the less well supervised areas of
this 12,.000 ha estate.
The common chainsaw is the Husquarna 268 (with 60 and
44 HDRA - the
90 cm bars). Remnant Markhamia lutea and Albizia corearia
trees are sought after, with charcoal also produced, and
considering the overall shortage of timber and rapidly
increasing prices, any tree of reasonable size is utilised. A
chainsaw operator was observed cutting a Albizia corearia
log, 2.15 m long, with 1.12 cm and 0.82 cm base and top
diameters, respectively (1.56 m
3
). A total of 17 pieces of
12x1 in. x 7 ft and 25 pieces of 6x2 in. x 7 ft were cut,
resulting in 0.694 m
3
of sawn timber, or a recovery rate of
44% from what was a poor quality log.
Two pricing scenarios could be applied, depending on
whether the tree owner or the operator provides the chainsaw
and fuel. In the first case UGX1500 (US$0.82) per piece
are charged for cutting with the addition of US$0.13/piece
cut for fuel, whereas in the second case the operator charges
the owner US$1.64 per piece cut. The first scenario results
in direct operational costs of US$55,09/m
3
(excluding
chainsaw depreciation), while the second scenario results
in total costs of US$99.24/m
3
.
The recent rise of chainsaw milling in northern
Tanzania
It is understood that there has been a great increase in the
use of chainsaws for conversion of both trees in natural forest
trees, plantations and on-farm. To the south of Mt.
Kilimanjaro, northern Tanzania, which contains a
particularly good mix of agroforestry, natural forests (now
all in a national park) and some old private and government
plantations, pitsawing which was common until 2004 is now
in rapid decline. It is still preferred for milling trees on very
steep slopes or in ravines, etc., but the need for raising the
log or digging a pit, in addition to the other labour required
for conversion, is making it increasingly unpopular.
The main rise in the use of chainsaws for milling in this area
is for sawing slabs which are then sold on to sawmills, or for
milling small logs and poles with slabbed material used
directly in construction. Chainsaw miller move from house
to house, smallholding to smallholding, offering their
services and products. South Kilimanjaro is economically
stagnant at the moment, with low coffee prices a contributing
factor, so direct sales of wood are more popular, and timber
often forms part of the barter market.
The choice of tree species being milled on south Kilimanjaro
is broadening, and this is being mirrored all over the country.
Trees such as Rauwolfia caffra, formerly planted or retained
for its medicinal properties, are now often converted, despite
the timber being unfamiliar. Some chainsaw milled timber
for sale in a small sawmill and log yard was observed, where
most of the wood was Pinus patula, Cupressus lusitanica and
Grevillea robusta, the latter popular as a shade tree in coffee
plantations, and most was the product of chainsaw
conversion. The slabs were of a good standard, requiring no
further working for construction use and little planing for
use in joinery or for the manufacture of furniture. In all cases
the dimensions were small.
Tanzania still has some fine hardwoods in its extensive
miombo woodlands but these are scattered and access is
difficult. Also, it was stated that much timber now available
in the Tanzanian market was the product of chainsaw milling,
and much in rural markets sold as local is coming
increasingly form the nearby timber-rich countries of DR
Congo and Mozambique. No mention was made of teak, all
plantation grown and which is often sold illegally as
muninga or other indigenous hardwoods, though this trade
attracts financially powerful interests and the involvement
of criminality and corruption is likely. In the recent past its
exploitation has mainly through sawmills but the superb form
of the logs means that rapid chainsaw milling is easy, and
although the wear on chainsaw blades is rapid the very high
prices for the product, at least US$300/m
3
for logs, should
compensate.
Specific conclusions and recommendations
Economics
Pitsawing is the least capital-intensive method for timber
cutting and is well suited for conditions were capital is not
available or difficult to access or where the cost of renting
chainsaws is excessively high. It is also a simple and robust
technology and adapted to situations were machine
operation skills are lacking. It creates more local employment
per cubic metre than any of the other technologies. However,
in the case observed, it proved to be rather costly per cubic
metre and it still required certain skills to attain satisfactory
quality, especially in avoiding tapering boards. The transfer
of logs onto the scaffold is also highly dangerous, and larger
logs would require the digging of pits under the tree, reducing
the risk of accidents but increasing costs.
Freehand chainsaw milling is more capital demanding than
pitsawing and is surely the most dangerous way of cutting
timber, especially since most chains have depth gauges
removed. Technical skills are demanding, i.e. it requires
skilled operators to attain satisfactory quality, especially to
avoid tapering boards and scarred and rough surfaces. The
method also requires a good amount of entrepreneurial skills
to ensure profitable operations. The impact on employment
is limited and is less than in pitsawing.
Chainsaw frame milling is the most capital demanding of
these three observed techniques. Taking into account the
costs of a typical chainsaw (Stihl 066, ca. US$850), the
addition of a 43 cm frame (Stihl LSG 450) adds less than
50% (US$360).
Compared to freehand milling, health and safety risks are
lower, as the chainsaw is held on both sides, and because
the largest part of the chain is covered or in the wood during
operations. Frame cutting gives much higher conversion
rates, due to boards with a consistent thickness and good
surface finish, maximisation of utilisable log width at any
point of the tree resulting in the widest possible boards; and
smaller off-cut wastage resulting in more boards and side
slabs with one smooth surface that can also be sold. The
quality of the timber is also markedly better than in any of
the other two techniques applied (no taper, smooth surface,
clean 90 degree angles). In combination with freehand
preparation of logs for frame slicing (vertical cuts to square
logs) it is nearly as fast as freehand chainsaw milling and
permits higher per hour and unit output.
The combined effect of better quality, higher conversion
rates and lower unit costs makes it the most attractive
technique. However, whether this can materialised is
strongly determined by the willingness of the market to pay
a premium for better quality. In the described case this
depends on species and chosen timber sizes.
Security, ergonomics, maintenance
Both in Uganda and the DR Congo, there is little active
precaution for safety and ergonomics when operating
chainsaws or small sawmills. Personal protective equipment
is usually completely absent and handling of chainsaws and
body posture during working are extremely tiresome. In
freehand milling, usually only the tip of the chainsaw bar is
used, with all the associated risks, and removing the depth
gauges from chains so as to cut more rapidly further
aggravates the situation.
For making longitudinal cuts, operators consider it helpful
to use long bars, facilitating straighter cutting. The typical
bar length is 90 cm for economical reasons, as whereas the
preferred length is 120 cm, these are expensive (ca. US$120
in Uganda). Cases were observed were two bars of 90 cm
were welded together in a crude fashion locally so as to obtain
the desired length.
Chainsaw operators usually acquire their skills from working
with a logging gang where they gradually become acquainted
with the machines. None of the interviewed workers had
any formal training on operating chainsaws. The lack of
training partly explains the poor handling of chainsaws and
the high risks taken during operation. The problem is
aggravated by working with blunt chains, and using the tip
of the bar is considered a way to overcome this, and by
removing depth gauges to accelerate cutting.
Maintenance of equipment is usually poor and chain oil
(engine waste oil) causes excessive wear on bar, chain and
oil pumps and spoils the appearance of the timber.
Alternative lubricants (e.g. local palm oil) would be cheaper
and most likely less damaging to equipment. In this sense,
there is a tremendous need for training.
General evaluation and impact assessment
It would be dangerous to draw definitive conclusions from
these few observations, and also since availability and access
to trees and capital and the general socio-economic context
determine the most appropriate technology or course of
action. From an economic point of view, if capital is not a
limiting factor, operators should move to frame milling (or
even circular saw mills).
Compared to pitsawing and freehand milling, the use of
frame mills increases overall recovery rates, output per
working hour, the quality of the timber produced, while
decreasing the overall costs per cubic metre of timber sawn.
Similarly, frame milling is safer and more ergonomic than
pitsawing or freehand chainsaw cutting. However, it also
requires more skill and an advanced degree of professionalism
in operating a chainsaw and managing a work team, and to
be successful a clear understanding of markets is required to
materialise the benefits derived from better quality products.
In contrast, if capital is limited, pitsawing may be the only
option, even though it results in lower recover rates, higher
per unit costs and is at the expense of safety and ergonomics.
The more limited the resource the more feasible will be
investments in frame milling equipment that permit higher
timber recovery rates and reduce per unit costs. Frame mills
are also advantageous, as compared to the other two
techniques, they permit the cutting of smaller diameter trees
with reasonable recovery rates.
Overall, there is little case for freehand chainsaw milling. It
can neither compete with the low capital demand associated
with pitsawing nor can it deliver the quality, cost-efficiency
or extraction rates associated with frame milling. This is
not contradicting the experience from Uganda that freehand
chainsaw milling of eucalyptus results in higher recovery
rates than circular saws, mostly because the operator is more
flexible in deciding which sizes to cut from a given log
section. Applied to the same situation, it is a fair assumption
that frame milling will be equally flexible but will
additionally increase recovery rates.
The argument that chainsaw milling can add to on-farm
income cannot be maintained from the observations in DR
Congo, at least from the perspective of the tree owner. In
forests and national parks there is simply too much high-
value timber easily accessible, and as a result, timber cutters
prefer to utilise that virtually free resource of large diameter
trees that require only a few chainsaw operation hours per
unit volume and high per unit input returns. Local timber
prices are low and there is very little incentive to cut
anything else than the best, and ignoring less valuable species
or small tree sizes.
The biggest beneficiaries of chainsaw milling in DR Congo
are the owners of the chainsaws that are rented out. Daily
rental charges are three to four times higher than estimated
depreciation costs. Both in Uganda and DR Congo, chainsaw
46 HDRA - the
milling undeniably contributes to rural livelihoods, however,
in most cases in an illegal context, raising questions with
regards to the appropriateness of prevailing policies and laws.
Policy and law
Except in DR Congo, there is no doubt that timber demand
and supply show an increasingly widening gap. It would be
wrong to look the other way and permit uncontrolled
utilisation of chainsaw equipment because it may help to
utilise timber resources better. However, it also remains
doubtful whether the all-out ban on chainsaw milling should
be maintained.
Chainsaw milling and chainsaw milling attachments can
contribute to improved utilisation of scattered trees and trees
on farmland. They provide income and a local supply of
affordable timber to local communities and add value to trees
and thus make them or new plantings more valuable to
owners. However, in light of past experience, policy makers
and forest services are well advised to act prudently on this
subject. Mobile equipment is and was an important element
of illegal timber utilisation.
Some progress in this sense has been made. In Uganda, the
long-standing ban of chainsaw-based cutting systems has
recently been reviewed. Though freehand chainsaw cutting
is still prohibited, frame mills and carriage mills can now be
licensed by the authorities and there are calls to lift the
chainsaw logging ban altogether. However, a possibly better
way would be to first register the machines and then to
license operations. This could be done at the point of import
since very few companies manufacture or deal in such
equipment.
Licensing of operators could be conditioned on attending
training and/or passing an exam, and then to licence the
equipment to the trained owner/operator. Licensing and
training can be conducted at local, forest district level. In
addition, training reduces accident rates, contributes to
quality and extraction rate improvements and increases the
lifespan of equipment. In summary, training is highly
desirable, if not essential, economically feasible and a tool
to direct licensing. Licensing further helps to make licensed
machines and licence holders known in the local community
and helps to gain a certain control over activities in private
or communal forests.
In the case of DR Congo, law enforcement is basically absent,
or corruption is omnipresent, and it would be academic to
give a recommendation on the subject. With regards to
environmental impacts, the underlying causes of
deforestation or environmental degradation that may be
associated with tree cutting and timber making are not so
much a question of technology but of law, policy and the
willingness and ability to enforce of law. This is definitely
the case in the DR Congo and often in Uganda.
Summary recommendations
Under the given context, increased recovery rates stands
against increased capital intensity of machinery. It appears
questionable whether freehand chainsaw milling is an
appropriate method, both economically or environmentally.
On the other hand, per unit output costs for frame milling
were considerably higher in the single situation observed.
When cutting single trees, a combination of freehand
preparatory cutting of trees into squared logs followed by
frame milling of boards proved the most promising
technique. In the case of systematic pine cutting, semi-
stationary circular sawmills are most appropriate. Applied
research should focus on optimising cutting techniques so
as to increase utilisation rates, taking into account tree
diameter, log length, timber value and proximity of markets.
Training is also required, in general chainsaw safety, use and
maintenance, the use of chainsaw milling attachments, also
sawing techniques, drying and marketing.
Introducing a licensing system could reduce the risk of illegal
cutting associated with highly mobile milling equipment.
This appears feasible since very few companies import such
equipment. Further studies should be initiated to define an
appropriate policy framework, including stakeholder
consultation on possible mechanisms of licensing and
controls, so as to develop applicable policies with regards to
mobile saw milling equipment utilisation. Key players in this
will be international manufacturers and importers and
distributors of such equipment.
Multi Criteria Analysis on chainsaw milling in
East Africa
Introduction
This section presents a decision support tool assessing policy
options regarding chainsaw milling in East Africa, based on
results from the case studies, particularly that of Meru, Kenya.
Though restricted in it scope, it suggests that a policy of
Promoting farm timber and Processing could be exceedingly
beneficial and without question the preferred choice of those
options presented. This report takes the reader through the
process of Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) or Multi Criteria
Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques examining potential
policy options to ...enable national forest administrations
to determine the conditions under which chainsaw milling
is appropriate and sustainable. Costs and financial benefits
associated with the policy options is usual in MCA or MCDA
were not, however, assessed in this analysis. Rather, due to
time and financial constraints, an assessment has been made
of three potential policy options against a set of criteria
derived from conditions and policy drivers in East Africa.
These policy options have then been scored for their
performance on the criteria. To account for the different
importance and scope between criteria, two techniques of
MCA have been applied, relative difference scoring and
swing weighting. This report is accompanied by a
downloadable spreadsheet to allow policy makers and others
to explore the process and input their own criteria scores
and weighting factors against options that they can also
change.
This study follows on from a data collection framework tool
(see Chapter 3) assessing the economic performance of
chainsaw frame mills versus current tractor driven circular
bench saws within the social, policy, and environmental
context in Meru Kenya. This analysis then utilises
information from the data collection framework and
literature review.
Usually studies of MCA of MCDA gather stakeholders and/
or decision makers together to form the policy options to be
studied, the criteria against which the policy options will be
judged and the relative importance or weighting of the
various criteria in assessing the policy options. It normally
utilises criteria on which information on revenue benefits
and costs can be collated, collected or is known, as well as
non-economic assessments for criteria which cannot be
judged by costs and revenue benefits. A full account in the
Multi-Criteria Analysis Manual, used by UK government
departments and employed in this study is available. The
purpose of applying MCA or MCDA methodology is to
compare and assess, in a clear and transparent way, the
process of arriving at a decision when faced with competing
and difficult to compare factors, rather than relying on one
view or gut feeling of what is the right judgement.
This chapter is not attempting to describe or act as a manual
on MCA or MCDA, simply to use these methodologies to
provide a Decision Support tool. Readers wishing to know
more about this type of analysis or are unclear how it is
applied are advised to read the references included.
Policy options
Two policy options were fairly obvious, the first, do nothing
common to all types of MCA and MCDA as a control,
allowing overall judgement on merits or costs of other policy
options to be compared to it. The second, of restricting
chainsaws was clear due to the restrictions on chainsaws in
Uganda and its consideration as a way to reduce illegal felling
elsewhere, therefore a logical policy option. Deciding on,
and justifying, policy options is often problematic, due to
conflicting views of those formulating the options or ensuring
they are feasible. Though the purpose of this work was to
examine chainsaw milling, the dependency seen in Kenya
on supplies of sawn timber from farmers with farmer and
sawmiller interdependency, demonstrated that a simple
policy option of encourage small scale milling would be
mistaken. To account for the dependency, to be more holistic
and with the knowledge of the widespread network of
agricultural extension officers in Kenya, the option of
promote farm timber and processing was decided on, as this
seemed to offer a good range of policy options.
Deciding criteria for assessing policy options
The criteria were decided on by looking at the mission
statements or aims of the Kenyan National Environment
Management Authority (NEMA) To promote, safeguard
and enhance the quality of the environment, the Kenyan
Forest Service (currently being formed, formerly the Forest
Department), using the purpose of the 2005 Forests Act
Management, utilisation and conservation of all types of
forest, and the UK governments DFID mission statement
Leading the British governments fight against world
poverty. In addition, experience in Kenya promoted
additional criteria attempting to reflect the perceived drivers
of farmers and sawmillers. A value tree for the criteria is
shown in Figure 5.1. It could also be drawn as a Venn diagram
as parts overlap.
In deciding on the criteria to use to assess the policy options,
a list was first drawn up of all the various benefits and costs
associated with chainsaw attachment milling and the three
options. However, of the sixty or so, many were of minor or
incidental importance, for example greenhouse gases when
compared to others such as poverty reduction. There was
5 When chainsaw milling is sustainable and appropriate
48 HDRA - the
also double counting of criteria that is two essentially
meaning one thing, such as greenhouse gases and CO2
emissions, both of which could be seen as part of the criteria
Afforestation. Eventually through examination, this list was
reduced to thirteen criteria, some of which are compound
criteria such as community involvement, participation and
decentralisation. Figure 5.1 shows the final list which was
than assessed against the options decided upon. Table 5.1
shows the scoring for criteria and the reasons for this scoring.
Scoring the performance of options against the criteria
The next stage is to allocate to each criteria, a performance
score to each option. The reasoning for allocating the
performance score is noted beside the scores and is an
essential part of the transparency process as well as a check
on the size of the allocatd performance score.
A number of references from the Multi-Criteria Analysis
Manual indicate that these scores should be assessed for their
relative differences. The most preferred option is assigned a
preference score of 100, and the least preferred a score of 0.
Scores are assigned to the remaining options so that
differences in the numbers represent differences in strength
of preference. What do these preference scores represent?
The difference-scaling method results in numbers that
represent relative strength of preference. Such a measure
expresses the value associated with the options consequence
on a particular criterion. The phrase strength of preference
is here used instead of value, because the latter is often
implies only financial value. However, strength of
preference should not be confused with preference. In
decision theory, preference implies two measurable
quantities; probabilities and utilities. Thus, A could be
preferred to B even if they are equal in value because A is
more likely to happen. If strength of preference is to be taken
only as a measure of value, then A and B must be assumed
to be equally likely. To judge how different the option scores
are to one another for the same criteria, several other
methods can also used. To allow for the relative differences
Figure 5.1. Value tree of criteria
Increase of (farm) floral and faunal density, diversity and cohesion and exotic gene diversity
Environment Decrease of public forest destruction / illegal felling
Decrease of farm soil erosion and improved water quality and supply
Afforestation (farm)
Poverty alleviation / pro-poor growth
Sustainable Community involvement, Participation and Decentralisation
Poverty Fuel wood (firewood and charcoal) from farms
development Agricultural crop / animal productivity
Farmer income diversity (including non-cash savings) from trees
Small timber business development and opportunity
Recovery / efficiency log to sawn timber
Business Law / regulation enforcement
National economy
between the scoring of options involves allocating a zero
score to the lowest performing option for a criteria, and a
maximum 100 to the highest performing option score for a
criteria. For those options in between, a score is calculated
proportional to the difference between the highest scoring
and the lowest. This method explicitly therefore highlights
relative performance or preference.
The spreadsheet that accompanies this report allows for
user input of raw scores and automatically calculates
relative difference scores.
Weighting importance of criteria
As not all criteria have equal importance, it is necessary to
increase the scores of criteria that are more important and
reduce the scores of those criteria that are not so important.
This is usually referred to as weighting. Weighting is also
best carried out by stakeholders and or decision makers to
utilise their insight and understanding of the issues, the
interrelationships and externalities. However, this was not
possible in this study due to budgetary and time constraints.
To try to give some perspective, the author, John Samuel,
therefore has guessed the potential weightings of four
different groups: The environmental service (NEMA), forest
authority (Kenya Forest Service), DFID, and rural people.
Criteria are then weighted by a number proportional to its
importance seen by each of the groups. For example, rural
people may weight the importance of poverty alleviation
as highest priority and decrease in forest destruction one of
the lowest, whereas the government forest authority may
weight decrease in forest destruction the highest and
agricultural productivity as the lowest. The weights from
each of these groups are then combined for each criterion,
to form a combined weight. This overall weight can then be
applied to the scoring of the criteria against the options.
Table 5.1. Decision support tool for East Africa, utilising experience and information from Meru Kenya, presenting a
medium to long term assessment (5 to 20 years) of policy options regarding chainsaw use, indicating raw scoring for
criteria and the reasoning for this scoring.
Increase floral and
faunal density,
diversity, cohesion
on farm
Focus is on farms likely to be short term,
what their neighbours do and ideas of
what timber buyers want in the area.
This may lead to loss of lesser
importance non-timber tree species,
more monoculture of the cheapest
locally raised exotic tree seedlings
Extension services armed with
knowledge of farmer drivers (growth
rate versus timber tree value or
subsidiary purpose to sawn timber) and
access to good diverse subsidised
seedlings likely to increase this criteria
The long term focus of farmers is likely
to shift toward agricultural subsistence
and cash crops, reducing tree cover of all
species, though small trees for firewood
may increase.
60 70 80
Decrease of public
forest destruction /
illegal felling
In areas with sawmills or access to, due
to the demand for sawn timber and
declining farm supply of trees, potential
for increased illegal logging
Promotion and tree planting has
potential to take pressure off natural
public forest, though man transportable
chainsaw attachment mills would be a
tempting tool of choice for those
deliberately targeting public forests a
distance from habitation.
In areas with forest adjacent
communities who report incidents,
chainsaws not generally used. Would
those carrying out illegal activities not
by-pass chainsaw restrictions? Perhaps
not as easily.
70 80 60
Reduce soil
erosion, improve
water quality and
supply on farms
Little account taken of erosion in
planting design or placement of trees,
farmers concentrating tree planting on
farm or field boundaries.
Extension services tailored to farmer
needs likely to decrease erosion and
increase water quality
If focus is likely to shift toward
agricultural subsistence and cash crops,
reducing tree cover of all species, then
erosion will increase and so water quality
will decrease.
60 80 40
Afforestation
on farm
In areas with sawmills declining age
structure but maybe more tree planting
due to demand, sawmillers re-locate or
travel further to buy trees of a suitable
size.
Likely to increase afforestation due to
demand and recognition from extension
services of the contribution trees can
make to income. Potential increased
carbon sequestration and reduced
greenhouse gas output.
Potential long term decline of tree
planting in favour of agriculture due of
timber tree harvesting difficulties.
Decreased carbon sequestration and
increased green house gas emission.
70 90 55
Poverty alleviation
/ pro-poor growth
Some benefits in areas with existing
mobile bench saws for landless and
young semi/un-employed through
employment (usually less than US $1
per day) as well as small farmers selling
their trees (often at poor prices). Slow
spread of chainsaw frame mill
technology bringing potentially better
benefits in the long term.
Access to finance at fair rates,
liberalisation of banking sector,
combined with general business training
courses and extension work (well
informed and promoted sawn timber
[including chainsaw milling using
attachments] and farm timber sector),
likely to be vibrant and well performing
economically, providing good employ-
ment and business start-up (with low
capital costs) opportunities, as well as
better prices for small farmers selling
single trees. For farmers, chainsaw mills,
especially in areas remote from current
sawmills, may make a large difference in
income, as they may now be able to sell
their trees, and increase income security.
Equally, this may encourage more tree
planting so adding to livelihood
protection.
Fuel wood (whether legal or not) sales
and work will still provide some
income and employment though likely
at much reduced levels than other
options.
Criteria Do nothing Promote farm timber & processing Restrict chainsaws
Scores out of 100 on how the policy will effect the criteria
65 90 60
50 HDRA - the
40 60 30
Table 5.1 continued
Community
involvement,
participation and
decentralisation
The well informed or connected can
take advantage of situations where
information and assistance is not easily
or clearly available. Wealth of on the
ground evidence of the need for
assistance to the community to make
informed, appropriate and fair decisions.
In areas of common land or trust
ownership (for example in semi-arid
nomadic grazing areas) this will be
particularly important (especially in
exotic shrub infested areas).
Assistance (for example under the
Kenyan 2005 Forest Act) for small
sawmillers to combine with community
groups for management of gazetted forest
areas including timber plantations. Two
further opportunities; (1) community
groups purchase and operate chainsaw
mills for the benefit of the group; (2)
community groups employ chainsaw
millers to mill the groups trees for them.
Providing information and extension
services could empower local people to
make use of their resources creating
income.
Due to restrictions, community groups
and their decisions on forest resources
likely to be restricted to non-timber
forest products and fuel wood. Few or no
benefits of timber production filtering to
local economy or community, fewer
potential jobs. Semi-arid pastoral areas
with infestation of exotic shrubs will
face further problems of spread and
reduced grazing, with little opportunity
for conversion to timber or charcoal.
65 80 50
Fuel wood
(firewood and
charcoal) from
farms
With unclear, variably enforced, poorly
communicated laws and regulations for
all timber products (despite fuel wood
being the largest energy source with an
estimated 24 M m
3
/yr used in Kenya),
trade in wood products is constrained, so
also tree planting, tending, along with
increased fossil fuel imports and
environmental costs.
With promotion at all levels of
government, (so clear, unambiguous and
communicated laws and regulations
favouring farm timber) tree planting and
products, including fuelwood, may well
be increased and so locally produced
sustainable energy sources
Cost of fuelwood may rise due to
increased labour, potential long term
decline of tree planting in favour of
agriculture because of timber tree
harvesting difficulties and costs.
Industrial fuelwood users, such as KTDA
in Kenya, likely to need to look to other
sources or technologies.
70 75 85
Agricultural crop /
animal
productivity
In Meru Kenya for instance, mutual
benefits of agriculture and timber tree
growth is recognised and utilised
Well informed, tailored extension can
increase agricultural and tree production
though the mutual benefit that can
accrue with good agroforestry design.
Increase in productivity, if focus is likely
to shift to agricultural and away from
trees in some argi-ecological zones,
though long term problems may ensue
from erosion and lack of nutrient
cycling.
55 65 40
Farmer income
diversity (including
non-cash savings)
from trees
With no information on tree pricing,
farmers face poor and unfair tree prices
exacerbated with unclear, variably
enforced, poorly communicated laws
and regulations for all timber products
With communication and extension
work on tree prices, sawn timber prices
and tree volume measurement, farmers
are likely to achieve good prices for
timber trees adding to their non-cash
savings for hard times (or occasional
cash needs e.g. school costs). The
contribution to farmer income from
trees with good information could rise
by 50% from the evidence seen in Meru,
Kenya. However, the overall
contribution by tree sales to farmer
incomes is still seen as relatively small as
compared to agriculture.
Little opportunity for non-agricultural
income diversity because of constrained
sawn timber sector.
60 100 10
Small timber
business
development and
opportunity
Chainsaws frame mills, (modelled as
economically out-competing mobile
benchsaws) will spread slowly relying on
word of mouth or business expansion.
With no training, accidents and deaths
will continue and increase with spread
to areas currently without small
sawmills, whilst the removal of depth
gauges on chains will cause increased
long term medical incapacity of
operators due to vibration. Without
some business skills support, some new
chainsaw frame milling businesses may
fail due to poor resources and market
planning.
With business skills, operating and safety
training, the small sawmilling sector
could thrive (in Kenya potentially
supplying all the countries sawn timber
needs), given parallel support for farm
timber. Given the modelled good
economic performance of chainsaw
frame mills, many small businesses using
local timber for local needs, are likely to
be set up, including in areas without
current sawmills due to the relatively
small capital costs. Studies have shown,
in Europe and N. America, there are few
economies of scale in sawmilling.
With restrictions, costs for fixed and
mobile bench sawyers will rise, the
relatively poor economic performance
will be further hampered and the sector
stagnates or decline with loss of jobs and
local finances. Consequences include
more imported timber, probably from
illegal harvesting in the moist African
tropics.
Table 5.1 continued
70 90 40
Recovery /
efficiency log to
sawn timber
Current conversion efficiencies with free
hand chainsaw milling especially and
many mobile benchsaws is often poor.
Free-hand chainsaw particularly
produces uneven sized boards which
need further processing and so waste.
This wastes resources, depresses prices
for farm trees and leads to more trees
being felled to produce the same amount
of timber.
With training and promotion of
chainsaw frame mills, recovery is as good
and can be better than mobile bench
saws, at lower cost, better safety, and the
opportunity to utilise more portions of
the tree. Small percentage increases in
efficiency make very large differences in
sawn timber output on a regional or
national scale.
Reversion to pitsaws or continuing use of
mobile bench saws will maintain poorer
recovery of timber. Felling with hand
tools is very wasteful of timber because
trees cannot be cut close to the ground.
60 80 30
Law / regulation
enforcement
Continuing semi-disregard for unclear,
variably enforced, poorly communicated
laws and regulations for all timber
products, leading to opportunities for
official bribery or favours, depressed
business opportunities and farmer tree
prices and planting. Little opportunity
to distinguish between legally and
illegally sourced timber or wish to do so.
At least three ways corruption could
interact; (1) bribes are made to gain
access to trees, (2) a culture of bribery
excludes certain groups or people
potentially undertaking a business, (3)
knowledge brokers work against the
interests of farmers by not giving advice
(its not their place to do so), giving
poor advice or by introducing or telling
only certain millers.
With promotion at all levels of
government, and so clear, unambiguous
and communicated laws and regulations
favouring farm timber, it is more likely
legal behaviour will occur with respect
and consultation, rather than disregard,
for government agencies relating to
timber and trees. Opportunity to allow
distinction of illegal timber such as
through audit trails from permission of
tree felling is presented with this option.
Likely disregard of restrictions (such as
in Uganda), increased opportunities for
bribery of officials general sense that
small scale timber industry is illegal /
unsanctioned, potential from more
illegal felling of native trees on farms
without their replacement.
60 75 10
National economy Chainsaws frame sawmills, (modelled as
economically out-competing mobile
benchsaws) will spread slowly, relying on
word of mouth or business expansion
providing some national benefits. Low
level promotion of trees on farms will
cause potential long term problems of
lack of supply and so more imports.
Better balance of trade. Promotion of
farm trees and chainsaw frame mills
could make a considerable contribution
to import substitution from
neighbouring countries or by ship. Their
improvement in recovery rates over free
hand chainsaw milling will also make a
considerable difference. Increased
employment opportunities and farm
incomes may assist regional economies
and reduce flight to the cities.
Decrease of potential national benefits,
even if chainsaws were taxed to gain
some revenue. If chainsaws banned,
potential strong decrease in National
Economy especially from fuel wood
substitution with fossil fuels.
The spreadsheet that accompanies this report allows for
user input of raw weights of any number to each criterion
and then automatically harmonises these weights to each
criteria so they total 100 for all the criteria in later
calculations.
Proponents of MCA / MCDA recommend a process called
swing weighting. This is based, once again, on comparisons
of differences: how does the swing from 0 to 100 on one
preference scale compare to the 0 to 100 swing on another
scale? To make these comparisons, assessors are encouraged
to take into account both the difference between the least
and most preferred options, and how much they care about
that difference. There is a crucial difference between
measured performance and the value of that performance in
a specific context. Improvements in performance may be
real but not necessarily useful or much valued: an increment
of additional performance may not contribute a
corresponding increment in added value. Thus, the weight
on a criterion reflects both the range of difference of the
options, and how much that difference matters.
Swing weighting accounts for both the range of differences
of the options and how much that difference matters. It again
utilises the difference between performance scores against
the options, starting from the criteria with the biggest swing
(difference) from one option to another. The process used
in this study swings all the other criteria against the largest,
reducing weightings by a percentage equal to the amount
less the criterias swing is compared to the largest. Therefore,
if the largest swing is 50 points (highest option score 90 lowest
option score 40) and criteria X had a swing of just 25 points
then the weight on criteria X would be reduced by 50%. The
52 HDRA - the
relative difference score is multiplied by the swing weighting
to produce the results. Table 5.2 shows the weighting the
author applied on behalf of the potential contributors to
policy making decision
Policy option performance results
By cumulatively adding the swing weighted relative
difference scores on the options, the results of the analysis
(Figure 5.2), show that promoting farm timber and
processing is clearly the preferred policy option in this
assessment. Using this methodology the other policy option
of Do nothing is a very poor second, cumulating half the
weighted score of promoting farm timber and processing,
whereas Restricting chainsaws hardly registers as a policy
option and so can be rejected easily. By using a cumulative
graph to display the results, the contribution of each criteria
can be seen. The biggest criteria contributors in order are
Law / Regulation enforcement, Poverty alleviation / Pro-
poor growth and Small timber Business development and
opportunity to the policy option promoting farm timber
and processing.
To aid clarity of the process of relative difference and swing
weighting, four sets of results are presented in figure 5.3.
The raw weighted scores shows the result of just applying
the summed weighting to criteria scores, without carrying
out the relative difference or swing weighting process. As a
result the policy options are much closer together in
cumulative score because no account has been taken of the
importance of one criteria compared to another. Clearly
applying the relative difference process alters the scores to
Table 5.2 Estimated allocation of importance scores (weights) to criteria by various bodies
Criteria Government Government DFID Rural
environmental forest (UK) people
service service
Increase of (farm) floral and faunal density, diversity and cohesion
and exotic gene diversity 22 8 15 2
Decrease of public forest destruction / illegal felling 22 25 15 2
Decrease of farm, soil erosion and improved, water quality and supply 15 4 10 8
Afforestation (farm) 10 16 6 2
Poverty alleviation / pro-poor growth 8 4 25 30
Community involvement / participation / decentralisation 6 8 20 10
Fuel wood (firewood and charcoal) from farms 4 8 6 15
Agricultural crop / animal productivity 3 2 6 25
Farmer income diversity (including non-cash savings) 2 2 15 10
Small timber business development and opportunity 1 6 8 5
Recovery / efficiency log to sawn timber 1 8 2 5
Law / regulation enforcement 18 20 2 8
National economy 2 4 12 0
the greatest amount. If more than three policy options were
presented, the effect of the relative difference process is likely
to be less strong. All subsequent presentation of the results
will only refer to swing weighted relative difference scores.
Sensitivity testing results
To ensure that the process of giving performance scores to
criteria and ascribing importance or weighting to the criteria
give a true picture of the results, sensitivity testing is used.
Essentially this sequentially increases or decreases the option
scores, weightings and criteria score to see if the policy option
scoring the highest still does so. Sensitivity helps to judge if
the results give a fair assessment of the ranking of policy
options. As with most MCA or MCDA studies, the results
are fairly insensitive to even large changes in performance
scores or importance ratings.
Option score sensitivity
Figure 5.4 shows the sensitivity of the options to changes of
option scoring. Promote farm timber and processing is still
the most favoured policy option whether the do nothing
or restrict chainsaws options have there scores increased
by 20%, or it has its score decreased by 20%. Interestingly, if
the restrict chainsaw option is boosted by 20% this decreases
the do nothing score as it receives more of the second place
criteria scores. The MCA model that accompanies this
report, allows users to input various sensitivity figures. With
the current criteria and weighting scores, promoting farm
timber and processing only becomes the second choice
Figure 5.3 Comparison of the results of different MCA methods
Figure 5.2 Policy results from the MCA method
Key to figures 5.2 - 5.6
National economy
Law / Regulation enforcement
Small timber Business
development and opportunity
Farmer Income diversity
(including non-cash savings)
Agricultural crop / animal productivity
Fuel wood (Firewood and Charcoal)
from farms
Community involvement,
Participation and Decentralisation
Poverty alleviation / Pro-poor growth
Decrease of farm Soil erosion
and improved Water quality and supply
Decrease of public forest
destruction / illegal felling
Increase of (farm) Flora and Fauna
density, diversity and cohesion
54 HDRA - the
Figure 5.4 Sensitivity of option outcome to changes in option scores.
Figure 5.5 Sensitivity of options by who decides the weighting.
Key to figures 5.2 - 5.6
National economy
Law / Regulation enforcement
Small timber Business
development and opportunity
Farmer Income diversity
(including non-cash savings)
Agricultural crop / animal productivity
Fuel wood (Firewood and Charcoal)
from farms
Community involvement,
Participation and Decentralisation
Poverty alleviation / Pro-poor growth
Decrease of farm Soil erosion
and improved Water quality and supply
Decrease of public forest
destruction / illegal felling
Increase of (farm) Flora and Fauna
density, diversity and cohesion
policy option when the do nothing option is increased by
30%, the promote option is decreased by 25% or the
restrict option is increased by 220%. The option dominance
is affected by the option scores, however they have to change
by at least 25% for the promote farm timber and processing
policy option not to be the prime choice of action. If
sensitivity is applied to an individual or group of criteria,
then all scores across the policy options rise accordingly,
making no difference between policy options.
Sensitivity to whom decides the weighting
Figure 5.5 shows the sensitivity of the options to changes of
who decides the weighting. It is clear that whoever decides
the weighting makes very little difference on the outcome
of the option choice, in other words policy choice is very
insensitive to weighting choices.
Sensitivity of criteria weighting on the options
This shows the sensitivity of the options to changes in criteria
weighting. It is clear even with very large changes in criteria
weighting it makes very little difference on the outcome of
the option choice, in other words policy choice is very
insensitive to criteria weighting.
Figure 5.6 Sensitivity of options by changes in criteria weighting
Summary conclusions
The spreadsheet used to assess these policy options is
available freely from the project website (http://
chainsaw.gwork.org/), and, within reason, has been made
relatively easy to use and explore the options, criteria and
weighting used. Though restricted in it scope, this assessment
of the choice of policy options for East Africa suggests that
a policy of Promoting farm timber and Processing could be
exceedingly beneficial and without question the choice of
those presented. Of the other policy options considered Do
nothing comes a fairly distant second choice. For reasons
not able to be investigated here, such as reducing public
expenditure, it may have good reason for being chosen as a
policy option compared to Promoting farm timber and
Processing. However, this maybe short sighted considering
the likely benefits it would bring against the criteria
considered, including the National Economy. This
assessment clearly shows that a policy option of Restricting
Chainsaws would be a retrograde step leading to a number
of negative consequences with very few benefits. It scored
in this assessment very poorly.
It is recommended that the long term policy option of
Promoting farm timber and Processing be investigated and
costed by Agricultural and Forest Departments of East Africa
along with NGOs and other interested parties and funding
agencies as it could provide a number of beneficial outcomes
from employment through to national self-sufficiency, even
with the potential to reduce pressure of illegal logging in
natural forests.
56 HDRA - the
A number of related publications from this project offer a
summary to the realities of chainsaw milling, and
recommendations on realising its potential for economic,
environmental and social benefits. These include popular
articles and four policy briefs (see http://chainsaw.gwork.org/
). Two policy briefs on Kenya and Uganda/DR Congo are
covered in detail in the respective case studies in Chapters
4 and 5. The two policy briefs with a global focus, one
practical and one policy are presented here in edited form
as a summary, following a discussion on the illegal timber
trade.
Inter-African trade in illegal timber an
overlooked cause of deforestation?
The following resulted indirectly from work carried out as
part of the regional case studies. Whereas the information
may be somewhat peripheral to the principle objective of
assessing when chainsaw milling makes sense, it offers an
insight into some of the issues facing policy makers.
Where the Congolese forests are really going
Go into most big timber yards in Kampala or Nairobi and
you can buy mahogany (Khaya spp.) or muvule/iroko
(Milicia excelsa) hardwood from the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DR Congo). Some of it may be called
Ugandan, thanks to re-stamping when picked up from
no-mans land between the border checkpoints, but its
source is often not even hidden. Most of it also has the
trademark tell-tale markings indicating it was milled by a
freehand chainsaw operator and suggesting an illegal origin.
It is also resawn and sold as finished products such as
furniture or flooring. Rough sawn mahogany costs about
US$150 per cubic metre in DR Congo and retails for
US$650 in Nairobi, the mark up making it worth the risks
and easily covering any necessary bribes on route. Timber
from DR Congo is also found in timber yards in Tanzania
and Sudan, with reports of it making it all the way across
the desert to Egypt and Somalia, and is increasingly sold to
overseas buyers via the internet.
Demand for timber from developed countries is generally
considered, especially within donor communities and
environmental groups, as the main cause of tropical
deforestation. However, the trade between African countries
is rarely mentioned or considered significant. Accepting and
monitoring this reality, and reducing demand by supporting
existing initiatives to increase timber production in timber-
deficit regions, are suggested as parallel ways forward.
Global trade in illegal timber is assumed to result in a loss of
US$5 billion annually and a further US$10 billion to timber
producing countries according to the World Bank (FAO,
2005), and is thought to be one of the principal causes for
loss of tropical forests worldwide (Hewitt, 2005). The
amount of illegal timber being traded has been variously
estimated at between one half to the same as the declared
legal harvest in a number of countries.
While the importance of this illegal trade in economic and
environmental terms is not disputed, it is argued here that
current initiatives aimed at reducing imports of illegal timber
into Europe or North America may never achieve their
desired impacts. This is because they do not consider the
effects of the hidden internal timber trade within Africa,
or Asia or Latin America.
So what of the evidence?
Look at the trucks, containers or stockpiles at any border
crossing between DR Congo and Uganda, or the Central
African Republic and Chad for example, or visit any timber
yard in Nairobi or Ndjamena, and it becomes immediately
evident that inter-African trade in timber is significant.
However, look at books or reports on the illegal timber trade
by many organisations, and it becomes paradoxically evident
that this is being largely overlooked by those in the developed
world working to reduce this trade and save the rainforests.
In the WWFs recent report on the illegal timber trade,
Hewitt (2005) repeated such myths, arguing that inter-
continental export markets were driving deforestation,
including especially that in the Congo basin. Other work
has been undertaken by Global Witness, the World
Conservation Union (IUCN-TRAFFIC) and Forest
Monitor, though much more remains to be done and the
idea that most is exported is still commonly reported.
However, it is becoming increasingly clear that much illegally
harvested timber never leaves the African continent, being
traded from timber-rich to timber-poor countries, as well as
to the rapidly expanding urban centres within each. This
trade may well exceed the volumes of illegal timber exported
to outside the continent, with exports to Europe already
tending to concentrate on timber from legal concessions.
There is clearly substantial traffic of timber from central
African forests to East Africa, and from humid West and
central Africa to Sahelian and North African countries, and
it is likely that similar trading patterns exist between
neighbouring timber-rich and timber-poor countries
throughout the tropics. Being illegal, however, means that
accurate figures are not available.
The volumes involved must be considerable to achieve the
profits quoted by the World Bank, but even these may be
underestimated. With large amounts of money changing
hands in transactions and bribes, some of the stakeholders
6 Conclusions and recommendations
directly involved are not open to discussing their business.
As one observer on the Congolese border noted, when
youre facing an AK-47, you dont ask any questions or take
any pictures.
Such trade may be affected by different national tax regimes
or other legislation, but as most of the timber is going from
forest to city or desert, it appears to be a case of simple supply
and demand in an unregulated open market. Rapidly
developing urban centres and timber-deficient regions all
over Africa and the developing world are creating a timber
vacuum, driving a trade in wood and wood products, often
illegally sourced from the nearest remaining natural forests.
What is being done?
Measures are being taken to make the international timber
trade more transparent. The most important of these are
the FLEG (Forest Law Enforcement and Governance)
initiatives, including the FLEGT Action Plan of the
European Union and World Bank supported regional
AFLEG in Africa, while others exist in Asia and North
America. However, these currently only include voluntary
agreements, though governments are under pressure from
environmental groups and NGOs to make them legally
binding.
Even so, measures like FLEG might not be enough, as they
are still largely aimed at reducing only inter-continental trade
in illegal timber, and in their present form are unlikely to
have any significant impact on overland trade within regions
or trade to other markets not covered by such agreements
such as in East Asia. However, they may provide a valuable
model on ways to make the timber trade transparent, but
transferring such initiatives to leaky borders, loose enforcers
and lawless dealers will be a challenge indeed, and unlikely
to succeed.
Also, as logs are being increasingly milled in the forest by
chainsaws, restricting their use has also been tried in timber
producing countries, and it is true that almost all illegally
harvested timber has been felled or sawn by chainsaw. The
effects have not been promising, however. In Guyana, 80%
of the timber in local markets has been chainsaw milled,
legally, and likewise in Ghana though the use of chainsaws
is illegal in that country. Widespread corruption is another
factor making similar regulations very difficult to enforce.
Ways forward
It thus appears imperative that serious and reliable checks
are made to assess the extent of the trade in illegal (and
legal) timber across national borders within Africa, including
volumes and markets, species and sources, pathways, prices
and players, at least in approximate terms, and to compare
this to equivalent data on inter-continental trade in both
legal and illegally sourced timber. Defining the extent of
the problem is required before any recommendations can be
suggested and discussed.
More immediate environmental impacts may be possible if
stakeholders in developing countries concentrate on
improving the monitoring of timber exploitation from legal
concessions and ensuring it is sustainably managed, for
example by enforcing the use of reduced impact logging and
similar practices.
The most advisable way to reduce the demand for timber
from timber-deficient regions is to increase their capacity
for timber production and processing. With natural forests
being increasingly protected for the global good and
plantations having to compete with agriculture, growing
trees for timber outside forests is being increasingly seen as a
way forward (Pasiecznik, 1999; World Agroforestry Centre,
2005).
Farm forestry has a huge potential to meet the demand for
more wood, and the vast drylands can also be turned into
productive agroforests when equipped with the appropriate
skills and tools (Felker, 2000; Pasiecznik, 2000). This, and
intensifying production from plantations, will reduce the
pressure on natural forests and reduce illegal harvesting. But
it will take the efforts of many committed individuals at all
levels, and it must and will be done, at least in a foresters
time-scale.
Chainsaw milling improving timber production
and rural livelihoods outside forests
The future of timber production is not from forests
Increasing timber consumption means most countries are
now net timber importers. More natural forest is being
conserved for the global good, and what remains has to be
protected from conversion to agriculture or urban
development and managed sustainably. Plantations will
continue to supply high volumes of timber for industry, but
this will not be enough so where is the timber of the future
going to come from?
The timber we demand will have to come from outside
forests, and farmland and drylands have already showed
potential with the application of appropriate knowledge and
technology. Some countries such as China, Kenya and India
have been pioneers in producing timber from farms and land
unsuitable for food production. This should be applauded,
highlighted and promoted, and increasing the supply of
cheap timber from presently timber-deficit regions will also
reduce demand for illegal timber from natural forests.
Outside forests, low tree densities and volumes mean many
common forestry practices are not viable. Sawmilling
machinery suitable in such situations must be portable, able
to efficiently cut small diameter, short and sometimes
crooked logs, and of low enough capital cost to be economical
58 HDRA - the
if milling only a few cubic metres a week. Chainsaw mills fit
all these criteria.
Mills are simple frames or guides attached to the chainsaw,
and a large range is available (see Chapter 1). They have
characteristics and requirements making them appropriate
for a limited number of operations in forestry but show
enormous potential for low volume farm forestry, agroforestry
and dryland applications, such as where log extraction and
transport is difficult, damaging or too costly, and/or poor
form or non-standard log size makes conventional sawmills
uneconomic.
Overcoming chainsaw milling myths
Chainsaw milling is very wasteful, with a wide cut, and
produces curved boards with a very rough finish. This
may be true if a part-time operator or worker mills
freehand, but use of a chainsaw attachment and ripping
chain produces quality boards with a bandsaw-like finish,
much improved recovery, and reduces risks of accidents.
Reduced kerf chains are also available.
Chainsaw attachments can also turn timber destined for
firewood into sawn timber, processing logs that other
sawmills would not accept. Logs as small as 30 cm long or 15
cm diameter can be milled, with timber possible from branch
wood, bent, damaged or oversized logs, offcuts, reclaimed
building timber, and from street and fence trees likely to
contain nails.
Chainsaws and livelihoods
Being relatively low cost and easy to use, chainsaws are
accessible to more people than any other means of timber
processing, except the axe and handsaw. Pitsawing is still
widespread though its use is declining rapidly, being replaced
with chainsaw milling. Most chainsaw operators do not own
their own saw, however, usually hiring, renting or
borrowing. Many operators are saving up in hope of one
day becoming an owner-operator, or even being able to just
rent out their machine without having to do the hard work.
All operators say they are better off now than before they
began using a chainsaw to fell and/or mill freehand, when
most were without regular paid work. But chainsaw milling
freehand has a high risk of injury and fatigue, affecting
livelihoods. Safety clothing is rarely used in the tropics and
even basic precautions are ignored. Removing chain depth
gauges is also common, increasing cutting speed but also
risks of kickback, and poor posture, high noise and vibration
levels have other long-term impacts.
Banking with planking?
Trees are savings banks. In agriculture and agroforestry
systems where sawmilling is available, farmers can turn them
into cash during low-income years, during droughts, if crop/
livestock prices fall, or if money is required to pay for hospital
or school fees, marriages or funerals. Inexpensive portable
sawmills can add greatly to the value of withdrawals from
the bank, by adding value through milling. The revenue
from sawn timber will be much larger than that from selling
standing trees to merchants, who may also exploit farmers
financial plight.
On farms and in drylands, trees have rarely played a
significant role in rural incomes, though increasingly the
need for diversification and indirect benefits are encouraging
tree planting. A greater quantity, quality and diversity of
timber products will have secondary effects locally,
stimulating further processing such as furniture or craft
making, transport, and a trade in tools, materials and
equipment. More money to tree owners and processors from
value addition will increase cash flow, chances for re-
investment, and general benefits to the local economy.
Adding value to trees will also improve chances for more
planting and tending.
Ways forward?
The technology for low-cost wood conversion exists, some
of it over 50 years old, and news will spread rapidly once the
potential is shown. Markets exist, and will adapt as soon as
supplies increase. But skills need to be taught, with training
identified as one of the most important needs. This is a great
challenge, and one not for extension workers alone, but also
in convincing machinery manufacturers and dealers who will
gain from developing enterprises, that it is in their best
interests to invest in such knowledge sharing.
Turning farmlands and drylands into timber producing areas,
equipped with the appropriate skills and tools, is a realistic
goal. But to achieve this will take the efforts of many
committed individuals at all levels, to raise awareness and
provide training, equipment and markets. This will ensure
that chainsaw milling makes a positive rather than a
negative contribution to rural livelihoods and forest
conservation.
Chainsaws, milling and regulation
The problem with chainsaws
Chainsaws are highly portable, relatively cheap to hire or
buy, very efficient, and the same tool used by one man to
fell, crosscut and mill a large tree in under a day. There are,
however, increasing concerns about illegal logging and
deforestation in tropical forests where there are still high
volumes of valuable timber. Inadequate laws or enforcement
benefit illicit cutting and over-exploitation, especially in
remote locations. Whereas it is true that chainsaws are
implicated in most illegally harvested timber, it is clearly
not the prime cause, merely a tool in the operation.
But in contrast to the negative environmental effects of
illegal chainsaw logging and milling, such crime often allows
more money to feed back to poorer people in forest-
dependent communities as compared to legal harvesting,
usually run by large overseas companies.
Attempts to restrict their use
Restrictions on the ownership and/or use of chainsaws have
been tried, but with mixed effects. In Ghana, 80% of the
timber in local markets is milled freehand even though the
practice is illegal. In Uganda, it is illegal to mill timber
freehand, and due to such timber being easy to identify
thanks to the trademark chainsaw marks, enforcement is
relatively easy with many truck loads of timber and chainsaws
apparently confiscated. Many others, however, get through.
However, as this report has shown it is very possible to
produce chainsaw milled timber without the trademark
chainsaw marks using guidance systems. . Clearly, however,
regulating or banning the use of chainsaws in the context of
inadequate forest laws or enforcement is unlikely to succeed
and may just change the tools used. There is no single right
answer, each situation being quite different, though there is
some consensus on issues to consider.
Chainsaws now seen in a new light
Characteristics that make chainsaws suitable for illicit
activities can also aid forest conservation. Certainly,
processing trees where they fall has environmental benefits
over whole log extraction, and promoting the use of low
capital cost processing equipment allows opportunities for
more of the local community to engage in forest operations.
In addition, they are being increasingly seen as suitable for
milling scattered trees on farms, drylands and in towns, thus
reducing the pressure on forests as the main suppliers of
timber.
Chainsaw milling is economically viable in certain
situations, increasing revenues for the very poor. However,
it is likely to have negative impacts especially on the
environment if allowed to be used without any control of
Policy Comments
The role for regulation in chainsaw ownership/ use
Is it a sensible way to discourage illegal felling? - the
evidence suggests not
decide best policies, who polices implementation on tree
felling and timber sales
implement existing and improved regulation on tree
felling and timber sales
license chainsaws and milling equipment as a last resort
The case for certification type chain of custody of
production and trade
improve transparency in the chain of custody
establish grower, miller and trader associations
build consumer and commercial confidence
problem is that it is expensive, demands high levels of
expertise from farmers and millers which they are
unlikely to have, suitable for high vale export markets
who demand it
Tree felling permits accompanying sawn timber, part of
the certification process, a simpler and cheaper method
so long as it is enforced and checked
The time for training in chainsaw use and milling
develop a national training programme
invite manufacturers and dealers to be involved
involve timber processors and manufacturers
tree felling. Existing regulations and their enforcement are
clearly inadequate, so alternatives are required, involving
governments, local people and/ businesses commercially
involved in timber, chainsaws and milling attachments.
The rise and role of chainsaw milling attachments
With freehand chainsaw milling there is a high risk of injury
with generally poor timber quality and recovery. However,
there exists a wide range of frames or guides that attach to a
chainsaw making it safer, accurate and more efficient, but
these are rarely used in the tropics. This work confirmed
the potential for such simple technology in a range of
situations both inside and outside forests.
Promoting the use of such chainsaw mills and adequate
training are seen as ways to persuade freehand operators to
give up their currently dangerous, inefficient and largely
illegal though lucrative activities. Attach a frame, change
the chain, take a course, get a license, and make more money
from fewer trees, equitably and sustainably. Such changes
are unlikely to happen quickly enough on their own without
the efforts and insights of officials within forest departments
to see the need for change, to draft new policies and
regulations, and to push them through the legal system. Many
other organisations and companies will agree with these aims,
and eliciting their support is likely to assist the process.
60 HDRA - the
Suggested changes to policy and regulation to
improve use of chainsaws in timber processing
1. National forest departments to take responsibility and
lead in making necessary changes to policy, law,
regulation, enforcement and penalties for tree felling
and wood product sales.
2. Clarify any ambiguities in existing laws pertaining to
chainsaw and sawmill ownership and use.
3. Reduce import taxes or tariffs on chainsaw milling
attachments that all improve safety, efficiency and
recovery, to encourage their greater availability.
4. Collect details of all importers and dealers of chainsaws,
milling equipment, spares and accessories, to be included
in a national register.
5. Insist dealers provide records on numbers imported and
sold, including buyers names and addresses.
6. License chainsaws and mills nationally, owners to state
the purpose and where used, and chainsaw operators
requiring a permit, both renewable annually.
7. Issue tree felling permits lodged in a central or regional
database (including species and likely sawn volume)
that accompany sawn timber that is then enforced and
checked in transit or at point of sale.
8. Institute a national policy on developing and promoting
training courses on chainsaw safety, use, maintenance
and milling, also timber drying.
9. Eventually, make the issuing of chainsaw licenses and
permits dependent on whether a training course has been
attended.
10. Eventually, make the milling or transport of freehand
chainsaw milled timber illegal, irrespective of origin
(country or forest type), readily enforced due to the
presence of the tell-tale markings.
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