TY  - JOUR
AU  - Guitet, S.
AU  - Blanc, L.
AU  - Trombe, P.J.
AU  - Lehallier, B.
PY  - 2009//
TI  - Silvicultural Treatments in the Tropical Forests of Guiana: A Review of Ten Years of Trials
T2  - Bois For. Trop.
JO  - Bois et Forets des Tropiques
SP  - 7
EP  - 19
VL  - 63
IS  - 301
PB  - CIRAD-CENTRE COOPERATION INT RECHERCHE AGRONOMIQUE POUR
KW  - cutting cycle
KW  - thinning
KW  - stand dynamics
KW  - logging
KW  - French Guiana
N2  - This article reviews an experimental system set up in French Guiana to test different selective thinning methods that started ten to fifteen years after logging in order to reconstitute commercially viable stands within the shortest time. The thinning methods tested involve a combination of selective intervention within a radius of 10 metres around crop trees and systematic intervention applied uniformly to the entire forest parcel. The resulting thinning intensity produces an 8% to 45% reduction in basal area. While the growth of the residual stand is strongly boosted in all species and for all diameters, there is little change in basal area because of high mortality and lower recruitment of commercial species. Standing commercial capital, however, is strongly affected by the thinning operations as defined. In effect, these thinning methods that benefit crop stems do not meet the objective of shorter rotations in Guiana's tropical logging forests. On the other hand, the measurements made in under-treatment stands agree with those obtained at the Paracou experimental station and confirm the need to adopt long cutting cycles of more than fifty years to ensure that the extraction of valuable species is sustainable in the current logging context in French Guiana.
SN  - 0006-579X
N1  - ISI:000272488700002
ID  - Guitet_etal2009
ER  -