Wood-fuel yields in short-rotation coppice growth in the north Sudan savanna in Burkina Faso

Abstract

Woody growth at five sites, covering a range of precipitation (620–785 mm) and soil conditions in North Sudan zone in Burkina Faso was investigated 5–14 years after clear-cutting. Woody growth ranged from 0.7 to 1.7 Mg ha −1 per year, corresponding to 1.0–2.4 m 3 ha −1 per year in terms of green volume when species-specific basic densities were applied. Trunks (girth more than 10 cm), branches and stemlets made up about a third each of the yield and about one-third of the trunk was bark. Thus, the actual trunk wood production ranged from 0.2 to 0.7 Mg ha −1 per year corresponding to 0.3–0.9 m 3 ha −1 per year. Woodfuel yield was reduced to about a fourth of the total yield, when excluding small dimensions and trunk-bark, species with low calorific value or multiple use, e.g. fruit bearing or forage. Each site was dominated by some few species in terms of percentage of dry mass: Sclerocarya birrea (13%), Anogeissus leiocarpus (57%), Acacia seyal (38%), Combretum glutinosum (17%) and Combretum nigricans (37%). Mean stool growth per site ranged from 0.5 to 1.7 kg per year. Largest stool growth was recorded for S. birrea and A. leiocarpus with 4.1 and 3.6 kg per stool per year, respectively.