Appendix 3. Flor y Fauna S.A., Costa Rica Reforestation Program

Ph.D. Pablo Camacho

Silviculturist

INTRODUCTION

Flor y Fauna S.A., a private company founded and managed by a Netherland family, is located at Altamira, San Carlos, the north region of Costa Rica. On 1997 it received the Smart Wood Program certification as a Good Managed Forest Operation. This operation consists mainly of planting and industrializing teak. As a complement to teak plantation, around 90 species have been used to establish biological corridors along drains and water ditches. It also has 470 ha of primary forest for conservation and enrichment of biodiversity.

Integration of social aspects, environmental conservation, profits and good forest growth are some of the characteristics which have contributed to the certification, especially due to the fact that reforestation was done on soils degraded by cattle farming.

More than 2.700 ha of teak have been planted, together with some 90 ha of forests planted in protection areas. The Company has an Administrative Office Centre, houses for employees and their families, school, medical community service and a sports area. The industrialization project has become very important, and steps were taken to establish a Free Zone inside the farm.

In 1997, they also received the Chain of Custody certification by Smart Wood, the Forest Stewardship Council registered it as certified plantations.

PLANTED AREA

Reforestation started on 1989 with the establishment of Teakwood 1 project. From this year on, plantation continued and the areas are shown on Table 1. Total planted area is 2,717 ha. A permanent sample plot system for monitoring plantations was developed (100 trees per plot), that covers 0.84 percent of the reforested area.

Stands Growth

The plantation measuring process started on 1994, and they have consecutive evaluations of the last five years. Table 2 shows the development of the oldest project (Teakwood 1), which presents the smallest average growth rate of the Company’s projects. The Mean Annual Increment for this project is 2.0 cm, 1.91 m and 17.3 m³ per/ha/year for diameter, height and total volume, respectively.

Table 3 presents the data from a couple of plots from Teakwood VI project. These areas have the best growth rate of the Company’s projects. The Mean Annual Increment for this quality site is 3.7 cm, 3.8 m and 40.9 m³ per/ha/year for diameter, height and total volume, respectively.

All the data has been used on growth projections for the reforestation projects. Table 4 shows the initial development of the project Teakwood VII during 4.5 years and the growth projection after this age. The total and commercial volume projections (volume u.b., minimum diameter of 8 cm) are also included. The estimated rotation age is 20 years and, for that age, the Mean Annual Increment projected is 25.3 m³/ha/year of total volume, and a growth of 18.5 m³/ha/year u.b. to a minimum diameter of 8 cm.

Table 1. Data of the plantation projects. Area, planting year and monitoring intensity by project. Flor y Fauna S.A. San Carlos, Costa Rica

Thinnings

Table 2 presents the thinning regime. Thinnings have been continuous, but of low intensity. The goal is to reduce to have 240 trees/per ha at final harvest (year 20). As the present density of Teakwood 1 project is 501 trees/ha, it is possible to do two more thinnings before final harvest. As Teakwood 1 to Teakwood V projects presents similar site conditions, hilly soils (Ultisols), the same thinning plan will be applied.

Table 4 presents the thinnings program of project Teakwood VI, the same that will de used in projects Teakwood VII and VIII. The technical criteria is of frequent low intensity thinnings to maximise the stands’ production. Thinning intensity and frequency will adjust its according to stand dynamics.

Pruning

Early pruning has been a traditional in the Company, not only to produce superior quality stands, but also to facilitate mechanized operations in the stands. The first rule was to eliminate all the branches of the first half of the tree (50 percent intensity based on total tree height).

As constantly new branches grew on the pruned part of the steam, it was decided to keep the same pruning intensity but of only the larger diameter branches. This keeps some thin branches on the pruned segment (2 or 3), and the tree produces less branches on this area, and the top of the tree has a better development (un-pruned segment). The practices forces to come back latter to prune the small branches. However, this is more economic than total pruning, that keep re-growing.

Diameter and height growth from the pruning trials (0, 25, 33, 50 and 66 percent of total tree height) did not have statistically significant differences in the first year. It is speculated that results should be significant on inferior quality sites and/or regions with a better defined growing season, as is the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica.

Table 2. Growth development for Tectona grandis in Vasconia, San Carlos. Information for Project TEAKWOOD I, before and immediately after the application of thinning (shadow areas)

Table 3. Growth development for Tectona grandis in Altamira, San Carlos. Information for lots 6 and 13 within Project TEAKWOOD VI, before and immediately after the application of thinning (shadow areas)

Stand means based on 8 permanent plots

Table 4. Initial development of Tectona grandis (Project TEAKWOOD VI). (bold section) and growth projection for a Class I site. San Carlos, Costa Rica. June, 1998. When the value in the table goes down it refers to the growth parameter immediately after the thinning (shade areas)

Pruning is more effective starting from the canopy, and it must be a low intensity one (no more than 33 percent). Branch re-growth on the pruned segment is greatly influenced by light that penetrates the canopy. It has been noticed that, after the leaves fell down during a strong dry season, the amount of sprouts on the pruned segment increases.

Growth Projections

Data from the last five years allowed to estimate four growth scenarios of the potential development of Flor y Fauna’s plantations are given in Table 5. This data was complemented with information from older plantations, like Miller’s yield tables (1969) for Trinidad. Table 5 presents a four scenarios’ summary. Estimated commercial volume MAI was 9.3 and 22.9 m³/ha/year, and 13.4 and 31.4 m³/ha/year for total volume. Total volume Maximum Current Annual Increment was 50.2 m³/ha/year.

The fourth scenario of maximum possible production was not take in to account for the total volume as, today there is no certitude that the areas that will reach this growth potential.

Table 5. Summary of four production scenarios (total and commercial volume) developed for Flor y Fauna’s plantations, 20 years rotation. San Carlos, Costa Rica

According to Table 5’s production scenarios and to the growth potential shown at the beginning, each planting project was assigned to one of the three production scenarios (low, medium, and high). Afterwards, all projects were grouped according to time, to estimate total volume of all them. Table 6 shows the volume per year and per project, projected total thinning volume, and the remaining timber volume (standing) of the stands. Total production was estimated at 1.4 million of cubic meters for a 20 years rotation. Table 7 presents log estimated volume by diameter class (892,364 m³⁾. A conversion from total to industrial volume will be reached by trying to increase the average diameter of logs.

Table 6. Preliminary projection for the stand and thinning volume of Flor y Fauna S.A. The final harvest was defined for year 20. Shadow values refers to the stand volume after thinning

Table 7. Preliminary stem and log volume estimation by diameter class from the thinning operations and final harvest of the different reforestations projects (2679 ha). Projections for a 20 years rotation. Flor y Fauna S.A. Altamira de San Carlos

Installed capacity of industry and milling

A description of the main installations and industrial processes of Flor y Fauna S.A. and other related companies (Flor y Fauna Dos S.A. and Ecomaderas S.A.) follows:

Sawmill: 5,916 m² in two buildings

Ovens: 1,300 m² on four buildings

Yards: 15,000 m² for round wood. A wooden building with a roof of 7,500m²

Flor y Fauna has the following logging and transportation equipment.

Timber

Flor y Fauna has 2,717ha of teak planted between 1989 and 1995. All the industrial process has been, and will continue to be, based on this only species. Teak volume covers the Company’s expectations.

Sawmilling Process

Logs top end of 8 cm are classified by diameter in three classes, according with the cutting height of the main machines. The standard log’s length is 2.2 m. Sawn-wood packaged, to be classified afterwards. The sawn-wood is classified in three qualities and, once graded, is dried.

Capacity per shift

Average log received at mill is 10-cm top diameter and 2.2 m long (0.0173 m³/log). As log’s diameter increases, so does the mill production. Sawmill total capacity 18 000 m³ yearly/8 h shift, and re-saw’s capacity is 27 000 m³/ year. With an average yield of 40% the sawn-wood production will be 7 200 m³/shift per year (7 hours shift and 300 working days/year). There is also a machine to conform logs, as a main machine, to round the logs with less than 8 cm of diameter. These rounded logs can be used in the lathe.

Kiln Dryers

There are four Kiln Dryers with a capacity of 100 m³/each, a total of 400 m³. The drying period has and average of 20 days, so the drying capacity is of 600 m³/month (7 200 m³/year).

Dry Lumber Transportation

Dry lumber is transported to the furniture factory on wagons pulled by a wheeled carterpillar. The distance is less than 400m.

Furniture Process

To use this young lumber it has been necessary to develop new techniques and train the personnel. The factory is divided in two parts: panels and furniture.

Panels

The goal is to take out all the defects that have the sawn with a manual saw machine. Once the defects are removed, the wood is pressed with glue to build the panel.

Furniture Factory

Uses panels and sawn-wood free of defects. Panels are cut precisely to desired length, wide and thickness. After, the pieces are worked and finished (holes, channels, figures). All the equipment is precision machinery. The finished pieces go to automatic or manual sanding machines. Afterwards are stained (coloured), polished, varnished and sealed. Finished pieces are fit together, packed and sent to the market.

Installed Capacity per Shift

The factory has capacity to process 400 m³/shift/month of dry sawn-wood to 200 m³ of panels for furniture, and these in to 150 m³ of furniture, 10 containers/month/shift (15 m³/container), 120 containers per year.

Final Product

The final product is teak furniture (chairs, tables, kitchen and office cabinets, living room furniture) mouldings and doors. The production is of export quality. Main clients are United States (California) and Europe (The Netherlands). Products are packed on boxes and containers for export.

Projected Growth Plan of Capacity

The growth of the plant regarding labour, production and industrial roof is as follows: